ls copper has been mined
for 400 years, though the value of these mines has decreased on account
of the much greater quantity found in America. A hundred years ago the
Kielce mines produced nearly 4,000 tons of copper a year. Brown iron ore
is also found here in deposits 40 per cent pure, while there are also
veins of zinc sometimes 50 feet thick, yielding ore of 25 per cent
purity. Sulphur, one of the ingredients for the manufacture of
explosives, is found at Czarkowa in the district of Pinczow. In the
southwest, in Bedzin and Olkuz, there are coal deposits about 200
square miles in area. In the southern districts wheat is also grown in
some abundance.

The military value of this country is further enhanced by political
conditions. Like the greater part of Galicia to the southward, it is
peopled by the Poles, who form one of the important branches of the
great Slavic family. At one time Poland was a kingdom whose territory
and possessions spread from the Carpathians up to the Baltic and far
into the center of Russia, ruling its subject peoples with quite as much
rigor as the Poles have themselves been ruled by Russia and Germany.

Poland is a seat of conquest in the Great War. For not much over a
hundred years ago what remained of this old kingdom was divided among
the three great powers: Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Austria, on the
whole, has been much the best master. Germany tried in various ways to
Germanize her subjects in German Poland, thereby rousing their bitter
hatred. Russia was no less autocratic in attempting to extinguish the
spirit of nationality among the Poles under her rule. But, naturally,
the fact remains that between the Poles and the Russians there are still
ties of blood. In moving westward, by this route Russia would be moving
among a race who, in spite of all they had suffered at the hands of the
Czar, still would naturally prefer Slav to Teuton.

We shall soon stand with the invading armies in the center of Russian
Poland, and enter the great city of Warsaw. This conquered citadel with
more than 400,000 inhabitants, is situated on the Vistula. It was, next
to Paris, the most brilliant city of Europe in the early part of last
century. But under Russian influence it became a provincial town in
spirit, if not in size. It once had the character of prodigal splendor;
within late years it became a forlorn, neglected city, not the least
effort being made by the Russian authorities to modernize its