River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-08-12
WARSAW EXODUS
WITHOUT PANIC
Residents Fled to Moscow In
Orderly Manner.
MAJORITY WISHED TO STAY

Russian Government Gave Free Rail-
road Transportation to All Who
Wanted to Leave, but Only IS Per
Cent Took Advantage of the Offer.
Retirement Carefully Planned.
Hundreds Of refugees from Warsaw
are arriving at Moscow daily. Most
Of them are without money or means
Of sustenance and are seeking aid at
the American consulate, where an en-
Iargcd staff is attempting to supply
temporary assistance pending the or
ganization Of Russian relief commits
sion
The refugees state that, although the
population of the Polish capital was
convinced that the Germans ultimately
would occupy the city, a majority of
the citizens elected to remain, only APP
proximately II per cent having depart
ed This accounts for the comparative
order and the absence Of panic which
accompanied the exodus.
When German occupation seemed
imminent the government issued an
order that third class tickets to any
point in the interior of Russia should
be given free to all citizens desiring to
depart The only condition attached
by the authorities was that residents
80 leaving would not be allowed to re-
turn without q special permit.
Residents Feared Famine.
Those choosing the alternative of de-
parture foresaw that Warsaw would
be visited with conditions similar to
those imposed on LODI and that the
town would be cut off from the interior
Of Russia, whence all provisions were
Obtainable, and that Warsaw would
suffer from famine.
The refugees compare the orderly and
systematic abandonment of the city
with tile panic caused by the first Ger
man approach last October, when an
attempt Of the city officials, institutions
and private citizens TO all bolt at once
resulted in indescribable confusion.
The retirement this time was so care
fully planned and SO Systematically ex-
ecuted that it went off like clockwOrk,
and an onlooker received the impress
sion that no more extraordinary phe-
nOmenOn was occurring than the Or1i-
nary summer exodus. Sufficient extra
trains had been provided SO that trav-
cling conditions on the whole differed
little from normal
An unusual feature of the present
abandonment Of the city was the fact
that provision tickets were made UNI
necessary.
The bulk of the refugees Travelled on
foot or with wagons along the high
ways. Most of the refugees were UNI
able to proceed southwark and to Kiey,
and, finding the railway to wilma mo-
nOpOllZed for military purposes, they
took the line to the east. temporarily
crOwding Moscow, Vladova and Brest-
Litovsk Many of these lost their
homes in the outlying portions Of War
saw, the destruction of which became
military necessity.
All the territory Immediately to the
west Of Warsaw, containing large fac
tories, Polish estates and peasant
dwellings, now present blackened and
uninhabitable areas.
Care had been taken that no subur-
ban factories should fall into the hands
OF the Germans and be converted to
their use. Chief among those destroy
ed was the 81 100000 sugar factory be-
longing to a Polish lawyer, Eugene
Karaluk, with more than 1000 tons of
sugar.
The factories in the city itself. al
though abandoned, had not yet been
destroyed when the refugees left the
capital