The losses on both sides in the eastern campaign in December were appalling, the fighting being of the fiercest possible nature.  A typical struggle occurred a few miles west of Lodz in the little churchyard of Beschici, where the Russians, in one of the final phases of the struggle for the Polish city, showed that in spite of their defeats and discouragements they knew how to fight and die.  This churchyard lies on a small eminence which formed a salient into the German lines.  The Germans were able to make an attack from three sides with infantry and artillery.  All the Russian trenches were enfiladed by shrapnel from one direction or another, but the Russians clung to their positions obstinately.  When the Germans finally captured the trenches 878 Russian corpses were found in a space about eighty yards square.

It was resistance of this nature which the Germans had to overcome in order to capture Lodz.  Later in December it became clear that Russia was getting her millions into the field and that the strategy of the commander-in-chief, the Grand Duke Nicholas, would soon be aided by the weight of overwhelming numbers.

BELGIUM THANKS AMERICA

During November and December Madame Vandervelde, wife of a member of the Belgian cabinet, toured the United States soliciting aid for her suffering fellow-countrymen.  The response everywhere was extremely generous and in appreciation of the aid given the war victims of her country Madame Vandervelde penned the following poem, entitled “Belgium Thanks America:” 

  But still we tell the story which once we loved to tell. 
  “Good will!  Good will!” we read it, and “Peace!”—­we hear the name,
  And crouch among the ruins, and watch the cruel flame,
  And hear the children crying, and turn our eyes away—­
  For them there’s neither bread nor home this happy Christmas day.

  But look! there comes a message from far across the deep,
  From hearts that still can pity and eyes that still can weep—­
  O little lips a-hunger!  O faces pale and wan! 
  There’s somewhere—­somewhere—­peace on earth, somewhere good will to man,
  Across the waste of waters, a thousand leagues away,
  There’s some one still remembers that here it’s Christmas day.

  0 God of Peace, remember, and in thy mercy keep
  The hearts that still can pity, the eyes that still can weep,
  Amid the shame and torment, the ruins and the graves,
  To theirs, the land of freedom, from ours, the land of slaves,
  What answer can we send them?  We can but kneel and pray: 
  God grant—­God grant to them, at least, a happy Christmas day. 
GRIM REALITIES OF THE WAR

A vivid picture of the horrible realities of the war, as seen in a field hospital near the firing line, was given in “The New Republic” of November 28 by Mr. Henry W. Nevinson, who described his experiences at Dixmude in Belgium as follows: