The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-12

Bielostock, Poland, January 25.-(Spe- cial correspondence.)- )-From Wilma travelled to Bielostock. It took me 19 hours It is only an eighth of the dis tance from Petrograd to Warsaw, and a's the whole distance in peace time takes 19 hours, you may imagine the trian's speed. The train goes like a German re- treat. It rushes off at a terrific, incred ible speed, and you feel sure that it is in q hurry. And then it stops for hours. As retreating Germans when they fight rear guard actions. When you are wondering whether it will ever move again. it starts with jerk at 40 miles an hour; flies swiftly for four minutes, and then stops for four hours It stops at dozen stations, and be- tween stations, and it stops particular ly long at Grany, Grodno and Soolka. Also it fingers an hour near the river Suprasl just before entering this town.
 Cause of these stoppages are artillery and dinners. Trains with artillery are going west by the score. The line is doubletracked but the trains go west by both tracks, and we dream in sid . ings while the artillery trains pass. Such trains! Some of them 40 cars long, drawn by two locomotives. all loaded with guns, liners, ammunition wagons. Most attractive are the ammunition wagons; with gristening, brass trimmed shells stuck in flat fronts as pins stick in pin cushions. A soldier is seated on the car beside each Timber. Between every six cars there is a car of somc- thing mysterious packed in straw. Also with soldier. There Is one passenger carriage in each train, and in one train there is a passenger car from the Fin nish railroads. Seven such trains crawled past us. They extract terrible energy and objurgations. Every depot rings with jar of cars and cries of l "horosho" (GoodD, '"Tronut" (Start and the name Ivan Alexeyevitch." Ap- parently it needs a whole train to take a battery with limbers and ammunition. With them are trains of artillerists. Each with a kettle on his back. When we stop at Grany, at Grodno. at Su- prasl river the artillerists rush out | and fl their kettles with water The third bell rings and the artillery train
 bucks. A small, confused soldier boy l trips and his water kettle flies out and l spills. The artillersts roar Not a
 shelled- to-bits Prussian AZ centimetre
 mortar would couse more joy.
 All this makes delay. But it is noth- ing to dinner. There are no dining cars
 on the artillery trains, and men must
 eat. Knowing that on the artillery posi- 1 tions they will eat buckwheat kasha,
 the officers have their last farewell
 dinners in the depots. Between Wilma and Bielostoc there are three dinners | all ready when the train steams in, in
 the Buffet Classa" with these dishes
 Siomga (smoked salmon).
 Soldatski stchi Cabbage soup).
 | Zharenaya utka (roast duck).
 | Kisel Cred fruit glue).
 Everyone eats this dinner thrice. 4 1 general In a red-lined coat, with. St
 Georges cross, is not satisfied with this and he delays the trains At Grodno l after he has eaten for half an hour, he
 wipes his mouth. clanks his sword, and
 rushes for the train. Then he suddenly remembers something. The third (warn. ing) bell rings. 8g The general reopens the door of "Buf- fet I Classa." and shouts, MT. Station- ma sterr
 II In red forage cap, which he touches
 twice, up comes the stationmaser Int I general asks that the train be delay ed for five minutes as he has not suf ficiently dined. The stationmaster sa lutes. The general re-enters Buffet Classa" and starts dinner again
 smoked salmon and 10 other things l ne ITd1H WdltS. AL lH6 StdtlOH neaTeS Bielostack the general gets out, aski the stationmaster to delay the train
 and issues from Buffet Classa' wield ing two sandwiches, each decked witt egg and sardine. hungry passenge lwho has had no dinner sees his chanc, and rushes out. The third bell rings
 and the train pulls out.
 , Through Bielostock thunder the ar tillery trains west Eastward craw | al troi ivNo Thav i., C.. lpolished mahogany train marked San
 tary train of H. l. H., the Gran, Duchess Tatiana Nikolaievna" It Is tn
 foundation of pretty Grand Duches
 Tatiana, Nicholas IFS second girl. Tn,
 train stops oposite us and I see througl a lighted window an electric operatin,
 room. curly head lies on the op
 erating table. A nurse pulls the blind The train crawls on. At the depot see 50 wounded men, All slightl wounded, five out of six in the arms They are waiting for an ordinary train which will bring them to Wilma. "Giv
 us newspapers" is their cry. The
 come. they tell me. in exchange for tn i''Novoye vremya." from Czenstochow
 in South Poland, where they have bee : fighting General Dankl They are il
 good spirits, kindly, generous, decent
 That in the fighting men does not sur prise me. It is Europe's noncombatant who are ferocious, cowardly, hysteri cal, who vilify, lie and forge.
 In BielostoclS l put up at the "Hote of Countess Mielnicki." Only in Polan | do you find these countessly hotels. Tn 9 countess is considerable landed pro [ prietor and she keeps the hotel in or l der that she may thero sell the estat ; eggs. She has carefully curled blac hair and a hatred of Jews. She says: r There was a terrible massacre her in June, 1906. Eighty Jews were kille, iVingt-quatre Juifs. Serve them right. 1 She says this with a Parisian accen ; That, too, is Polish. Bielostock is a bi 3 town, mostly made up of one-stor t houses, full of people in the clothing