THE EDGE OF A BATTLEFIELD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 177, 5 January 1915, Page 8

THE EDGE OF A BATTLEFIELD.

I stood on a station-g few miles outside Warsaw while th|' battle raged •which resulted in the! l Germans' great defeat. . 'i All around was the cieerful bustle of' the rear. Fields were.ijiit across by the '1 Russian trenches, of which' ! peeped the muzzles, ofjsguns. A transport train was „ camped near by, aijd - brown-coated soldiers, toe feeding the - horses or lay smoking strolled about * > munching turnips. i On the platform stoM two dejected ■■■v looking civilians guard. They were German cojbmsta who had been arrested as spies*,' Soldierg- elbowed their way along platform lead- • ing half a dozen German prisoners. ■ 11 Not far from the station a regiment • ' had formed into line,ind the colonel, ; i passing along the shouted, "Hail ] children," to which the* soldiers replied ' Hi with "We wish you heiytli, your honor." : ' The men, were jolly |lttle sunburnt, scraggy-bearded pcasjnits; who had - fought in East Prnssii'' They had been , in eight battles, and fiiey laughed and '■ joked as they waited, |, , Suddenly a band up the old 1 [Russian inarch, "Thunder "of victory, » [Resound*" G ailantlyi?. the brave iitle . • fellows shouldered arm's/ wheeled around rr" and marchod off with|a, awing into the firing lino.. Farther down the lijje an officer stop- ." pod us. In the warty field Bhells had 1 . - fallen an hour earlier-mnd four .men lay there dead. The gnM boomed in - a strange variety of int&ation—now with, a dull roar, now in ft 'gruff' staccato— ( and the upper n»tes Sethis grim chorus .* were the "whish" and'Bvail of the Bhrap- ■_ - - nel and the angry: (Sickly of the-,jna-»"i ehine guns. . ,'f' ' A chimney blazed, flumes of smoke *x arose. from a distantwhite villa, ahrap- ■ nel was exploding ovw a church. These were but. the cffeots,|.The batle itself v was something trem&dous, awe-insir- * iag .and invisible. j|,long column of :? infantry matched acjpss.. the fields, wounded soldiers limped along, railway or were broiight up in ambu- ' J lance carts. 1 j," "J

A peasant and his,;wife and children'' came up with scared foces.' One little - boy was screaming "Qfcfmans, Germans 1" ■■ and holding a bleeilMs hand. We sup ;■ rounded liira, and he. screamed the more, thinking we and all tp world Were tor- s rible Germans, for hegjd been woundedduring the fight by ittpjlnter of ehrap-.

A landowner frojj, Pruzskow; came hurrying up halt fleijumted. His house and library had been destroyed by ft shell, and lie and tin other residents of the villapo had b|en forced by the Germans to stan<J folf hours between the Bussian and Gernjati rifle fire. Onlv a miracle had sated; them. Pale - and trembling, the land omier hastened on to Warsaw. Two Coaacks'rode by with despatches, a motorcyclist rode reekr lessly over the ploughed fields. Twilight fell, and a marvellous peace brooded over the gro&t strife ahd sorrow of men. I talked to the wounded men, who were happily now resting in the warm shelter 'jil the ambulance train. With joy, told the story of their' fighting. , «f "Our right forced4be Germans back" snid one, "but the left. Then weffjnada a bayonet charge on their cenwe. They were on a hill, but when saw us coming they did not wait a\:secoi>d, but broke, and ran. So we got them outof tlieis positions, after all."? "A wonderful people these are," he added. "Shell yap -coming dowp, but they would come ot(i and pick up our wounded nad takf'fjiem into the cottages find cave for ffiom. And ilt night they would come into the trencheß with bread and water awl say, "Soldier'eat, soldier drink.'" k These wounded were full of cour-. age and never for "ft moment doubted that the Germans wuld be beaten. The confidence of tho Bflsaian soldier is in-

fectious, and I mr.rir talked with these rough cheerful creatures without having my conviction of ujtimate "victory immensely streii!;tliene<l .—(Harold Williams, in the Ohroniole).