_THE BATTLE OF MUKDEN--AND CALL OF MR. DEVOAU AS ASSOCIATE MINISTER._ After the recital of the fall of the key to Port Arthur, the speaker of the evening gave his experiences in the world's greatest battle as follows: "I arrived at Mukden long before the fight, and after the famous victorious charge of Poutiloff up the slopes of Lone Tree Hill, by which the Japanese were driven out with fearful loss, I wanted to be one of its defenders, but General Kuropatkin seemed to know all about me, and insisted that I connect myself with the force holding Yuhungtun. I was angry and thought I was going to miss the liveliest part of it, but the general knew better. "There was a good chance to become acquainted with the men before the conflict, and I found them really fine fellows. Some were capital marksmen, and as the enemy's outposts drew nearer amused themselves by sniping the men in the advanced pits, and many a Jap whose head only was visible did we see lifted out of his hole with his brains oozing out of a bullet perforation in his upper story. The time came at last, however, when 1,000,000 men confronted each other in the lines of battle, who were destined to suffer a loss in killed, wounded and prisoners within three weeks of 250,000 men, or just one-fourth of the entire number. Although the battle proper lasted about nine days, what with preliminaries and the rear-guard action which followed, it might be safe to add ten more. The struggle was fearful, and nobody was so much master of the situation as our commander-in-chief, who knew from the beginning where the blow would fall.