El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-09-09
Town Changes Hands -Four
Times During Struggles
With Germans.
TIDE OF WAR NOW
MOVES WESTWARD
Surging Columns Of Fighters
And Munitions Trains
Jam Al Roads.
By STANLEY WAsHBURN.

UTSK. Russia, Sept 9.-Imagine &
small sluggish stream winding
- through a meadow. curving in e
great elbow round a hill on which is
perched a medieval castle surrounded
: by a struggling little Russian towr
which has been growing up for SOC
years, and you have q picture of Butsk
On branch line of railway. it was
before the war as quiet and isolated as
though it were on the banks of the
Amur in far off Siberia
h When I first knew Lutsk. rather
more than year ago. peasants. when
questioned spoke vaguely of the con-
flict as something apart from them. no
doubt much as they did of the Man
churian campaign u years ago. When
next I visited the town, the Germans
were already driving through Galicia-
I saw the peasants digging trenches
and laughing as they dug, for none be
heved the enemy would ever reach
them But since those days the cloud
of war has swept over the western
horizon, and Lutsk has changed hands
four times
Commandment Is Lodging Keeper.
Everything belongs 10 the military
now, and when you want quarters you
90 to the commandment and he allots
you a vacant place in which to spend
the night An orderly reused an
ancient man. who, with sulky footsteps
lighted US along a dusty hall into a
room with balcony facing the great
highway.
All night long there is the constant
roar of traffic beneath our window
Again and again We are awakened by
1 the brazen clamor of military music
crashing out the superb strains of the
Russian marching songs, as the regi-
mental bands, so strong, go swinging
down the street at the head Of the
columns pressing onward to take up
, in turn their burden at the front
Victorious Army Advances
As one sat on the road at Novo
Afinsk in Poland, last year, and watched
the Russian army go by in defeat, so
now one may sit here and see the
spectacle of a great army advancing
after victory Now, however. It is to
the crash of music. while then the only
sound was the shuttle of weary feet
plodding through the dust
With creaking lmbers and jingling
chains, with the six sturdy little
horses necks straining in their col
lars the loaded ammunition wagons
pass in columns a mile long. Then for
half an hour one may watch the odds
and ends Of transport Miles and miles
of peasants carts bearing food. proven
der. huge loaves Of bread. are sue
ceeded by four horse wagons piled
high with regimental and staff bag
gage These turn aside to let the field
Vulnerable little two wheeled carts
lloaded with poles and coils for the
communications.
Munitions Stream To Front.
Perhaps behind them p long column
Of the two wheeled two horse carts
with small arm ammunition for the in
fsntry passes unanimously over the
rough cobbled stones. Huge motor
Iorries filled with petrol demand a
way through the surging crowds with
belloWings of their horns, while motor
cars from the various stats pass and
Hepass each other, more insistent still
for the right Of way.
IntermingIed with the Ihrong are the
carriages of the town. now command
eered by officers who have local bust
ness to attend to. Wagons loaded
with barbed wire wound on great
spools are conspicuous in the process
sion
Generals Greet Marching Men
A dozen times a day the traffic must
null aside to permit the passage of
troops going to the front These
come through, battalion after battalion,
their copper tinged faces grey with
fhe fine white dust Of the road Be
low US are the quarters of a general
who has Just come to this front. and
he stands -bareheaded on his balcony
and calls out greetings TO his men as
Ithev pass beneath the window.
AS far as one can see both up and
down the street, the surging masses of
khaki figures with theit fixed bayonets
swing with their long stride. roaring
out their marching songs at the top
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