The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1923-08-01

Bridge in Warsaw.
| parts her sons have played In the
world drama. He will encounter pal
ace after palace-a lsrge enough num-
Der to entitle Warsaw to dispute with
Genoa the nickname. city of palaces"
They were built mostly during the Sew
enteenth and Eighteenth centuries,
when Warsaw was without a peer In
Europe, save Paris
Not Broken BY Oppression.
No other people In all the worlds
history has borne oppression so brave
ly and gloriously as the Poles, except
the Jews. 1t was said Of Warsaw
before 1914 that the Russians had
to keep q garrison of 100000 troops
to overawe a city of 100000 people"
But the vivacity, the gayety, and the
quick wit Of Warsaw's people survived
oppression and even the most grue-
some tragedies. AS recently as the
years Of our own Civil war the Rus
sian army moved down thousands Of
men and women as they kneft in the
snow, singing their national anthem.
Deportations are an old story in War
saw. every effort at naturalization
was followed by slaughter, and hun
dreds marched the long trail TO Sibe-
rian exile.
Poland's spirit, meanwhile, became
a synonym for the indomitable. The
success Of the classification Of Poland
he nf
keeping 100000 Poles pinned to Rus
STA by bayonets. Politically non
existent, for even Poland's name was
expunged from all official Russian rec
ords, the prewar Warsaw Wed with
world capitals in science, particularly,
medicine, in manufacturing, In trade
and In literature and art
Although Warsaw fell to the Ger
mans in the World war. it fell only
after months of siege by guns such
as had not been known before. 1t
was without doubt, and still is, one Of
the best defended cities Of eastern
Europe Its immediate line Of forts
is thrown before it at a radius Of
about 16 miles from the heart Of the
city. In the immediate line of forti- |
fed towns beyond the Warsaw forts,
varying from Is to 40 miles In dis
lance from the city, are Garwolin In
the southeast, Grojec in the south,
Skierniewice in the southwest, Blonie |
in the west, NovOgeorgievsk In the |
northwest, Pultusk and Segrje in the |
north, and Praga across the Vistula to
the east. The most powerful Of these
fortresses is Novogeorgievsk-
Stands High Above the VlstuIa.
The country around Warsaw is a
plain, low and fiat, intensely cult
waited, and dotted with many Industrial
villages. This plain stretches away to
the Prussian frontier. To the south
there are hill clusters, while In the
north, throughout the region adjoining
the confluence of the Narew and the
Bug with the vistula, there are con-
siderable stretches Of tangled and
marsh land. During the
spring and autumn rains, this region
suffers from disastrous
foods The floods now and then prove
% be terribly destructive. Novo-
fortress lies upon the con-
fuence Of the Bug and yistula, and
the swampy stretches near it are part
Of its scheme Of defense.
The Vistula cleaves through this
district, through fortresses before
Warsaw, through the heart Of the
metropolis and through fortresses
.oward the German frontier, In a
broad expanse of between quarter
md a third of a mile In width. Parts
If the rivers banks are high, and
Warsaw stands over the Vistula on
teep terrace, lying between 100 and
40 feet above the river.
All the country before Warsaw Is an
pen way of farm and factory. While
he soils are not very fertile, being
hief1y clay and sand deposits, large
rops are raised upon them, crops that
ave been forced higher and higher to
neet the needs of the great next-door
market. Then, too, the Warsaw dis
rict Is the most modern and progress
I've district in Poland. progressive In
IS agricultural as In Its manufacture
nd trade. The industry Of the me-
ropolis spreads out over the city, {
through the neighboring villages and
owns. For 20 years before the World
Var the Poles turned their energies
, industry with all the seriousness
'hich they formerly displayed In poll
O. and with better organisation. |