FROZEN SERVIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13275, 2 September 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

FROZEN SERVIA.

An- we forget i ing little Sen iii, thai shouted so bravely two years ago, "We can take care* eil oiirselvrs"!' The IMiilaelelphia I'ublu- Ledger prints the translation of a portion of the diarv ot an Austrian physirian who folhiwed. some months ago. in the wake of the' outcast mi.ion, and who pre'sents with a terrible- simplieity the picture' of onemull ii tain road, stre>wu with file' bodies oi those who sought but- never ivaclu'ti

;i red uge Irom ihe invader. The exi''act i.- furnished by a. Philadelphia!!, v. ho receive" I it- direct front his hrothei Or Spun Sargeiitlich. a u ell-know u physician laielv n'lurned from Servia. W,- read

\\ iiole processions of weary, broken I'eluge'i's v. antler ibrough the blizzard toward an iinkiiown goal, where the\ hope to Ih' in safety, but where only a leri'ibh' ih'ath awaits thi'iii. Their eyes are set, their lips compressed, and no sound is to be heard. 'I hoc are already shadows of eh-atli. Mmiv of ihe refugees, hoi riiieel by the sign ol the many ele-ael. turn hack, and wiili dumb despair return toward their villages. straight into the jaws of the invaders.

Hut the Germans. Austrians, and Magyuis eommand: "Halt! Vou are in otir way; you cannot pass that road! ' Anil the army of living misery starts anew for the* mountains of the march of death. Such few of the reiugi'cs as happened to save, and take with them their cattle and slump are soon ovi'rtakcn by hussars, ivlio rerpiisitiou the cattle for the Army, as the army of the victors must before all else be ieel. The' carts loaded with a few house-holel belongings, chiefly pillows and blankets, but even more with small, weeping children, ami drawn byoxen and cows, remain deserted on the road, where' the cattle were unharnessed and driven away, and the -mor refugees, mad with despair and helplcssirnss, remain there-, not knowing whether to take their children on their backs and go forward or to lie- down beside the road anel wait for death to bring relief. Round many of tlmse carts you already seo the* corpses of women and children. Here and there one of the corpses is still warm, and the correspondent and the hussars do all they can to restore it to life. Het'r Roda-Roda takes many exhausted refugees in his car, but soon the car is overcrowded. They meet a woman with a child on her bae-k. Her face is tanned and weather-beaten, her mouth wide open, her teeth gleam like pearls and in the icy air her breath envelops her like- a cloud. She' walks swiftly and courageously, her tattered clothes fluttering in the storm. "Stop! Here is the e-ar. You can eonm in."

She' stops, her lips move 1 , hut she cannot speak. . . . Her breast heaves like an engine'. At- last she stammers in a hoarse whisper, "Only the child!" She was offered a piece of bivad and meat and immediately gave it to the child, a gir| of four years. She* was given another piece and put it iu her Docket, saving: "For to-morrow. . . . Lor the* child." ....

A few yards farther on they see four men, .sitting beside a small tire, nodding drowsily. Three of the men are young and one old. Doubtless they are Servian soldiers disguised in civilian clothes The correspondent reminds them of getting frozen, lint they do not move, force is needed to compel them to leave their places and come into the cur. Kurt her along the road stands an old man extraordinarily tall, the wind lashes his long white beard and hair. He .stands there, bowed and leaning on a long staff. . . the true symbol of the martyred and down-trodden Servian nation. What is to become of him!-' The car is full, and by the time the human load has been safely borne to I'see. and ihe car has' returned his late will be scaled. It, is about fifteen miles to I see, ami in the present state of the roads that means a journey of five hour.-. The car passe*, the old man is left behind. The snowstorm increases, and soon, very soon, the Servian Ahasver will lie beneath a snowdrift.