Show FAIL OF PORT POR r ARTHUR WHEN WI HEN THE RUSSIAN military au authorities I were considerIng the names llamas or of possible commanders for Port General was asked to suggest a man His answer was prompt Put Stoessel there he said suggestIon caused some surprise e and some argument Stoessel had shown no brilliant qualities as a aleader aleader leader But Kuropatkin said he was a splendid d defensive fe sl e engineer and coul be upon to hang on as as there was the faintest gUmmer glimmer of i hope So Stoessel was selected and the events that followed amply r demon d Jh wIsdom or Port Arthur has fallen after n a resist resistance an ance e so desperate so heroic so manful 1 that Stoessel though defeated will be accorded as a high a place 11 fri hist ry as the war has produced He wIll march out of Port Arthur With th thaU aU all the honors of var with all the trIb trIbutes tributes utes that a generous can pa pato pay to a gallant fae Stoessel lost but he made the Japanese pa pay a blood price that wIll be remembered as long as the Japanese atlon survives Well may amy Stoessel be esteemed by hIs fellow countrymen well may he be paid hon honore orsby ore by hIs fomen But In payIng tribute to StoeSsel the defeated we must not net lose sight ot of Nosi Nogi the conqueror The Japanese gen general general eral may have hae only onh followed n a line Une or of campaign laId down for hIm months ago indeed it Is more more than probable that he dId but he followed that line well The good soldier knows follow foUm as well as how to lead And Nogi had a task set for him that would have brought despair to the heart of the ordinary commander Port Arthur wa to be Impregnable impregnable The statement was made by military experts of several s at atthe athe the he outbreak of at the war when it was seen that the capture ot of the citadel was one Of Japans early carly objects ts We Ve were told that the Japanese would wast men and money trying to take Port Por Arthur and that In the end they would be routed The Japanese knew Port Arthur was n not Jt impregnable They Imd captured It in 1895 from the Chi nC neso and they believed they cap capture capture ture It again True the condItions In 1904 were vast vastly ly different from froni the conditions in ThO The Ru ians are vastly better fighters than the ChInese Besides they had hada a added ded strength to the fortifications they had as they thought reduced them to the superlative degree or of im impregnability impregnability But the they reckoned with without without out the persistence o of the Japanese without their tenacity or of purpose with without out their frenzied patriotism without th tr splendid military ab ability III ty So In spite of the splendid fortifications and the gallantry ot of the defenders the end ivan foreseen for months Nothing could drIve the Japanese from their I purpose urpo e They set out first to take Korea and prevent the possibility bUlt of trouble In that quarter Korea quickly fell into kheir heir hands Then they sank or scattered the Russian fleet fleetIn Manchurian In waters Then Kuropat Kuropatkin kin was va drIven hack and back Into the interior until be ceased to menace the success of the Japanese operations against Port Arthur Now Port Ar Arthur thur is in he hands or the Japanese and the main armies of Nogi will be enabled d to cooperate with the anni annir armies of r Oyama against Kuropatkin The next conflict along the river and the there will willbe m be terrIfic for If ie Kuropatkin watts waits un until tit til sprIng t to begin an offensive move movement ment mont somethIng like a million men will willbe willbe be arrayed agaInst each other in fairly equal proportIons but with the preponderance preponderance derance In favor of the Japanese |