Tombstone epitaph., 1916-08-13


 with sharpened sticks in their hands,
 Twice if seemed the flower of the czar's army would be surrounded, once in the vicinity of Warsaw. and again in the great battle near Wilma.
 The tale of the taking of great towns grew almost tedious. IL seemed the Germans would never stop. Whether they did stop of their own accord or were finally checked by the Russians is not yet clear. They settled down for the winter on long line stretch ing from the Baltic just west of Riga southeast along the Dvina river. and then almost due south through Polies- sic, the Pinsk marsh district, To the Roumanian frontier.
 Reswakening of Russia.
 On September s Car Nicholas took command of all his armies in the field. sending his cousin. the Grand Duke Nicholas, to the less important com mand of the Caucasus operations.
 With their Little Father" at their head. the Russians forgot their long, NlNSeNE dSliS I'ti clL. sAllilpho 'i htN young soldiers joined them, drawn from EuSSia's great reservoir of hu man beings. which produces three and half million men of military age ey- cry year.
 on September 10 the Russians won 8 success near Tarnopol and Trembowla, and two days later they drove the leu tons back II miles m 1alicla. in other parts of the front the Germans were still seizing large slices of territory. but their enemies were regaining their energy. On September 26 the Rus sians recaptured Lutsk, but were driv- en out in short time. On October 20 they recaptured Czartorysk, but they were not able to prevent the Germans storming Illuxt five days later. Car torysk was lost and again taken by the czar January s.
 Meanwhile the conquest Of Serbia, the greatest tragedy of the war. eX- cepting only the massacre of Soo,OOo Armenians. was being enacted.
 Invasion of Serbia.
 The real invasion of Serbia started in the first days of October. great diplomatic battle had been fought in Sofia. and the allies had lost. On Oc- tober Bulgaria in an ultimatum to King Peter of Serbia. peremptorily de manded the immediate cession of the Macedonian lands in dispute between the two countries and then in the pos session of the Serbs
 After a general bombardment the Teutons crossed the river boundaries of Serbia In many places on October s. Two days later they occupied Bel grade. On the thirteenth Bulgaria in yaded her neighbor al three points.
 The successes of the Teutons and the Bulgarians were almost unbroken. The invading forces consisted of a vast amount of heavy artillery, with small infantry supporting forces. They shelled the Serbians out of position after position in an avalanche of steel to which the Serbians could make no reply.
 Small forces of French and English landed at Saloniki, a Greek port to which Serbia had certain entry priyi- leges, and did something to cover the retreat of the Serbians by engaging the Bulgarians in the South.
 At the beginning of winter, Novem- Der %. the Serbian soldiers crossed their western border and struck the trails of the dreary. snow-covered mountains of the coast. Great num- bers perished of cold and hunger on the way. On November 23 Germany proudly announced that the Serbian campaign had ended, having met with complete success.
 Two Blows to the British.
 The winter also saw the humilia- tion of the British in Mesopotamla The Indian government recklessly pushed small. poorly supplied expe- dition up the Tigris valley and actu- ally penetrated to within seven miles of Bagdad. Here the Turks, with Ger man officers directing them, admins tered a defeat and the invaders fell back with the enemy harassing them to the town of Kut-el-Amara, where they were besieged December 10.
 Another expedition. also insufficient, was sent to relieve the first It was beaten of with large losses a few miles below Kut, a flood of the river and swamps assisting the Turks, and on April 30 the 12,OO0 defenders of Kut capitulated by order of the Brit ish higher command
 A further British humiliation was the evacuation of Gallipoli peninsula, where the British held on doggedly month after month, losing perhaps 200.O00 men, until they were finally withdrawn in confession of failure the first week of January.
 These two British fiascos were what was needed to arouse the sluggish | fighting blood of John Bull. They ! finally brought England into the war ! fully and uncompromisingly, 10 the same extent as the other great DOW