New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-12-26
POLAND A MAZE
OF WARS RUIN
thousands Die of Want in
Waste of Graves and
Trenches.
PLIGHT WORSE
THAN BELGIUM'S
Forlorn Rows of Chimneys Now
Loom Where Countless
Villages Thrived.

Warsaw. Dec. 1O.-Even more de-
,r..sing than the worst parts Of Bel
s;um and East Prussia is Poland-a
Liza Of graves and trenches, of ruin and
distraction. on a scale wrought nowhere
ia. nv the war. The conflict has been
...r.d back and forth across the an
,s,nt kingdom so long that, except
there the German forces have been in
,or,rol for some time, the fields, bar
,.n and untitled. are SCARED by miles
,,on miles Of earthworks.
From the East Prussian boundary 70
,,pro1imately the old Rawka positions
here is visible the maximum amount
4, order and peaceful quiet. At the
Rsvks, however, the interminable
graves with their helmet-sdorned
crosses; the deep slashes in the earth
that once were trenches, but now are
,h. temporary homes" Of countless
,,turses; the mare Of partly destroyed
bsrbsd wire entanglements. and the
,ueeesslon Of burned and ruined viii
lagos begin.
Ire BOUNDARY and Warsaw, and between
warsaw and LODI, the old trenches line
he railroad tracks, while graves, In
siyiduAl and common. line the trenches.
Eastward Of Warsaw, however, the
trenches virtually stop, for the Rus
L,ns moved fast once they abandoned
he capital Of Poland. The trenches
,top. but the devastated villages do not.
Rather they increase in number, and
there is scarcely railroad station, and
no bridges, left standing.
Russians Burned Homes.
I'll. Poles from time immemorial
have been accustomed to building their
th1tched cottages-huts would be bet
ter word-close together. Accordingly,
Il was necessary only to set FIRE to one
structure 10 burn them all down. In
consequence, countless villages have
bsen reduced TO forlorn rows Of chin
news. which, being Of brick and stoutly
built have resisted the flames.
Unlike the cities of Poland, the coun-
try seems TO have been stripped OF
Young men. One sees little else than
peasant women, barefoot, III clad, who
struggle under bundles Of wood through
the mud, and who generally avert their
eyes as strangers pass.
The Germans, partly for their own
benefit, partly TO give employment 10
the Poles, have done much 70 put the
VIGOROUSLY bad roads into shape. They
have also altered the railroad tracks
from the Russian to the German
gauge-a stupendous work, for all the
main lines are now double track, and
OF important points huge yards have
had 70 be built TO conform TO military
needs.
On August e6 the Russians evacu-
stsd Brast-Litovisk, after causing dam
sgt estimated conservatively at $780,
05O. oOC with dynamite that p-obably
cost many hundreds OF Thousands OF
rubles.
Germans Crossed as Fire Ragged.
While three-ouarters Of the houses OF
the city still burned the Germans moved
In across pontoon bridges flung over the
Bug River, and one week later Graf
W arrived with the German En-
peror's commission as military gov
srnor.
He and his subordinates have since
that time been working approximately
eighteen hours a day TO bring order out
Of the chaos that they found. Order
they have achieved. but 1t will take
yesrs 70 rebuild and reconstruct the
sity-probsbly the strongest e p1.I mosS
possessed.
As was almost universally the case
IN Poland, the civil population had been
taken along Russisnward by the re-
treating army. But almost before the
Germans could commence work OF re.
construction foriorn detachments of
sle back into the city. The refugees for
The most part were Jews. who. had been
hiding in swamps. Many Of them were
sick. and before order had been re-
stored thousands Of them died OF ma
lignsnt diseases
Graf W proceeded with en- iron