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/<?osr VOL. mil- NO 37 NORMAN E. MACK ON WILLIAM J. BRYAN. Nebraskan His Party’s Leader, Says Buffalo Editor. CLAIMS REAL ISSUES ABE HEEDED teeninn Soy* the DemocratU Mnwt Stand For Somethtn* if It Hope* to WU-1« t Opinion-Radical Campal*m Afire**** Special Privilege** Coaid Hmm*. Ko Room For Twa Trant Paatiea, Norman K. Mack, * the editor and owner of the Buffalo Times, who Is the Democratic national committeeman of New York state and a member of the executive committee, spoke as follows about William J. Bryan when be was recently Interviewed by James Creel yoau for the New York World: "i recognize William J. Bry fa as the national leader of the Democijfetic par- Bryan has polled votes other living DemoJ/at He polled a million more votes than Mr. flleveland or Mr, Parker. Until soifle Other Democrat receives » larger number of votes Mr. Bryan will con tinue to be the national leader fit bis part/* Mr. Mack was not anxious to talk about polities, but when the divided condition of the Democratic party was mentioned be spoke with frankneea,’ “The Democratic party at this time reminds me of the boy baby in the ad vertisement reaching for a sake of soap and labeled *He won't be happy till he gets it’ The people who make np the rank and file of the Democracy will never be satisfied till the man who have been engaged in securing and snaking mondy put of special govern mental privileges have been sent to the rear of the party. The party just now seems to be made up of two elements. Ninety-eight per cent of It copslatg pf men who seem to be in favor of pro gressive Democracy, which says what It means and Is honestly opposed to ths use of the party or the government for advantage. Those who rnaki tup the remaining 2 per cent seem to be are ibe real Demo fl-ntn as well be honest, < .'.-Am pilled COJIHci • have opposed the time /dr the past ten years* are <efl*j|| at the head of big corporations locnnng for special privllegtH or are attorneys hired by such corporations to secure special privileges for largo money con siderations. “The Democrats of the country might as well understand clearly that they can never win by the use of boodie. | Intend to speak frankly. Take my own county, Erie, for Instance. In MOO w* had a fund of about f 4,700 In that county. We lost It by about 4,800 votes. Last year we had a fund of more than $50,C00. We lost the eoynty by more than 13,000 votes. “Now. in 1890 It is a well known fact that there was not a county In the Union In which we bad bmnmt enougt -<0 uthjgssary postage stamps. within 001.854 votes Last year we ' .MjffWhoney- I don’t believe to misled, and I will speak plainly, TMt year we bad all the money we could use In thio (New York) or any other state. Yet we lost the election by t,542,002. a defeat, in spite of our abundance of money, more than four times as groat as tu 1800, when we wore so hard up for funds. If It had not been for the strength furnished by local issues and local candidates 1* states like New York. Michigan, Massachusetts and Minnesota we would have come out of the campaign stripped bare. “The truth to that the Democratic party must stand for something defi nite If It hopes to wfn at the potto. Ton don't need any better evidence than that last fall Chicago wont 110,000 Ito publican, while this year. Indeed wtth tn the pact few dgye, when the muni cipal fight was made qu straight out and out issues. Chicago went 25.000 Democratic. These things ought to be . a toascn all Democratic leaders. to given out constantly that the of the *9 railed progressive Democrat to opposed to big ’’’Wsineea Interests. That to not true, It ta not opposed to legitimate private mp terprise on however large a scale. | have never heard of any Democrat be ing opposed to Mr. Wsnamaker's es tablishments or to any other of the great dry goods stores or similar busi nesses. The things that progressive and radical Democrats object to are the policies of men advocating special legislation and engaged in bribery and so consolidating and watering corpora tions as to menace the business of the country. The legitimate merchant has to buy land, to bOIW on It and to pay taxes. He gets no special privilege from the government-** "Whom do you recognise as the na tional leader of the Democratic party todayr -The man who received a million more votes than any other living Dem ocrat and will remain leader until some other Democrat can show a larger |£ote. M St*'You mean Mr. Bryanr fgH mean Mr. Bryan. He polled a mil tjfqp more votes than either Mr. Cteve- Sand or Mr. Parker. I look upon him as the national leader of the party" “But. Mr. Mack, would not New Turk reject Mr. Bryan againF “That may be true, but It to also true |bat the other states rejected the candl- (???) late and leadership presented by New York last year. New York must take its chances with the other states. If 1 the Democratic party is to have any chance to win It must have a Demo cratic leadership and a Democratic * platform. “Last fall’s campaign was not a fair test of the Democratic party's position. In our national attacked . the trusts and appeared CT*be vigorous end In earnest about It. But what did we do afterward? The first thing was i to eliminate the national committee r from the conduct of the campaign from ( Maine to California, apparently for the purpose of raising 'money from trusts, syndicates and corporations. We put * what might be termed managers and corporation lawyers at the head of the j campaign. I thought then and I think now that that made the Democratic ’ party look ridiculous. J have no desire ’ to make a personal erittotaw of My » man. i “If the Democratic party does not stand against centralisation of power and against organisations of capital de- ’ voted to grafting and bribery in the state and nation I consider that it has , no mission and ought to be defeated. . There to not room enough even in this i big country for two trust parties or , two Republican parties.** i “Assuming Mr. Bryan to be the na j tlonal leader, will he b« nominated for r president again in 1908Y’ “It to bard to say. My notion to that i |f Mr- hooseveit saeoeeds in controlling the next Republican national conven ( tion by his m ggpeptance of a renom j ination or bj.tfoe pomipajlou of any , man be may favor and secures $s adoption of a platform such aa I knag . |pe be will he has hi* wa/ It |s difficult at thlr time to deny that It f will be a bard job tor the Democratic . party to defeat him, Mo one can dto ( puts the tact that Mr. Roosevelt baa . impressed the country with the Idea , that he to boneet and that be is earnest I In opposing vicious (rusts. However, tn spite of. that e doubt his teal sincerity of purpose. r “On ffc other band, should the pluto cratic element dominate the next Re- I publican national convention the duty * of the Democratic party will be very ’ plain. It should nominate some man who has honestly pnd fearlessly stood f for the principles which Mr Bryan has £ represented for the past ten years. If e ft makes such a nomination, with ft progressive and radical platform, I be lleve that It. will be sure of carrying ’’ the country by as big a majority as Mr. Roosevelt got In r “That 1 - 4 Rjaalt W - ft rd but I do not an- I neipate It, If we bad a national con ’ vention now I do not see anything In ‘ sight except the nomination of Mr, Bryan unless we want to try again the experience we have just had In at tempting to beat the Republicans at ■ their own game.” “IJow about a fusion with the Popu- 1 lists T' 1 “No fusion—no, slit All the Demo cratic party has to do Is to be demo cratic. It should turn away from trust * magnates and trust lawyers. If It stands on democratic ground the Pop uliate will vote (ba Democratic ticket There to not the giigbteat gbance of gn ether fusion with the Populist ergan laatloe, “My own Men to that la ototor to b*v» the Democrats party win again »w --cessfui men who do not profit by spe cial privilege—men. like Douglas, in Massaebuaocta, and Folk, in Missouri— must come to the front. We need lead ers who are hot MtUng ftvore from common councils, state legislatures or th* national government, fiueb men as these are beginning to open their eyes. Processes of revelation are at work. Thomas W. Lawson of Boston, for in stance. baa done more to arouse and hold the attention of honest business men to existing evils than any other man wbo has touched th* subject since the civil war. I believe that honest business men wfU ooms to tbs front In Democratic politics and that the blrsd men of the trusts witt go to the rear. “Unfortunately an Impression has gooe abroad that the Democrats of New York are not Mncers. In travel tag around through other states I find that a great many people believe that New Yorkers are tied up to tbs trusts and syndicates and other seekers after special privilege- That to a mistake. The great mass of the Democratic vet era tn New York are just aa much op posed to special privilege and tbs brib ery and grafting that accompany It and ar* Just as good Democrats as you can find, say, in Missouri. What they peed to sincere, stralghtout and fear less Demoeratto leadership. That, I be lleve, they will have,” She'll Shew ledta How to Farm. With a complete- outfit of plows, rakes and other agricultural equip , meats, Including a windmill water pump, Mlsa Alice L. Yoder, a native of I Bechtelsville, Ta., sailed a few days i ago, returning to India to labor not only as a missionary, but to introduce ’ American farm methods tn that far off • land, says a Boyertown (Pa.) dispatch !to the I'lilladelphla Record. She owns ■ several hundred acres of land there, I where she Is training 200 children In : the manner and custom of the western : continent. S**«wttr *f Herses, There fU'ems to be a scarcity of good horses, while the demand for ail kinds j of horses Is unusually large, says the | Philadelphia Public ledger. A few •sasona ago shipments of western bor»-H to the east were so large as to •verstoek the market, but the raising of the animals baa declined in the past tew years. A dealer in New York said that If be could only get horses there would be no trouble In disposing of them at good prices, but they are not , tabs fottad. F => xj.l3li«lra.ecl iin t RAILWAY REGULATION.! American and British Views onl Rate Making Powers. 818 CHARLES J. OWENS’ STATEMENT London and South western's ManageS Says British Experience ShowH That, While Fixing of MaxlmuJ Ratos by tho Government May Imß Jnstigntee, Its Tendency la to Ari root Xstaral Doollno In sonablo Rnto Lewtelattoa Mot An interesting and significant stata meat of special timeliness, ta vtow <fl President Roosevelt’s recent utterance on the question of railroad rata Ing and of Secretary Taft's dtacuaaltfl of the same subject at the banquet fl the recent international railway cofl gress at Washington, was made in isl Interview the other afternoon by fifl Charles J. Owens, general manager fl the London and Southwestern Raliwfl company, wbo U one of the moat proifl Jnent of the British delegates to tfl cougraM, says the New York Postfl Washington correspondent Sir Charlfl has been active In railway meat In England during the whole SjH tatiou of ths matter of rate ragulatifl there, and. hie experiencs of the sects of government regulation tn Grefl Britain to especially valuable In tfl present dlacussluu in the United Statifl Speaking from British experience, ■ says that the fixing of maxl«u;m rafl may be justifiable, but he adds that isl result of this in England has been fl arrest the natural decline of rates afl to maintain them st th* high tovglM which they stood when regulation vfl adopted, “Where I quarrel with the l*gtslatfl proposed by I’resllent Roosevelt, understand It,” said Sir Charles, that It in suggested that a tribunal sfl have the right to fix an actual rate, fl my opinion, a government sbouldH perfectly satisfied with fix’ng rea-fl able maxima, leaving the railroad efl panies proper commercial libertyfl act within the limits of those maxlfl subject always to the the law as it guards against dtoq m . ination In all Jts forms. i “I quite agree with the j j made Than once MnM m Usui suM MrateflMßMnMa*-. # the comwWty WO call railed tr* R » portatton. Its effect could only b* to deprive the commercial elasticity In arranging their prices which Is a fundamental necessity In the conduct of any busi ness. Indeed, but for the fact that there is a measure of monopoly In ev ery railroad, although not to the same extent in the United States as In Great Britain, It would be hard to find any logical reason why even maxima should be Imjiosed upon a railway pompany more than upon the producer pf any qther necessity of life, for syph we may surely call transportation.” Speaking of the regulation of freight rates by the British governmeat. Sir Ckarto* Mid; ”D*aii|ig with the question btatortc sliy, it should be remembered that wbe» each individual railway aeaapa ny obtained Its powers from parila ment the powers were aocompaaied by the Imposition of maximum rates. The rates varied greatly In many districts and were in every ease accompanied by a classification setting out the classes tn which various articles of merchandise ware to be found, but the desses were extremely vague and cov ered but very few artictos and com modities. From time to time amalga mation of companies baa taken place, so that our largest railroads la Great Britain are, broadly speaking, made up of tone or eves twenties of small companies, rack originally having va rious powers both as regards rates and classifications. This mads It extreme ly difficult for any trader to decide whether tbo rates charged by a partic ular railway company were within tbo maximum powers of that comped?" and would often involve referring to anything between ton and tweaty dif ferent acta of parliament. This ted to a great many complaints on the part of tbo public and to constant false ao cusatlous agalDet tbo railway compa nies that they were charging In ex eons of their powers. “Repeated committees of the bouses of parliament were appointed to con sider the question, and the ultimate outcome was the passing of th* rail way and canal traffic act in 1888. This act provided that every railway com ' puny should submit to the board of trade a revised schedule of class rates and also a revised classification. The railway eonqianles. of course, com- ' plied with this and after mutual con sideration submitted classifications which were to be common to all rail way companies and schedules of rates which but very slightly differed. The board of trade then heard ob jections on the part of traders to the proposals of the railway companies, and public bearings of the whole case took place which lasted over eighty days. As the result of these hearings the board of trade, supporting the railroad companies' propositions in some cases and upholding various trad ers in others, submitted schedules and a classification to parliament for its consideration. Here, again, the pro ceedings extended over several weeks, and the ultimate result was the pass ing Into law of revised classifications and a revised schedule of rates. “The effect on the railway companies was materially to reduce their charges on certain articles of traffic, and their attempt to retrieve their position bf DOUGLAS Mr should depend upon existing conditiors and needs, which ought to be carefuliy nnd exactly ascertained and not as sumed. These conditions and needs a 1 Igent t''wßflrtion of y should be left ■ ui®B®Wflflflßßbll have M»n com- . pleted. “That the railways have considered ’ that the legislation thus far suggested ' is not duly protective of their interest Is undoubtedly true. Those Interests cannot be equitably protected if de cision is to be made and become ef fective upon the purely judicial ques tion of the reasonableness and unrea sonableness of a rate without strictly judicial procedure; they cannot be equally protected If one class of car riers Is subjected to the provisions of the law and other classes competing for the same traffio shall be exempt. Th* carriers' Interest cannot b* fairly protected, and th* coaumerc* of th* oouutry must b* injured by statutes which provide that a ret* of transpor tation once fixed by any authority shall remain perpetually in force there after until changed by commission or by court “There to no Mvtaten of oplnkm as to the deeirebUtty of stopping all secret or unjustly discriminatory devices and practices of whatsoever character, but there to a just and reasonable claim upon the part of tbo carriers that if •vtto ta transportation are to be sub foot of further legislation those evils should be distinctly defined, that there should boa fair and exhaustive dto ouosloa aa to how those sviis can beet ba reached and remedied and that in the interest of the commerce of the eountry, which is so indissolubly linked with transportation, as well as in Jus tice to the carriers and their owners, unnecessary legal restrictions and bur dens should be avoided, which, while certainly harmful to those great inter seta, will not aid la correcting the evils." Swiss OaMtsnra. Photography baa recently been em ployed in Bwlt*?rlaud to obtain exact pictures of the glaciers as they now are, says the London Telegraph. In fu ture times the terminal moraines can be compared with those of the present day. Whatever may be the cause, the fact seems to be that glaciers all over the world are shrinking. They were once certainly far larger in Switzer land than they are now. The Ice caps round the p >les are also growing less. As to the north pole, this was pretty well known some time ago, and now the antarctic explorers report that the Ice fields round the southern pole are also far less than they were when Ross made his antarctic voyage sixty years ago. When the reasons for this de crease of glaciation are known a clew may be round for the occurrence of tha glacial epoch, eighty or a hundred thousand years ago. Loafin’ In the BloMomt. Loafin' in the blossoms, the breeze a-blow ln' free. Mockin’ bird a-atngin* tn the old mulberry tree. An* the branches green above me bowin' "Howdy dot' to me. Happy as the breese that swings the Mosaoms! Loafin’ in the blossoms where the river sings away An’ tells the water lilies what the flower gardens say; Dream in’ o' the June time on a violet couch of May. Happy as the breeze that swings the blossoms! < 1 ADE’S TIDINGS OF JO ■ The Author Tells of Indiana Literary Output. I WHY PUBLISHERS NEED NOT WORE B At Lakewood (M. J.) Dinner of P< rlodical Pabliahers’ Association H ■ Said Hoosier State Writers Are In ■ cubatiuK Eaouerh Manuscripts t H tatst Ten Years—Declares One Ca: ■ Hear Roasanees Grew. ■ George Ade, author and playwright I was the first speaker at the second as I nual dinner of the Periodical Publtah ■ era' association recently held at Lake ■ wood, N. J., where they eutertalnec I more than 800 editors, authors, artist ■ and public men. says a Lakewood sp* I <4kl dispatch to the New York Times. Called upon to respaud to the toaai I “Th* Business End a Periodical I From the Author's Standpoint,” Mr I Ade’s patriotism asserted lts*lf, and I before he was fairly launched on hia I remarks he waa singing th* prate** of I Indiana as the fountain spring ot mod- I *m literature. “I think I am an author becauae I [ am from Indiana,” he said. “Every to an author by Instinct You are in th* publishing buat i"" &-*• an( i doubt you are bearing for hot stuff, if ®o, do not worry tor an other moment I bring you tidings of great joy. There ar* now being Incu bated In the stat* of Indiana tatough manuscripts to keep Ml Qf you gotag for to® »*kt top ye«N, Every summer ths authors of Indiana m«et at Eagle Taka assemble ta the open air because there is no building in th* state larg* mough to hold all of them. “You know how many author* w* have In Indiana? I do not apeak at haphazard, I mak* no careless esti mate. I give you th* figures compiled by the Society of Authors, and we have In Indiana 22,837 authors, classified as follows; “Historical novelists, 8.903; dialect poets, 6,397; magazine poets, 1,625; real poets, 430; dramatists, 1,216; syndicate humorists, 674; short story writers 3,532. “We can give you anything you want. If you wish the scholarly essay, with a dash of statesmanship and politics, go down Into the Beveridge belt, where the Saturday Evening Post Is a house hold word, where John Hay started and ■ ’• •’ - 'vi.- vhile flfiWlfc’xs*tei ' with ' spect what Is known as the Tarkington } outcrop in and around Marlon county. Here you will find F. Meredith Nichol son, Charles Major and hundreds of others, each writing the book of the year. “Northwest of Marlon county you will find the McCutcheon family, and eight member* of the McCutcheon fam ily are now writing and Illustrating for Dodd, Mead & Co. They have day and night shifts, each author working eight hours. “South of this tribe and east of In dianapolis Is the romantic novel region made famous by General Lew Wallace, Maurice Thompson. Will Thompson, David Graham Phillip*, Mary Hart well Catherwood and countless others. John Clark Rldpath of Greencastle to one of the pioneers at what has now bocotD* a permanent Industry. Hs wrote school histories and sold them to college students for 69 cents a eopy, and afterward it was discovered that by putting In Christy pictures and dis torting minor incidents tbo books could be sold for |I.BO on all trains and news stands. > “Th* present activity ta the region between Vermilion and Posey is some thing unprecedented, and every young man in this region says. 'Well, if Tark ington and the McCutcheon boys can get away with it there's a chance for IDS.' “Ge through any village In the corn belt on a peaceful summer evening and you wIM bear from out of the vague somewhere a low, buzzing sound. At first you will think It is the dynamo of an electric lighting station. Not so. It to some elxteen-yeer-old maiden thinking out a romance. Next year she will have her picture ta the Book man unless she is careful. Go south and west of indtanapolls and you are In the home of J. Whitcomb Riley, Tod Sloane and Kid McCoy. I wtil not burden you further. Suffice it to say that whatever you want you can get It In Indiana.” Mr. Ade was frequently interrupted by laughter and was warmly applaud ed when be concluded. AetomoMle Artillery. The Portuguese have adopted auto mobile tractlou for a new battery of four quick firing howitzers of the Bctmeider-Canet system of 150 milli meters, says the London Globe. They were made at the Creusot works, in France, and the motor is designed to draw all the four, one behind the other —a load, that is to say,of about fourteen tons—at a speed of at least five and a half kilometers an hour for all slopes. The automobile, besides, carries five tons of munitions, etc., and the artil lerymen, except four wbo will sit on the guns. The motor will also draw the guns by cable up bills of a gradient of 12 per cent. Aserlrsa Woaea’i Jewel*. To the averag Englishwoman her jewelry is merely an adjunct, having no particular connection with the rest of ber toilet, but added at random, says the London Motorist and Traveler. Not so with the transatlantic smart woman. She dresses to ber jewels and bas her gowns made to match them. afsaf jy MYSTERIOUS NICKEL. Hme Coin Comes Dock to Minneap. oils Printer Thirteen Times. a’s Perry, a printer In Minneapolis, la living under the Influence of a mys terious nickel, says a Minneapolis (Minn.-) dispatch. Over a year ago this iY uncanny nickel first entered his life and trousers. At first it was accorded no more attention than is usually allot ted to small change and passed up with all the abandon that marks the awaking of a meddlesome friend. i» But after it had returned two or three times its battered face at first recalled indistinctly and afterward K, clearly the former visits. Last fall 0- Perry's curiosity as to the real identity h- of the piece became thoroughly arous e- ed, and it was given a distinctive ear d mark. Since then U has returned ten I to times. *- Th* fourth return suggested that the coin was presided over by some uncan- »t ny influence which endowed it with the I J power of overcoming all restraint and I r. returning at will to th* old haunt A d morbid fear that the visitations boded ■ evil seized the marked man, and part-1 f ly to try the strength of the spell which r drew the coin back and partly to get beyond the sphere of Its influence be I I began giving the coin to American I r volunteer and foreign mfoston contrt-1 i buttons, to paying it over to Chlnoae I - laundries and wandering Syrian*. But it always returned within a few I ; weeks at the furthest until It camo the I tenth time after It had been branded I *bd the thirteenth time since the first I appearance. Then it stopped coming. Four months rolled bv. but fh*v I ——W MJ, VUI 100? were not filled with happy, m<s meats. Instead inexplicable mtsfor tuJMo followed fast and followed fa*t *• Forme pied, the ink refused to work, unpaid bills accumulated on the books, and the office eat died. But the other day the coin appeared once more, and many times the amount blazoned on Ito face then vanished In fragrant smoke over the heads of Perry and hte friends In token of the return. But Perry has vowed that the humble nickel shall be gilded and worn ever more as a neck amulet. A JAPANESE DESTROYER. One of the Fastest of Admiral Toro’s Fleet In Far Eastern Waters. One of the latest and fastest of Ad miral Togo’s torpedo boat destroyers is the Shlrakumo, which was turned over ? the imperial Japanese authorities ■BOveeks before the outbreak of the SMp- York Trikune. The! On her trials, which were made In boisterous weather, the meau speed, 3 the Shlrakumo amounted to 31.031tn0t8 on a three hour run, and star six runs on the measured mile a mean speed of 30.819 knots was registered, while the engines Indicated an average of 7,648 horsepower. The engines are of the triple expansion four cylinder type. The boilers maintained steam with ease throughout the runs, In the course of which the steam pressure averaged 231 pounds to the square inch. The engines ran at a speed of more than 400 revolutions a minute and worked with smoothness throughout the trials. The Japanese stand high on the list of world power* tn th* matter of tor pedo boats and dnstmyora, and It 1* upon this type of craft that Admiral Togo will depend for the destruction of many of hia enemy's large but slow moving battleships and cruisers, for an eighteen Inch Whitebead torpedo launched from the Shlrakumo'* above or below water tube* and driven ac curately by compressed air against the armored hull of a Russian battleship would tear her bottom out and send her to the bottom of the sea with all her officers and men. as was the case In th* utaetnKtten of the Petropavlovsk of the Russian navy last year. PLAY BEBT WAY TO LEARN. CMtoMS* ■*■«■<»» Bare M So S*roo« s«<— o* Dovoloaio* Studooto. Play a* a means of developing nat urally the mental, physical and dramat is instincts of young people was advo cated by Dean W. D. MacCUntock of th* department of English in th* Uni versity of Chicago recently, says th* Chicago Tribune. M tf I were planning the curriculum of a college,** said Dean MacCHntock. *T should not make the feature of work conspicuous. Instead I would empha sise play, nature’s best method of edu cation. Play Is natural, and to be nat ural Is to be precious.’* There were three classes of play, said Dean MacCHntock—physical, mental and dramatic—all of which are In dif ferent ways beneficial to the boy or girl who indulges in them. The physical kind of play teaches us to be leaders, the mental kind of play develops the qualities of sharpness and cleverness and the dramatic kind of play aids us to understand the minds of others. The last named, he said, was especially Im portant. “Most of us need to learn to act,” de clared the shaker. “One of the great est things we can do is to pretend to be some one else. If we can Imagine our selves to be Hamlet we shall gain a much better understanding of that character than we otherwise could.” The only drawback to athletic sports In America, declared the professor, was that they develop the tendency to gam ble. Miniature Kinins Machine. The London Daily News states that s new mivAature rifling machine has been perfected which will be carried on board warships. It is driven elec trically and will clear the rifling of guns from metal adhesions, clogging and necessitating the removal or r*- tubtog of guns. One Dollar a Year DRESSED IN BESTTO DIE How Japanese Soldiers Pupated For a Desperate Enterprise. INOIDENT OF PORT ARTHUR SIEGE I Details of the Capture a>< Ocenpo tion of Worth Cockscomb Hill Fort Through the D«rl nv Work of Jap- I anese Engineer*—Some Sacrificed Their Live*—Crawling on Stomachs and Feivnina Death to Fool Enemy. The London Times publishes tM®M-/ I lowing account written by a engineer officer of the breaching defenses of North Keekwanshan (Cw® * comb HUI fort) at Port Arthur. “It was thus that the capture was an nounced by the Official Gazette of the north fort of Cockscomb hill, which was the beginning of the series of de structions and captures of Important strongholds of the Russians at Port Ar thur: *On the 27th of October, In the thirty-seventh year of Meljl, part of the walls of North Cockscomb Hill fort wat blown up by our working party, ans the infantry assaulted successfully and v‘copied the fort securely by the 28th.* “On that day at about 12:80 p. m. the working party in the right wing of the mine gallery came across an opening measuring about ten centimeters by ten centimeters, from which issued a strong smell of coal tar. The discovery ras made thirty-two meters from the < wvvs, 11VW ■ entrance of the gallery leading In from £ the sixth parallel. After examination * we concluded that we hadMglien in 1 with the enemy's ‘ nel. We found it necess?te and, If possible, remove tsSSSStZySr material set for-**'.. work was intrusted to a patty of six" ’ men, volunteers from the Imperial en- ‘ glneer battalion on die spot—Sergeant Katougl Mltanl, Corporal Tamejlro Ta kahashi, FlratoClass Privates Tomolchl Horl, Klnzo Furusawa, Toshiro Kawa bata and Second Class Private Asataro Matsushita. They understood the des perate nature of the enterprise full well, and, wishing to die decently, as the gentlemen soldiers of Japan should, they dressed in their best and went—to their certain death. “At 1:30 exactly the sound of a vio lent explosion rent the comrades anxiously mouth of the gallery were pebbles, shingles and d ebr ,*-»»» v* which were tied to their ankles purpose, all severely wounded, : the rest sacrificed their lives at the tar of patriotism and duty. Wil “The quantity of the dynamite usedwH was unnecessarily large and the force ' w of the explosion so great that it utter ly demolished our mine gallery. But at the same time It split the ground to such an extent that the outer surface of the Wall became detached from the natural soil, enabling us to determine the nature of It. The wall appeared to be about three meters thick, of con crete tarred over on the outside and covered with tarpaulin sheets. This method of construction Is proof against almost any caliber of mobile siege guns. “We at once organised a party for the purpose of blowing up the exposed wall. Sergeant lida, with two first class privates of engineers, crawled up over the edge of th* crater into the ditch for the purposes of reconnols sance, returning safely with a satis factory report Then Sergeant Okura was sent with gun cotton in sand bags along with Corporals Horikawa, Fu kunaga and Private Musuki. They daringly advanced right up to the foot of the wall, crawling on their stom achs very slowly and lying down at every few paces, feigning death. They placed and fired the gun cotton. The explosion tore the wall off the ground, leaving a gap of four centimeters be tween. The Russians took not the / slightest notice of it Perhaps they W imagined that to be an Impact of a Japahese shell. We again Inserted a large quantity of gun cotton under the wall and exploded it. This made a hole, but not sufficiently large for our assaulting party to enter. "80 th* persistent engineers deter mined upon the third attempt They shot down several of the Russians who looked wonderlngiy out of the rent The third attempt was entirely success ful. This time the explosion of gun cotton tore a hole In the masonry of concrete about one ml|| in height and one and a half meiM wide. Through this aperture grenades were thrown In, and under the cover of the smoke and confusion a party of Infantry numbering not more than half a company filed In and occupied the part of the underground i chamber; the other part still remained ' in the possession of the enemy. The Japanese and Russian combatants '* were separated only by the thin khaki colored wall of sand bags between. “We slowly and steadily advanced, Inch by inch, each soldier pushing In front of him a bag of sand or a paraffin tin filled with shingle. The sound of bullets striking these paraffin tins was weird in the extreme. The Russians sought protection under the cover of steel plate partitions, striving stub bornly and yet In vain to stem the tide of the Japanese advance. The steel plates we exploded; the sand bags we simply pushed aside. Thus within twenty-four hours after th* breach, the whole of North Cockscomb Hill fort was firmly and effectively oc cupied by the Japanese.” | Th* Proof. “Was it a very select hotel?" “Yes. It failed,’’—Cleveland Plata Dealer.