The commercial., April 30, 1915, Image 7

About The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?

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PI
1ST PRUSSIA
BLACK WHITE TAN
Li
LAID IN WAST
Toll of Russian Invasion Goes Into
, Millions.
Koenigsberg, East Prussia, April
3.- Thousands .of persons homeless
'thousands of buildings burned to the
.ground and hundreds of thousands
i if not millions," of dollars worth of
damage done such is the toll of the
.Russian invasions of Bast Prussia,
which culminated recently in a raid
on the -little city of Memel In the
" northernmost corner of the provinc
Hard on tne neeis or, me most re
cent invaders an Associated Press
( correspondent toured Prussia,
that part of it which at one time
' or other had been held by the Rus
sians, and had an Opportunity to see
the effects of their forward march
and of their retreat as they were
- driven back into their own country.
From the German-Russian border
which is fifteen miles to the north
ward of Memel, to. Blalla, which is
far to the south, and for miles in
.... ward from the curving boundary
' line there now lies in place of a one
time prosperous agricultural section
an almost desolate waste, punctu
ated here and there with half-ruined
communities.
Less than seventy-two hours after
' the Russianshad wrecked the town
of Memel! only to leave it and 171
of their number dead when Ger
man ' re-enforcements arrived, the
- Associated Press correspondent
reached the Isolated community to
find it a veritable City of Fear, only
partly heartened by the presence of
stron&r military forces.
Along every road within miles of
. Memel were hundreds of wagons full
of fugitives, hurrying with what
they had been able to save from
their homes before the invaders
crushing into the large centers of
' population to the south and the
westward. Their numbers were ad
ded to the thousands who earlier
had fled in similar fashion and are
. now quartered all over Germany,
until the time may be ripe for them
to go back to the ruins of their
homes.
300,000 FUGITIVES.-
Along a line of .150 miles as the
'. crow flies, .and for a distance vary
ing from five to fifty miles inward
from the Russian border, there now
: remains only a succession of ruins
After painstaking efforts the Prus
elan authorities have been able to
estimate the number of fugitives
driven out about 300,000, the num
ber of horses taken at 100,000, the
number of cattle at 150,000. The
extent of the pYyjerty damage, how
ever, it is as yet impossible even to
guess. That it will run into the
millions is altogether likely.
These same authorities . appear to
bave proceeded with conservatism
Wild tales of atrocites, which can
be heard on every hand, have been
discounted from first to last and in
many cases have been proved to be
the products of excited imagination,
Careful Investigation, nevertheless,
has established beyond much doubt,
according to German statements,
that thousands women and chil
dren have been carried off to Russia,
and that in addition to the maraud
ing that is patent to the casual
glance, civilians have been killed
and outraged.
UNLIKE BELGIUM.
Bleak Eastern East Prussia to
day presents, not the appearance of
Belgium, with its , shell-ruined
towns, but a succession of devas
tated towns, all but devoid of in
habitants. The extent of the dam
age varies only in degree from
Schirwindt, the City of the Dead, to
Memel, the City of Fear.
The tour of East Prussia began at
Ineterburg, which has felt the Rus
sian invasion virtually not at all,
and extended to Gumbinnen, which
is ringed about with battlefields
where in the fall the Russian inva
sion was combatted desperately. The
town has suffered, but negligibly In
comparison with those nearer the
.harder.
--"Through a waste of the partly-
ruined villages the way led to Tilsit,
one held by the Russians under
Grand Duke Nicholas, the Russian
commander-in-chief. Even the most
bitter anti-Russian, however, admits
that the troops which first came
were soldiers, not marauders, and
behaved themselves.
The invasion of Memel had in a
measure east its shadow before, un
til even in Tilsit the effects were
felt. Hundreds of wagons poured
into the city. The occupants had
not the slightest idea of their ulti
mate destination. They trayeled
blindly, actuated by a terrible fear
of the Russians and the one desire
to save themselves.
Though nominally a city, Memel
really Is a large town, with the one
main street common to towns every-
1 ' I SIS
1 g -mm 1 mi ii '. 1
T MU
Whether the Shoes be Black, White or Tan 2 in 1 Gives
the Shine that Won't Come Off on the Clothes 'Brilliant
Lasting. The "Easy-Opening" Box, 10c.
THB F. F. OALLEY CO., LTD.. BUFFALO, N. YH HAMILTON, CAN.
tmjmSaacjMRssmz. rggf- mmyitmi&Mtimi.
where. That street bore the traces
of Russian invasion, for every store
window was smashed in.
c MEMEL IN PANIC. "
f In the place of the 600 landsturm
that formerly had guarded the place
and the whole region surrounding
it there were thousands of regular
troops. The two hotels were full of
officers and the streets swarmed with
both soldiers and sailors, for in the
harbor lay cruisers and torpedo
boats -that had been sent hastily to
Memel to bombard the Russians as
they retreated.
A whole army corps, however,
would not have served to calm the
town completely. Its inhabitants
had suddenly been awakened to
what the war really meant. Its
Mayor lay in the hospital, deeper-1
ately ill from a bayonet wound. Be
tween 500 and. 600 of the popula
of theclty and the environs had been
carried off by the retreating forces.
Shops were wrecked and pillaged.
The scenes of destruction on the
way to Memel had seemed bad
enough, but they could not be placed
in the same category with conditions
to the north and east of the city.
The Russians had moved in two col
umns, driving the landsturm troops
before them, and little was left behind.
The way led due north to Nim-
mersau, almost on the Baltic and on
ly a few hundred yards from the
German-Russian border, over which
the Russians had poured a few days
before. The force had included, ac
cording to all . accounts, 500 Cos
sacks, followed by civilians who
completed the work of wreckage.
REFUGEES CHOKE TILSIT.
Half a hundred Russian prisoners
concluded the work of burying
their 171 dead fellows when the As
sociated Press correspondent left
Memel. The route led back to Til
sit, still choked with refugees. Ever
and again there would appear long
wagon trains of ammunition and
supplies, bound for some point along
the long fighting line, and once In
a while batteries of artillery plow
ing through the deep mud.
A noncommissioned artillery of
ficer, plodding along toward the
hospital in Tilsit, asked permission
to ride, and told the tale of the
previous day's battle. His company,
called in an emergency to act as in
fantry and help defend a position
near the border, had been badly
broken up by what he described as
a villainous machine gun fire.
"These Russians certainly can
shoot," he declared. "I've put in
a good many years as an artillery
man and don't mind artillery fire
Neither is infantry fire disconcert
ing. But deliver me from the ma
chine guns. It's awful. Out of
eighty-six , of us they killed six
with bullets from a flank fire
Lime $1.00 Per Barrel
Whitewash while spring cleaning
JUST ARRIVED:
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Have Car Lehigh Cement
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Telephone 28-w
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ransford & Sons
UNION CITY, TENN.
T. I. B
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ELVIN COAL CO.
Telephone No. 11.
right thru the 'temple apd severly
wounded a lot more. But we held
that position."
The rain turned to blinding snow
through which the automobile slip
ped and slithered on its way from
Tilsit to Pilkallen. Pilkallen used
to bear a very lively reputation be
cause of its rum shops, but all that
is left of them now is wrecked in
teriors and smashed glass. A few
of the thousands who formerly lived
in the place are still there, wander
ing about aimlessly, waiting for time
when the war will be over and form
er activities restored.
DESTROYED BIT BY BIT.
In all the city there is not atrace
of gun lire or of damage by shelling.
The Russians, so the inhabitants
tell, came in, occupied the place for
a while, destroyed it bit by bit and
then set fire to it when the Germans,
who drove them out, approached. In
all of East Prussia it has only one
parallel Goldap. Its gaping, fire-
singed walls, its handful of inhabi
tants, its mocking signs indicating
former prosperity, tell the story of
destruction more strlckingly even
than deserted villages and Isolated
buildings from which the owners
have fled. The very presence of a
few people serves .to enhance the
spectacle of desolation.
Yet even Pilkallen, twice the
stronghold of the Russians since the
beginning of the war, did not im
press one as the city nearest to it
Schirwindt, directly on the Russian
border, appropriately named the
"City of the Dead" by an otherwise
unemotional German lieutenant.
The approach to Schirwindt leads
along a broad, tree-lined boulevard.
For miles one can see the tall, two
spired church that stands as an out
post for the city. Here almost for the
first time were indications of a bom
bardment, for both the towers had
been riddled by shells from big guns,
and the roof in half a dozen places!
is gaping.
Schirwindt's only living "inhabi
tants" are flocks of carrion crows
that were devouring the carcasses of
the horses killed in the battles there.
The birds rose in black clouds as the
automobile approached and circled
overhead until it was gone.
In all Schirwindt there remains
only one object that has not been
partly or entirely destroyed a little
public fountain surmounted by a
bronze figure, sheltered by Che
church. The last inhabitant has
fled, for none of the houses is habi
table.
Months ago the pews in the
church were ripped away to make
room for horse stalls, and over all
the dust is thick. Empty cartridge
shells litter the floor both of the
church and of the houses that were
used for defensive purposes. At the
entrance of the house of worship
there stares out the ironical sign,
ornamented with a soldier's riddled
helmet, bearing the words: "Peace
be with you."
At the boundary line between Gra-
ewo and Lyck, the Russian destruc
tion had begun with a nice exacti
tude at the frontier, but on the line
between Schtschutachin and Bialla
the Russians were less careful,
for about half a mile from the dis
tinguishing posts the burning and
wrecking set in, then stopped as the
mistake had been recognized and
then began at the first house on the
German side.
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Tea Spoons
75c per set
Twenty-Six Piece
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Other Spoons as
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Look into our show
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BRANSF0RD
ft
ANDREWS
Sclf-Seeking.
"What became of that politician?"
He was always self-seeking.
"That may bave been what the voters
had io mind when they told him to go
chase himself. "
Keep your lawn smooth and vel
vety this summer with one of those
good lawn mowers yon will find at
WEHMAN'S.
Not Worth Reading.
The matinee idol's mash letters
He languidly puts on the shelf.
Tis whispered by one of his betters
Most of them are sent by himself.
The Situation.
"It is claimed that New York is not
always hospitable to the stranger with
in her gates. " i
"That only applies," stated the New
Yorker calmly and judiciously, "to
those within the gates but without the
coin," '
BUY YOUR
Wall Paper
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FROM
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look Store
We can save you money
Crimes of Mohammedans.
Dilman, Persia, April 24 (via Pe
trograd to London, April 26, 3:10
a. m.) The exodus of from 20,000
to 30,000 Armenians and Nestorian
Christians from Azerbaijan prov
ince, the massacre of over 1,500 of
those who were unable to flee, the
death from disease of 2,000 in the
compounds of the American mission
in Urumiah and possibly of an equal
number of refugees in the Caucasus
have been confirmed.
When it became known the night
of January 1-2 that the Russian
forces had left Urumiah about 10,
000 Christians fled, most of them
without money, bedding or provis
ions. A majority of the people started
out afoot, through mud knee deep,
across the mountain passes in freez
ing weather. At Dilman they were
Joined by many more for Salmas
Plain. But for Father de Cross, of
the Roman Catholic mission at Hos
rova, near here, the disaster might
have become historic. After assur
ing the safety of the sisters of the
mission, Father de Cross joined the
pilgrims and managed to secure
bread and shelter for many of them.
The caravansaries were so crowded
that thousands slept in the mud and
snoW. Children were. born on the
roadside or in the corner of a cara
vansary. THREW CHILDREN IN RIVER.
Arriving at Julfa, on the Russian
border, passport difficulties added to
the troubles of the fleeing people.
Maddened women threw their chil
dren into the Araxes River or into
pools in order to end their sufferings
from cold and hunger.
Father de Cross had to put his
back against a wall to fight off the
famished mob when he began dis
tributing bread. The mud and cold
and the shelterless nights, during
which the garments of the refugees
were frozen knee high, continued
for three weeks, until the people
were slowly dispersed by rail.
LOUISVILLE MAN REFUGEE.
Isaac Yonan, a graduate of the
Louisville, Ky., Theological Semi
nary, was among the refugees. He
kept a diary of the happenings dur
ing the exodus. This relates that
among the refugees from Urumiah
was an old man and his two daughters-in-law
with their six young
children, three of them babes in
arms. After his eight days on the
way, averaging twenty miles daily -through
the mud, the old man be
came stuck in a pool, and at his own
request was left there to die. One
woman gave birth to a child during
the march, and an hour afterward
was again plodding along with the
other refugees.
Two of the children were lost in
a caravansary, hut were taken up by
Cossacks along with forty other per
sons. The soldiers displayed great
humanity, often giving up their
horses to the women.
One young woman carried her
father for five days, when he died.
John Mooshie, a graduate of Col
gate University, an editor of the
Urumiah Star, related a tale of the
pandemonium when 200 vehicles be
came stalled in a pass and which
continued until Russian soldiers
straightened out the tangle.
In a single day twenty persona "
died in the railway station at Nak
hitchevan, across the border in Rus
sia. The entire casualties aggre
gated hundreds. People died unheed
ed and unmourned; in fact, those:
who died seemed to be envied by the
living.
Creating a Demand. v
"Doing any good?"
"Purty fair with a roach destroyer,"
"Many people got roaches?"
"All got some when I call. I let
loose a few in the vestibule before I
ring the bell." '
Bad breath, bitter taste, dizziness and
a general "no account" feeling is a sure .
sign of a torpid liver. HERBINE is
the medicine needed. It makes the
liver active, vitalizes the blood, regu
lates the bowels and restores a fine feel
ing of energy and cheerfulness. Price
50c Bold by Oliver's Red Cross Drug
Store. Adv. '