Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1915-01-13
Stories From fhe European Firing Line
As Related BY Some Eye Witnesses

be the next emperor Ot Austria. had
come into Przemysl in his automobile,
after a hundred mile ride. he had come
10 60 90 church with these mon. TO Join
them in farewell mass; To say good
bye" 10 them and To toll them that Aus
tria- Hungary depended ON them to ho'd
the forts of Przcmysl or die in their
wrockage
And in this, the audience Of officers,
] saw few of my Austrian officer
friends. earnest faced, devow. kneelmr.
bowing crossing themselves. reading the
prayers partaking in the death mass
with a man for whose Kingdom to.he
they were going 10 give their lives. 1
thought of the storm If Russian she'll
and shrapncl that would beat over
Przemysl as soon as our batteries had
been brought in from the outside and
this quiet mass seemed TO me like the
moment of calm before a tornado.
When the mass was ended the en-
peror-to-be climbed into his automobile
and was whirlcd out of the rings OF
forts a hundred miles away to the safe
shelter of the Carpathaus at Ncu San
dec The streets of przcmysl were filed
with anarching soldiers. They had been
brought i'm from the rifle trenches some
miles outside the city and were TO be
rushed away from przcmysl TO some
other part of the line; at least were not
TO die in Przemysl Then, later in the
morning, the artillery began 10 come
into the city. This was the beginning
of the end. II meant that the outer
defences OF the city had been with
drawn; from the farms and the hills
and the valleys. where ! had seen these
batteries holding back the Russian tide.
they had been rolled TO the roads and
dragged into the city and now they
We're being taken TO the rairoad yards
10 be loaded onto ears that would carry
them out of the reach Of the Russians.
Inc safety of przcmysl could not last
lmany hours II wouldn't take the Rus
slams long to notice that the Russian
field batteries were silent and it
wouldn't take them much longer To send
out their Cossack patrol To discover
why the Austrian guns were keeping the
peace. Then, after that, il would be
only matter of few hours for the
Russians 20 advance
4 That evening when | dined in the
officers casns there were no officers
there. They were out in the great steel
forts, ready TO begin their resistance 10
the Russian storm.
We left that evening in a Red Cross
train. The Russian guns were sounding
nearer than they had ever sounded he.
fore. The sound of rifle battle came
To our ears some miles outside the
town. the noise of some Austrian in
fantry regiment holding back the Rus
sian onrush until the last possible man
gun and horse that wouldn't be needed
in the town could get out of It,
Before the sun set the next day the
Russian army had surrounded Przemysl
and my friends in the great steel, round
rooted houses were working their great
guns for their very lives. But only a
few tens of thousands of Russians nov.
cred around przcmysl More of them
went on into Galicia and, within few
days they were hundred miles nearer
Vienna than they had ever been before.
Przemysl is still an Austrian island
In the Russian flood. Its forts have MOI
yet been battered down Daily IL send,
its wireless message over the Russian
armies, over the Carpathians saying
I'VE are till holding out" But il Is
now an island hundred miles from an
Austrian shore and come day. if th'
wireless doesn't come we'll know tina
the steel of the Russian shells wa
stronger than the steel of the przemys
forts, or the hearts of those brave Aus
trian officers who stayed in Przemysl q
hold it or die.