Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1915 — RUSSIANS TO BURN CITY OF WARSAW [ARTICLE]

RUSSIANS TO BURN CITY OF WARSAW

To Apply Torch Minute Last Defense Is Taken. ASSIGN MEN TO THE TASK Czar’s Commander Is Determined to Leave Nothing Behind for the Teutons—Civilians Now Fleeing City, Is Report at London. London. July 23. —Ivangorod, the great Vistula fortress and key to Warsaw and Lublin, has been invested by the Germans. Already the German siege guns have been brought up and the Teutons are trying to rewrite in the east the story of Antwerp and Namur. If Ivangorod falls, the Russians will be forced to evacuate all Poland. Windau, the Baltic port, has been laid waste by the retreating Russians. The harbor works have \ en destroyed, according to dispatches reaching Libau, and the torch has been applied to the buildings and houses of the city. On their whole line of retreat the Russians have commenced to make barren the country behind them. Cities and villages are being burned and crops confiscated or destroyed. Following the tactics of the Slavs against, Napoleon, the Grand Duke Nicholas is leaving not an ounce of food nor an inch of shelter behind for the legions which are driving his troops further and further into the interior of Russia.

Warsaw to Be Burned. Following the example of Windau, it is reported here that the grand duke has given orders that when the last defense of Warsaw has been taken, flames are to be spread in the Polish capital. The Russian commander is said to be determined that the great government buildings and churches shall not fall Into the hands of the conquerors unscathed. Men have been assigned, it is stated, to the task of applying the torch to all quarters of the city when the Russians are ready to evacuate.

All the archives, court records and gold in the banks have already been removed to the eastward, it is reported. The Germans, it is stated, will find the most beautiful city In Poland a heap of charred ruins if their drive carries them within its gates. The fall of Warsaw* seems certain. The Germans and Austrians already are within thirteen miles of the heart of the city, having forced a passage of the Vistula east of Blonie. In the south, along the Lublin-Cholm railway, the Russians are fighting furiously In their last defenses. According to advices from the Austrian field headquarters, the fighting on this front has now reached Its decisive stage. On a greatly shortened front the Russians have concentrated the flower of their army, while the Austro-Germans under supreme command of Field Marshal von Mackensen also have been greatly strengthened by large forces released from other points. The Teutons have pressed their advance through a most difficult country, the ground being sandy and in parts swampy, until they havej-eached the last Russian lines. Their artillery has been brought up under tremendous difficulties, the men in many cases being forced to put their shoulders to the bogged wheels, and now being poured upon the railway, effectually blocking the reported Russian efforts to remove the great stores of war material they had gathered at Warsaw.

According to the last Austrian reports, breaches had been made at several points in the Russian defenses, and if these can be widened, the last obstacle to a German sweep upon Warsaw from the south will be removed. Civilians Flee Warsaw.

Following the example of the populace of Riga and'Lublin, it is reported that the civil flight from Warsaw already is under way. The few remaining railroad lines out of the Polish capital, it is stated, are jammed with great transports of supplies and war material being removed hastily to In-‘ terior Russia, and that the great portion of the refugees have to take to the roads, walking or with whether pack animals they can obtain. M ith the latest reports of captures by the Austrian and German troops, ft is estimated that more than 100,000 Russians have fallen into the hands of the Teutons within the last four days. This more than anything else has caused British military critics to become blackly pessimistic over the outcome of the grand duke’s campaign, as it indicates that the Russian morale has been shattered by the long series of reverses and defeats they have suffered.