V
THE OMAHA DAILY BEEi BPKDAV. fAPlL 24, mi
and RETURN
Every Day Until May 1st
VIA
5
CALIFORNIA
FlCailNG OFF PORT ARTHUR
(Continued from Fag Sixteen.)
excited When the? nw the quarantine flag
taken dawn, and wanted an explanation.
I tried to pacify them as best I could. I
lso tried to distract their attention by
pointing out to them the Japanese vessels
on tbe h orison. They laughed at me and
aid they were only Russian vessels,
i No answer was signalled to the Columbia,
but Iter awhile a naval officer came on
board and requested us to move. The cap
tain wanted to know If he might move to
the Foo. but the officer said no; he had
better Dot leave port Arthur until permis
sion was signalled to him from the shore,
tie might, however, have the kindness to
nnove. Just a little out of the way, as a
erulser wanted to take up Its position in
tit plaos the Columbia occupied.
: After saying something In a low tone to
the sol dims the naval officer left the ship.
Then Captain Anderson gave orders to
get under way, and while the necessary
preparations were being made I noticed
a bright flash from the side of one of the
Japanese vessels, and, pulling out my
watch, saw that It was exactly a quarter
past 11. The report came some sec
onds after, and about the same time a big
shell, which I should say was a twelve
Inch one, dropped Into the small space of
lea Intervening between the torpedoed bat
tleships and the group of frightened look
gig torpedo boat destroyers.
The shell was evidently Intended for the
toc
jgJ"Barker"
COLLARS
fLJ and CUFFS
ARE STAMPED I Jjfl 1
Warranted Linen cTvn
pHa Y You can get them at i
I many reliable dealers in L W r J
jffrTnihWTTiTir9Y.'iiY-i - S-.
UNION PACIFIC ,
-6san DIEOO . - - -:- - ...r - .
THROUGH TRAINS DAILY
COMPARTMENT OBSERVATION CARS
PTLLMA3 PALACE! BLEEPING CARS. FREES BECLUHO CHAIR CRS
BUFFET SMOKING and LIBRARY CARS DINING CARS, MEALS A LA CARTE
FINTSCn LIGHT
Tonrlit Sleeping Cars m Specialty. STEAM HEAT, ETO
ELECTRIC LIGHTED TRAINS
TICKET
battleships, and It went so near Its mark
that It must have splashed thorn with
spray from the big liquid column that shot
from the sea at the point where the pro
jectile touched the water. All the Japa
nese ships now opened Are while running
southwest In fine order, and the Russian
vessels returned the compliment.
The Novlk and some other cruisers mads
a fine show, but the warships simply re
volved without changing their position and
seemed to be placed at a disadvantage by
reason of the cramped space and of the
consequent danger of running ashore. I
must confess, however, that I was not
calm enough' to watch the fight with the
amount of attention necessary to give a
very detailed report of It
The reason of this was that we were
running parallel with a Russian cruiser,
which drew on us the fire of the Japanese.
Our captain had mounted his biggest Brit
ish ensign, thinking, perhaps, for drown
ing men grasp at straws, that the Japa
nese might refrain from firing on It out
of friendliness and the Russians out of
fear; but so far as the Japanese were con
cerned the captain wss out In his calcula
tions, for their shells fell very close.
A fragment of a shell made a small hole
In the deck forward, another fragment Is
said to have torn the flag, and the writer
has a third fragment In his pocket at the
moment of writing. Most of the officers
are furnished with similar relics.
In the Midst of Rattle.
Before the engagement began I had been
reflecting with exultation that thers was
a chance of my getting to Che Foo before
OFFICE 1324 FARNAM STREET. 'Phone 316
any other war correspondent, but when
the shells began to sing through the air
and raise huge pillars of water before,
behind and close to both sides of the ship
I forgot all about that matter, or If I re
flected on It at all It was only to curse my
luck at falling in a fight which was not
mine.
One of the ship's officers put It well when
he said that he would not mind getting
killed If he were a sailor on board one
of the cruisers, but that it was a miserable
death to be smashed by a stray shell.
First of all I went as far aft as I could.
I don't know why, but I bad a kind of
vague Idea that If the front part of the
ship were blown away I could hang on to
the rear. Here I found Chief Engineer
Bmlth, his face of quite unusual pallor,
one ride of It splashed with powder or
same black stuff shot up by a shell that
had burst near the screw, and the other
glistening with perspiration.
Mr. Smith did not seem to hear the con
solatory remarks I addressed to him, but
In spite of his glassy stare and very pre
occupied manner he showed be was aware
of my presence by telling me In extremely
emphatic language the sort of .fool I was
for not going ashore In the doctor's boat.
The Chinese passengers and crew were
crouched behind the little wooden struc
ture that formed the saloon and the
cabins, and they seemed to think that they
were quite safe there. One of them said
to the ship's officers: "Why you standee
out there In openT All light here," and
seemed hurt and astonished when ttigy
saw that none of us accepted ie Invita
tion to get under cover.
Nevertheless I must say that I always
breathed more freely whenever -I got be
hind something, no matter what it was.
But, of course, there was always present
In my mind the terrible certainty that
there was no longer any cover, no more
protection. A glance at the terriflo splashes
made by the shells that fell around showed
me that If one of these formidable missiles
fell on the Columbia It would squelch the
boat as effectually as a thousand tons of
lead would squelch an egg.
As the mate remarked, one of these
things would come In at one end of the
boat end go out at tbe other and a little
yellow smoke would be all that would be
left of the ship and Its living cargo. But
In spite of this uncomfortable conviction
I had at times the strongest possible in
clination to go below, to get down to the
very bottom of the boat. The chief en
gineer also seemed to have the same In
clination, for I caught him once hesitating
at the top of a ladder, which he clutched
with a grasp of Iron.
Dodging the Shells.
He did not descend, however. As he
afterward told me. be saw there was do
good In doing so. and that Indeed there
was a better chance on deck than below.
Between the cabins aft and those for
ward there Is an open space, and I sud
denly took It Into my head to traverse this
space in order to Join the other officers,
who were all gathered together . at the
other extremity of tbe boat. I did so. run
ning as quickly as my legs could carry
me, as If I were running from one certain
shelter to another and might be caught
half way across If I did not hurry. Of
course I did not reason about tbe matter.
My legs simply ran off with me.
Outside the saloon on the side facing the
forts I found our two Russian soldiers
crossing themselves at a great rate and
praying fervently. A few minutes before
they had gone forward with their rifles and
wanted tbe captain to stop the boat, but I
had explained to them that we were going
Just a little further to be out of the way
of the shells; that in doing so we were only
obeying the orders we had just reoelved
from he last naval odcer who had Ylalted
Smoothest Track Fastest
Shortest Line
BE SIRE YOt'R TICKETS READ OYER THE
UNION PACIFIC
us, and that directly we rounded that point
yonder we would drop anchor.
This pacified the soldiers and probably
saved the captain and some of his officers
from being shot. The soldiers seemed to
highly appreciate the Idea of getting away
from the shells, and when the latter fell
like rain around us they were too much
occupied In prayer to pay any attention
to external things. After a while one of
them completely disappeared, going down
below, probably In obedience to that blind
Instinct of self-preservation which all of
us found It so hard to struggle against
and which the Chinese so cheerfully obeyed.
He reappeared when all was over and we
had almost lost sight of land, but neither
he nor his companion caused us any fur
ther trouble.
I shall go back, however, to my reaching
the shelter of the forward set of cabins.
In the unprotected space In front of them
I found the captain and the rest of the
officers grouped together, wlldcyed, pallid
and silent. The quartermaster was at the
wheel.
The mate casually threw a rope end over
board with the object, as he afterward told
me, of having something to hold on to in
case the ship was struck. At the same
time I conceived the brilliant idea of throw
ing some woodwork overboard and Jump
ing Into the sea after It. How fine It would
be to swim ashore we were running very
close to the shore with tbe assistance of
this woodwork.
Shells Dropping Near. .
As my imagination dwelt on this flatter
ing prospect a large shell dropped on the
spot where I Imagined myself to be swim
ming and caused me to hastily abandon
the Idea. One of the officers said he
thought It best to run the Columbia ashore,
but as the shells were bursting more
thickly on the beach and on the face of
tbe cliffs than on the line we were taking
this plan wss not adopted.
As a matter of fact, we did the best
thing we could under the circumstances.
We ran between two lines of shells, the
shells intended for the Russian fleet, which
went too far, and the shells Intended (or
the forts, whloh fell short.
One of the shells knocked off a funnel of
the Askold, leaving that vessel with four
funnels; another hit the Sevastopol at the
base of one of the funnels, covering that
vessel with a dense cloud of black amoks,
from which, however, she seemed to
merge uninjured. Several other Russian
vessels were struck, but none seemed to
sustain any serious damage.
So much for the first Hue of Japanese
sheila
As for the second line that Intended for
the forts a good many sheila fell short, as
I have already remarked, many bursting
In the sea close to the shore and many
striking the hillside and raising clouds of
yellow dust or smoke. Three or four buret
on the very summit of the forts. One ex
ploded a magazine on Gold Hill, thus rais
ing an enormous column of smoke.
While pouring In these generally well di
rected shells the Japanese vessels kept ad
vancing southwest, afterward wheeling
round and returning along a line almost
parallel to that by which they had come.
If I had been in a place of safety I
should have admired their perfect order
and the gracefulness with which they car
ried out their evolutions.
On the other hand the Russian fleet
seemed to maneuver clumsily. It tired
enough, however, even the torpedoed bat
tleship using their guns, but none of tbe
Japanese sewned to be damaged. The forts
did not Ore very frequently, and did not, I
think, do mueh damage. Whenever the
sixty-three ton guns commanding the en
trance to tbe harbor let fly at the Japan
ese there was a violent vibration In the air
and a oraokUng sound vhtob waa ea
pegtaUy tsmfjlag,
Tints
PERSONALLY
Tourist Cars
After about half an hour of the sort of
experience that I have been trying to de
scribe, the Columbia got clear of the rival
fleets. The whole engagement lasted about
forty-three minutes.
Both Sides on Board.
For some time after we had got out of
reach of the shells we still felt uneasy, for
a shot from the forts or a Russian torpedo
boat might still overtake us; but whon a
considerable Interval had claused and
nothing of the kind happened we began to
pluck up courage and to think that we
were very fine fellows after all.
The Russian soldiers still remained with
us, of course. There had been some talk
of putting them ashore somewhere In a
boat, but as they did not objeot to being
carried away, why, we did not trouble our
selves any more about them. I felt sorry
for the poor fellows, however, and went to
see them. They were sitting on the deck
with stolid, expressionless faces, across
which a smile flitted as I approached.
We had on board three Japanese passen
sengers, one of whom was from Dalny,
spoke some Russian, and was, I should Im
agine, from his cast of countenance, one
of the many Japanese touts that are to be
found In Liao Tung.
This Japanese was speaking to the Rus
sian soldiers when I came along. . What he
was saying I do not know, but it is a sig
nificant foot, which I might mention here,
that this Japanese used to amuse himself
with these soldiers while we were in quar
antine in a way that did not say very
much for the soldiers' self-respect The
Russian soldier Is the simplest and most
gullible individual on earth. Anybody,
even an enemy, can make a fool of him.
I shall give an Instance of what I mean.
ai t?.
A TRIAL FREE
To Omaha Bee Readers.
i
w i "
1
it
w t- grrn ii ii i t
)Ci SVi '
8
ill
f3
iVsi:
CONDUCTED EXCURSIONS
Run Evory Day in fho Year.
When 1 found myself in quarantine In
the Columbia I determined to send a mes
sage to Che Foo by another boat which
was leaving. I prepared my message and
called a sampan, or Chinese boat The
guards forbade this boat to approach, so I
had to resort to a little strategy.
Ills Dispatch Sent.
It was the simplest kind of strategy,
such as would not for a moment deceive
the dullest soldier in Japan. I engaged
one of the soldiers In conversation and
gave him a cigarette. One of my friends
gave the other some liquor, which he went
below to drink. While our two guards
were thus employed my letter was flung
overboard In an empty cigar box contain
ing a little money; the "sampan" man ap
proached with Impunity, got the letter,
took It to Its destination and brought baok
a receipt for It without the soldiers sus
pecting anything.
Why the man I was conversing with did
not suspect anything passes my compre
hension, for no less than four Chinese
"boys" came to him on one occasion to
tell blm that his breakfast was ready
below, although It was not breakfast time
and although these "boys" had never be
fore shown themselves so pressing.
After our escape I approached these
soldiers and pointed out to them that they
were going to Che Foo and that they could
go to their consul there. They did not
seem to know what a consul was, and they
Innocently asked If there were Russian
soldiers In Che Foo. This was the last I
saw of them. I believe that the British
consul at Che Foo explained tbe fact of
their appearance In Che Foo on board a
British steamer to his Russian colleague,
with the object of preventing, If possible,
The aches and pains of
Yon may think them bad enough, but neglect
and the serious side of this timely warniai? L&om
Early warnings of kidney
onl V LIJ I - a V
congested aiaaej coniuan or
be carried off circulate through
diseases rouow. neglected kidneys cause urfraaCaS I n
ders, dropsj, rheumatism, diabetes. Brichfs dlseasalxbliik (til
Kidney Pills cure any of the many kidney disoMera. , , it
OMAHA PROOF
William Cooper, No. 518 fcoutb 17th streectnploqmfcift
the Waterloo creamery, says: "In Februarr-JBOOL I E3JJ
taken with a severe case of the
lame and aching back especially bad mrntojp'$y't.)J
could scarcely drag myself about, and It was sthAflffiBgfft
get dressed. My work requires me to stand fn'wVtTatfft
times and this had a tendency to
Lng Doan's Kidney Pills adrertised I procured thciat2ba
& Go's drug store. They ctrmpletely cvred me KBft&&?H
quickly.'' ,
1 , ,Wa
their being treated as deserter oa their '
return to Port Arthur; but' I am afraid
that consular recommendation will Lav 9
little weight with the Russian military'
authorities. -
All these things card under my own b
eervation on February 8. I have since,
however, heard other things that might be
given a place here. I have Just seen m,
man who waa on board the Petropavtavslg
when the torpedoing took place. IHJbeattJ ,
the submarine explosion, want ott fleck'
and was laughed at by the officer vhao
ho asked what had happened, Ctayi
practice," they said. He told me tbafcjhg1
Japanese In the torpedo boats cneemjl 4 1
they went away. They had goott roakbfl) An
do so. francis arcuuuujiii '
A Favorite Bcswly io.Bh-. , ,
Its pleasant taste and promts flureyhar J
maos (,-namDenain'g couga I&NCOeca . tM
vorite with the mothers, ot maU ohlldreni
It quickly cures their cougbi n cold
a v wij 1 1 ss ipjr JrHP Tliy OEM
other serious conssquano Zj fcot oriTwl
cures croup, but Whan giveaMtgoonauathj
i-ruupy cuuhu appears, wue-prgmnCVia at
Bxcbangin lrUlttea 1
. f
The detective, who had run? doway-JVli
captured the bank robber, atooclin. tha eor1
ridor of the Jail talking to thasisoncn tij
the cell. , v - ' r?
"WelL mv aafeblowerftia bM 'r tma ,'
that name fits yoxa Xvo4go&yaoaafqk aay j
how.'
"TViar'sl ll a-lcrit 1 n "fc TT at..
a m ii --ta. sivwicwuioi fl ADUIsBJU l
"You're tafa blower, TtooauZ cw't4pV
4U you." Chicago TrUnotfe 4
SB
life
the back are tm?IjrjfcECjJ
Ills come thrortgisjUu&li
-1 , V A.
the tapmti Lnlssxts. yj
the blood Tf "fifo tj.
3
grip, and it !eftaaMK3Mf
make my back wor&c.
J
i