The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-24

the murmur of crowd a single voice
will lift itself and be audible in words.
Hitherto, the war had lacked a per-
sonal quality; the history adjoining
pageant of the entry into Paris, with
the eagle crested figure of the conqueror
riding through the central gates of
the Arc de Triomphe, had not taken
place; the Crown Prince had got his
army into a tight place and gone away
and left 1t there; and the world, that
should have been terror stricken by the
fate of Belgium, was a-rosr with praises
of King AIbeRt. Here in Warsaw, with
aeroplanes killing children in the streets
and the German armies thrusting for
ward to within eight miles of the city,
we heard that the great Hauine Mon
astery at CZenstoChowa, where the ia
nous Polish Madonna droops her beau
tiful and Compas sionate head before the
pilgrims. had been cleared of It's monks
and got ready to serve as a lodging
for the Kaiser.
Monks who had made their way north
with the current of refugees told Of H.
There were four OF them in the refresh
ment hall of the station at Warsaw.
burly, bearded middleaged. still CHEEKY
in spite of their utter WEAKNESS They
had found places together at the end
of a table, and were drinking glasses
Of that thin. straw Colured tea with
which the Russian is wont to moisten
his clay. All about them the big hall
sccthcd and echoed with the distress
and bcwilderment of the Polish refu-
gees who thronged g.. peasants. VIII
layers and the like whom the sudden
terror of war upon their thresholds had
driven in headlong panic TO Warsaw.
Their fear and trouble found voice in
the Polish fashion. Historically. fran
t!cally; their men gesticulated and
cursed, their women walled, and the
poor. worn out children cried cease
lessly.
1t was tragic babel, and in the
midst of il, a little niche of quiet. sat
the stout, robed monks, drinking their
tea and looking upon It all with the
eyes Of vacant ncomprehenslon. They
We're too tired to he conversational;
hut it was true. they said. that he was
coming and that the monastery had
been taken for his lodging. Men had
come to get it ready for him, bringing
with them what was necessary to make
the place habiab!c for an Emperor and
his suite
one OF them lifted his head to speak
impressively. His broad healthy face
had a childlike quality. the innocence
that is common 10 saints and simple
tons.
FURNITURE" he told us. Wonder
full! I never saw such furniture! Beds
dozens Of beds-all white as snow:
and chairs, and pots and pans to do
cooking with-wonderful tell you!
Some Of the cooking things were like
jewelry." He shook his head in serious
reflection. He must hs q Very great
man" he added.
So. since Paris was unattainable, II
was to be Warsaw which. after all, is
a great city. splendid in history and
| the capital OF an ancicn, kingdom II
| there We're to- lie no professional ride
along the Champs Elysees there was
| still the Marszalkowska Later, when
detachment Of CossaCks captured the
aidc-G D.. ann = the King Of SaNony,
conveying an automobile freighted with
| orders and de- ora ions destined 10 he
pinned tp German breasts In conquered
| Warsaw. We earned another detail
| October ~ is the Polish national fes-
| t!val. and come of the best brains in
| the world had been put to work so to
| organize things that Warsaw should fall
and the Kaiser should enter it. in all
/ y
poetic aptness which he loves at noon
OF that day. The mailed fist was to
strike-yes, But in the very blow the
| hand revealed itself, the hand no iron
| can mask The war that had infested
! Europe, indisCrlminate as a pest, had
suddenly become a personal thing and
| taken on a character. An artist was
| at work, a composer of effects; we
| were, then, fighting a figure of grand
opera!
"A very great man." said the monk
solemnly; and We agreed.
| 1t was great conception, stirring
and colorful. and only the Russian Cen
eral STAFF knew how perilously near ii
| came to succeeding. Russki with his
army was south upon and across the
Galician border; Ivanoff was on the
| Vistula; Remembering was making
himself secure on his newly won posi-
tions in East Prussia. The railway
stem that veins the country on the
German side of the Polish frontier gave
the Germans the start they needed OF
the Russian General STAFF their con-
centration was complete and four great
| gray-blue armies were on Polish soil
and hearing down on Warsaw before
the Russians had moved man.
They had taken LODI before Warsaw
had even heard Of their advance; they
were bombarding IvangOrod and Its
bridges; by the 10th Of October they had
passed LowitCh and Shirardow and Their
line was spreading itself to the east
like arms which they opened to embrace
and strange Warsaw. And then like
n man who sleeps through a fire till his
bed catches alight, Russia woke up.
The man who saved Warsaw was
neither the Grand Duke Nicolai NiCo-
laievitch, Commander In Chief MOI
Russlsl, the newly emerged genius MOI
Rennenkampf, the Stonewall Jackson
tof Russia. Theirs, perhaps were the
errors, if they were errors, that enabled
the Germans to get as far as they did
it is difficult to judge Of that kind O
! thing. What was wanted at the mo
ment was not generals; it was trans
portation.
Warsaw, as it happens, is well served
with railways, leisurely, gradual rail
ways governed by the comfoI table Rus
sian system that allows for everything
: but haste and looks on three weeks al
a reasonable space in which to carr,