Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 191, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1912 — Honors to Russian Dead [ARTICLE]

Honors to Russian Dead

Japanese Have Converted the Field of Mukden Into a Beautiful Cemetery. A recent traveler through Manchuria gives us a picture and a description of the great cemetery which the Japanese have nearly completed and which some time ago they consecrated to the Russian dead who fell in the battles about Mukden. In their precipitate retreat the armies of the czar left thousands upon thousands of their fallen comrades unburied. After the signing of the treaty of peace the soldiers of the Mikado collected every last bone and every bit of ragged uniform and every broken weapon which the Russians had left upon the field and buried them with soldierly honors. In the center of this vast plat they inclosed by a white marble fencing a reserved space for those who had evidently been officers. Over the graves of the common soldiers iron crosses, in the Greek form, were erected and over the graves of commanders crosses of white marble. Then'as a pivot to - the converging lines they reared a terrace, and on the terrace built a mfrble temple, all at a cost of 60,000 yen. When the work was ready for dedicatory rites, they invited Russian ecclesiastics from Peking, Harbin and Vladivostok, together with such military commanders as were near, to assemble for re-

llgious service in this chapel, where, amid the assembled men of both races, the land was solemnly consecrated as a resting place for the Russian dead. We think we have not done badly when fifty years after the battle of Gettysburg we invite the surviving Confederates to meet us where they fought üb, and with their northern fellow citizens give thanks today for a united country. But, the "Japs” have bettered as well as anticipated our act. For within five years of the battle of Mukden they laid out the field as a cemetery for their conquered enemies, buried them decently, had religious rftes celebrated by priests of their own faith, and paid personal tribute to the courage and loyalty of the men they had vanquished. All this without one word of suggestion from outside.—The Advance. ,