THE HAPPY RUSSIAN

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 55, 6 March 1916, Page 7

THE HAPPY RUSSIAN

INVIGORATED BY THE COLD,

ENEMY SUFFERS AGONIES,

Regarding the plight of the German' soldiery on the Russian front, owing to the seventy of the weather, the following is of interest: — , The Germans have begun to feel a, disquieting pressure, for notwithstanding the abnormally severe cold, ths temperature having oscillated for weeks about minus 28 degrees Fahrenheit^from a minimum of 40 to a maximum o£ 65 degrees of frost—they have felt compelled to resume activity, wrote the Petrograd correspondent'of the London. Morning Post at the end of December. The main results of this activity are theincreasing numbers of German* surrenders; indeed, in some sections of tho front the enemy is hoav compelled to post sharpshooters behind every movement towards the Russian lines, even scouts and picked men preferring thn warmth and comfort of R.ussian captivity to the misery of their own inadequate preparations for the exceptionally severe cold which is now prevailing. "Regularoperations of war on any large scale aro physically impossible under these climatic conditions, wliich, however, are admirably suited to Russian guerrilla methods. Already Germans, marching in columns through a blizzard, have come under the direct fire of Russian artillery, which inflicted fearful havoc, among theinen, who had supposed that they were in security some miles behind their forward fighting line of advance. Russian soldiers prefer the cruel frost to the torrid heat of summer. The Russian winter is healthy and bracing, tha dry air being such as modern doctors prescribe for the treatment of consumptives, and, though the heavy frosts kill birds on the wing and deaden any of the larger military operations, they stimulate the Russians to individual efforts of an extremely exasperating nature to an enemy unaccustomed to them. The Germans are burning whole forests as firewood in their efforts to keep themselves alive. This fact, which is known from many sources, suffices, to show how hopeless are the German, efforts to contend with the R.ussian winter. The Russian, even in winter, never consumes fuel in this wholesale manner, yet he keeps perfectly warm. Peculiar forms of clothing, occasional active movements, and glasses of scalding tea keep the Russian lively and happy, where thft German suffers agonies round red hot. stove-pipes and other Western inventions, which, with alcohol in excessive doses, only aggravate the trouble.