The results of this preparedness were vividly enough shown when the “Variag” and the “Korietz” were sunk in Chemulpo Harbor, before the world was really aware that war was seriously intended and inevitable. They were no less convincingly demonstrated by the perfection of the Japanese field equipment, and by the almost microscopic exactness with which every possible contingency had been foreseen and provided for. Ever since their war with China the Japanese had been perfecting their military organization, as though the coming war with Russia were a certainty. They had military maps of every nook and corner of Korea and Manchuria; they had spies working as coolies on the Russian railroads, and in Russian ports and shipyards; they had their light equipment especially adapted for the heavy Manchurian roads. Their baggage was so arranged and distributed that it made compact cube-shaped bundles which could be packed like so many building blocks, or made into easily carried packs for coolies. The collapsable boats with which a pontoon bridge was thrown across the Yalu were made for that special purpose months before, when the Korean peninsula was yet to be invaded. In fact, the whole early part of the war was an almost grotesque struggle between preparedness and unpreparedness, extreme mobility and clodhopping heaviness, cleverness and stupidity. [Illustration: RUSSIAN LADIES SEWING FOR THE RED CROSS IN THE PALACE OF THE GRAND DUKE VLADIMIR ] Under the auspices of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, a circle of titled ladies met regularly at the Grand Ducal residence to sew for the men at the front. The Grand Duchess herself equipped and sent to the front an entire train fitted out for hospital purposes. At the Winter Palace the Czarina sewed with nearly a thousand ladies and the Dowager Empress presided over another sewing circle [Illustration: WITH THE RUSSIAN ARMY ON ITS MARCH TO THE FRONT ] A division of regular troops mobilizing in Southeastern Russia for transportation northward. The infantry regiments may be seen marching along the main road, while the artillery and transport wagons are moving up in the middle distance. A large body of cavalry, half hidden in dust clouds, is visible near the horizon. These troops were among the first mobilized [Illustration: THE CZAR OF RUSSIA AND HIS FAMILY ] [Illustration: THE CHRISTENING PROCESSION FOR THE CZAREVITCH ] [Illustration: CHILDREN OF THE CZAR AT A MILITARY REVIEW ] THE AUTOCRAT OF RUSSIA AND THE ROYAL FAMILY [Illustration: THE CZAR LEAVING THE WINTER PALACE TO BID FAREWELL TO TROOPS STARTING FOR THE FRONT ] The most sorrowful figure in the Russian Court at the beginning of the war was the Autocrat from whom all the Muscovite power and splendor radiated. Helpless among the cliques of the bureaucracy, he knew not what course to pursue and was beset with apprehensions not only of the fidelity of those about him, but for the safety of his own life