THINGS THAT HAPPEN
THE TRENCHES.
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JANUARY 12TH, 1915.
IN ho escaped, and if still alive is still think
BY ONE WHO HAS BEEN THERE.
The following article on happenings in the trenches will give some idea of how the British Tommy occupies himself when face to face with the Teuton:-
SECRET OF RUSSIAN VICTORIES.
NOT ACCORDING TO RULE.
AN AUSTRIAN GENERAL'S TRIBUTE
Galician "campaign.
THE ENGINEER.
A MACHINERY WAR.
INTIMATIONS
LANE,
CRAWFORD & Co.
STOCKTAKING SALE
FOR TWO WEEKS ONLY.
ing that it was hihiracle.But when the: English officer in the trench nearest to the river asked his men whether they were
PERSONALITY ADDED. such poor marksmen that they could not.
Whatever it may be to the world at hit a mark as easy as that, they answered "We could, but we
large, it must be evident enough to the him as one man':
The Morning Post's Petrograd corres profession that modern war is mainly a woniin't, six. That plucky fellow deserved to get back to bis thirsty pals with the water, But we let him have it about his pondont writes on November 3rd-A matter of engineering science, War, such People at home do not know much about ears just to warn him not to get thirsty well-known Russian Admiral on active as the tremendous conflict in which the whant life in the trenches is really like. Most too often." And the officer smiled and rvice who was some time ago summuned vast armies on the Continent of Europe are now engaged, is no longer the result. of them imagine it a "lark" or a picnic, was in full accord with his mengingati
When night falls, those whose turn it is to the headquarters of the Grand Duke of hate or anger or passion on the part of but I can tell them it is anything but that I will try to describe how my comrades knock off for sleep. They sleep where they Nicholas, met an Austrian general there the actual belligerents. The days are past of excitement and animesity, fought face and I lived it for ten days and nights on are, spread their coats on the earth if they who had recently been taken prisoner. when he combatants, under the influence
After, having have brought their coats with them, and the bank of the Aisne. marched the whole day and most of the if they have not they lie down as they are He slates that the Austrian, whom he had to face at close quarters, and when battles previous night we finally make a halt in the in the dirty and wet dilch. And some met under very different circumstances in were von by virtue of superior forces or flark, eagerly longing for our well-deserved times sleep cours, but often their nerves former years, was extremely anxious to by the strength of the right arm Kings supper and still more well-deserved rest are strung to such a pitch that sleep is exculpate his chiefs for the disastrous and patentates and politicians have their
And,
ains and designs; but the soldiers, often and sleep. But immediately after halting impossible. The others watch.
believe ma or not, a night there on the We do not claim," he said, to have with no knowledge whatever of the dis- The bank of the Aisis is one of the grandest studie the science of war all our lives, putes which led to the hostilities, fight shout goes up: "No grab i plics have been captured by the Germans
Dthe Germans! we say, and with sights I have ever seen. Imagine a deep or to have read all the history and liter- merely because it is their trade. They are empty stomachs wo prepare for rest. But blue sky dotted with myriads of stars. ture of wars in all ages, but you Russians not actuated by bitterness and indigna- empty stomachs wo fled ourselves in our Below float the quiet waters of the river, now nothing of the rules of anis by nion, as likely as it in the bree pule COMMENCING FRIDAY, JANUARY 15TH. overcoats than the order cones: "Trenches a broad velvet band, bluish green with science. We know you could only bo not see the enemy, the triggers are pulled to be dug immediately and to be finished sudden streaks of silver, and on both sides ready the fourteenth day after mobiliza and the guns are served by those who are before dawn? Now the digging of such dark green slopes with trees in the back. tion, and we should have beaten you, but pawns in the game: theirs but to do as And that background is lined you were at us the ninth day That is ordered and die if needs to as a matter of business The German soldiers in trenches is no small work. Each trenoh ground.
Then every military expert knows that Helgium fhought for a time that they were is about two yards broad and five feet six with puffs of smoke, little white balloons not in the rules. incles deep and from half a mile to a fringing the border, all the way. And ms in length. One side is perpendicular suddenly a light blazes aut, sharp, the limits of humun endurance forbid the fighting France, and when they knew that covering of raore than sixteen or eighteen they were Belgians it made no difference, and the other slants upwards.to give casy yellowish-white light which lifts every miles a day, but your men did thirty an they had no quarrel with one or the othur. even forty How could we know that? And then they struck across the British. access to the rear, or sometimes to the thing into a fantastic day so that you can
By all the rules of front, as the case may be. When the trench so the little blue blades of grass, moving. How did you do it? slanis frontwards it is to enable the boys But with the same suddenness all again war we ought to have beaten you, the What were they doing there? They had the inore easily to get at the enemy with sinks into night. It was a shell exploding. blame is yours, not ours. You may have been led to believe that the British were but by all the rules we have not cowards and would never fight. When the bayonet. a thing that the Tommy loves And if it were not for the hideous noise wo
they were taken prisoners they were quito He shudders of the shells one could not wish for a but the German fears.
The splendid compliment conveyed in ready to be captured, and were immedi- amicable terms with their before the steel, us a Tommy said, and he grander scene. But in spite of the horrors
of dirt and disease and death I hope soon this bantering tone by the capture lately on had occasion to know.
to be again in the trench among my pals general to his old friend reveals the secret captors. Why not? There was no per There is only sonal quarrel to make war intelligible. There is life for me there, although death of all Russian successes.
one rule in war--beat the enemy. All In fact, war as a logical and rational. may lie in waiting.
the rest is an art which creates its own business has disappeared. But behind the rules and neither the Germans nor the soldiery is the real organisation by means Austrians are artists in war; but ar of which modern battles are fought, it merely pedants, useful as teachers pez is a war of engineers and machinery, and we come back to what was the original haps, like sign-posts which show, the way hut never get there. That is Russian meaning of the word engineer, which was opinion from the Commander-in-Chief applied only to persons in the military Nitrogen is the most vital element in Staff down to the Reservist after his first profession. In a civil sense it was not the constitution of the world. In peace battle, and runaway boys who scout for used till as late as the 18th century, when time it decides the issues of life, in war the regim at and bring water to the belp-stout John Smeaton, of Eddystone light- time the destiny of nations. In practic less wounded when the fight is over house fauno, dubbed himself a civil engineer
Some Russian friends of mice have re ally all the food we eat there lurks nitrogen, and of every explosive, from ceived extremely interesting lotters from to denote that he was a civil practioner men. The engineer had previously been gunpowder to tri-nitro-toluene, nitrogen a Russian civilian official who happened and was not in collusion with military is a component. In the free state it to be in Warsaw when the fight took place is a listless, colourless gas. four-fiflbs
There is neither time to cover the botton or the sides of the trench or any material at hand to do it with. You just jump down into the raw earth and there you stand up and fire if you get the chance, and thore you sleep and there you eat. But very soon the trench gets wet from moisture in the soil and the rain, and then the water soaks the bottom of the treach and you sometimes stand ankle-deep in it. In these comfortable apartments you stay day and right and night and day, is from your energency Your grub" rations tinned beef and biscuits and the water that you are able to get hold of The beef is all right when it is tinued. But very often the tin is pricked when you come to use it by accidentally having been hit against something hard, such as the actal fittings of a wagon or a spar or a bayonet, or by having been actually struck by a piece of an exploded shell, beef is green and filthy and perhaps able to walk by itself." But it goes down just the same, for your hunger has to be stilled in some way or other.
ARBITER: OF DESTINY. FACTS ABOUT NITROGEN AND ITS
USE IN WAR
WE HAVE MADE LARGER REDUCTIONS THAN IS DUR USUAL CUSTOM FOR THIS SALE TO ENSURE À SPEEDY CLEARANCE.
LADIES DEPT.
SPECIAL
REDUCTIONS
GENUINE
BARGAINS
IN
GENTLEMEN'S
IN
HATS COSTUMES
SKIRTS, COATS. GLOVES AND HOSIERY.
OVERCOATS, SHIRTS
UNDERWEAR, WAISTCOATS BOOTS AND SHOES.
one concerned with engines of war For LANE, CRAWFORD & It forms and had the good luck to view the scene
our atmosphere, and through a field-glass from a high bridge is sport," said Shakespeary, to have towards the remaining fifth oxygen, it spanning the Vistula. I await permis the engineer hoist with his own petard"; performs the same function as doss the sion to use these letters, but I may say and again,Then there's Achilles a rare In this state its that he states that the Germans approach-engineer" undermining the walls of Troy. water to the whisky,
Twenty powers. These become patent only when saw before being flung badk it is mated to some other element or four hours later they were twenty-six pf elements. Then its miles away, which is good marching over collocation capabilities for good or evil get their Pelish roads in autumn under the cir-
cumstances chance of full development.
A DARING ESCAPADE
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was a person directing war engines and woupons for destructive purposes, and designing and constructing forts and fortifications and siege works for purposes of defence. It is in this sense that in the There are several stories connected with
present war the engineer is again so The ultimate source of nitrogen is the
prominently in the front rank of import- PORTABLE "grubbing" which show what a fine fellow
Here is a story told by an Esthonian ance The fighting of to-day is chiefly a our Tommy is. An officer's tin had been ccean of air at the bottom of which wo pricked, but of course he said nothing live, its proximate source the food we above some mild oaths all by himself and eat, and between the ultimate and proxi- in a letter to his brother:
mate sources occur. its fixation and Seven of us went out one dark night question of machinery and mechanics. sat down on his coat to munch the green elaboration. The soil is the fixing to spy the enemy's position, especially his Goneralship is no doubt required on the factory, the plants and animals the guns. Their sentries move clumsily, and part of the leaders, staunchness and elaborating centres. The fixing is largely we got there all right, but stayed too long. courage on the part of the rank and file, Simplicity, Compactness, Durability, Portability. Weight 10 Ite, in leather travelling case 21 The possess the power of grafting on hydrogen brutes took our money, but the way they quick-firing small guna, the heavy the work of minute bacteria, which We were surrounded and captured. The but more often than not it is engineering and oxygen to the nitrogen. These snatched our bisenit and chocolate ani simplest of nitrogen products pass into wolfed it down on the spet told a tale, the plant by way of rootlet, stem, and leaf- They took our bools off us, too, and then veins to the elaborating chambers of the began torturing us by forming our fingers leaves. There the minute particles of backwards to make us tell them what thes leaf-green, urged to action by the vibrant asked. Some mysterious note interrupt energy which eternally pulsates outwards there one could make out what-but from the sun across the ninety-three they went to work again million miles of the universal ether, forge the simple nitrated units to form the proteids which will replace muscle, sinew, or brain substance.
stuff which onco had been beef. suddenly a private stood in front of him with his red and fresh tin in his hand and held it out and said: "Let me have yours, sir, and you take mine; it makes little difference to me, I am used to it." Of course the officer refused and sent the man back to his place, but he forgot neither the man nor bis offer. T
The trench being entirely uncovered is open to sun and rain and storm and shells. A favoring of boards and earth and grass
When the noise was treated one of would be very nice against rainstorms, but nothing can protect you from the shells
our fellows sprang up yelling Cossacks, You should have seen the way except perhaps a concreto roof a couple of
Cossacke the brutes scattered. We belted and ran yards thick at least. For when a shell
But Nature's processes are slow, man's two miles bare-foot, mostly in the woods, Barats on the ground it digs a hole in the earth three yards deep. We in the necessities are insistent. He needs dyes, te our own lines. They pursued, but we trenches consider the "life danger radius" synthetic medicines, perfumes, poisons, had the start, and they only got one of he bas to fix the us, whom they shot dead, the rest of us of the shell to be about fifteen yards, but and explosives, there is nothing to prevent you from being nitrogen for himself. He has long known being untouched I don't know now killed by s shell bursting more than a that the lightning flash will forge nitro what that noise was, but it sated us, and hundred yaris away from you. Once agen to oxygen, and he has harnessed the we had all the information we wante shell exploded just on the surface of the lightning to drive his trams and cook his We beat them handsomely next day. Aisne and it threw up a spout big enough heads, so he bends it further to his will have been in seven big fights and am still to drench every man in our trench, which make oxides of nitrogen which will untouched. lay about two hundred yards away from yield the nitrogen acids. With these in the bank. One can imagine the size of the hand he can proceed along whatever road he pleases, whether he has need for food, spout. I was a magnificent sight and we give us some wished the Germans would
But un more "water-pantomimes.'
THE RUSSIAN COMMISSARIAT.
:I
kill that decides the battle.
Tho rilles,
canon and howitzers, and the means of transporting guns of immense weight by steam lorries all mean engineering. The splendid mobility of the German army 13. a triumph of engineering, the railroads, armoured cars, the motor cycles, the steam the armoured trains, the cars and the transports for artillery and ammunition and commissariat aro all engineering. Whether forts can stand attack, or whether they can readily be reduced brings into prominence the superior or inferior, skill of the opposing engineers. The fort of Namur was believed to be capable of pre- longed resistance, but it was chattered in twenty-four hours by Krapy's heavy howitzers, and it is said that Krupp's skilled mechanics, fred every shot. The on hoth sides for purposes of reconnais are different. aircraft, which have proved so invaluable have ance, for detecting the positions of the troops and for directing the artillery fire, are engineering manufactures. Indeed, so essential a part on land
The Russian has always been known for for medicine, for gunpowder, or for the hardiest fighting animal on record the present, war has been described as a
With it he can extract his even under the worst possible conditions."petrol war, dynamite.
make respect under the best possible conditions. naval warfare is still more an engineer fortunately they gave us something else. Bold, and test it, when extracted, he can / This war is being waged in one important and in the air has petrol played. And
perfume his handkerchiefs ar Their seroplanes had a very unpleasant fortresses untenable, he can enrich the namely, as regards food. During forced ing question. It is no longer a test of
Wheat marches the Russian does the best he can
scientific labora- habit of finding out just where our soil, or make tri-nitro-toluene. trenches lay and signalling the position is the prime necessity of the world, and on black bread, rusks, and tea, with courage and seamanship, but of science, But other, tory. A modern battleship is nothing with puffs of smoke, and then the shells for a good wheat crop manure is essential, plenty of sugar, and plain chocolate, all A dreadnought is a began to drop down on us, sometimes into it is the food of tho wheat plant, and of which he carries on him.
that food is neither more or less than wise he has been exceptionally well fed but an engine of destruction designed by the very treach itself.
Now there you stay in the trench with "fixed" nitrogen; in fact, the value of getting a meat allowance, which is not engineers: The great guns and the means the shells bursting and mangling and kill manure is in direct proportion to its habitual diet with the majority of the by which they are brought into use, the That is Russian peasantry, the ration being con submarines, the torpedoes, the destroyeri, siderably over what is given in other and the mines are engineering manufac ing around you, and you can do nothing. yield of "fixed" nitrogen,
Then he bas whole tures. It is, in fact, a machinery war; and If you show as much as your little finger nitrogen in its beneficent guise.
There is another side to this restless European armies. above the edge of the trench a valley of
Now tasty Russian black bread which bas such war machine and organisation are most bullets is immediately fired at that finger. element. The foundation of most modern some cabbage soups and plenty of that as long as wars continue the nation whose properties. The effcient will ceteris paribus stand the best We amused ourselves by sticking a cap on high explosives is nitro-glycerine. a rifle barrel and popping it up above the glycerine is absolutely curatical in the invaluable feeding edge of the trench like a man peering out, excellence if its properties, though its peasantry in all the provinces behind the chances of success. It is no more a ques just to see how many volleys the Germans composition reveals that it is an alcohol. Russian fighting lines are baking breadtion of hand-to-hand conflict, but a combat would fire before they found out that if Even the ingenuity of man has found no for the armies, being paid for the word of science in which the skill of the enginer was only an empty cap. And offer when bad use for it; it helps to make hides into done and having in addition the over to give the word its old spelling-will
leather,
lubricates our watches, and pre-weight which is the baker's profit.
GOLD AND SILVER.
AGAINST LAWS EXPORT FROM GERMANY. Messrs. Samuel Montagu & Co. in their latest report to hand state that the Ger man Bundoorath has issued an order pro-
be everlastingly in requisition.-Indian Engineering.
SIR HERBERT TREE'S EPIGRAMS.
Sir H. Beerbohm Tree made & speech recently bristling with epigrams. For example:-
It is only in middle life that wo learn to too the line of expediency,
To be oneself is the greatest of luxuries- and the most expensive.
A gentleman is one who does not care
whether he is ono or not.
have the saving grace of intelligence
We left a trench to occupy a new one, which vents the water in our gas-meters from always had to be done at night, we left in freezing. Its character is blameless, its the old one a few caps sticking up. Then characteristics innocuous. Now stir it was great fun the next day to see the some of this sweat, colourless, oily liquid, Germans firing volley upon volley at those into some nitric acid steeped in the
DRACONIAN A subtle and caps and shelling the empty trench. Next strongest oil of vitriol. night perhaps we would again return to profound change takes place. Upon the the old trench.
surface of the mixture there presently: There were brave and fine fellows on both appears a yellow oil, with a sweetish sides. A Londoner, a fellow always jok-burning taste, a statement that is better ing and in high spirits, was struck by accepted than proved, for it is poisonous bullet which went through the soft part Hont it, and it explodes with violence of his cheek, knocked off one tooth, and detonate, it, er, better still, get someone hibiting the export of gold under a penal- ty of one year's imprisonment and a fine went out again, through his mouth, which else to detonate it, and the explosion is he fortunately held open. Feeling the terrific in its intensity. It is obviously of £230. The steps taken to prevent export blood and the missing tooth he laughingly no longer glycerine with which we are of German coin, silver as well as gold;
It's character has entirely remarked: Now isn't that kind of the dealing.
that neutral travellers passing from Germans? I wanted to pick that tooth, changed, it is nitroglycerine which has are of Draconian severity, for it is stated and I had no toothpick at hand. Now the resulted, and nitrogen is the cause of the Germans have picked it for me." evil characteristics it has taken on. The Germany into Holland are searched and And there was a German lad who was action of nitrogen upon toluene, a coal forced to exchange for German notes any a soldier any army would be proud of tar product, is equally fatal, for it results gold or silver coin which may happen to His comrades were half crazy from thirst in tri-nitro-toluene, which confined in a when this fellow gathered up a dozen torpedo sent the lowke to the bottom
રી gnat
In silver the tone has been fairly The Imperial Indian Relief Fund now water bottles and ran through a hellish Link it on to iodine and the result is a
good, with an inclination towards totals 65 lakhs.
of sup fire down the bare slaps to the water of the compound which will explode if
which bubbles up from higher prices. The amoun The marsh gas
Of 140,000 Northumberland and Durham Aine. Here he was under temporary alights upon it.. cover and calmly filled his bottles. But
We can really governed prices, rather than minors 40,000 have joined Lord Kitchener' all the time he knew that every man ir the the bed of a stagnant pool nitrogen will plies has been limited, and this fact trenches on the other side was watching convert into prussic acid. the spot where he should reappear. And neither live, move nor have our being urgency of demand from any particular army.
without nitrogen. To soldiers it comes quarter Silver has been required for there he came, running for life with the with the commissariat and the ammual coinage purposes, but buying orders for. water-bottles rattling in his hands. Ition wagon. As food, the nitrogen the Indian bazaars have been rather intor seemed a miracle that he could escape, but nourishes their bodies, and as an explo- mittent of late.
sive sets free their souls.
be in their possession. Co make the following remarks on the silver market →→
Not all people who are gifted with intellect "Our Betters was the title of the address, and the closing epigram was that our only Battors are Ourselves
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Hengkong, 30th November, 1914.
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