STORIES FROM THE BATTLEFIELD

Thrilling Incidents of the Great War Told by Actual Combatants —Personal Experiences from the Lips of Survivors of the World's Bloodiest Battles—Tales of Prisoners of War, Wounded Soldiers and Refugees Rendered Homeless in Blighted Arena of Conflict.

HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING

Cavalry fighting on the banks of the River Marne in the year 1914 was almost identical with the charge in the days when Hannibal's Numidian horse charged at Romans at Lake Trasimene, or when Charles Martel and the chivalry of France worsted the Moors and saved Europe on the plains of Tours.

A good description of a cavalry charge was given by Private Capel of the Third British Hussars, a veteran of the Boer war, who took part in the fighting beginning at Mons and was separated from his regiment in a charge at Coulommiers, in the battle of the Marne, when his horse fell.

"You hear," said he, "the enemy's bugles sounding the charge. Half a mile away you see the Germans coming and it seems that in an instant they will be on you. You watch fascinated and cold with a terror that makes you unable to lift an arm or do anything but wait and tremble.

"They come closer and still you are horrorstruck. Then you feel your horse fretting and suddenly you start from your daze, and fear changes suddenly to hate. Your hand goes to the saber hilt, your teeth clinch and you realize that you must strike hard before the enemy, who is now very close, can strike. Every muscle tightens with the waiting.

"Before your own bugles have sounded two notes of the charge you find yourself leaning forward over the neck of your galloping horse. All the rest is a mad gallop, yells of the enemy and your own answer, a terrible shock in which you are almost dismounted, and then you find yourself face to face with a single opponent who, standing up in the stirrups, is about to split your head. You notice that you are striking like a fiend with the saber.

"After that madness passes it seems almost like a complex maneuver and soon you find yourself riding for dear life—perhaps to escape, perhaps after the Germans. You then realize that you have been whipped and that the charge has failed, or you see the backs of the fleeing enemy, feel your horse straining in pursuit and know that you have gained a victory."

FRIGHTFUL MORTALITY AMONG OFFICERS

The official reports of the loss of life in the battles in France tell of the large number of officers killed. Sharp-shooters on both sides have had instructions to aim at officers. These sharpshooters are often concealed far in advance of their troops. Their small number and their smokeless powder make their discovery most difficult. This lesson was learned at great cost to the British during the Boer war.

Dispatches from Bordeaux stated that letters found on dead and captured German officers prove the truth of reports regarding the terrible mortality in the German ranks, especially among officers. In the Tenth and Imperial Guard Corps of the German army it is said that only a few high ranking officers escaped being shot, and many have been killed. The German officers have distinguished themselves by their courage, according to the stories of both British and French who fought them.

An officer of an Imperial Guard regiment, who was taken prisoner after being wounded, said:

"My regiment left for the front with sixty officers; it counts today only five. "We underwent terrible trials."

A German artillery officer wrote:

"Modern war is the greatest of follies. Companies of 250 men in the Tenth Army Corps have been reduced to seventy men, and there are companies of the guard commanded by volunteers of a year, all the officers having disappeared."

SAYS GERMANS FOUGHT EVERY DAY

The following is from a letter, written during the prolonged battle of the Aisne by a lieutenant of the Twenty-sixth German Artillery:

"The Tenth Corps has been constantly in action since the opening of the campaign. Nearly all our horses have fallen. We fight every day from 5 in the morning till 8 at night, without eating or drinking. The artillery fire of the French is frightful. We get so tired that we cannot ride a horse, even at a walk. Toward noon our battery was literally under a rain of shrapnel shells and that lasted for three days. We hope for a decisive battle to end the situation, for our troops cannot rest. A French aviator last night threw four bombs, killing four men and wounding eight, and killing twenty horses and wounding ten more. We do not receive any more mail, for the postal automobiles of the Tenth Corps have been destroyed."

HOW IT FEELS TO BE WOUNDED

Many men in the trenches have proved themselves heroes in the war. A wounded British private told this story:

"We lay in the trench, my friend and I, and when the order to fire came we shot, and shot till our rifles burned up. Still the Germans swarmed on toward us, and then my friend received a bad wound. I turned to my work again, continuing to shoot slowly. Then I rose a little too high on my shoulder.

"Do you know what it is like to be wounded? A little sting pierced my arm like a hot wire; too sharp almost to be sore, and my rifle fell from me. I looked at my friend then and he was dead."

In one casualty list made public by the British war office in September, sixteen officers were reported killed, thirty-eight wounded and ten missing. The famous Coldstream Guards and the Black Watch regiments were among the sufferers.

HOW GENEBAL FINDLEY DIED

A correspondent in France described the death of General Neil Douglas Findley of the British Royal Artillery as follows:

"When at dawn the British advance continued toward Soissons the enemy was fighting an exceptionally fierce rearguard action. A terrible shell fire was directed against our artillery under General Findley, temporarily situated in a valley by the village of Prise. It seemed a matter of moments when we should have to spike our guns and General Findley saw the urgency for action.

"'Boys,' his voice echoed down the line, 'we are going to get every gun into position,' Then deliberately the general approached a regimental chaplain kneeling beside a gunner. 'Here are some of my personal belongings, chaplain. See that they don't go astray,'

"One by one our guns began to blaze away and the general had a word of encouragement and advice for every man. In vain his staff tried to persuade him to leave the danger zone.

"Our range was perfect, the German fire slackened and died away and with a yell our men prepared to advance. The outburst came too soon, one parting shell exploding in a contact with Findley's horse, shattering man and beast."

KILLED FOE IN REVOLVER DUEL

While their men battled on a road near Antwerp, it is said that a Belgian cavalry sergeant and an officer of German Uhlans fought a revolver duel which ended when the Belgian killed his foe, sending a bullet into his neck at close range.

The daring Uhlans had approached close to the Antwerp fortifications on a reconnoitering expedition. They were seen by a small Belgian force, which immediately went out on the road to give battle. As they neared each other, the German commander shouted a jibe at the Belgian sergeant. There was no answer, but the sergeant rode at a gallop straight for the Uhlan. Miraculously escaping the shots aimed at him, he drew up alongside the officer and informed him that his life was to be forfeited for the insulting words he had uttered. Both began firing with their revolvers, while at the same time their men clashed.

Only a few of the soldiers witnessed the thrilling duel, for they themselves were fighting desperately. After their officer's death the Uhlans withdrew, leaving a number of dead. Someone carried word of the duel to King Albert, who had just arrived in Antwerp, and he called before him and personally congratulated the sergeant, Henri Pyppes. The latter was wounded in the arm by one of the Uhlan's bullets, but he refused to be taken to the hospital and remained on duty in the field.

LITTLE STORIES FROM FRANCE

Count Guerry de Beauregard, a French veteran of the war of 1870, thus announced the death of a son at the front: "One son already has met the death of the brave beyond the frontier at the head of a squadron of the Seventh Hussars. Others will avenge him. Another of my sons, an artilleryman, is with the general staff. My eldest son is with the Twenty-first Chasseurs. Long live France!"

A wounded French soldier who was taken to Marseilles verified a remarkable story of his escape from death while fighting in German Lorraine. The soldier owes his life to a small bust of Emperor William, which he picked up in a village school and placed in his haversack. A German bullet struck the bust and, thus deflected, inflicted only a slight wound on the soldier.

Twenty German prisoners taken during the melee near Crecy, were herded together in a clearing, their rifles being stacked nearby. In a rash moment they thought that they were loosely guarded and made a combined rush for the rifles. "They will never make another," was the laconic report of the guard.

SAYS DEAD FILLED THE MEUSE

Edouard Helsey of the Paris newspaper, Le Journal, reported to be serving with the colors, wrote under date of August 29:

"It would be difficult to estimate the number of Germans killed last week. Whole regiments were annihilated at some points. They came out of the woods section by section. One section, one shell—and everything was wiped out.

"At two or three places which I am forbidden to name corpses filled the Meuse until the river overflowed. This is no figure of speech. The river bed literally was choked by the mass of dead Germans. The effect of our artillery surpasses even our dreams."

DETROIT ARTIST'S NARROW ESCAPE

Lawrence Stern Stevens, an artist of Detroit, narrowly escaped death near Aix-la-Chapelle at the hands of a crazed German lieutenant, by whom he was suspected of being a spy.

Stevens left Brussels on Aug. 24 in an automobile. He was accompanied by a photographer and a Belgian newspaper correspondent, and his intention had been to make sketches on the battlefield. His arrest at Laneffe thwarted this plan. He underwent a terrifying ordeal at the hands of his demented captor, although he was not actually injured.

On the evening of Aug. 24 he was court-martialed and sentenced to death and held in close confinement over night. Early on the morning of Aug. 25 he was led out, as he supposed, to be shot, but the plans had been changed and instead he was taken before Gen. von Arnim. After being forced to march with German troops for two days, Stevens fell in with a party of American correspondents at Beaumont, from which point he traveled to Aix-la-Chapelle on a prison train, and eventually reached Rotterdam and safety.

SAD PLIGHT OF FRENCH FUGITIVES

M. Brieux, the noted French dramatist, who witnessed the arrival at Chartres of a train full of fugitives who had fled from their homes before the German advance, described his experience for the Figaro. The fleeing people gathered round him and told him stories and he wrote his impressions as follows:

"Children weep or gaze wide-eyed, wondering what is the matter. Old folks sit in gloomy silence. Women with haggard cheeks and disheveled hair seem to belong to another age.

"They tell of invaders who scattered powder around or threw petroleum into their houses and then set them afire.

"And when did this happen? Yesterday! It is not a matter of centuries ago in distant climes, but yesterday, and quite near to us. Yet one cannot believe it was really yesterday that these things were done."

One of the fugitives explained to M. Brieux why after the first hour of their flight she had to carry her elder child as well as her baby. She showed him a pair of boots.

"I felt the inside with my fingers," says Brieux. "Nails had come through the soles. I looked at the child's feet. They were dirty with red brown clots. It was blood."

CHAUNCEY DEPEW ON A RUNNING-BOARD

Chauncey M. Depew, former United States Senator for New York, was in Geneva when the trouble began. He said on his return: "After crossing the border into France we picked up men joining the colors on the way to Paris, until our train could hold no more.

"Whenever I stuck my head into a corridor the soldiers would set up a cheer on seeing my side whiskers. They mistook me for an Englishman and cried: 'Long live the entente cordiale!'"

IN THE "VALLEY OF DEATH"

The fiercest fighting of all that preceded the Russian victory at Lublin was in a gorge near the village of Mikolaiff, which the Russian soldiers reverently named the "Valley of Death."

The gorge was full of dead men, lying in heaps, according to an officer who participated in the battle. "When we attacked at 3 o'clock in the morning," he said, "the gorge contained 15,000 Austrians, a large proportion of whom were mowed down by the artillery fire which plowed through the valley in the darkness. The Austrians surrendered and we entered the gorge to receive their arms, while their general stood quietly on a hill watching the scene. Eight of his standards being turned over to the Russians was more than he could bear, for he drew a pistol and shot himself."

GENERAL USE OF KHAKI UNIFORMS

The war put everybody into khaki, with a few exceptions. On the battle line or in the field the English soldier and the English officer get out of their richly colored and historic uniforms and into khaki, of a neutral hue. The Germans are in gray. The Austrians have most of their soldiers in khaki, and the Russians all wear khaki-colored cloth. The French still cling to their blue coats and brilliant red trousers, although steps are being taken to reclothe the army in more modern fashion, and the Belgians have a uniform that is very similar to the French.

The French and Belgian officers are dangerously ornamented with gilt trimmings during warfare and present such brilliant targets that some of the Belgian regiments during hard fighting with the Germans have lost nearly all of their leaders.

The new twentieth century mode of warfare puts the ban on anything that glitters, even the rifle barrels, bayonets and sabers.

A BELGIAN BOY HERO

On a cot in the Red Cross hospital at Ostend, September 12, lay one of the heroes of the war. He is Sergeant van der Bern of the Belgian army, and only 17 years old. He was only a corporal when he started out with twenty-nine men on a reconnoitering expedition during which he was wounded, but displayed such valor that his bravery was publicly related to all the soldiers, and Van der Bern was promoted.

Van der Bern and his little command came suddenly upon a band of fifty Uhlans while on their expedition. Outnumbered, his men turned and fled. The corporal shouted to them and dashed alone toward the Germans. The other Belgians rallied and threw themselves upon the Uhlans. Within a few minutes only Van der Bern and two others of his command remained. Twenty-seven Belgians were dead or wounded. Within a few minutes more of the corporal's companions fell, mortally wounded. Then the boy picked them up and displaying almost superhuman strength carried them to safety. As he was making his retreat, burdened by the two wounded men, Van der Bern was hit twice by German bullets. He staggered on, placed his men in charge of the Red Cross and without a word walked to headquarters and reported the engagement. Then he fell in a faint. WHEN

THE GERMANS RETREATED

A vivid description of the rout and retreat of the Germans during hurricane and rain on September 10, which turned the roads into river ways so that the wheels of the artillery sank deep in the mire, was given by a correspondent writing from a point near Melun. He described how the horses strained and struggled, often in vain, to drag the guns away, and continued:

"I have just spoken with a soldier who has returned wounded from the pursuit that will go down with the terrible retreat from Moscow as one of the crowning catastrophes of the world. They fled, he declares, as animals flee who are cornered, and know it.

"Imagine a roadway littered with guns, knapsacks, cartridge belts, Maxims and heavy cannons even. There were miles and miles of it. And the dead—those piles of horses and those stacks of men! I have seen it again and again, men shot so close to one another that they remained standing after death. The sight was terrible and horrible beyond words.

"The retreat rolls back and trainload after trainload of British and French are swept toward the weak points of the retreating host. This is the advantage of the battleground which the Allies have chosen. The network of railways is like a spider's web. As all railways center upon Paris, it is possible to thrust troops upon the foe at any point with almost incredible speed, and food and munitions are within arm's reach."

PRINCE JOACHIM WOUNDED

Prince Joachim, youngest son of Emperor William, was wounded during a battle with the Russians and taken to Berlin. On September 15 it was reported from Berlin that the wound was healing rapidly, despite the tearing effect of a shrapnel ball through the thigh. The empress and the surgeons were having considerable trouble in keeping the patient quiet in bed. He wanted to get on his feet again and insisted that he ought to be able to rejoin his command at the front in about a fortnight.

"The prince treats the wound as a trifle," said the Berlin dispatch. "He smilingly greeted an old palace servant whom he had known since childhood with the remark: 'Am I not a lucky dog?'"

From an officer who was with Prince Joachim when he was wounded the following description of the incident was obtained:

"It was during the hottest part of the battle, shortly before the Russian resistance was broken, that the prince, who was with the staff as information officer, was dispatched to the firing line to learn how the situation stood. He rode off with Adjutant Captain von Tahlzahn and had to traverse the distance, almost a mile, under a heavy hail of shell and occasional volleys.

"As the Russian artillery was well served and knew all the ranges from previous measurements, the ride was not a particularly pleasant one, but he came through safely and stood talking with the officers when a shrapnel burst in their vicinity. The prince and the adjutant were both hit, the latter receiving contusions on the leg, but the shot not penetrating.

"To stop and whip out an emergency bandage which the prince, like every officer and private, carries sewed inside the blouse, and bind it around the thigh to check the bleeding was the work of but a moment. It was a long and dangerous task, however, to get him back to the first bandaging station, about a mile to the rear, under fire and from there he was transported to the advanced hospital at Allenstein, where he remained until he was able to travel.

"Prince Joachim, who was already recommended for the Iron Cross for bravery before Namur, received the decoration shortly before he was wounded. The prince, who has many friends in America, conveyed through his adjutant his thanks for assurances of American sympathy and interest."

EX-EMPRESS DEVOTED TO FRANCE

The aged ex-Empress Eugenie of France, widow of Napoleon III, has been living for many years in retirement in the county of Hampshire, England. She was recently visited by Lord Portsmouth, an old friend, who found the illustrious lady full of courage and devotion to the French cause in the present war. In explaining her failure to treat her guest as she would have desired, the empress said:

"I cannot give you dinner because most of the men of my kitchen have gone to war."

A "BATTLESHIP ON WHEELS"

Just before the war France added to its equipment the most modern of fighting devices. It is a train of armored cars with rapid-fire guns, conning towers and fighting tops. As a death-dealing war apparatus it is the most unique of anything used by any of the nations. This "battleship" on wheels consists of an armored locomotive, two rapid-fire gun carriages and two armored cars for transporting troops. The rapid-fire guns are mounted in such manner that they can be swung and directed to any point of the compass. Rising from the car behind the locomotive, is a conning tower from which an officer takes observations and directs the fire of the rapid-fire guns. Rails running on top of the cars permit troops to fire from the roof of the cars. For opening railway communications this "battleship on wheels" is unexcelled.

GAVE HIM A FORK TO MATCH

The scene is a village on the outskirts of Muelhausen, in Alsace. A lieutenant of German scouts dashes up to the door of the only inn in the village, posts men at the doorway and entering, seats himself at a table.

He draws his saber and places it on the table at his side and orders food in menacing tones.

The village waiter is equal to the occasion. He goes to the stables and fetches a pitchfork and places it at the other side of the visitor.

"Stop! What does this mean?" roared the lieutenant, furiously.

"Why," said the waiter, innocently, pointing to the saber, "I thought that was your knife, so I brought you a fork to match."

DECORATED ON THE BATTLEFIELD

On a train loaded with wounded which passed through Limoges, September 11, was a young French officer, Albert Palaphy, whose unusual bravery on the field of battle won for him the Legion of Honor.

As a corporal of the Tenth Dragoons at the beginning of the war, Palaphy took part in the violent combat with the Germans west of Paris, In the thick of the battle the cavalryman, finding his colonel wounded and helpless, rushed to his aid.

Palaphy hoisted the injured man upon his shoulders, and under a rain of machine gun bullets carried him safely to the French lines. That same day Palaphy was promoted to be a sergeant.

Shortly afterward, although wounded, he distinguished himself in another affair, leading a charge of his squad against the Baden guard, whose standard he himself captured.

Wounded by a ball which had plowed through the lower part of his stomach and covered with lance thrusts, he was removed from the battlefield during the night, and learned he had been promoted to be a sublieutenant and nominated chevalier in the Legion of Honor.

This incident of decorating a soldier on the battlefield recalls Napoleonic times.

"AFTER YOU," SAID THE FRENCHMAN

Lieutenant de Lupel of the French army is said to have endeared himself to his command by a most unusual exhibition of what they are pleased to term "old-fashioned French gallantry."

Accompanied by a few men, Lieutenant de Lupel succeeded in surrounding a German detachment occupying the station at MeziÈres. The lieutenant, on searching the premises, came upon the German officer hiding behind a stack of coal. Both men leveled their guns, and for a moment faced each other.

"After you," finally said the Frenchman courteously.

The German fired and missed and Lieutenant de Lupel killed his man.

The French soldiers cheered their leader, and he has been praised everywhere for his action.

A "WALKING WOOD" AT CRECY

A correspondent describes a "walking wood" at Crecy. The French and British cut down trees and armed themselves with the branches. Line after line of infantry, each man bearing a branch, then moved forward unobserved toward the enemy.

Behind them, amid the lopped tree trunks, the artillerymen fixed themselves and placed thirteen-pounders to cover the moving wood.

The attack, which followed, won success. It almost went wrong, however, for the French cavalry, which was following, made a detour to pass the wood and dashed into view near the ammunition reserves of the Allies.

German shells began falling thereabouts, but British soldiers went up the hills and pulled the boxes of ammunition out of the way of the German shells. Ammunition and men came through unscathed. By evening the Germans had been cleared from the Marne district.

CHAPLAIN CAPTURES AUSTRIAN TROOPERS

The Bourse Gazette relates the story of a Russian regimental chaplain who, single-handed, captured twenty-six Austrian troopers. He was strolling on the steppes outside of Lemberg, when suddenly he was confronted by a patrol of twenty-six men, who tried to force him to tell the details of the position of the Russian troops.

While talking to the men, the priest found that they were all Slavs, whereupon he delivered an impassioned address, dwelling on the sin of shedding the blood of their Slav brethren.

At the end of the address, the story concludes, the troopers with bent heads followed the priest into the Russian camp.

A BRITISH CAVALRY CHARGE

Here is a picturesque story of a British cavalry charge at Thuin, a town in Belgium near Charleroi, and the subsequent retreat to CompiÈgne:

"On Monday morning, August 24, after chafing at the long delay, the 2nd British Cavalry Brigade let loose at the enemy's guns. The 9th Lancers went into action singing and shouting like schoolboys.

"For a time all seemed well; few saddles were emptied, and the leaders had charged almost within reach of the enemy's guns when suddenly the Germans opened a murderous fire from at least twenty concealed machine guns at a range of 150 yards.

"The result was shattering, and the Lancers caught the full force of the storm, Vicomte Vauvineux, a French cavalry officer who rode with the brigade as interpreter, was killed instantly. Captain Letourey, who was the French master of a school in Devon, was riding by the side of Vauvineux, and had a narrow escape, as his horse was shot from under him. Other officers also fell.

"While the bulk of the brigade swerved to the right the others held on and rode full tilt into wire entanglements buried in the grass thirty yards in front of the machine guns, and were made prisoners. Three regiments of the best cavalry in the British went into the charge, and suffered severely. The 18th Hussars and the 4th Dragoons also suffered, but not to the same extent as the others.

"A happy feature of the charge was the gallant conduct of Captain Grenfell, who, though twice wounded, called for volunteers and saved the guns. It is said that he has been recommended for the Victoria Cross.

"After this terrible ordeal the British brigade was harassed for fourteen days of retreat, the enemy giving them rest neither day nor night. At 2 o'clock each morning they were roused by artillery fire, and every day they fought a retiring action, pursued relentlessly by the guns.

"It was a wonderful retreat. Daily the cavalry begged to be allowed to go for the enemy in force to recover lost ground, but only once were they permitted to taste that joy, at the village of Lassigny, which they passed and repassed three times.

"The Germans made repeated efforts, which were always foiled, to capture the retreating transport. It had, however, many narrow escapes. At one point it escaped by a furious gallop which enabled the wagons to cross a bridge less than an hour ahead of the enemy. The engineers had mined the bridge and were waiting to blow it up. They sent a hurry-up call to the transport, and the latter responded with alacrity. The bridge was blown up just in time to separate the two forces. "At CompiÈgne the brigade for the first time saw and welcomed their French brothers-in-arms."

BOY SCOUT HERO OF THE WAR

One of the popular heroes of Belgium is Boy Scout Leysen, who has been decorated by King Albert for his valor and devotion to his country.

This young man, who was born at LiÈge, is described as of almost uncanny sharpness, with senses and perceptions as keen as an Indian. He was able to find his way through the woods and pass the German sentinels with unerring accuracy.

Leysen made his way through the German lines from Antwerp for the tenth time on Sunday, September 6, carrying dispatches to secret representatives of the Belgian government in Brussels. He discovered and denounced eleven German spies in Belgium, and performed a variety of other services, and all without impairing his boyish simplicity.

KAISER ASKS FOR PRAYERS

After the first three weeks of war, Emperor William requested the supreme council of the Evangelical Church throughout the German empire to include the following prayer in the liturgy at all public services during the war:

"Almighty and most merciful God, God of the armies, we beseech Thee in humility for Thy almighty aid for German Fatherland. Bless our forces of war; lead us to victory and give us grace that we may show ourselves to be Christians toward our enemies as well. Let us soon arrive at a peace which will everlastingly safeguard our free and independent Germany."

SPIRIT OF FRENCH WOMEN

When sympathy was expressed in Paris for a poor woman, mother of nine sons, eight of whom were at the front, she replied: "I need no consolation. I have never forgotten that I was flogged by Prussians in 1870. I have urged my sons to avenge me and they will."

As one train of soldiers for the front moved out of a Paris railway station two girls who had bravely kissed farewell to a departing man turned away, and one began to cry, but the other said: "Keep up a little longer, he can still see us." Another carried a baby, and as her husband leaned out of the window and the train started she threw it into his arms, crying: "Leave it with, the station master at the next station, and I will fetch it; you must have it for another few minutes."

A Paris painter, called for military duty, was obliged to leave his wife and four children almost destitute. When he communicated with his wife on the subject she replied: "Do your duty without worrying about us. The city, state and our associations will look after us women and children." In her letter, the wife enclosed a money order for $1 out of $1.20, the total amount of money which she possessed.

KILLS MANY WITH ARMORED CAR

Lieutenant Henkart, attached to the general staff of the Belgian Army, perfected a monitor armored motor car which was successfully used by the Belgians.

During the war the officer engaged in reconnoitering in one of his armored cars. He had several encounters with Uhlans, of whom he killed a considerable number, virtually single-handed. His only assistants in his scouting trips were a chauffeur, an engineer and a sharpshooter.

On one occasion the party killed five Uhlans. Two days later it killed seven and on another occasion near Waterloo, the auto ran into a force of 500 Germans and escaped after killing twenty-five with a rapid-fire gun, which was mounted on the motor car.

A GERMAN RUSE THAT FAILED

A Belgian diplomat in Paris related an incident he observed at Charleroi. He said:

"Twenty Death's Head Hussars entered the town at 7 o'clock in the morning and rode quickly down the street, saluting and calling out 'Good-day' to those they met, saying, 'We are friends of the people.'

"Mistaking them for English cavalrymen, the people cried 'Long live England!' The Belgian soldiers themselves were deceived until an officer at a window, realizing their mistake, ran to the street and gave the alarm. The Belgian soldiers rushed quickly to arms and opened fire on the fleeing Germans, of whom several were killed." DIED WRITING TO HIS

WIFE

Here is a story of a heroic death on the battlefield, told simply in a letter found in the cold hands of a French soldier who had just finished writing it when the end came. "I am awaiting help which does not come," the letter ran. "I pray God to take me, for I suffer atrociously. Adieu, my wife and dear children. Adieu, all my family, whom I so loved. I request that whoever finds me will send this letter to Paris to my wife, with the pocketbook which is in my coat pocket. Gathering my last strength I write this, lying prostrate under the shell fire. Both my legs are broken. My last thoughts are for my children and for thee, my cherished wife and companion of my life, my beloved wife. Vive la France!"

IN THE PARIS MILITARY HOSPITAL

A visitor to the military hospital within the intrenched camp of Paris, just outside the city walls, said on September 18:

"Men of all ranks are there, from the simple private to a general of division. There is no sign of discouragement or sadness on the pale faces, which light up with the thought of returning to battle.

"I saw hundreds of men lying on the beds in the wards with varieties of wounds, no two being identical. This Turco—or African soldier—suffered from a torn tongue, cut by a bullet, which traversed his cheek. Another had lost three fingers of his left hand. A bullet entered the temple of this infantryman and fell into his mouth, where by some curious reaction he swallowed it.

"Many of the patients are suffering from mere flesh wounds. One poor fellow whose eye was put out by a bullet said: "That's nothing. It is only my left eye and I aim with my right. I need the lives of just three Germans to pay for it."

SMOKE AS WOUNDS ARE TREATED

"The Turcos, though terrible hand-to-hand fighters, are hard to care for. They have great fear of pain and it is difficult to bandage their wounds. The doctors give them cigarettes, which they smoke with dignity as if performing a ritual.

"All the African soldiers were wrathful at a German officer lying in a neighboring room. They muttered in a sinister fashion, 'To-morrow!' and put two hands to the neck. I understood this to mean that they would strangle him to-morrow. Much vigilance is required to keep the officer out of their reach.

"One Turco killed two Prussians with his bayonet and two with the stock of the gun in a single fight. His body is covered with the scars of years of fighting in the service of France. When asked if he liked France he replied: 'France good country, good leaders, good doctors.' He seemed to mind his wound less than the lack of cigarettes."

SPIRIT OF BELGIAN SOLDIERS

Writing from Antwerp on September 1, William G. Shepherd, United Press staff correspondent, illustrated the spirit of the soldiery of Belgium by the following story:

"The little Belgian soldier who climbed into the compartment with me was dead tired; he trailed his rifle behind him, threw himself into the seat and fell sound asleep. He was ready to talk when he awoke an hour later.

"'Yes, I was up all night with German prisoners,' he said. 'It was a bad job, there were only sixteen of us to handle 200 Germans. We had four box cars and we put twenty-five prisoners in one end of the car and twenty-five in the other, and the four of us with rifles sat guard by the car door.

"'We rode five hours that way and I expected every minute that the whole fifty Germans in the car would jump on us four and kill us. Four to fifty; that's heavy odds. But we had to do it. You see there aren't enough soldiers in Belgium to do all the work, so we have to make out the best we can.'

"That's the plucky little Belgian soldier, all over.

"In the first place, he's different from most soldiers, because he is willing to fight when he knows he's going to lose.

"'We have to make out the best we can,' is his motto.

"In the second place, he's a common-sense little fellow. Even while he's fighting, he's doing it coolly, and there is no blind hatred in his heart that causes him to waste any effort. He gets down to the why and wherefore of things.

"'I really felt sorry for those German prisoners,' said a comrade of the first soldier. 'They were all decent fellows. They told me their officers had fooled them. They said the officers gave them French money on the German frontier and then yelled to them, "On into France!" They went on three days and got to LiÈge before they knew they were in Belgium instead of France.

"'We didn't want to hurt Belgium,' they told us, because we're from Alsace-Lorraine ourselves.'

"'You see,' continued the logical little Belgian, 'it wasn't their fault, so we couldn't be mad at them.'

"That is the Belgian idea—cool logic.

"'Why did you fight the Germans?' I asked a high government official.

"'Because civilization can't exist without treaties, and it is the duty that a nation owes to civilization to fight to the death when written treaties are broken,' was the reply.

"'It must be a rule among nations that to break a treaty means to fight. The Germans broke the neutrality treaty with Belgium and we had to fight.'

"'But did you expect to whip the Germans?'

"'How could we? We knew that hordes of Germans would follow the first comers, but we had no right to worry about who would be whipped; all we had to do was to fight, and we've done it the best we could.'

"It has been a cool-headed logical matter with the Belgians from the start. Treaties are made with ink; they're broken with blood, and just as naturally and coolly as the Belgian diplomats used ink in signing the treaties with Germany so the Belgian soldiers have used their blood in trying to maintain the agreements."

RIFLES USED BY NATIONS OF WAR

In the present war Germany uses a Mauser rifle, with a bullet of millimeters caliber, steel and copper coated. Great Britain's missile is the Lee-Enfield, caliber 7.7 mm., the coating being cupro-nickel.

The French weapon is the Lebel rifle, of 8 mm. caliber, with bullets coated with nickel. Russia uses Mossin-Nagant rifles, 7.62 mm., with bullets cupro-nickel coated. Austria's chief small arm is the Mannlicher, caliber 8 mm., with a steel sheet over the tip.

Hitting a man beyond 350 yards, the wounds inflicted by all these bullets are clean cut. They frequently pass through bone tissue without splintering.

When meeting an artery the bullet seems to push it to one side and goes around without cutting the blood channel.

Amputations are very rare compared with wars of more than fifty years ago. A bullet wound through a joint, such as the knee or the elbow, then necessitated the amputation of the limb. Now such a wound is easily opened and dressed.

Even Russia, which made a sad sanitary showing in the war with Japan, now has learned her lesson and has efficient surgical arrangements.

All the nations use vaccine to combat typhoid, the scourge which once decimated camps, and killed 1,600 in the Spanish-American war.

GERMAN UHLANS AS SCOUTS

Concerning the German Uhlans, of whom so much has been heard in the European war, Luigi Barzini, a widely known Italian war correspondent, said:

"The swarms of cavalry which the Germans send out ahead of their advance are to be found everywhere—on any highway, on any path. It is their business to see as much as possible. They show themselves everywhere and they ride until they are fired upon, keeping this up until they have located the enemy.

"Theirs is the task of riding into death. The entire front of the enemy is established by them, and many of them are killed—that is a certainty they face. Now and then, however, one of them manages to escape to bring the information himself, which otherwise is obtained by officers in their rear making observation.

"At every bush, every heap of earth, the Uhlan must say to himself: 'Here I will meet an enemy in hiding.' He knows that he cannot defend himself against a fire that may open on him from all sides. Everywhere there is danger for the Uhlan—hidden danger. "Nevertheless he keeps on riding, calmly and undisturbed, in keeping with German discipline."

FOUGHT WITHOUT SHOES

The Paris Matin relates that on the arrival of a train bringing wounded Senegalese riflemen nearly all were found smoking furiously from long porcelain pipes taken from the enemy and seemingly indifferent to their wounds. One gayly told of the daring capture of a machine gun by eighteen of his comrades. The gun, he said, was brought up by a detachment of German dragoons and the Senegalese bravely charged and captured everything.

Though their arms and bodies were hacked by sabers, the Senegalese complained of nothing but the obligation to fight with shoes on. Before going into battle at Charleroi they slyly rid themselves of these impediments and came back shod in German footwear to avoid punishment for losing equipment.

KILLED A GENERAL

The shot which resulted in the death of Prince von Buelow, one of the German generals, was fired by a Belgian private named Rosseau, who was decorated by King Albert for his conduct in the battle of Haelen.

Rosseau was lying badly wounded among his dead comrades when he saw a German officer standing beside his horse and studying a map. Picking up a rifle beside a dead German, Rosseau fired at this officer and wounded him. The officer proved to be Prince von Buelow. Exchanging his hat for the German general's helmet and taking the general's horse, Rosseau made his way to the Belgian lines and was placed in a hospital at Ghent.

HOW A GERMAN PRINCE DIED

The Hanover Courier gave the following account by an eyewitness of the death of Prince Frederick William of Lippe at Liege:

"On all sides our detachment was surrounded by Belgian troops, who were gradually closing in for purposes of exterminating us. At the prince's command we formed a circle eight deep, maintaining a stubborn defense. At length a strong division arrived to support us. The prince raised himself from a kneeling position and turned to the standard bearer, who lay prone beside him, covering the standard with his body.

"'Raise the standard,' commanded the prince, 'so that we may be recognized by our friends.'

"The standard bearer raised the flag, waving it to and fro. This action immediately brought upon the standard bearer and the prince a violent fusillade. The standard was shot away and at the same moment the prince was struck in the chest and expired instantly."

RAILWAY STATION A SHAMBLES

Mrs. Herman H. Harjes, wife of the Paris banker, who, with other American women, was deeply interested in relief work, visited the North railroad station at Paris on September 1 and was shocked by the sights she saw among the Belgian refugees.

"The station," said Mrs. Harjes, "presented the aspect of a shambles. It was the saddest sight I ever saw. It is impossible to believe the tortures and cruelties the poor unfortunates had undergone.

"I saw many boys with both their hands cut off so that it was impossible for them to carry guns. Everywhere was filth and utter desolation. The helpless little babies, lying on the cold, wet cement floor and crying for proper nourishment, were enough to bring hot tears to any mother's eyes.

"Mothers were vainly besieging the authorities, begging for milk or soup. A mother with twelve children said:

"What is to become of us? It seems impossible to suffer more. I saw my husband bound to a lamppost. He was gagged and being tortured by bayonets. When I tried to intercede in his behalf, I was knocked senseless with a rifle. I never saw him again.'"

BURIED ON THE FIELD

The bodies of the dead in this war were not, with occasional exceptions, returned to their relatives, but were buried on the field and where numbers required it, in common graves. Valuables, papers and mementoes were taken from the bodies and made up in little packets to be sent to the relatives, and the dead soldiers, each wrapped in his canvas shelter tent, as shroud, were laid, friend and foe, side by side in long trenches in the ground for which they had contested.

GERMAN LISTS OF THE DEAD

In the German official Gazette daily lists of the dead, wounded and missing were published. The names marched by in long columns of the Gazette, arrayed with military precision by regiments and companies, batteries or squadrons—first the infantry and then cavalry, artillery and train.

The company lists were headed usually by the names of the officers, killed or wounded; then came the casualties from the enlisted strength—first the dead, then the wounded and the missing. A feature of the early lists was the large proportion of this last class, reports from some units running monotonously, name after name, "missing" or "wounded and missing"—in mute testimony of scouting patrols which did not return, or of regiments compelled to retire and leave behind them dead, wounded and prisoners, or sometimes of men wandering so far from their comrades in the confusion of battle that they could not find and rejoin their companies for days.

THE LANCE AS A WEAPON

An attempt was made in lists of the German wounded to give the nature and location of the wound. These were principally from rifle or shrapnel fire. A scanty few in the cavalry were labeled "lance thrust," indicating that the favorite weapon of the European cavalry has not done the damage expected of it, although the lance came more into play in the later engagements between the Russian and German cavalry divisions.

"FATHERLAND OR DEATH!"

Writing from Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, on August 29th, Karl H. von Wiegand, who is considered by the Allies a German mouthpiece, said:

"America has not the faintest realization of the terrible carnage going on in Europe. She cannot realize the determination of Germany, all Germany—men, women and children—in this war. The German Empire is like one man. And that man's motto is 'Vaterland oder Tod!' (Fatherland or Death!)

"English news sources are reported here as telling of the masterly retreat of the allies. Here in the German field headquarters, where every move on the great chess-board of Belgium and France is analyzed, the war to date is referred to as the greatest offensive movement in the history of modern warfare."

GERMAN PLANS WELL LAID

The German offensive plans were well laid. No army that ever took the field was ever so mobile. Thousands of army autos have been in use. Each regiment had its supply. The highways were mapped in advance. There was not a crossroad that was not known. Even the trifling brooks had been located. Nothing had been left to chance and the advance guard was accompanied by enormous automobiles filled with corps of sappers who carried bridge and road building materials.

THE TERRIBLE KRUPP GUNS

How well the German plans worked was shown when Namur, which, it was boasted, would resist for months, fell in two days. The terrible work of the great Krupp weapons, whose existence had been kept secret, is hard to realize. One shot from one of these guns went through what was considered an impregnable wall of concrete and armored steel at Namur, exploded and killed 150 men.

And aside from the effectiveness of these terrible weapons, Belgian prisoners who were in the Namur forts declare their fire absolutely shattered the nerves of the defenders, whose guns had not sufficient range to reach them.

GERMANS DEFY DEATH

"It makes you sick to see the way that the Germans literally walk into the very mouth of the machine guns and cannon spouting short-fused shrapnel that mow down their lines and tear great gaps in them," said a Belgian major who was badly wounded. "Nothing seems to stop them. It is like an inhuman machine and it takes the very nerve out of you to watch it."

SPIRIT OF GERMAN WOMEN

"The women of Germany are facing the situation with heroic calmness," said Eleanor Painter, an American opera singer on landing in New York September 7th, direct from Berlin, where she had spent the last four years. "It is all for the Fatherland. The spirit of the people is wonderful. If the men are swept away in the maelstrom of war, the women will continue to fight. They are prepared now to do so.

"There are few tears in Berlin. Of course there is sorrow, deep sorrow. But the German women and the few men still left in the capital realize that the national life itself is at stake and accept the inevitable losses of a successful military occupation. There is a grim dignity everywhere. There are no false ideas as to the enormity of the struggle for existence. A great many Germans, in fact, realizing that it is nearly the whole world against Germany, do not believe that the Fatherland can survive. But they are determined that while there is a living German so long will Germany fight.

FATHER AND TEN SONS ENLIST

"A German father with his ten sons enlisted. General von Haessler, more than the allotted three-score years and ten, veteran of two wars, offered his sword. Boys who volunteered and who were not needed at the time wept when the recruiting officers sent them back home, telling them their time would come.

"The German women fight their own battles in keeping back tears and praying for the success of the German arms. Hundreds of titled women are at the front with the Red Cross, sacrificing everything to aid their country. Baroness von Ziegler and her daughter wrote from Wiesbaden that they were en route to the front and were ready to fight if need be.

"Even the stupendous losses which the army is incurring cannot dim the love of the Fatherland nor the desire of the Germans, as a whole nation, to fight on. I speak of vast losses. An officer with whom I talked while en route from Berlin to Rotterdam, told me of his own experience. He was one of 2,000 men on the eastern frontier. They saw a detachment of Russians ahead. The German forces went into battle singing and confident, although the Russian columns numbered 12,000. Of that German force of 2,000 just fifty survived. None surrendered."

FEARFUL STATE OF BATTLEFIELDS

Dead men and horses, heaped up by thousands, lay putrefying on the battlefields of the Aisne, Colonel Webb C. Hayes, U.S.A., son of former President Hayes, declared in Washington on Oct. 7, on his return from observing the war and its battlefields. He was the bearer of a personal message to President Wilson from the acting burgomaster of Louvain.

"When I left Havre on Sept. 27," he said, "the Allies were fearful that they would not be able to penetrate to the German line through the mass of putrefying men and horses on the battlefields, which unfortunately the combatants seem not to heed about burying. I don't see how they could pass through these fields. The stench was horrible, and the idea of climbing over the bodies must be revolting even to brave soldiers."

Col. Hayes had been on the firing line; he had visited the sacked city of Louvain as the guest of Germans in an armored car; he had been in Aix-la-Chapelle, at the German base, and had seen some of the fighting in the historic Aisne struggle.

"It is a sausage grinder," he declared.

"On one side are the Allies, apparently willing to sacrifice their last man in defense of France; on the other are the Germans, seemingly prodigal of their millions of men and money and throwing man after man into the war."

"What about the alleged atrocities in Belgium?" he was asked.

"Well, war is hell; that's about the only answer I can give you. The real tragic feature of the whole war is Belgium. Its people are wonderful folk—clean, decent, respectable. What this nation should do is to concentrate its efforts to aid the women and children of Belgium. Help for hospitals is not so much needed, but the fate of these people is really pathetic." Asked for a brief description of what he saw along the battle line, Col. Hayes declared:

"The battle front these days is far different from what it used to be. There are few men to be seen, and practically no guns. All are concealed. Shrapnel flies through the air and bursts. That is the scene most of the time. In the hand-to-hand fighting bayonets are used much by the French, while the Turcos use knives."

"Shall you go back?" Col. Hayes was asked.

"Does anyone wish to visit a slaughterhouse a second time?" he replied.

PRINCES WOUNDED BY THE FOE

Prince August William, the fourth son of Emperor William, was shot in the left arm during the battle of the Marne and Emperor William bestowed the Iron Cross of the first class on him.

Prince Eitel, the Kaiser's second son, was wounded during the battle of the Aisne. Up to October 7 four of Emperor William's sons had been placed temporarily hors de combat.

Prince George of Servia, while leading his battalion against the Austrians September 18, was hit by a ball which entered near the spinal column and came out at the right shoulder. The wound was said not to be dangerous.

HOW THE SCOTSMEN FOUGHT

At St. Quentin, France, the Highland infantrymen burst into the thick of the Germans, holding on to the stirrups of the Scots Greys as the horsemen galloped, and attacked hand to hand. The Germans were taken aback at the sudden and totally unexpected double irruption, and broke up before the Scottish onslaught, suffering severe losses alike from the swords of the cavalry and from the Highlanders' bayonets. The scene of this charge is depicted in one of our illustrations.

TWO TRAGIC INCIDENTS

During the Russian retreat through the Mazur lake district, in East Prussia, a Russian battery was surrounded on three sides by the enemy's quick firers. The infantry was on the other side of the lake, and the Russian ammunition was exhausted. In order to avoid capture, the commander ordered the battery to gallop over the declivity into the lake. His order was obeyed and he himself was among the drowned.

During an assault on the fortress of Ossowetz, a German column got into a bog. The Russians shelled the bog and the single road crossing it. The Germans, in trying to extricate themselves, sank deeper into the mire, and hundreds were killed or wounded. Of the whole column, about forty survived.

IN THE BRUSSELS HOSPITALS

A peculiar incident of the war is noted by a doctor writing in the New York American, who went through several of the great Brussels hospitals and noted the condition of the wounded Belgian soldiers. These soldiers carried on the defense of their country with a valor which the fighting men of any nation might admire and envy. The writer remarks:

"Two facts struck me very forcibly. The first was the very large number of Belgian soldiers wounded only in the legs, and, secondly, many of the soldiers seem to have collapsed through sheer exhaustion.

"In peace times one sees and hears little or nothing of extreme exhaustion, because in times of peace the almost superphysical is not demanded. War brings new conditions.

"These Belgian soldiers were at work and on the march during stupendous days, practically without a moment's respite. They went, literally, until they dropped. As a medical man, their condition interested me enormously.

"What force of will to fight and struggle until the last gasp! The exhaustion one sees often in heat strokes and in hot climates is commonplace, but this type of exhaustion is, by itself, the final triumph of brave spirits.

"The victims presented a very alarming appearance when first I met them. They seemed almost dead; limp, pale, and cold. Recovery usually is not protracted; in every case the men knocked out in this manner expressed a fervent desire to return at once to the ranks.

GERMAN WARNING TO FRENCH TOWNS

Following is the text of a proclamation published in French and posted in all towns occupied by the Germans:

"All the authorities and the municipality are informed that every peaceful inhabitant can follow his regular occupation in full security. Private property will be absolutely respected and provisions paid for.

"If the population dare under any form whatever to take part in hostilities the severest punishment will be inflicted on the refractory.

"The people must give up their arms. Every armed individual will be put to death. Whoever cuts telegraph wires, destroys railway bridges or roads or commits any act in detriment to the Germans will be shot.

"Towns and villages whose inhabitants take part in the combat or who fire upon us from ambush will be burned down and the guilty shot at once. The civil authorities will be held responsible.
(Signed) VON MOLTKE."

MOTORS IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY

The Russian army has always placed much dependence on its horses, having a vast number, but it has realized the importance of the motor vehicle in warfare and already it is much better equipped than other nations suppose. An illustration of the fact is the following, related by a Bed Cross man who accompanied the Russian forces into eastern Germany:

"I was walking beside one of our carts. We could hear heavy artillery fire as we went, when shouts from our people behind warned us to get off the road. We pulled onto the grass as there came thundering past, bumping from one rough place to another on the poor road and going at a sickening pace, a string of huge motor cars crowded with infantrymen. They looked like vehicles of the army establishment, all apparently alike in size and pattern and each carrying about thirty men.

"They were traveling like no motor wagon that I ever saw—certainly at not less than forty miles an hour. The procession seemed endless. I didn't count them, but there were not less than a hundred, and perhaps a good many more. That was General Rennenkampf reinforcing his threatened flank."

JENNIE DUFAU'S NARROW ESCAPE

Jennie Dufau, the American opera singer, had one of the most thrilling experiences told by a refugee from the war zone.

Miss Dufau was visiting in Saulxures, Province of Alsace, when the war started, and was in the hitherto peaceful valley of that region until August 24. She was with her sister, Elizabeth, and her two brothers, Paul and Daniel.

On August 6 the German artillery occupied the heights on one side of the valley, overlooking the town. On the 12th the Germans occupied the town itself. At that time there were but two French regiments near Saulxures.

The French, however, opened fire on the Germans, and Miss Dufau with her father and sister at once retreated to the cellar in an effort to escape the flying shells.

"Then began a tremendous artillery duel that lasted for days," she said. "All this time we were living in the cellar, where we were caring for ten wounded French officers. I often went out over the battlefield when the fire slackened and did what I could for the wounded and dying.

"My brothers Paul and Daniel were drafted into the German army. They had sworn an oath not to fire a shot at a Frenchman, and their greatest hope was that they would be captured and permitted to put on the French uniform.

"Between August 12 and 24 the artillery duel raged, and finally the opposing armies came to a hand-to-hand fight with the bayonet. First it was the Germans who occupied the town, then the French. The Germans finally came to our house and accused my sister, my father, and myself of being spies because they found a telephone there. The soldiers lined us up against the wall to shoot us, but we fell on our knees and begged them to spare the life of our father. They gave no heed till a German colonel came along and, after questioning us, ordered that we be set free."

VALLEY OF DEATH ON THE AISNE

A non-combatant who succeeded in getting close to the firing lines on the Aisne when the great battle had raged continuously for five weeks, wrote as follows on October 21st of the horrors he had witnessed:

"Between the lines of battle there is a narrow strip, varying from seventy yards to a quarter of a mile, which is a neutral valley of death. Neither side is able to cross that strip without being crumpled by fire against which no body of men can stand. The Germans have attempted to break through the British and French forces hundreds of times but have been compelled to withdraw, and always with severe losses.

"A number of small towns are distributed in this narrow strip, the most important being Craonne. The Germans and French have reoccupied it six times and each in turn has been driven out. The streets of Craonne are littered with the dead of both armies. The houses, nearly all of which have been demolished by exploding shells, are also full of bodies of men who crawled into them to get out of the withering fire and have there died. Many of these men died of sheer exhaustion and starvation while the battle raged day after day.

"Both armies have apparently abandoned the struggle to hold Craonne permanently, and it is now literally a city of the dead.

"It is a typical French village of ancient stone structures; the tiny houses all have, or had, gables and tiled roofs. These have mostly been broken by shell fire. Under the shelter of its buildings both the Germans and French have been able at times to rescue their wounded.

"This is more than can be said of the strip of death between the battle lines. There the wounded lie and the dead go unburied, while the opposing forces direct their merciless fire a few feet above the field of suffering and carnage. I did not know until I looked upon the horrors of Craonne that such conditions could exist in modern warfare.

"I thought that frequent truces would be negotiated to give the opposing armies an opportunity to collect their wounded and bury their dead. I had an idea that the Red Cross had made war less terrible. The world thinks so yet, perhaps, but the conditions along the Aisne do not justify that belief. If a man is wounded in that strip between the lines he never gets back alive unless he is within a short distance of his own lines or is protected from the enemy's fire by the lay of the land.

"This protracted and momentous battle, which raged day and night for so many weeks, became a continuous nightmare to the men engaged in it, every one of whom knew that upon its issue rested one of the great deciding factors of the war."

BRITISH AID FOR FRENCH WOUNDED

The following paragraphs from a letter received October 15th by the author from an English lady interested in the suffrage movement, give some idea of the spirit in which the people of England met the emergency; and also indicate the frightful conditions attending the care of the wounded in France:

"London, October 7, 1914.—The world is a quite different place from what it was in July—dear, peaceful July! It seems years ago that we lived in a time of peace. It all still seems a nightmare over England and one feels that the morning must come when one will wake up and find it has all been a hideous dream, and that peace is the reality. But the facts grow sadder every day, as one realizes the frightful slaughter and waste of young lives. * * *

"But now that we are in the midst of this horrible time, we can only stop all criticism of our Government, set our teeth, and try to help in every possible way. All suffrage work has stopped and all the hundred-and-one interests in societies of every kind are in abeyance as well. The offices of every kind of society are being used for refugees, Bed Cross work, unemployment work, and to meet other needs of the moment.

"Every day of our time is taken up with helping to equip 'hospital units,' private bodies of doctors and nurses with equipment, to go to France and help the French Red Cross work among the French wounded. The situation in France at present is more horrible than one can imagine. Our English soldiers have medical and surgical help enough with them for first aid. Then they are sent back to England, and here all our hospitals are ready and private houses everywhere have been given to the War Office for the wounded. But the battlefield is in France; many of the French doctors have been shot; the battle-line is 200 miles long, and the carnage is frightful.

"Last week we sent off one hospital unit, and a messenger came back from it yesterday to tell us awful facts—16,000 wounded in Limoges for one place, and equal numbers in several other little places south of Paris—just trains full of them—with so little ready for them in the way of doctors or nurses. One hears of doctors performing operations without chloroform, and the suffering of the poor fellows is awful."

COMPARATIVE WEALTH OF NATIONS AT WAR

The wealth of the principal belligerent nations, in terms of property, goods and appraisable resources of all kinds, is estimated as follows:

It is worth noting in this connection that the fourth liberty bond issue of six billions was oversubscribed to extent $866,416,300—almost an extra billion. There were over 21,000,000 individual subscribers.

The war bills of the United States between April 6, 1917, and October 31st, 1918, as officially reported at Washington November 2, 1918, amounted to twenty billions, five hundred and sixty-one million dollars ($20,561,000,000). Of this sum, seven billions and seventeen millions ($7,017,000,000) have been loaned to the allies and will be repaid.

Only a little more than one-fourth of the expense had up to the date of the report been raised by taxation. Most of the remainder had been raised by bond issues practically all of which were subscribed by our own people, so that the debt is owing not to foreign creditors, but to ourselves.

The same report shows that on November 1st, 1918, the treasury's working balance stood at one billion, eight hundred and forty-five millions, seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand dollars ($1,845,739,000) the largest sum ever available at any one time in the history of the nation—with continuing receipts of instalment payments on the fourth liberty loan coming in at the rate of two billions per month, and preparations for the fifth loan well under way.

FIGURES THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO COMPREHEND.

The direct cost of the war for all belligerent nations to May 1, 1918, was reported at about $175,000,000,000 by the Federal Reserve board bulletin, issued November 18. It was estimated that the cost would amount to nearly $200,000,000,000 before the end of the year.

For purely military and naval purposes, it appears that all belligerents had spent about $132,000,000,000 to May 1. The remainder represented interest on debt, and other indirect war expenses.

The mobilization and the first five months of the war in 1914 cost all belligerents about $10,000,000,000. In 1915 the expenses jumped to $26,000,000,000, in 1916 they increased to $38,000,000,000; and in they were estimated at $60,000,000,000. In 1918 expenses ran only a little above the rate of 1917.

The public debt of the principal entente allies is calculated at approximately $105,000,000,000, not counting the debt incurred since May 1918. The annual burden to all belligerents to pay interest and sinking fund allowances will be not less than $10,000,000,000, and probably much more.

Unofficial reports indicate that Germany's national debt, represented mainly by war bonds held within the empire, is now nearly $35,000,000,000 (almost two-fifths of the estimate national wealth of $80,000,000,000). Besides this, France claims a return of the indemnity, $20,000,000,000; $28,000,000,000 for pensions; and reparation of damages, $20,000,000,000; being $68,000,000,000 in all.

Whatever may be the weight of the final burden of reparation and restitution to be placed on Germany, the size of the task ahead of her may be illustrated by comparison of her national debt with that of the United States, Germany has 66,000,000 population and $80,000,000,000 of estimated wealth, to pay $35,000,000,000 of war debt already created.

The United States has 110,000,000 population and an estimated national wealth of $250,000,000,000, to pay nearly $18,000,000,000 war debt already created, or approximately $23,000,000,000 up to the end of May, 1919. This means that the per capita burden will be at least three times greater in Germany than in the United States.