New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-04-05
36,OOO,OOO MAPS USED
BY GERMANS IN WAX
Everything Detail Down to Smallest Country Lane IN
Poland Prepared for Guidance OF kasers Staff
Officers and Men
By JAMES o'DoNNELL BENNETT.

By JAMES ODONNELL BENNETT
Lowicz, Russia, April Make your
widest guess as TO the number OF
maps the German government has IS
sued to the army since the war began
Making it liberal, perhaps you vii
say 100000
Making it lavish, perhaps you vii
say 100000
That has been my experience with
everybody Of whom / have asked the
question in the last few days.
Bat, going as high as you dare to
you probably won't come within mile:
of the answer nor credit the answer
when it is given.
1t is 36,0OOO00.
That means all kinds Of maps, large
and small, of cities, towns, villages
roads, provinces and departments in
the parts of the eremy's country now
occupied by German troops. the parts
of Germany leading into the enemy's
country and the parts of Germany now
occupied by the enemy. These last are
not considerable now.
Lowicz Mapping Instance.
The mapping of Lowicz illustrates
the system and the extent oil il.
This Russian town, containing less
than $4,000 population and distant
more than ten hours by rail from Ber-
lin. has been charted and dagramcd
down to the last detail essential 20
the guidance of a Prussian major, "a
whom its twists and turns are utterly
unknown fifteen minutes before his
arrival there.
Fifteen minutes later he knows 1t As
we'll as he knows Potsdam. Clearly in
dicated to him on a convenient sheet
of glazed pcper Axe inches in size arc
the river, the railway lines. the streets
the squares, the two railway stations
the military bureaus, the hospitals, tho
churches and the prisons of Lowicz. On
the little map of Lowicz before me
count twelve sharply indicated points
They are:
The comuaudaHts The is7aTct'e
The north railway STA The iriuimtuoA bureau
The south railway sta tn, 'elcphoae exchange
ton The postal sorting station
tn, provision depot Tie ortcsrs' home.
The assembling place for The r''i'y.
guns munitions. etc flhc s-af4
A little chauvinistic remaining was
done. The cathedral square has become
Kaiser Wiinelm rlatz, and the large
square 81 the other end Of the town is
now Hindenburg Platz.
Streets Hamed for yictors.
The long, narrow street that con
meets the tuS mas likewise been named
in honor Of the victor Of Tannenberg
Another main thoroughfare has been
given the name Of General Won Mac
kensen. For convenience merely, a
third is called Railway Station Street.
Highways running out from the en-
virons 20 important towns In the zone
Of hostilities are carefully lettered
with names and distances KutnO. "a
kilometres; Sochaczew, % kilometres F;
RolimOw, Il kilometres; Skierniewice
u kilometres; LODI, so kilometres, and
so on 70 all points Of the compass.
All this was worked out on scale
Of TO 10000 centimetres. and the first
issue Of the Lowicz map amounted 70
1000 sheets.
On the army pay days, which are the
ist, the 18th and the 2lst of each
month, the postal station Of the town
does a large money order business. On
the last pay day the few hundred sol
diers permanently garrisoned in Lo-
wicz sent 10000 marks back 10 their
families in Germany.
A curious fact of the occupation is
that in certain sections Of LOwcz the
Germans have made the town grow
Beyond the principal railway station
there now are rows Of houses where
before were vacant fields. These houses
are the famous decker. or portable bar
racks. made Of asbestos panels set in
frames OF wood and metal. Three COM
plete houses, with their fittings, can
be transported in one railway car.
They cost 5000 marks each, and are
now used principally for the housing
and care Of the wounded, each house
accommodating fifty men. The fittings
comprise doors. windows. window cur
tains, partitions. oiled floors, smoke
pipes. ventilators, stoves and hanging
lamps.
Houses Quickly Put Together.
The whole contraption car be hooked
and screwed together IN seven hours
even by inexperienced men, while men
who have once set up the decker can
work much faster than that Any num-
Der OF houses can be thrown into one,
and in one group on the outskirts OF
Lowicz the attendants can pass direct
~ from the operating room TO the
kitchen. thence 70 the storeroom, thence
TO the room. for officers. and thence 70
the long room. where the wounded pri-
Yates have got their blankets spread
and lie doing IN the comforting heat
from two stoves Every room is scru-
pulously clean and bright.
Surgeons, nurses and cooks are NOV
ing placidly about their work Some
of the nurses are fragile pretty girls
and others are buxom danes, who are