The Washington herald., 1916-07-24

quite convinced that their exit from
.nis world will come at the appointed
'ime' and not a moment sooner.
A good deal of the Russian bravery
rs due to this fatalistic strain. Take
the case of famous Gen. Brussilof. Al
,nough he loves life and values 1t, he
ooes not know the meaning of the
WORD fear. And this is partly due to
ms nrm belief that nothing can pos
sibly happen to him before the ap-
pointed hour.
Oh their beloved general In his earlier
Gays. As young officer he was placed
unoer arrest for speaking his thoughts
OUT rather too impetuously. II happened
IN this way: Brussiloff was travelling by
train when another offcer entered the
carriage. The latter wore the long sleeve
iess overcoat which was introduced into
the hussian army by Nicholas l. and
hrussilon was rather surprised when the
newcomer abruptly told him to get up at
once and salute. 'Whom?" asked Brus-
course" cried the other, and. opening
his coat pointed to the red stripes on
his trousers which mark a general
Sorry" said Brussilofr. in no whit
soashed, but I'm accustomed to recog-
nize a general by his head and not by
his legs"
Not very long ago, after his appoint
meht as general of cavalry Brussiloff had
very narrow escape. In the midst of an
austrian attack, a bullet penetrated his
helmet knocking II right off and bruis-
ing MS head rather painfully. But the
seneral would not even dismount from his
morse to have the damage attended to.
The Austrians don't shoot nearly so well
- l. rla1 ant
ly. taking the battered helmet from his
adjutant and replac cling It with unshak-
Ing hand. William Tell could shoot
down an apple from the head without
making bruises. Robin Hood did the
same. But not so the Austrians."
All manner of tricks and queer de-
vices have been employed by the Ger
mans and Austrians against the Rus
slams during this war. and some of
them have been very deadly. A fighter
In the Russian army speaks of many
OF these. During the invasion OF East
Prussia by the Russians in the earlier
part of the war" he says. the Ger
mans were compelled to abandon many
transport wagons. One or two which I
assisted in capturing were laden with
wines and other delicacies. evidently
private supplies of the German officer
not an uncommon thing in the Ger
man army. whose leaders were in the
habit OF taking empty carts with them
in which to store the booty they are
so fond OF talking about.
Many OF these vehicles stuck in the
mud of the Spirding Lee region, which
during the wet weather renders the
district a vast marsh. We came up to
one of these wagons. 1t seemed to have
little the matter with II except that
one OF the wheels was off and lying
on the road beside II. 1t was a Red
Cross wagon and filled with medical
stores. We wanted these badly. So
our men were ordered to replace the
wheel and find a team Of horses to
drag the capture away. This was
done. and the transport men brought
up four horses and harnesed them to
the wogan.
The moment it was moved. an ap-
pslling explosion occurred, and blew
everybody and everything near at
hand to atoms. There can be no doubt
that the explosive was hidden in the
wagon, and attached in some way to a
firing apparatus fixed to one OF the
wheels. 1t was not the only incident of
the kind which occurred, but they were
not all equally successful"
The Germans in Poland employed nag
tricks They planted small fiags Of nearly
every ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. American.
Dutch, or FrenCh-in prominent places
This caused a good deal Of confusion In
the minds of the troops as well as in the
minds of the populace, and whenever the
Russian officers or men approached to
examine the little flags they were blown
to pieces by hidden army artillery who
had previously ascertained the range.
The placing Of a tethered bullock in an
open space was another favorite device.
The Russians would walk Up unsuspect-
ingly TO examine the animal and the mo-
ment that a company Of them had gath
cred together. machine gun hidden in
the bushes about coo Yards away would
open fre and annihllate them.
Dummy Snipers were placed in the
trees, too. by Austrisns and Germans.
The Russians would advance to capture
that the sniper was merely q form OF
scarcecrow. would be themselves shot
down by hidden watchers.
OF the bravery Of the Russian women
little need he said. for it is well known
There are many soldiers in the Russian
army whose feminine identity has not
even yet been discovered. Twelve girls
from a Moscow select seminary dis
guised themselves as boys and enlisted
in the Russian army. After serving four
teen months at the front, one of them
ItdCHtu general ntat4Atllt lt!S, ana no
one would have suspected that she was
girl, but for the fact that she betrayed
herself unthinkingly. She is only sixteen
years oiG. with short curly hair and a
handsome. boyishlooking face. Twice
she had been badly wounded, once in the
leg and once in the side. Moreover, she
had been decorated with the war medal
and with the much coveted Cross of St
George for her bravery.
The Russians as a whole are exceeding
ly courageous One little non-Commis-
stoned officer with only four men so man
euvered the situation and his scanty
forces that he actually captured three
Austrian officers and forty men. His
peremptory call for surrender was so in
cisive that the enemy imagined his forces
to be superior to their own. Great was
their disgust when too late they discover
ed their mistake.
Despite their dreamy nature, then, and
their natural tendency to introspeCtion
and gentle melancholy, the Russians are
wonderfully clever strateg!sts, and as
magnificent fighters as any in the pres
ent war.