“Russia struck at Germany. The German armies invaded Poland in retaliation. They swept almost to Warsaw--and an invading army sweeps fairly clean. There were some things left when they passed over. They were driven back, and the Russian armies covered this territory--and they gleaned what was left. Then the Russians were driven back--sacking as they went--and the Germans covered the ground once more. Three times unhappy Poland has been fought over. It had little at the beginning. It has nothing now. For months Poland has been starving, not merely going hungry. That is a commonplace of war. Poles have been dying because they cannot get food. UNABLE TO HELP HERSELF “Poland is quite unable to help herself. Most of the mills--probably all of the mills--are owned by Russian and German and French capitalists. The banks are all branches of foreign institutions. These concerns are all conducted by resident managers. Some of the managers have--on their own responsibility--given their work people two and a half and three cents a day each for food. Some have added a trifle for the children also. But this has practically come to an end. The managers have exhausted their supply of cash. They cannot get more. There are no mails. The towns of Poland are each printing their own paper money--not by consent of the Russian bureaucrats, but in defiance of them--but this money circulates only within the town’s borders. It is highly improbable it will ever be redeemed in real money. Meanwhile the price of food commodities has risen fifty per cent in two months. By the time this reaches America the prices may have doubled. NO SEED AND NO DRAFT ANIMALS “Conditions are slightly better in the agricultural sections. The farmers have no seed and no draft animals, it is true. But they have fairly good supplies of potatoes. Last year’s potato-crop was an enormous one. “There is a Jewish question in every city of Poland. Where there is a Jewish question in Russia there are riots. There will be more rioting in Poland unless Providence intervenes. Russia has always confined her Jews to the pale. Being forced to make their living by trading, their naturally sharp wits have been whetted. Today they are--broadly speaking--owners of every shop in Poland. There may be Christian shopkeepers here and there. People who know Poland doubt it. “Beggars follow the stranger in the Polish cities. Some of them are mute. They only look at the stranger through hollow eyes and hold out skinny hands. Others are vociferous. They cling to the garments of the passer-by. They cry for aid in an uncouth dialect. They run out from darkened doorways. The man who gives is pursued by a cue of them.” CHAPTER XXVIII THE GHASTLY HAVOC WROUGHT BY THE AIR-DEMONS THE HORROR OF BOMB-DROPPING -- ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS -- KINDS OF BOMBS -- STEEL DARTS--“ARROW BULLETS” AND AERIAL TORPEDOES -- MACHINE GUNS IN AIRCRAFT -- ACCURACY IN DROPPING BOMBS.