Thinks War Will End in August, Next Year

1916

Russian Field Commander Praises Roumania as Ally — Expects Allies to Win.

RUSSIAN ARMY HEADQUARTERS (on southern front). — In an interview with a war correspondent Gen. Alexis Brusiloff is quoted as saying:

"It goes without saying that I felt deep joy when I heard that Roumania had declared war on Austria. My left flank, now resting on the Roumanian army, with which it has virtually brought itself into contact, is now undoubtedly secure.

"The Roumanian army is a strength with which one must reckon. It is under good leadership, an excellent spirit animates it and it is subjected to remarkable discipline. Its body of officers are well learned, serious and competent. Above all, the Roumanian army has magnificent artillery which, it uses with perfect skill.

"During the last two years Roumania has had plenty of time to accumulate great quantities of ammunition and that is a capital point, because artillery plays in modern war a role not only enormous, but preponderating, and any nation without the help of powerful artillery would in vain expect great military success.

Sees Fall of Austria.

"If you consider, moreover, that Roumania in taking part in the war closes naturally her boundaries to German and Austrian buyers, who formerly found on her territory huge quantities of corn and maize, you will admit that the armed intervention of Roumania, who proudly enters the lists, is an event of the first order.

"To my mind, the Austro-Hungarian empire, assailed from all sides, will not be able to stand much longer before the hordes of enemies who are hurling themselves against her and are only preparing to increase the vigor of their blows.

"The present war is a war that it is impossible for us to lose, and altho a huge work remains to be accomplished, its successful result is already in our hands. The game is already won. I said so two years ago, and I did not change my mind one year ago when the penury of ammunitions obliged us to undergo great trials.

Compares War to a Lottery.

"We must consider that for the Allies, the present war can be compared to a lottery in which every number has to win, only we must go on until the end and not have the weakness to think about a premature peace.

"Now you will ask me when one may suppose that true peace will be signed, a peace which the Allies will be able to accept with the joy of an entirely fulfilled task. I am not a prophet, the future is in the hands of God, but if had absolutely to make an hypothesis I should be inclined to think that the month of August, 1917, might see the end of our memorable work."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.

A Voice From The Tomb

1901

More of Marie Bashkirtseff's Interesting Confessions Printed.

Once more Marie Bashkirtseff and her "confessions" are leading topics of interest in the literary world. The last of the "confessions" have just been issued in book form, and they are attracting almost if not quite as much attention as those which preceded them several years ago.

Readers familiar with the literary ideas of 12 or 15 years ago scarcely need be told who Marie Bashkirtseff was. To younger readers the name of the brilliant, erratic young Russian artist, scholar and authoress is not, however, very well known. Although she left no permanent impress on the world of art or letters, her diary, which reveals with fidelity the workings of her heart and mind, will always possess an interest for the student of human nature.

Marie Bashkirtseff was born in Russia in 1860 and died in Paris on Oct. 31, 1884. She was well born and well educated, possessing a knowledge of Greek and Latin as well as of the more important modern tongues. She was a talented painter and in 1878 went to Paris to study. In 1880 she exhibited a picture at the Salon, and from then until her untimely death she worked eagerly at her art. One of her pictures was purchased by the French government.

During her brief career in Paris Marie Bashkirtseff mingled with the brilliant life of that period and numbered among her acquaintances many famous people. She frequently wrote anonymous letters to famous literary men, and the charm and brilliance of the epistles induced those to whom she wrote to sustain the correspondence. The letters which passed between her and Guy de Maupassant, the brilliant romancer, form the most interesting phase of the last "confessions."

Marie Bashkirtseff was a genius in many ways, a painter, a musician, a writer and, above all, a woman of the most intense emotion. It may well be held, as it is by some, that the world lost much by her premature death.

At Last! Substitute for Booze Is Found

1920

Good Music Takes Place of Whisky, Says Pianist.

It's here! That long sought substitute for John Barleycorn has been found — and just in the nick of time. Hereafter, when the gentleman with the lustrous nose gets that longing that used to lead to the family entrance, all he'll have to do is to start the phonograph.

For music not only soothes the savage beast, but takes the place of fine whisky, declares Moses Bogulawski, the great Russian pianist in Chicago. He urges it as the social and industrial fire extinguisher of the future.

"The economic cancer with which the world is confronted now can be easily treated with music as the healing spirit," he declares. "The laboring classes have lost their curse — liquor — but good music can take its place. Beautiful tunes will put in harmony the world chaos and will soon become more popular with the laboring man than liquor was in days of yore. Good music should thus be compulsory in our homes and schools."

Professor Bogulawski also stated that social and moral conditions could be improved by the greater diffusion of a good quality of music.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 7.

Enoch Ardens in Russia

1906

Many Returning Soldiers Reported Dead Find Their Wives Remarried

St. Petersburg. — Among the Russian prisoners arriving from Japan there are many who have been reported dead by the general staff and whose relatives had been so informed. The unexpected reappearance of these men is causing all sorts of strange family complications, as many wives, under the impression that they were widows, have remarried.

In the province of Perm, where a returning soldier found his wife already the mother of a child by a new husband, he took the matter to the village priest for settlement. The first husband offered to acquiesce to the new conjugal arrangement if he received $25, but the second husband was unable to pay the money, and it was finally arranged that the wife should return to her first husband.

However, as the second marriage was considered legal, and as official documents were at hand to prove the apparent death of the living husband, it was decided that the child born While the first husband was away must legally be registered as belonging to the second husband, and that it must be cared for by him.


Luxury for Left-Handed

Right handed men are no longer the only ones who can, if they so desire, avail themselves of the convenience of a mustache cup. There are now made mustache cups for left handed men as well. These cups come in at least two sizes and in a variety of styles as to decorations. Not nearly so many left handed as right handed cups are called for, but the left handed man can now be supplied.

Inventors At Work — An Idea in Parachutes

1896

An Italian aeronaut named Copazza has invented two balloon attachments, which are said to have fully realized the expectations formed of them. The one is an enormous parachute stretched over a balloon, and the other a folded parachute hanging under the basket.

If the aeronaut finds that his balloon is rising too fast he opens the folded parachute, which immediately acts as a huge air brake and effectually retards progress.

On the other hand, should the air vessel explode through expansion, fire, or any other cause, the top parachute comes into action and a descent may be made without the slightest inconvenience.


A New Telephone

A Russian electrician named Kiltschewsky has perfected a telephone which practically disregards distance. At a recent test between Moscow and Rostoff, 890 miles, talking, singing and instrumental music at one end of the line were distinctly heard by listeners at the other. An experiment is to be made by land wires and Atlantic cables in talking between London and New York.

Eli Clouse Revives Annual Hunting Story

1909

It is reported in the city papers that Eli Clouse of Friend's Cove, 30 miles northeast from Cumberland, in Bedford County, has again killed a big deer that had been roaming over the Martin Mountain for many years. The deer was called "Old Elick." It is peculiar that the same old Eli Clouse kills the same old deer every year but he does. Next year "Old Elick" will be roaming again and old Clouse will kill him and tell the old story again to the old hunters who come to hunt on the State reservation and the story will get in the city papers as is its custom. Another peculiar feature of this story is that Martin Hill, where Clouse kills his old deer, is only a few miles from each reporter's headquarters. Surely the mountain do move as often as the deer has lives. It is the reporter's faith that moves the mountain every time. — Cumberland Alleganian.


The Man in the Moon

Russian folklore tells that the man in the moon was one who was seeking the isle in which there is no death. At last, after traveling far, he found the longed-for heaven and look up his above in the moon. After a hundred years had passed, death called for him one Christmas eve and a fierce struggle ensued with the moon, who was victorious; and so the man stayed where he was.


Daily Thought

Whoever you are, be noble; Whatever you do, do well; Whenever you speak, speak kindly — Give joy wherever you dwell.

The Russian Dance "Circling," No Speaking, No Smiling

1878

A Russian Dance

They have a peculiar kind of dance, conducted on the greens of country villages in Russia.

The dancers stand apart, a knot of young men here, a knot of maidens there, each sex by itself, and silent as a crowd of mutes. A piper breaks into a tune, a youth pulls off his cap, and challenges his girl with a wave and a bow. If the girl is willing she waves her handkerchief in token of assent, the youth advances, takes the corner of his handkerchief in his hand, and leads his lady, round and round. No word is spoken and no laugh is heard. Stiff with cards and rich with braids, the girl moves heavily by herself, going round and round, never allowing her partner to touch her hand.

The pipes go droning on for hours in the same sad key and measure; and the prize of merit in this "circling," as this dance is called, is given by the spectators to the lassie who, in all that summer revelry, has never spoken and never smiled.

Russian Proverbs

1878

When life is not bright, death does not fright.
A tongue that is pert is its own sure hurt.
Speak out with might when your cause is right.
If Heaven don't forsake us the pigs will not take us.
Truth is severe, but to God 'tis dear.
Don't plunge in the brook for a ford till you look.
If simply you live to five score, you'll survive.
Every fox praises his own tail.
Stretch your feet according to the length of your coat.
Chase two wolves and you will not catch one.
Pledge not thy word rashly but hold to it when pledged.
Dig not a pit for others lest thou fall into it thyself.
Through heedless words the head falls off.
Fear not the threats of the great but rather the tears of the poor.
A word is not a sparrow, for, once flown, you can never catch it again.
Every little frog is great in his own bog.
Disease comes in by hundred weights and goes out by ounces.
An old friend is worth two new ones.
Water runs not beneath a resting stone.
Be praised not for your ancestors but for your virtues.
To the sky 'tis high, to the czar 'tis far.