TWO TRAGIC INCIDENTS
During the Russian retreat through the Mazur lake district, in East Prussia, a Russian battery was surrounded on three sides by the enemy's quick firers. The infantry was on the other side of the lake, and the Russian ammunition was exhausted. In order to avoid capture, the commander ordered the battery to gallop over the declivity into the lake. His order was obeyed and he himself was among the drowned.
During an assault on the fortress of Ossowetz, a German column got into a bog. The Russians shelled the bog and the single road crossing it. The Germans, in trying to extricate themselves, sank deeper into the mire, and hundreds were killed or wounded. Of the whole column, about forty survived.
IN THE BRUSSELS HOSPITALS
A peculiar incident of the war is noted by a doctor writing in the New York American, who went through several of the great Brussels hospitals and noted the condition of the wounded Belgian soldiers. These soldiers carried on the defense of their country with a valor which the fighting men of any nation might admire and envy. The writer remarks:
"Two facts struck me very forcibly. The first was the very large number of Belgian soldiers wounded only in the legs, and, secondly, many of the soldiers seem to have collapsed through sheer exhaustion.
"In peace times one sees and hears little or nothing of extreme exhaustion, because in times of peace the almost superphysical is not demanded. War brings new conditions.
"These Belgian soldiers were at work and on the march during stupendous days, practically without a moment's respite. They went, literally, until they dropped. As a medical man, their condition interested me enormously.
"What force of will to fight and struggle until the last gasp! The exhaustion one sees often in heat strokes and in hot climates is commonplace, but this type of exhaustion is, by itself, the final triumph of brave spirits.
"The victims presented a very alarming appearance when first I met them. They seemed almost dead; limp, pale, and cold. Recovery usually is not protracted; in every case the men knocked out in this manner expressed a fervent desire to return at once to the ranks.