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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1918)
ONE OF STRANGEST TALES OF WAR IS CRUSADE OF CZECHOSLOVAKS ACROSS RUSSIA TO LAKE BAIKAL By HARVEY O'HIGGINS. One of the strangest and most moving stories of ' the war has just reached Washington. It is the official account of how an army of 50,000 men from the Russian front, when Russia had made peace, started to make their way around the world to the fighting line in France, and ended by saving Siberia from the Germans and holding 3,000 miles of Trans-Siberian railroad for the allies against the. Germans, the Austrians, and the Russian "Reds" alike. It is the story of one of those miraculous marches that seem beyond endurance and achieve victories that are beyond belief. And it is the story of the wreck of all German plans in eastern Russia and the probable salva tion of the whole Russian situation for the allies. It has been brought to Washington by the emissar ies of that army, the revolutionary army of the Czecho slovaks. The leader of their revolution, Prof. Masaryk, "has his headquarters in the across the world to report jThe Czecho-Slovaks are one of the oppressed races that have been strug gling for centuries against Germans and Austrians and Magyars. When this present war broke out, thousands of them escaped across the border into Russia and took service against Austria. Thousands more, drafted into the Austrian armies, deserted across the lines. There were perhaps 100,' 000 of them in Russia, when the Ru sian army collapsed. And one army of 50,000 of them under its own lead era still held its lines in the Ukraine after the Ukrainians made peace with Germany., f - Refuse to Treat With Austria, When the bolshevist government at Moscow ajso signed the peace of Brest-Litovsk, this army was left to the mercy of the Germans. The Aus trian emperor sent, them an offer of amnesty if they would return to Aus tria and a promise of autonomy for their people upon their return. 4 hey refused to. treat with a government that had betrayed them too often. They decided to fall back to the Trans-Siberian railway, to negotiate with the bolshevik! for a passage across ' Siberia to Vladivostok, - and there to obtain ships from the allies to carry them to France. They had no sooner come to this decision than they learned that while the Austrian! were trying to hold them with of-1 fers of amnesty, German army had been sent to cut them off from the railroad in the rear. Look Like An Army of Tramps. They were well supplied with muni tions of war. They had gathered to-' gether in their cant the. equipment of tne Kussian armies that had de serted their lines after the revoultion. But, like the Russians themselves, they had no food, no shoes, no fod der for their horses, no proper cloth ing, no camp kitchens. They looked like an army of tramps, in tatters, their feet boundjn rags. They were, in fact, an army of intelligent pat riots, revolutionary idealists, of whom 80 per cent were university men. Every company carried a library of several hundred volumes. They pub lished every day, even crossing Si beria, daily newspaper of eight panes.:' -'J ' It was their intelligence that saved them they outwitted the Germans, the Austrians, the bolsheviki, over came all their difficulties and ended by dominating the continent through which, at first, they asked only a safe passage.. - ' V " : V ' Live on Dogs, Cats and Frogs. Their horses were too weak to pull flieir .wagons. They pulled the wagons themselves and ate the horse meat. They lived on dogs, cats and frogs. ' "When we came to a poncj," they say. "frogs greeted us with a chorbs. When we had parsed, there was not a frog to be heard." They roasted barley to make them selves coffee, and rolled it out with bottles to crush it, and when they had drunk the coffee they ate the grounds. They did not try to loot the peasants. Their intelligence saved them . from that disaster. : " . They knew they cduld not fight their 'way through a hostile nation, and when they came to a village and the natives refused them food, they gathered in the market place and stood patiently, in silence, sometimes from morning to nightfall, until the villagers relented and took pity on them. Then they paid for what was brought them and went on with the assurance that their comrades who were following them would receive good treatment When they could get grain they carried it with them till they came to a windmill,' where they ground it 1 "We did not need toothpaste," they say. "The millstone were so soft that the flour came out half dirt It kept our teeth sharp." . Win Battle With Gentians. In that way, they approached the railroad, junction only to find a Ger man army between them and any fur ther progress. 'When their whole force had come up, they attacked. The battle lasted for four days. Then the German asked for an armistice to bury their dead. When the armistice expired, they found that the German army had retreated, leaving only a rear guard that fell back before them. They reached the railroad. .They ad vanced along it toward Moscow and nnnrt njmtitirna vnth tha kteh viki for a safe passage on the Trans- aiberian railroad to Vladivostok. It was granted them on condition that they surrender their arms and munitions, 'which belonged to the Cussian government They had 400 Machine gUns to each regiment, good rifles, aeroplanes, large supplies of hand grenades, and plenty of ammuni tion. They gave op everything but their hand grenades and one rifle for every ten men. Then they entrained for the journey across Asia. ; Ra-'lroading Under Great Handicap. They had difficulties about getting f :::-nc and. cars. They coinman- kfifjd.thjw. JJaflLhad,jrpu,blci .with capital. They have come to him. the engineers. They put guards on the locomotives with persuasive hand srrenades. When everything else failed, they found locomotive engi neers in their ranks, ran the trains themselves, and when they needed fuel they stopped the train, cut down trees and filled the tender with wood. As they got further into Siberia they found that the German and Aus trian prisoners of war, quartered in the villages, had taken advantage of the revolution to work their way into the confidence of the peasants. They had obtained places on the local Soviets under pretense of being inter national revolutionists. German and Austrian officers, representing them selves as opposed to militarism and sympathizing with the peasants, had obtained great influence over the un suspecting natives. They made dif ficulties for the Czecho-Slovaks. The latter avoided an open conflict until they reached Irkutsk. German Officers Are Outwitted. There, when the first contingent ar rived, they were met at the station by 2,000 "red guards" nnder the leader- shiD of German and Austrian omcers In Russian uniforms. They were or-J dered to surrender their, remaining rifles and hand grenades. ; They re fused. The German officers gave their men the order to fire But in their ex citement they gave the order in Ger man lhe Kussians did not under stand it The Czechs did They threw themselves on the s-uards barehanded, with pocket knives, or with stones which, they picked up, and in a brief rough-and-tumble struggte they dis- armed tne guaros ana Kiuea ineir German officer With the rifles and machin guns which they captured thev took possession of the town, disarming the troop of the Central Siberian government and killing the Germans and Austrians to the num ber of about 800 , On the intervention of the French and American consuls, they sent three of their number to Moscow to negotiate. Trotzky refused to treat with them. The three envoys were arrested and imprisoned. The Czecho slovak army thereupon declared war on ths bolsheviki and proceeded to clean op the Trans-Siberian railroad and hold it for the allies. They fought their way across the continent, leaving detachments to guard the railroad behind them, re cruiting their number from Czech prisoners in Siberian camps and work shops, everywhere disarming the red guards and killing all the Germans and Austrians. They have now obtained complete (ossession of the railroad from 'ladivostok to the Volga, except for on gap west of Vladivostok, where fighting still continues. They have closed Siberia not only to the Germans, but to the Trotzky government, which can no longer get grain from Siberia. a , There are now, with the assistance Leaders of the 61 TzzFT ! - , cf' as I i ! ic r fZrf OS'S:- I I a- '(k I . SIBERIAN, WV.TrfHy JISSIOK C From left to right: Private R. Chy tll, Lieutenant painelorsky and Capt V. S. Hurban, rhembers of the Siber ian military mission, who are visiting theoitcd Ute ? fMiti. . &t J&ili: Along 30 46 0 76 90 106 120 135 Eastward along the Trans-Siberian railroad came the Czecho-Slovak army to find ships to take them to the western , front. Less than 20,000 reached Vladivostok. Others, held up by the bolsheviki in and around Irkutsk, proceeded to take possession of the railroad between Lake Baikal and the Volga and of 'towns in the Volga re gion. Allied forces now hold the White sea and Kola peninsula ports, and from Vladivostok will help the Czecho slovaks to secure uninterrupted communications across Siberia. of the allied contingents in Vladivos tok, crushing the last resistance of the army of Gerroan and Austrian prisoners, which is fighting in the far east. The men who have brought the story to Washington are? Captain Hurban and Lieutenant Danielovsky of "the Fifth regiment of T. G. Masaryk." Their hardships have left no trace on them. "Of our first contingent of 15,000 men," the lieutenant says, "only one died of a contagious disease. And no one caught it from him." They are in high spirits, foreseeing success for their comrades in allied help in Russia and independence for their race in the victories on the western front. Their attitude of mind is best expressed in the words of a banner which the Czecho-Slovaks carried in a Chicago parade. It read: "Cheer up America. We have been fighting them for a thousand years." Birds Not Disturbed by Firing of the Big Cannon Went out just before daylight to the front lines; they're less than a mile from here. The artillery was in full blast From horizon to horizon dart ed tongues of flame. The batteries near us were belching eight to the minute, and into the village poured the boche reply in dozens. They whimpered and screeched; they crashed and banged and cr-rumped. It was a relief to get out of the place. There was no shelling of the front trenches. We had to pass through a little wood we d call it thicket to reach K Eleven; and ud denly the captain stopped. "For God sake," he said, "listen to thatl" - His tone was so awed that, at first I thought he meant the guns, which were shaking the ground with their thunders. Then I heard. The birds were waking. It was almost dawn. Just such a twittering and chirping as one would hear in a peaceful glade at home. Evidently the firing did not bother them. One burst into full throated song. And finally I grew sick to the soul of the insane business. George Pat- tuuo in Saturday Evening Post New Reerrilt Called Down. The new rscrutta war keen. On man especially did everything with energy. The Vdr waa given to march and the en thuilaatla one, who wai In the rant rank, et oft with a will. He itrode out, arm winging, head erect and eyea itrtctly "front" and never noticed that he had left hit eoraradea eeveral paeea behind. The drill aergeant swallowed bard and then call ed aweetlyi "Say, you I when you get there tend ua a ploture postcard." Oakland En quirer. Czech Crusade committee on public information at Washington.. The mission is here for the purpose of getting ships to carry the Czecho-Slovak fighting troops to taosa l af- w the Czecho-Slovak Trail (Taken from the Literary Dlgeit.) Hot Three-Cornered Fight for Michigan Senatorship J"0 - j CHASlTS - Chase Osborn, Lieutenant-Commander Newberry and Henry Ford, who are engaged in the three-cornered fight for the senatorship of the state of Michigan, the most hotly con- AIRPLANE RUNNING WILD Two Skilled French Aviators Set Calmly as Machine Threatens Death DOES ALLTSORTS DIDOS Fort Worth, Tex., Aug. 24. An airplane running wild in midair and cutting all the daring caper that such a machine is capable of performing, while two skilled French aviators sat calmly in their seats, each believing the other was directing the flight, re cently amazed American aviation offi cers and cadets here who watched its startling gyrations. Eventually, after hair-raising loops, dives and side-slips, in which the air plane almost grazed the earth, it dove nose-first into the ground, driving the engine back through the fusilage up to where one of the aviators sat, but injuring neither of them. Ihe two trench aviators who so narrowly escaped death were Le Maitre and Soulier, who have brought down several German airplanes in the fighting on the western front in France. Le Maitre was in the back seat and took the plane from the ground. The machine had climbed a few hundred feet when Soulier raised his hands to his head, the usual signal of a pilot that he will take control of the plane. So Le Maitre sat at ease. ' Then for eight minutes the airplane gave a performance the like of which never before had been seen by the spectators. It comprised the whole known category of stunts and added new ones, with amazing suddenness. Those below gasped in wonderment when the machine suddenly dived within a few feet of the ground. It seemed impossible that any one wouia handle the machine with such dex terity and reckless abandon.- The spectators, however, saw Le Maitre and Soulier smiling calmly. . Suddenly the plane crashed down ward and buried its nose in the earth. The aviators stepped calmly from un der ine aemousnea piane ana iaccu each other, I. ested in the political history of the state. Ihe Michigan 'primary elec tion, which decides the fate of these candidates, is next Tuesday, August 27. trying to scar me, eh?" said Le Maitre. "What was I trying to do?" echoed Soulier. "What were you trying to do to me?" Then it developed that during the eight minutes they had been in the air neither aviator had touched the con trols. Soulier had been merely ad justing his helmet when Le Maitre saw the movement and mistook it for a signal that Soulier intended to take control of the airplane. While the machine was running wild, each avia tor thought" the other was trying to have a little fun at his expense. "I was determined not to exhibit any feeling," said Le Maitre when the situation was explained. "I thought Soulier was trying some stunts to test my nerve." "I thought the same thing," said Soulier. ' . -- Crop of English Slackers Not as Large as Expected correspondence of Associated Press. Dublin, July 30.The rounding up of the English slackers, who came to Ireland to escape conscription, is proceeding thoroughly, but has not produced anything like the number of men that most people imagined to be available. Estimates running as high as 30,000 were at one time" current, but 'the best opinion now fixes the number at one-fifth of that figure. The deportation of these people was quite popular. Some of thera are sup posed to have taken to the hills to avoid arrest, and there are rumors in Dublin that the Dublin and Wick low mountains are - affording them shelter. Fifty Cars in Frisco. In 1900 there were SO automobiles owned and operated in San Francisco, u Mode The C ONVERTIBLE i RUCK Body A combination which will solve Every Haulage Problem Confronting You The Model "F" Reo Truck has so thoroughly demon strated its value right here. ... in your own community that we feel safe in saying:--Ask a man who uses one. We know you won't haveAto go far to find a Reo Truck user. There are lots of them. The 8 in 1 body answers every need for special bodies. It is so constructed that it can be utilized in hauling concen trated weight or bulky light ness anything from live stock to hay. 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