Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1904 — JAPS ARE REPULSED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JAPS ARE REPULSED.

Mikado’s Fleet Attempts to Bottle Up Knshnns nt Port Arthur. ' The Japanese made another attack on Tort Arthur, and were- repulsed. The attack was made about two hours before dawn. All. sorts of conflicting reports in regard to the engagement have been received, but the most circumstantial account makes it appear that the Japanese attempted to repeat Lieut. Hobson’s famous exploit at Santiago; when lie sank the Merrimac in the narrow mouth of the harbor, hoping to bottle up the Spanish fleet. According to report, the Japanese loaded four steamers with stone and explo-’ sives and, supporting them with the torl>cdo boats and cruisers of the fleet, put on all steam and headed for the mouth of the harbor. The watch on the dis-. abled battleship Betziviui, lying nearest to the entrance of the harbor, was the first to discover the approach of the enemy. Though unable to nut to sea, the battery of the big warship is intact, and in a moment her huge gups, were playing furiously upon the approaching steamers, two of. which seemed to he heading directly for her. It was but a moment before the land batteries and the guns of every vessel, in the Russian fleet were in action. The Japanese warships of Admiral Togo's fleet, following dose in tho wake of the stone-laden steamers, were not slow in replying, and the darkness of tho night was lighted with the flashes of the guns from’rthe opposing fleets. The daring Japanese sailors- on board the steamers that were to he sacrificed in tlie attempt to block tho harbor kept boldly on. Probably in tlie darkness the Russians mistook the foremost vessels for the cruisers of the Japanese fleet and centered their fire upon them. Shot after shot pierced the wooden sides of the vessels and they were rapidly filling with water before the crews attempted to escape. Two of the vessels were sunk near the entrance to the harbor and a third went aground near the lighthouse on the little peninsula known as the tiger's-tail. The fate of the fourth is unknown. In order that Americans may realize what lias been going on in the roadstead and outer harbor of Tort Arthur since the beginning of the Russo-Japanese war they have only to recall the actions of the American fleet sdnllng the war with Spain in 1808. When hostilities began at that time Dewey immediately struck at the Spanish ships in Manila bay and destroyed them. In Cuban waters the problem of the destruction or ‘‘bottling up” of Admiral Cervera’s cruisers in Santiago harbor was of overwhelming importance. Admiral Sampson tried to bottle them up and Hobson's exploit with the Merrimac thrilled the world. Finally the Spanish ships made a dash for liberty and were smashed by the—Americans. Then land operations alone were left, the transports carrying troops being free from danger of attack. In like -mauncr the Japanese are work-

lng feverishly to destroy or bottle up the Russian warships under the guns of Port Arthur. Their need to do this is far greater than was the need of the Americans to-destroy the Spanish' ships. Should the Czar’s Black sen licet force its way through the Dardanelles and join the Czar’s Baltic fleet the combined power of the two might sutiice to take them to tiie relief of the "warships at Port Arthur and Vladivostok

THE EMPEROR OF KOREA.