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Show NEW RUSSIA BEING BORN OUT OF EUROPEAN WAR against a tree and, taking a .ripe anc tobacco out of his pocket, struck a light. It was still quite dark, and, taking my chance, with the left hand I grasped the rifle, while with my right. I made a gesture as if I intended to blow my nose. With a. violent swings I struck the man on the head with the butt end of the rifle, and he fell down: without even uttering a cry. "Having satisfied myself that the' Magyar was dead, I took off his dis-. tinguished conduct medal and searched, his pockets, whero I found a book,, from which it appeared that he had, been a teacher in a Lemberg school.; Dragging the body to the nearest ditch I laid it down beside the rifle, and continued con-tinued my course toward the bridges which I was to blow up. Blow Up Bridges. "1 wandered about for the rest of the night, and when it became too light to go on I lay down in some vegetable vege-table beds behind the ruins of a peas-, ant's hut. From here I was ble to, observe the country, and to find outj from the map which I carried, the) places where the bridges would most; probably be. Having spent the day. in this position, I renewed my wanderings wander-ings at the fall of darkness. I reached the first bridge, and saw the sentry with his rifle. On seeing me, the sentry sen-try called out, 'Wer Kommt?" "Instead of giving him an answer I ran up to the bridge and threw four, hand grenades one after the other. They were well aimed, and the bridge, with the sentry, was blown into the air. The body fell into the river, and the bridge began to burn. "Not losing a moment, I ran to the next bridge, which lay half a mile distant. dis-tant. The sentry was standing and staring at the burning bridge, without paying any attention to me. As I approached ap-proached I flung a grenade at a distance dis-tance of fifteen paces. It struck the man's feet and both his legs were torn off by the explosion. Then I quickly threw the remaining four grenades, and the bridge collapsed and began burning. "My task was accomplished, and I ran away as fast as I could, and reached the destroyed hut where I had spent the previous day. Soon I heard an alarm, which had been raised to catch me. Men on horseback fired and galloped in search of me, but luckily they just missed me, and presently they disappeared in the distance. An hour after this uproar I crept out of my hiding-place and eventually reached the spot vhere I was first stopped. This time, however, I managed to slip past unnoticed, and, continuing on all fours, I soon got within our lines again. I was taken to the stall, my exploit was verified, and I received the St. George's Cross of the third degree." German Arms Are Blasting the Shackles Off the Backward Back-ward Empire. NEW PATRIOTISM IS AROUSED Honest Attempts of Government to Solve Problems Encourages Intellectuals Intel-lectuals to Look For Better Things Remarkable Exploit of a Russian Soldier. . Petrograd. Out of the tears and sufferings suf-ferings of the great war a new Russia Is being born a Russia of fair government, govern-ment, progress and economic solidity. This is the belief of many patriots. Perhaps it is all a beautiful dream. The patriots were profoundly discouraged discour-aged last September when the czar prorogated the duma. But hope revived re-vived and was intensified fivefold when Nicholas not only called together togeth-er his congress again, but a few days ago appeared in person at the opening of this representative body and welcomed wel-comed the members in the name of victory. It is hard for western minds to comprehend com-prehend just what this action of "The Little Father" meant to the Russian mujik. To the humble peasant his czar is a demigod, indeed almost an equal of the Virg'n Mary and the Christ. For him to personally receive the peasants' representatives was an inspiration for the war-driven Russian. Rus-sian. The further proceedings of the duma will therefore be watched with more Interest than ever. The body is patriotic pa-triotic to the last man and the liberal block, or union of part.es, has decided de-cided to forego pressing for reforms until the crisis in the nation's history is past. The Premier, M. Sturmer, has a record rec-ord of conservatism which does not recommend him to the liberal elements, yet, like the czar, he now conciliates the mos radical and so combines the mighty people to oppose a united front to the German. The honest attempts of the government govern-ment to solve the frightful transportation transporta-tion problem, which has resulted in famine in one province with a superabundance super-abundance of the needed products in another nearby province, are generally gen-erally recognized. The efforts have woman who can read, and listens to the latest news about the war or the words of wisdom from some volume purchased at the neighboring town by the joint contributions of many poor folk. Russia is moving and stirring. The world is bound to hear more of the Slavs. Backward, dirty and ignorant the vast mass is today, but it cannot be denied its place. Europe today has about 130,000,000 Slavs to 70,000,000 Germans. In Russia Rus-sia the rate of increase of population is 2.01 a year, while in Germany it is 1.40 and falling. This birth rate of Russia constitutes an insuperable force. Russia has natural resources greater than those of all the rest of Europe put together. These are almost wholly undeveloped. As the Slavic conscience nnds itself and modern ideas spread, the Slavic influence in the world affairs af-fairs is bound to grow. Exploit of Russian Soldier. A Russian scout tells the following story, of his successful exploit behind the enemy's lines: "As I have a good knowledge of Polish I was sent to blow up some bridges in the Austrian rear. I changed my uniform for civilian dress and, having hav-ing crossed myself, left our trenches and crawled in the direction of the enemy's positions. On reaching the Austrian. lines I suddenly heard voices to my right, so I quickly changed my course to the left, and succeeded in crossing a trench, from which one could only hear measured snoring. "It was a dark niglt and very late. I ventured several steps forward, but was then unexpectedly met by a field patrol of 15 men. The commanding officer (an Austrian) seized me, and and began questioning me in Polish. He asked who I was, where I had come from, and how I got there at that late hour. I told him that I was an Austrian-Pole, and had run away from the Russians in Tarnopol, as they had compelled com-pelled me to dig trenches without any wages. The officer appeared to believe be-lieve me, and told a Magyar soldier to take me to the staff of the regiment for examination. "When tho guard and I reached the depths of the enemy's positions he asked me for a match, which I readily read-ily gave him, as I had a box in my pocket. He ordered me to stop, and I obeyed. He then leaned his rifle not met with great success, however. Russian bureaucracy, unlike the German Ger-man brand, is not efficient. But the spirit in which the problem has been met, like the severe measures taken to root out and punish war grafting In high places, have encouraged the intellectuals in-tellectuals to look for better things. M.'Sazonoff, the foreign minister, is another government official who, though a conservative, has gained the respect and confidence of the people. It is felt that Russia's delicate relations rela-tions with her allies and with Sweden and the United States are in good hands. Even if Russia should lose this war, or it should result in a draw, great changes are to be expected. Russian reforms have grown out of conflict. When Lloyd-George, the British minister min-ister of munitions, said that German irms are blasting the fetters off backward back-ward Russia he told the truth. It was the constant incursions of tho Tartars which led to the consolidation of old Russia about Moscow. A reign of terror in the first half of the seventeenth sev-enteenth century led to the formation of the house of Romanoff, under which the Russian empire has grown tg its present greatness. Great Giant Awakens. A century later the war with Sweden brought the nation to a realization of its need of western ways. Under Peter Pe-ter the Great the Swedish struggle resulted re-sulted in the permanent alignment of Russia with the nations of the West, instead of the civilizations of the East. With the Napoleonic wars Russia took several' more steps out of her semi-Asiatic seclusion. The Crimean war brought a further spread of enlightened en-lightened ideas and had much to do with the famous emancipation of the serfs. The feudal system received further fur-ther blows at the end of the Turkish war of 1S77-7S. As a climax to tho Russo-Japanese war came the bloody revolution of 1905, the birth of the first duma and the seeming dawn of freedom. But it was a false dawn. There followed fol-lowed reaction of the most terrible sort, pogroms, wholesale arrests, the suppression of liberal ideas aud great shipments of tho intellectual leaders to Siberia. This era was passing away when the war began. In the spring of 1914 the duma dared to refuse to pass the budget. It fought the reactionary government gov-ernment on almost equal terms. The war caused the liberal leaders to consent to delay. Old institutions were allowed to stand unchallenged in the hour of crisis when every nerve and sinew of the nation were needed iu tho groat trial of arms. The war itself has de--- rjuch to enlighten. The ignorant young peasant, peas-ant, who seldom went more than illy miles from his little village, has traveled trav-eled to the battle front and talked with all sorts of men he never dreamed existed. The suppression of vodka has wrought marvels. The older peasant. Instead of spending his evenings in besotting revels, now takes his place la a little group around some man or |