The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-08
AT SERBIAN FRONT
Trenches Not Made Permanent
Like British or French.
Serb Forces Before MOnaStir
Ready for Battle.
BULGARS SIX MILES AWAY
Spirit of FataliSm PeryadeS
Trenches of SerbianS.
Blasts Under Bridges Ready to
Stem Bulgar Advance.
BULGARS SIX MILES AWAY
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD.

MOnaStir, Serbia, Jan. 8--TwO SOL
diers put their shoulders to the linn
CUISINE and gave US a push which
kept US going fifteen minutes Col.
Vassich, who controls all the troops
defending Monastir, kept his eyes
peeled to every sight along the road.
He looked at every small bridge. 1
remarked that his glance rested always
on the railing and when l followed
his gaze at the next bridge 1 saw a
wisp of straw tied to the bridge rail
with a fuse running from it down over
the side to the stone pier. Yes, the
bridges on the Perlepe road are ready,
One match touched to that straw will
set the fuse Sputtering and within
moment or two the masonry and steel
that workmen have spent weary
months putting in place will be blown
into fragments of stone and litter
of twisted beams. Then the Bulgars
will have to swim and that will be
that much more time granted to the
folk in Monastir to get away. You
wonder how much taxes the people of
Monastir have paid to build these
bridges. But never mind. This quiet
and half i'll Servian general has de-
cided that they must go up with dy-
Mantle when the Bulgars come. And
up they'll go. It's the only way, in
war.
Here's a group of tents on one side
manned by Serbian soldiers. Before it
half a dozen big huskies stand at at
tention, saluting the commander in his
auto. There's a man on horseback
with them. He carries white flag
with a Red Cross on it. Resting over
his shoulder and under his arm is a
Plymouth Rock hen, alive and angry.
She's part of the chicken diet which
is the only luxury u sick Servlan SOL
der can expect.
Injured Get Little Care.
In the tents, lying on straw, some
of them with their feet sticking out
DOORS are the casualties" None is
undressed. Some of them will recover
in time and will go again up to the
wet trenches to wait the Bulgar on
slaught. Others will be put IN spring
less wagons and be ratified over the
stone roads to Monastir, where in the
army hospital that has only enough
blankets to give each man one, and
no wood of any kind, they Will flght
| for their lives, depending on nature
and their physical strength rather
than on anything the few doctors can
do for them.
The Plymouth Rock hen gives an
| extra loud cackle of rage and nearly
flaps herself loose. The horse is
frightened and SHES to one side and
| the Red Cross man, his hands full of
chicken, flag and reins, barely keeps
his seat Col. Vassich smiles as the
auto is again pushed into motion by
| three soldiers.
Quiet in Fire of Battle.
Some miles on is a hillside where a
| Thousand Serbs are encamped. Their
tents are small, like children's play
things. A x-year-old boy could not
stand up in one of them without bend
ing his head. Little mules, scrawny
ponies, poorly dressed Serbs who are
not soldiers but who carry food for
| r he ny l.
mails; smoking fires, blackened pots
| clothes hanging out to dry; muddy
shoes, muddy coats, muddy pants
muddy hands. muddy faces, Smiles
white teeth, towsled hair, shaved
faces, hairy faces, smells of things to
eat, smells of things that almost turn
you; fresh hides of goats newly killed
/ and cooked; (the Serbian soldiers hold
all championships for speed in catch
| ing a goat, cutting its throat skinninG
it, chopping it into pots of boiling wa
| ter and eating IT'D; sounds of laughter
and song-all these sights and sounds
| and smells are Serbian, Balkan.
! These men are in the field; a signal
from behind the hill where the adj
vance Serbian trenches face the Bull
gar line will take them into battle. II
| isn't like the French or British fronts
or the German fronts, where men have
lived for fifteen months and have
made their homes in the earth. There's
| motion and movement in Balkan
! fighting. The other fellows trenches
and his camp itself, perhaps. will be
yours tomorrow. If yours are his
you'll be dead. So why waste any
time making your camp perfect?
The Bulgars are only six miles away
along this winding, stone paved road!
Four soldiers instead of three give
the automobile a push this time and
off we start toward the front trenches
I The car runs beautifully after it is
started, but it will not commence I'M
der gasoline power; it insists on three
or four-soldier power pressure in addi-
I ton to that.
Neutrality-suspicious. OF WIND
] ING RED ALONG THE FACE OF
THE HILLS.)
cQEp TAgEc HEAVY Till