rce day by day.
Long ago we saw the last of butter, sausage, or similar delicacies. We
are glad if we have bread and some lard. Only once in a great while are
we fortunate enough to buy some cattle. But then a great feast is
prepared.... Tea is practically all that we have to drink.... The
hardships, as you can see, are somewhat plentiful; but in spite of this
fact I am in tiptop condition and feeling wonderfully well. Sometimes I
am astonished myself what one can stand."

Early in October, 1914, the Germans came closer and closer to Warsaw. At
the end of it they were in the south, within twenty miles of the old
Polish capital--at Grojec. At that time only a comparatively small
force, not more than three army corps, was available, under General
Scheidemann's command, for its defense. These, however--all of them made
up of tried Siberian troops--fought heroically for forty-four hours,
especially around the strongly fortified little town of Blonie, about
ten miles west of Warsaw. The commander in chief of all the Russian
armies, Grand Duke Nicholas, had retired with his staff to Grodno, and
Warsaw expected as confidently a German occupation as the Germans
themselves. But suddenly the Russians, who up to that time seem to have
underestimated the strength of the Germans, awoke to the desperate needs
of the situation. By a supreme effort they contrived to concentrate vast
reenforcements to the east of Warsaw within a few days and to change the
proportion of numbers before Warsaw from five to three in favor of the
Germans to about three to one in their own favor.

On October 10, 1914, panic reigned supreme in Warsaw. Although the
Government tried to dispel the fears of the populace by encouraging
proclamations, the thunder of the cannons, which could be heard
incessantly, and the very evident lack of strong Russian forces, spoke
more loudly. Whoever could afford to flee and was fortunate enough to
get official sanction to leave, did so. The panic was still more
intensified when German aeroplanes and dirigibles began to appear in the
sky. For fully ten days the fighting lasted around the immediate
neighborhood of the city. Day and night, bombs thrown by the German air
fleet exploded in all parts of the city, doing great damage to property
and killing and wounding hundreds of innocent noncombatants. Day and
night could be heard the roar of the artillery fire, and nightfall
brought the additional terror of the fiery reflection