Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance, 1904-05-12, Page 3afesieaseeset EYE WITNESS TELLS STORY OF FIR SI SEA FIGHT OFF PORT ARTHUR. Moron report. On the light of Mole that soli -10101M heavier guns were being • Fort stood a large group of men, probably day, Feb. 8, 1 wits lying just .outside fired. I. also heard the whize of shells. Jit high efficere, all smelting the horizon the early morning the chief officer told with glasses. That group stood 'there the entrance of Port Midair harbor iii lima Russian.officer lied come aboard and throughout all the anxioas hours that the British ship Columbia, Capt. .AII- wanted to sat- eomething, but meld mit • followed ag lone as the Columbia remain- dersou. The Columbia had come twin manage to make himself understood, tie - ed, in Port Arthur. One of the group re- Mefoo onSiuulay morning,. but wag he only spoke ltessian, a language with sembled the Viceroy in the general con - which the chief officer is not acquainted. tour of his figure, but on aecount of the Soon Moaned Ord she wa$ to be (man Harbor is. Blockaded. distanee 1. vould not see for certain. ;trained for twenty-four hours, .Accord- Without stoppiug to *lake breath; the Japanese Ships Seen. , 'ugly 1 lead A good deal of time to chief °Meer went on to tell me that two - 1 afterwatel found that mu: of the ,Tap - watch the Russian fleet and to write. ' big battleships had taken up their po- - allege passengers. on board the Columbia about the impossibility of the Japanesesitioa right oppeelte the entrance to the arrived independently at the same con - ever atteek ing Port Arthun 'The weather - harbor, A most unusual thing " 1 , elusion. 0 - , -ie "(kn. By And by, the sun rose, and owing was perticolarly fine, the sin shiaing "They must really have got a genre last brightly, and the temperature being see, night after all, The firing ceased, by the to the light mist that lay upon the wa- ter, it Was very round mid red looking way, at. about 1,S this morning. 'I 1 ticket:1v warm to permit of me strolling --'-let4(,! for all the world like a reclehot cannon battleships Iespeale of came abreast en eg about the deck without an overcoat, the entranue at 1 okk lock. At about fe rhat'S au ominous sign" I remarked On •Menday we heard that the ,Tapan- half -past one it number of young naval (the rising sun being the flfag of Japan), eSQ consul at Ohefoo was in the harbor pincers came aboard of us, evidently very _ but nobody -took any notice of this at- oll board a British secamer he bad char- excited, and one of thein tried. to talk to tered. with the object of taking all the me in French, but as be always relaps- tempt vitticism. at a e The sun revealed a striinge sight, Japanese away from Port Arthur. This ed in his excitement tote his mother siommthat and we began tongue, 1 weld not 111 namely, four vessels lying about nye news excitee us ake head. or tail miles off, and .apperently cruisers. These to think that despite the fact that of what he said. He got so muddled up could pot be Russians; what on earth things generally seemed to be in ex- that he simply danced around the deck were they? The ship's telescope soon eon- ectiv the same position as they had been in pure madness."- • veyed to US the astounding information in for months past, something serious 'There was no light in the cabin, but that they fiew the flag of the Rising must have occurred. • the reflection front the searchlights, Sum They were calmly lyieg there, prob- By and by we noticed that the Itus- showed me that the officer's face was 1 1 trvine to And out through their mans partially &area for action, And even sent ashore their boats in some eases. But as the day wore on and nothieg more happened, we gradually forgot about these ominous signs and wondered if we would really get out of quarantine next meriting or get an ad- ditional - twenty-four hours. Towards dusk the three torpedo boats that had been in the habit Of patrolliug outside the fleet passed us, coming from the shore and making a noise that ie- zninded UR of the proverbial policemen's boots which give fair warning to evil- doers for scores of yards ahead of him. On the whole there was a good deal, of trafficall day between the fleet and the shore, steam launches, either hooded naval launches or open lannebes belong- ing to tradiug companies, passing -con- tinually to and fro. Some of these lame -hes carried coal to make up for that burned bythe warships during the day. One carried some ladies, who probably went to dine on one of the yes- -sets, and one carried a- ship's band that had doubtless been performing at some functien ashore. Work on the Novik. - About 8 o'clock, just after we had finished dinner on board the Columbia, a sound of singing retaehed our ears, and, on going outside, we heard the Russiau sailors chanting their night prayers. The "Paternoster" in old. Rus- sian, the "Ave Maria" or a. prayer cor- responding to' that favorite invocation of the Latin Church, and finally a short prayer for the Czar. Softened. by dis- tance, the chants from the various ships blended together in une - harmonious whole, and sounded so romantic, se reminiscent of - convent schools, of old Spain and of inedinevalismgenerally that even the chief engineer, a Scotch - man of the unromantic name of Smith, was ilear being affected. The night was dark, and the numer- ous lights twinkling all over the spac- bons bay marked the position of the Russian VeSsels. • On leaving Poet Arthur for Chetoo the preview; Friday, I had seen for mewl' that A light was kept flashing on us tili we were ont of sight, but on our return we .were not, I was told, subjected to. snob a long, continuous scrutiny, and onMonday night no light had been flash- ed on us at all up to the time which I have now reached. ' , At exactly half -past eleven 1 was pre- paring to retire to bed- for the night when. I heard three muffled explosions, followed almost immediately by the dis- charge of small guns. Then arose from amid the blankets in an adjoining cabin the voice of Capt. Anderson, the skipper of the Columbia. . "War's declared!" were the words he uttered, and. seldom have I heard words so brimful of bitter irony. If the captain had •mersed the Russians for half an hour fer disturbing him in lig first sleep by their confounded prac- tice firing he could not have conveyed a deeper impression of disgust. I thought it, a confounded nuisance myself that the Russians shouldbegin their practice at such a time, especially as the air was now very cold,,eut as 1 amid not afford to miss even a merely spectacular dis- play, I hastily put on my boots and overcoat and weld on deck. There I saw eothing very •extraordinary. All the Russian vessels were now using 'their searchlights so that the sea around • - :them shone Rise a sheet' of silver. One .or two searchlights carefully swept the !shore, and especially the entrance to the ennee harbor. One blazing eye glared at the Columbia for fully five minutes, anaking us all feel slightly uncomfort- able, as if a policeman's ball's -eye lan- tern had been flashed in our faces -or as if we were standing for photographs. Strong, however, in the conviction of innocence, the little group on deck bore that blinding stare unflinchingly,' making at the same time uncomplimentary re- marks about the owner of that particu- lar searchlight. BOUM lights were directed upward. at an angle of about 45 degrees and did not mem to -he brought iete:requisition at all, 1 noticed that the lighthouse lamp burned brightly, and that the &Whig lights at the eritrance of the harbor had not been extingoished. Some warships were, howev•er; io com- plete darknesinnod if 1 did not keow that it was all make believe 1 should have considered their appearance as awe inspiring. They had cease(1 to be ships And beetene dreadful black blotches on . the water, still tts death, but liable to beret at any moment into manifesta- tions of hellish energy. AleanWhile the, firing ol fight guns-- poitilddrs 1 shotild say—continued -every two or three nenuteg, but the noise Wal nothing to what I had heard on other oceasions of practice firing 0101 the like,- mid I bo -'au to feel that- the sight wee mot worth the inconvenienee it eatieed covered with perfipiration, He seined to glasse the tcleact amount of damage that shiewaviecryGeerxmciatne,temIlaesblesedsalidfinte ifeohicillde,opunkla their torpedo boats had done. I became fuly convinced, after a few then went on to speak to me in Russian. moments' consideration, that these yes'. Rio words were: "His Excellency the sels could not be supported- by the Jap - Viceroy late isaued a decree ordering that eeese fleet. They , were simply a few no commercial ships leave or enter the - • prowlers that had come to do damage harbor of Port Arthur." and then rush oft. And appereetly they lute done damage, for it could no longer be doubted that it was the torpedo boats that accompanied them which bed' at- tacked the Russians the previous night. 1 am -not pro -Japanese, but I mUNt eon - fess that the audacity of this first terri- fic stroke fairly took away my breath. I turned to have another look at the tor- pedoed vessels, and notieedehow the men were gathered. together with white, Beard faces 011 the deck. There seemed to be no captain, no officers, and no order. The men were no longer important parts of a formidable fighting machine; they were a mob—a silent, seared mob—looking with terror toward. the abyss from which. the nfousters of the night had emerged. Some of them, it is true, still seemed to go about their various duties in a me- chanical manner, and I particularly re- member seeing the cook of one of the big torpedoed battleships throwing over the side. do not think that or any of my friends on board the Columbia felt glad at the terrific blow the Russian navy had received. There was something SO pathetic in the helplessness and in the unnatural position of these tremendous ermines of new which had been so sudden - 1y disabled that we all remained. looking on in silence. Togo's plan Divulged. Then we began to notice that a big cruiser on our left had also a suspicious and an awkward appearance, and soon a man who passed us in a launch told us that she, too, had ben torpedoed. The same man .caused us some persuran- Con of mind by remarking that the whole Japanese fleet was coming up and that if we did not move out at once we would tied ourselves right in the lire line. As we had already been told not to leave the s)ort and as any attempt to move at all might draw oh us the fire of the forts, we felt ie difilenth position. . Meanwhile, the Japanese cruisers, hav- ing made a very long, leisurely survey of • the Russians, went away slowly, and the whole Rusian fleet got; up steam, weigh - 'ed anchor and started in pursuit. is a singular instance of the effect of habit that on weighing anchor the Russian sailors very carefully cleaned all dirt from the anchor chain, as if they could not perform time operation at a more convenient time Meanwhile, the Russian ships hastily threw overboard bedding and furniture, which -were at once seized upon by eager He repeated this twice, and then, apolo- gizing for disturbing me he turned ab- ruptly and disappeared. There was now no firing, but the searchlights of the vessels Were as busy as they had been the night before. The position of some of. the vessels had Changed, and, true enough, as the chief officer had already informed me, there -were two big men-of-war lying close to the month of the harbor with all their lights burning and their flashlights play, lug around them Breaking of the Day. The lighthouse lamp had gone out, though it was still dark, but the guiding lights burned brightly. .eannot for the life of me.under- stand," said the Mate, "what they mean by placing these warships in such a posi- tion.. Most extrctoedinary positiont e'er° enough they must have got a bad scare last night," Then we tried to warm ourselves by walking up and (Iowa the deck. The moon wee now shining. There Was a light southerly breeze, and a whitish mist lay on the horizon. The peaceful- ness of nature was in strong contrast to the agitation of 'man. It was long after the day had dawned uetore the Russian vessels deased using their searchlights, and by that time the practised eye of one of the officers of the Columbia had detected somethieg unnatural in the po- sition of the two warships lying at the harbor mouth. He was eot very long in melting to n conchisione "They've had a collision or met with some accident," he said; "there can be no doubt about that. See the list that big one has got Why, her name is near- ly touching the water. And the other has a list aft. Besides, they're both aground. There cannot be more than seVenteen feet of water there. "By gosh, one of those Chinese boys told me just now two piecee ship strike together in night-time, and you see hes perfectly right after all. There must have been a collision. But how the deuce did he know it? And what do they mean I wonder, by flying their flags at the inc sthead?" It took us some eonsiderable time -to realize that two of Russia's best and biggest battleships lay helpless almost witbie a stones throw of ns. Then we ali exclaimed simultanciusly: "What will the Japanese do when they hear Ude?" and the answer each of us gave was that Japan would declare war at Chinese sampan Men. noticed one man paddling ashore With something that once if she heard it. By and. by some - looked like a pine -pone table, and sev- body. suggested that perhaps the vessels eyed went very far out in their quest had. been torpedoed. or had run on suit- e -Mine mines, but that view was consid- for booty, They all disappeared very quickly, erect -too far fetchedand the general opin- len was that there had been a -collision. however, when the shells began to fall. I, for one, was so convinced that this But no shells fell just then, for the Jap - was the only rational explanation that I: [mese cruisers soon withdrew and the wrote out a telegram to be desentehed Russians at once tamed them. This from Chefoo, and gave it to a gentleman was at about 9 °kiwi:. Admiral Togo probably wanted to lure the Russians .on board. the ship with instructions to. outside and to fight them iri the open, send it off on his return to Chefoo by He did not succeed. the Columbia in ease 1 (lid not see him previously. The attention of those ea board the Columbia was temporarily withdrawn Discuss the Disaster. I did this because 1 felt sure that the from these great events by the appear - tug would come along for us in a few ance of. the doctor, who deelared the moments and that I would have "tiffin" quarantine at an end, but who could thet day in Port Arthur. give us no information as to whether After having made aurangements for we could leave or pot. He said lie the despatch of this telegram I 001110 would. go ashore and inquire. deck again 'and found that 'the excite- I forgot to say that even before day - meat of the ship's officers about the tor- break the Russian torpedo beets had pedoed ships had only increased. 11 was !steamed out to the number of fourteen, generally recognized thet the Russians but they seemed to follow in the wake would do all they could to keep the new.; of the -warships like a brood of chickens back for some time, even if they had to runeieg after a hen. Their commanders cut all communication between Chefoo had gloomy countenances, and some of and Port Arthur and to administer re- them levelled their glasses at ns and peated doges of quarantine to the Co- inspected tie carefelly, as if they were lombia and. the other British ships in not sure but that we. might be a Japan- ese war vessel. harbor. "But the Japanese in Port Arthur will The Russia -a fleet returned at about seen find out about it," said the mate, 10 o'clock, and soon after sixteen Jap - "end no power on earth. Will prevent anese war vessels, five of them clearly them from earrying the news to Japan. battle ships, appeared in a long line on They'd walk all the way to Corea; they'd the horizon. Things now looked des' go to sea ill et 'sampan.' Japan is bound iterate for us on tlie Columbia, and our to know of this in a few days." captain took down the goarantine flag "And as semi US She knOWS Of it ShU'll and ran up the signal, "Will you give strike," remarked the second officer; "the Me permission to leave?" two -fleets flee slow on an equality as re- • ' 11't. gavels battleships, and the Japanes are The soldiers we had on board got a not likely to give Ruesin time to repair little excited when they seur the guar - these two." mitine ileg taken down, and wanted an Tliis Witfl the toile of our ponvcrsation explanation. I tvied to pacify them as as we rapidly walked the deck in the best could. I also tried to distract faint, gray, chilly dawn of that bleak their attention by pointing out to them winter morning. We could never etet the ;Japanese vesaele mi the horizon. away from the one point, and we were They laughed at nie and said they were so overwhelmed by the magnitude of the only Russian vessels. digester that we !mild only converse aneWer WaS signelled to the Cot- tiboot it in monosyllables. Thege mono- 'amble, but after a while a naval. officer syllables generally coultituted ribrept mine on board and requested us to sometimeg profane exclanuttioue ex- move. The captain wanted: to know if the battleSbips, and it went so near its nark that. it must, have Splashed them O 1111 spray front the big tumid column Vat idiot from the sea. at the point where the projectile touched the water. All the Japanese fillips now opened fire while running southwest in bine order,. and the ltuesian VesSeiti returned the• :compliment. The Novik awl some other cruieere made a fine Blow, but the warships sine ' ply revolved without changing their po- sition, and seemed to be placed at a di+ advantage by reason of the° cramped .space and of the consequent dauger of running ashore. I meet confess, how- ever, that 1 was not calm enough. to watch the light with the amount of at - tuition necessary to give a -very detailed report of it. The reason of Ode was that we were running' parallel with a Russian cruiser, which drew on us the fire of the Japan- ese, Our captain had mounted. his big- gest British. ensign, thinking, perhapg, for drowning men grasp. at straws, that the Japanese might refrain front firing en out of friendlineas and the Rue - signs out of fear; but so far as the ,Tap - allege were concerned the captain was out in his eakulations, for their shells felt very close, A fragment of a shell made a small hole in the deck forward, another hug- ment is said to have torn the ilug, and the writer has a third fragment m poeket at the moment of writing. 'Most of the officers are furnished with similar relics. • the Midst of Battle. Before the eugagaeaeat began bad been reflecting with exultation that there was a ehane.e 'of my getting to Chefoo before. any other war correspond- ent, but when the shells began to sing though the air And raise huge pillars of water before behind and close to both sides of the ;hip, megot all about the matter, or if I reflected on it at all it was only to curse my luck at falling in O fight which WaS not mine. One of the ship's officers put it well when be said that be 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. don't know why, but had a kind of vague idea that if the front part of the ship were blown away 1 could hang- on to the' rear. .Here I found Chief Engineer Smith,. his face of quite un- usual pallor, one side of it splashed with powder or some black stuff shot up by a shell that bad burst near the screw, me. I therefore returned to the eftloon, preseive of the gigantic Indere of the be might move to Cbefoo, but the °fil- e/here the ceptain esked me to join in a misfortune that had overtaken the Itus- eer Said no ; lie had bell er not leave Port whigkey tied godit he and emne of his of. . Sian fleet, of the great chime the japan- gleam. 1111 11 1 omission was 'signalled fleets were having. Om, had got, of the certainty of war. to him from the shore. He might, how - "Let 118 drillk to the War just begipi," Never was there such muthimity of ever, have the kindneeg, to move just tmoth the captain, hi his most ironical opinion on board n eldp. It was so Ike- it little out of the way, as a cruiger tone—taptitin Anderson is a master of feet that nobody listened to AnybodV wanted to take tio it4 position in the delicate irony—and, laughing at the else, Each joked out exelamations abso- - playa the Columbia oempied. -skipper's- 'salty, we all drank to "the war lately identioil with those jerked out be' After saying somethieg in It low tone just begum" . liis neighbor, and then, after brooding to the soldiers the naval °Meer left the. "Well, they•ie in desperate ettiregt to- • over Ins own remark for a few moments sem, night, anyhow," remarked the mate, ite ' in .eilenee and taking yet another long, Teen Capteht Anderson gave orders. he turned to go. "Von must have notice4. itearching look at the disabled battle- to get under way, Mel 'while the neees- that these first three explosions were . ships, vomited the settle remark in Rae „try preparations were being made I eubmiteine. Didn't you Teilifirk how the other form. It did. not seem to Arno out' noticed a bright flash from the side nf boat trembled? 'Quite a different thing of us at the time that this was an ale ege of the Japanese vessels, tow, mfg. a 'sffinnarine explosion, to an explosion eurd form of -conversation. ing. old my wattle save that it wee ex - that takee place- above water." - When the m light became etrenger Ave , nellv a 41001t'1' past eleven. The report "Yee," said the skipper, "they were eOtlift See that the forts had been minima mine some seconds after, end abont the Aubmarbie explosions right omega, these during the night, rather it strange Oleg, Paine time a big Rho% which I slionid 'firet three. Should Say that one of their We t1101101t. In Some plares where there fifty WEIS. a ..ieveiveenee meg dropped intO MineS eXplofied." were galleries long lines of Mee Were vie- the small melee of sea intervenieg be' At 12 o'elack the' ileirig slaekelmff and iblo, the heads of other8 peeping above etween the torpedoed battle ships and X eame to the ennellesion that I had had the breastworks showed that all the fen- the group of frightened looking torpedo- • enough of it for one night. tater I heard Mt artillerymen must have turned out. boat: destroyers, the grill recOMMeriee eild 1 now noticed On the highest point of aeidell 14111 This shell was evidently intended for in doing so we were only obeying the or- ders we had jwit received from the last naval officer who had visited us, and that directly We rounded that point yonder we would drop smeller. This pacified the soldiers, and probably Saved the eeptain and Boma of his °Dews from being :shot. The soldiers seemed to highly appreciate the idea of getting away from the ehells, and when the lat- ter fell like rain around us they were too mueh ocempied In prayer to pay any at- tention to external -things. After a while one of them completely disappeared, go- ing down below, probably in obedience to that blind inetinet of self-preservation which all of us found it so hard to strug- glct%lrgilliiiiiissoba tneTelt.vhich the (11111040 80 oi Ile reappeared when all was over andi IVO had almost lost eight of land, hut neither he nor his companion caused us • :iv further trouble. 1 shall go heels, however, to my refiele ing the shelter of the forward set of , cabhis. in the unproteeted spaee 111, front of them I found the eaptain and the rest of the officers grouped to- ' gether, wildeyed, pallid and silent. The quartermaster WaS at the wheel. The nude casually threw a rope end overboard with the objeet, as he after- I ward told me, of having genial -lime to hold 011 to in case the ship was struck. I At the sante time I eunceived the brit - Bent idea. of throwing some woodwork overboard end jumping into the sea after it. How fine it would be to SWIM ashore—we were running very close to the Shore—with the assistance of this woodwork. Shells Dropping Near. As my imagination dwelt on thei flat- tering prospect a large shell dropped on the spot where I imagined myself to be swimming, and caueed nie to hastily abandon the idea. One of the officere said he thought it beet to run' the ; Cohunbia ashore, but as the shells were ; bursting more thickly on the beach and on the face of the Cliffs than on the fine we were taking the phut Was not adopted. As a matter of fact, we did the best thing we eould under the 0km/11s:tames. We tan between -two lines of shells, the shells intended for the Russian fleet, which went too for, and the shells im tended for the forts, width fell short, One of the shells knocked off a fun- nel of the Askohl, leaving that -vessel with four funnels; aeother hit. the Sevastopol at the base of one of the funnels, covering that vessel with a dense (amid of black smoke, from -which, however. she seemed to emerge TAKEO HIROSE; THE JAPANESE HERO. Here is a picture Of Commander Token Ilirose, who was killed in Admiral Togo's second attempt to block the entrance to Port Arthur's harbor. Thousands of copies of this photograph are to be seen in Japan, for he is regarded by the people there as the greatest of their heroes up to the present tune in the current war. and the other glistening with perspira- tion. Mr. Smith did not seem to hear the consolatory remarks I addressed to him, but in spite of his glassy stare and very preoccupied manner he showed he was aware of my presence by telling me in extremely emphatic Loignage the sort of fool I was for not going ashore in the doctor'spassengers and. crew were heChinesebt ,r crouched behind the little wooden struc- ture that formed the saloon and the cabins and they semed to think that they were quite safe there. One of them. said, to the ship's officers: "Why you standee out there in open? All right, here," and eeemed hurt and astonished when they tem that none of us aecepted the. invitation to get under cover. Nevertheless, 1 must say that I always breathed more freely whenever T got be- hind something, no matter what it was. But, of course, there wets always present in my mind the terrible certainty that there was no longer any cover, no more protection. A glance at thni. terrific splashes inede by the Shells that fell around showed me that if one of these formidable missiles fell on the Columbia ivonld squelch the hoat as effectually as 8 thousand tons of lead would squeleh an egg. As the mete remarked, one of these things would emne in at aim end of the boat and go out at the other, and a little yellow smoke would be all that would be left of ths ship and her living cargo. But In spite of this uncomfortable eonviction It had at times the strongest possible in- clination to go below, to got down to the very bottom off the boat. The chief en- gineev also seemed to heve tbe -same in- elleation,for I caught him once hesitat- ion' at the top of the ladder \Odell he clutched wth a grasp of win. Ile did not desceml, however, As he afterward told me, ho saw there wfts no good. in doing so, and that indeed there wits a better 'Armee on deck than below. Between thecabins aft line those for- ward there is an open -space, feud 1sud- denly took it thin my lived to traverse this spaee in order to join the other Mil- cers, who were all gateerea together at the other -extremity of the boat 1 did so, running ag goiekly as my legs would "car- ry me, as 111 were relining Loin nee Per- tain shelter to another and might be ,eaught half way aeross if T dul mit hur- ry. Of tourse, I (1111 1101 reason About the matter. My legs imply ran oft with Outside the saloon on the Ride facing the forts 1 found -our two 'Hessian sol- diers crossing themselves at a gwett rate ami praying fervently. A few 'minutes 'Were they lied gone forwent with their rifles And 'wanted the eeptain to stop the boat, but 1 had eeplained to them that we were going ju-t a little further to be out -of the Ivey 'of the shells; that himself with thee° sehliera While we OLOTCUY SKINS. were in quarantine in a Way that did not ay very much for the whiten' self- respect. The Russian soldier is the simplest and most gettable individual on earth. Anybody, evil) 011 enemy, can make a fool of him 1 ABB giVe an in- stance of what I mean. When 1 fOillidmyself in quarantine bn the Columbia determined to Bend 0 message to Chefoo by another boat whieh was leaving. I prepared my 11108 sage and called a SUllipah, a Chinese boat. The guard forbid this boat to a e A Trouble Poe to Import; Wood getsily Reilledled• Dad .hlood le the ono great 0441)00 OK bad complexion and Inoteltesttielate T.11 IS 17 way you inurot attesuie the trouble elirotign the blood with Ur. Witliala Ali blotettete • nieere, etunplee and waistless are the clireet, unrinetakahle revolt • wew; 01004 loaab!fi witli Impuri- tiett. Dr. Willlarat Pliik P1118 eon. preach, :es. 1 bad to reeert to ci, little - quer the 1,,,xis0n they drive out un Strategy. 11)0 Inrinirith:4; tileY actually make It was the simplest kind of ,strategy, news, riele red blood; they etrike. such ag would not for a moment deceive right ea the root or ail complexion the dullest soldier in .Tapan. I engaged troublee ; are a SelfiVe and per. one of the soldiers lit conversation and 11,0o0811 Cure for all virulent skin die, gave him a cigarette. One of my Mende mewl- like eczema, scrofula, PlIUPloe gave the other some liquor, which lie and ereieirelless. "rhea' give YOU a went below to drink, while our two Clear, clean arid full or resyi health. guards vvere thus employed mv letter 111r. M'attliew Cook, Lamerton, N.W. was flung overboard in an empty eigar tellis how Dr. :William' Mk Mu box containing a little money; the "sane' °need hine of erysipolav fate,: other gpaorthieuaienttixtrcouaschietcl t(t)viitt141. deisotiiplulantlit4, medleinea had failed. no says: "My, skin Wa9 lllil4Ln1013 my, flesh tender and brought back 0 reeeipt for it with -10d Sere ; head ached; toy tonguo out the soldiers suspeeting anything. wAs 001-1AC41 bad obills. and thought Why the man wee conversing with I was 1-041141; r°1`."'• 1 tr" sitver44 l Inc e(i()11.npntrooiostsusiopue.ctialli.a,vn-toliblegsspitishsaels1 wo"11°1"6, 14tx u°t11111 11e/1)04 ono ocoa: until I began tieing Or. Williamo, Pink Pills and drove the trouble Chinese "boys" came to him on ready bpol,a 11 totiells,btliiituottagh mastbreak-81011 tbreankofastgfrtml )30 el"' anti I it 111 "IV 111 1.110 beat of leetieli. I think these pills fast time and although them "boy's" had the beet needielne in the world for never before shown theinselvee so preie- b19oc troubIe. ing. record of cure/ After our eseape, auproeched these Illuen• thI te-11:" 43•et111179 give" pi.' Wil - soldiers and pointed out to them that Baia Pink Pilltheir world-wide they were going to Chefoo reel that they prominence. Tim/ cure wheit other could go ta their Consul there. They inedielnes. .but you multi, get the clhl not seem to Itrieli' *1 *11 a Consul was, and they innocently asked. if there tillawz11,143,;r41 ii,pker_Pittitiii°,1;gliA1.4eryl'ep°)011eit!"yenga were Russian soldiers ni. Chefoo. This eau get these relhe at all druggiete, was the last I ttW of them. 1 believe that the British Consul at Cliefoo ex- or hy, mail et 50 eente a box, or eix plainee the feet of their appearance in boxee for $2.50, by writing. The ler. WWI £1,1111i' Aledi e in e Co. Brockville. Chefoo on hoard it British steamer to opt his Russian colleague, with the object of preventing, if possible, their being, treated as deserters oa their return to Port Arthur; but I am afraid tlictt Con- sular reconenendAtions will have little weight with the Ritesian military au- thorities. All these thinge came under my own obgervation on Feb. 8. I have since, however, heard other things that might be given a place here. I have just seen a man NV110 was on board the Petropav- lovsk when. the torpedoing took plaee. lie heard the submarine explosion, went on deck, and was laughed at Ly the oflis „reefs. Every new and again it was coeit'S,s modilei; il)ile.aeatsiteed„ thc1' said. lIc 11)1(1 01184 to 40.1:1 the frail craft to 1)10('Q(1.buffeted by what liad the surf, wideli threat - me that the Japanese in the torpedo mite occupantsof the boat, half-naktd boats cheered as they went away. They -and afraid to throw thenikelvcs into the sea on account of the swift tide, had good reason to do so. Francis MeCtillagh. plied their oars with the courage ot despair. and shouted lit the top or their voices for assistance. Rose at onee signalled to them with her arms that she Wit,f3 coming to their aid, and the shipwrecked men on pereeiving lier meaning pulled with all their strength for the shore. Rose ran down -to the foot of the cliffs, and, without losi.:g a moment-, plunged into tee boling eurf, strewed as•site was, and swam to the boat. Climbing on boar& elle reaesured the smilers as beet she could, for she 1,peal:E4 little Freneli, and then, talt ng her place at the rudder, :steered the boat *vittl mar veil ou adroitness past a thousand dangerous reefs to )'en-ar.Rook, ffistaut about two hones by rowing from the Pyram'do Runion.—Lond..n Daily Graphic. . uninjured. Severol other Ruesian ves- sels were struck, but none seemed to sustain any serious damage. So much for the first line of Japanese shells. As for the sewed line—that intended for the forts—a good 1110117 shells fell short, as T have already remarked, many bursting in the sea close to the shore and many shilcing the hillside and rais- ing clouds of yellow dust or smoke. Two or three burst on the very summit of the forts. One exploded a magazine on Golden Hill fort, raising an enormous (1)11111111 of smoke. While pouring in these generally well direeted shells, the Japanese vessels they had, em me. if I had been m a place of safety, I slimed bave admire! tech perfect order and the gratefeleess eith whieh they earri2 1 it Gear c.o +ions. On the other hand, the Russian flee seemed to manoeuvre chuneily 11 fired enough, however, even the torpedoed bat- tleships using their guns, but none of the forts did not fire 'Very frequently. 011,1 did not, I think, do much damege. Whenever the 03 -ton guns commanding the entrance to the harbor let 117 at the Japanese there was a violent vibration in the air, and a crackling sound which was especially terrifying. After about half an hone of the Nett of experience that I have been trying to desenbe the Columbia got clear of the rival fleets. Tito whole engagement last- ed about 43 minutes. Both Sides oe Board. For 801110 One after we had got out out of reach of the sheik we still felt unensy, for a shot from the 'forth or it Russian torpedo boat might still ova - lake tie; but when a congiderable interval had elapsed Mid Within!: of the kind happened we began to pfeck up mirage and to think that we were very Vale fellowe after ell. ..rhe illissian iilt11i' sthll remained with us, of meow. There haa been some talk of putting 1110111 Ashore somewhere in it boat, but as they dill not object to being varried away, why. we dia riot trouble ourselves any more about them. I felt sorry for the poor fellows, how- ever, and went to see them. They Were sittieg on the ileek with stolid, expres- sionless fates., items,' Welt a mile flit- ted ag 1 approaebed. We had on board three Japanese nee- sengers, one of W110111 Was from Wily, spoke some Russian, and was, I should imagine, from his east of Calintelinnee, 'one of the many ,Tapaneee tonte that ere to be foetid in thto-Teng. The. Japanese was speaking to the Reseian sahib's when 1 vaille along. What he was saying I do not know, but it 'I'S signifieant feet, whielt 1 might mention here, that this Japanese used to AMMO Breton lois her Girt's Brave Deed Rose Dere, fisherwoman, becomes not less Zara.: as later and fuller amounts,. of her exploite at Ushant reveal the extent of her daring and braveryno was gat hori ellf• on Idle 'niche near tile Pyearnide Itunion, ween out of the fog 6110 heard despairing- eries, and looking reaward pereeice it a boat eon t a.ning Reirteen nien, which was drifting wildly at the merey of the .fetrong currents among a mass of dangerous BABY'S HOLD ON LIFE. The little ones are frail—their hold upon life Is slight. The slightest symptom of trouble should be met by it reliable, corrective medicine. Baby's Own Tablets have proved by tLett, record of 80e0058 to bn an Ideal medicine for the ills of infants and young children. The Tablets cure all stomach and bewel trou- bles, allay the irritatiod of teeth- ing, break up colds, prevent croup and d-estrey wormskrite mother has a guarantee that Ws medicine contains no opiate or harmful. drug. Mrs. T. E. Greavrs, Maritana, Que„ says: "I have used Baby's Own 'Ilrblets with great success. They never fail, in my experinee, tol mire the llttI Ills of ,ehildren." . You can get therm Tablets from any medicine dealer, oy they will be sent by snail at 25 oents a box . by writing tbe IVilliams' Medicine Co., Brookville, Ont, Her Solicitude. • ONCE UPON A. Tuatil In Buffalo, N. Y., here was .a re- ligions sect called "Mentes," and they figured it out that tbe world would memo to an end on a certain day. They diepoeed of their property aud made their robes, and got ev- erything all ready. Pat the night before the day when the trouble was; to occur, some of the Mallentee lost They bad just telephoned from down- their nerve, and made a rush across town that hubby was seriously injured the river to Canada, ea to escape the and was fast losing consciousness. general wreck. "Every day is judge The poor wife was distraeted. ment day," :Emerson says, and if Grief, perplexity, exasperation, were more of US Wprild take a trip over on her face. • to Canada once in a while (or often - At last she gasped into the mouth- ern it -would be good for us. The piece of the 'phone: air there is full of ozone—no miasma. "I suspect I cannot get down there ie. —80 fever, and 'the fieh do bite pro- time, for my new hat emne from the milliner's yet, but if I can't, please di:glens, if you know where to go. The Grand Trunk Railway people ask him, before he loses consciousness, what he did with the theatre tickets for • basso compiled a little book telling about Canedian fishing resorts, howl to -night." to get there, rates, hotel accommoda- And then, her grief obtaining mastery, -lions, etc. It le sent for the asking. she fell in a dead faint. Suppose you ,write for et to -day. Ad- dress, G. Te Dell, General Passenger. and Tecekt Agent, Mientreal, Quebec:. Nurse's Coed Wcrds.—"I 001 0. prows sionai nurse," writes Mrs. Eisner, Halifax, N. S. "I was n great sufferer from rheum. a tism—aimost constant association with best physicians I had every chance of a cure 1' it were in their power—but they Mlle. eonte American Rheumatic Cure was recom- mended—to-day my six years of pain seem 08 11 dream. Two bottles cared me, 1.06 Torpedo -boat's Great Power. Whore are two types of torpedo craft now- in the navy—those that fine their movernentsto the sur- face of the water, cirrying small - calibre guns- and torpedoes, and the submarine boat, which cruises on the Surface or submerged, and car- ries only torpedoes. To the former type belong torpedo boats and torpedo-boat destroyers, the WI- feronce between the two being one of Size truly. Up to and Including Ao tons it vessel is rated a tor- pedo, boat; ;having a greater ton- nage, :elle -Iveonees a. destroyer. With but few exceptions the torpedo boats are of less than two hundred toffs displacement, %Idle tit° de- stroyers are of more than four hundred tone, !laving a relatively greater coal capacity than the torpeelo-boat, a greater .sustained speed, and guns of a larger calibre. A torpedo-bonA destroyer 'carries two three-inch guns, fourteen ponied - ors, five six -pounders, four White- head torpecloeg, and two torpedo tubes, ten rifles, and seventy-ttvo revolvers. A torpedo-boat has three one-poundere and thlti same num- ber of torpedoes and tubes as a ilentro,ver. There ttre six- teen destroyers hi our navy, all In commission, and It events probable that the recent developments: 10 the etruggie between. Russia and ja- pan will load to the bedding of torpedo craft In greater numbers In the future. The term torpedo Is ferteetlines ap- plied itelleeriminately to any tv.V. plOulVe designed for Ilse in tile water ; bra In the navy a torpedo Is a mediae teal device whieht is fired fromn 1.1114e by 11 ehiirgo •ot mow_ der and on striking the water is propelled toward the target by ItS own meelmillsm. .‘ stationary tor - went, or mine, 'le anchored In places where the enemy is expeeted, and touted, and ,exploclee on anything etriking it ; or, it eat be 'exploded electrically from: ohore. 'There le a reeord of an automobile torpedo bee Ing effeetive es long ago- as .lait- nary 1111, 1878.-1riu1gtt ltobert L. Berry, Milted fetatee Nitny, in Les - liege AVeekly. A gallon of water It day is drunk by 01011' Japanese Who priteliseS, US neatly all do, the gyinnesties known ae jive jitem His Limit. "But you play poper, dad," urged the boy. "Oh, yes, I play occasionally," admit- ted the father. "Then Why can't I?" "Because, my boy, my income won't stand the drain of more than one poker player in the family." 'Mrs. Elizabeth H. Thompson, oi Lillydale, N.Y., Grand Worthy Wise Templar, and Member of W.C.T.U., tells how she recov- ered by the use of Lydia E. Pinkhant's Vegetable Compound. Deem Mn*. Premium —1 am one of the -many of your grateful friends who have been cured through the use of Lydia Vegetablo Compound, and wbo ran to -day thank you for the line health I enjoy. When I was thirty-five years old, I tuffered severe baelrache and frequent bearing -down pains; in fact, I had womb trouble. / was very anxious to get well, Iolareading of the cures your Compound had made. I decided to try IL / took only six bottles,but It built in tip and eureel nse entirely of my troubles. My family and relative& Were naturally as gratified UN I was. My niece had heart trouble tanl nervous prostration, Uhd Waa considered incurs ithle. Site took your Vegetable OcIese poued and it eared her it a shett time, and she became well and strong, and her home to her great joy end her hus- band's delight was blessed with It baby. knotty of a ember Of others who htetoti been cured of different Ithide of female trouble, and am satisfied that vow Compound is the beet medicine l'or skit Women."—IVIns, Iltesetorrit 'Mosinee:4, llox 105' tillydale, $8000 Welt If originalof akee alto Sof" ossmitimoss tettow,t re matfett.