“One poor fellow, as he was struck through by a bayonet, cried out in his death agony, ‘Jesu Maria!  I have five children!  Jesu Maria!’ The words went as straight to the brain of his conqueror as a dagger to the heart, and killed his reason.  Somewhere among the madhouses of Europe there is a lunatic.  He is not violent, but he never laughs.  He only wanders about with the words of his dying victim, ’Ah, Jesu Maria!  I have five children.  Jesu Maria!’

“The promise of Grand Duke Nicholas that Poland shall be a nation once again went straight to the very heart of every one of our 25,000, fellow countrymen.  That one promise has been sufficient to change the whole mentality of the nation and fill their souls with new hope.  It has cleared up any doubt that might have existed in the minds of the Poles in Austria and Prussia as to what it is that the allies are fighting for—­namely:  the principles of nationality for which we have suffered, ah! how many centuries!”

MILLIONS OF POLES DESTITUTE

The ruin wrought by war in Belgium affected 7,000,000 people.  In Poland more than twice that number have been rendered destitute.  Not less than 15,000 villages have been laid waste, burned, or damaged in Russian Poland alone.  The loss in property has been estimated at $500,000,000, but may reach double that sum.

In Galicia the conditions are reported to be equally appalling, though the smashup has not been as complete, because the Russians have been able to maintain their positions more permanently than they have in the district west and northeast of the Polish capital.

The greater part of Poland lying in a broad sweep of country west, southwest and northeast of Warsaw has been swept over and battered to pieces by shot and shell like the strip of Flanders on both sides of the Yser river.

Without any direct interest in the present great conflict, the unhappy Poles found themselves impressed into the armies of these three great powers and fighting against their own racial brethren.  That meant that brother was to fight against brother, and as the stress of the war increased and the age limit was raised to 38 years and even higher, nearly every able-bodied Pole was impressed into service.

Almost the first move of the Russians at the outbreak of hostilities was to invade Galicia.  This brought with it instantly all the most frightful horrors of war.  Embracing as it does a large part of the grain-growing district of the Polish peoples, the devastation of Galicia meant suffering for not only that province, but for Russian Poland as well.  The crops had only been partially harvested by August, when the war began.

The panic of war stopped the work in the fields, even where the peasants were not compelled to flee before the invader.  The men were called to the colors and the crops were allowed to rot in the fields.  Numerous towns were sacked.