Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 118, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1915 — TRIAL OF STAMINA [ARTICLE]

TRIAL OF STAMINA

Endurance, Not Showy Battles, Will Decide This War. Case of One of Czar’s Troopers Cited to Show Endurance of Russians — Perforated, Anxious to Return to Front. Warsaw.—There can be no doubt now that this war is going to be decided, not by a series of brilliant, showy victories in grand battles, but by a trial of stamina and power of endurance between the allies and their Teutonic enemies. Nowhere do the conditions of war demand of the allies so much patient endurance and indifference to great sufferings as on the eastern front, where the Russian army is laboring under most cruel disadvantages owing to scarcity of railways and almost total absence of good roads, while the Germans have in their rear the most perfect system of strategic railways in the world, built entirely for the purposes of an aggressive war against Russia. For this trial of endurance and stamina the Russian army is eminently suited, both collectively and individually. There is no other soldier in the world who can stand so much physical pain and privation as the Russian. In this connection one may recall a characteristic scene described in the Russkoye Slovo of Moscow, by its correspondent at the front. The scene took place at a field hospital. In front of a large tent a crowd of wounded soldiers, straight from the trenches, were waiting medical aid. A kindly Russian priest was handing round mugs of tea, which he poured from a large samovar. The soldiers drank their tea with frank expressions of enjoyment on their faces —all except one. He first silently brushed aside the prpffered hand of the priest, and when the latter pressed upon him a mug of tea mumbled dully: "Can’t. The tooth aches. Please, can I see the doctor?” The priest could not refrain from reproaching the big fellow for troubling the doctor with a toothache. “Why,” he said, “fancy a strong, healthy fellow like you coming here with a toothache, just after the battle, when thp doctors are so busy with really important cases. Couldn’t you wait?” . “It aches something awful," mumbled the soldier. “Then, why didn’t you come earlier, before the battle?” "It didn’t ache then. It started aching only when the bullet got in my mouth. It stuck there.” • The soldier touched his cheek with his finger. Only then did the priest realize how unjust he was in reprbaching the soldier with malingering. He hurried for a surgeon, who hastily examined the

soldier’s mouth. The bullet could not be seen from the Inside, but be could feel it through the cheek. “Now, hold tight, little brother," he said, arming himself with pincers, “and don’t you move.” “Ready to obey, your honor," replied the Soldier, quite briskly, forgetting the pain. A most painful operation ensued. The surgeon made one pull, then another, and yet another, and all proved unsuccessful, and only the fourth pull brought out the bullet. With his mouth bleeding profusely, he asked the surgeon to let him have his bullet as a souvenir. Smiling and happy, he sat down to tea. "Ah, it is good to drink hot tea now. I got quite cold. My back is wet and cold —all sticky.” “What is the matter with it?” inquired the priest. “Oh, it must be a bullet —grazed my back,” answered the soldier, quite indifferently. The priest again called the surgeon. The soldier was quite upset to trouble “his honor” when he was so busy. “A through wound,” anxiously remarked the surgeon, after a quick examination. “Well, there you are,” quite cheerfully retorted the soldier; “she went in and out. So why waste your time over her? No harm done. If your honor would only bandage it, I shall be all right” The surgeon had to bring down the whole weight of his authority to prevent him from scooting back to the trenches with a fresh “through” wound in his cheat This sturdy, simple-hearted soldier, so indifferent to pain and privation, is but a type of Russia’s peasant war-, rlors. Against an army of such warriors all the impetuous German onslaughts will break like sea waves against a granite rock.