The Hillman Stereoview Archive
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Views of Old China: Colour Series
3-D Stereoview Cards :: Text 1-150
RUSSIA JAPAN WAR in CHINA: 1904-05
The Siege of Port Arthur :: Cards 1-100
101. Japanese Wounded Entering Hospital at Dalny.
The sea attack on Port Arthur began on February 9, 1904, at noon. The land isolation occurred on May 26th. when the Second Army, under General Oku, took Nanshan Hill. The four grand series of Russian defences from Nanshan down the peninsula were taken in quick succession, and on the 12th day of August, after the two outposts of Port Arthur, immediately in front of the main line of fortifications, were taken, the real siege began, which was to last four months and nineteen days. On May 29th Dalny was occupied by the Japanese, and was at once made the base of all their operations against Port Arthur and of the hospital service. Many of the Russian government buildings and store houses were used for hospital purposes, to make room for the thousands upon thousands of wounded who kept pouring in. The hospitals were so full at times that new arrivals had to be deposited in the street, where they staid until a place could be provided for them.
102. Eleven-Inch Shells for the "Osaka Babies."
 Each of these shells weigh 500 pounds. Its cost is $175, and the cost of each discharge, including that of the impelling power, is about $400. During the heavy bombardment preceding each successive assault each gun was fired once every eight minutes, and as the grand bombardment lasted in every case about four hours, the cost of these eighteen mortars alone must have been $200,000, and for the whole of the batteries, including the smaller naval guns, machine guns, etc., the cost of each bombardment was approximately half a million dollars. The eleven-inch mortar has a maximum range, with moderate degree of elevation, of seven or eight miles; but as none of these batteries was more than three miles distant from the objects aimed at, they had to be fired at an angle of as great as 60 degrees, the huge shells hurtling high into the heavens, passing over two, three ranges of hills, and falling like thunderbolts out of the blue sky, vertically upon the doomed city, or fort or warship. 
103. Bomb-Proof Dugout at General Nogi's Headquarters.
Officers and men at General Nogi's headquarters slept during eight months in bombproof dugouts, such as is shown in the picture. In the background looms a range of hills, beyond which, on a higher range, the fortification of Port Arthur rose. Such a dugout is large enough for a man to lie down in and turn over. The officers had each a heavy blanket, a rubber pillow to be inflated, a pan, a trunk that carried six pounds of clothes, and a small lantern of oiled silk. That was the complete outfit of the dugout. On a nail hung the sword, and the boots lay outside. The rigid Manchuria winter set in in October, and to keep warm in these holes in the ground, without any fire, was no easy matter. But the officers as well as the men never grumbled but bore cheerfully every adversity, every hardship, satisfied with a handful of rice to eat, a mouthful of cold tea and a few cigarettes. 
104. Japanese Reserves Waiting for Orders to Assault.
When the Japanese found that they could not get into Port Arthur by a rush above ground they decided to burrow in below ground. The main attack was directed against the line of forts to the east of the city, or the Russian right center. The first operation was to cut a drop trench, not less than six feet in depth and a dozen or more feet in width, roughly parallel with the line of forts, and at a distance of about 1,000 yards therefrom. From this trench three lines of zigzag trenches were dug in the direction of the principal forts of Ehrlung, Keekwan and Panlung. The zigzag consisted of an alternate approach and parallel. The angle of the diagonal approaches was always carefully mapped out by the engineers, and was so laid with reference to the enemy's forts that it could neither be seen or reached by shell fire. The digging was done chiefly at night, and the soil was carried back through the trenches on stretchers and dumped out of sight of the enemy. 
105. Warming Up Their Camp Lunches.
This picture shows one of the Red Cross surgeons and two private soldiers, who have clubbed together for their noonday lunch and are just ready to start a small fire, by which to heat water for tea and rice. The photographer, ever on a still hunt for interesting groups, was graciously given the, privilege of taking the group, and everyone of the three men came afterward to buy one or two copies to send home to Japan to their dear ones as a souvenir of the war. This part of the camp was at the fort of Two Hundred and Three Meter Hill, just after the Japanese had succeeded in driving off the Russians, although they found it impossible to bring any guns to the top, which was completely dominated by the neighboring Russian forts on Chair Mountain and Table Mountain. In the background by the tent stands an officer of the regiment located here, who seems highly interested in the photographer's work. 
106. The Well-Provided-For Japanese Wounded.
An endless row of wounded entered Dalny during and after the ninety-six hours of incessant fighting in August, when the Japanese undertook to take Port Arthur by a front assault, as they had taken all the minor fortifications on the peninsula, the quadruple line of outworks between Nanshan and the principal fortress. Officially it was admitted that 25,000 men had been sacrificed in this wholly futile attempt. Not since Grant hurled his inefficient brigades against Cold Harbor has there been such a slaughter against a fortress. In the Ninth Division two regiments were nearly wiped out, and a battalion and a company of artillery were put out of action to a man. For a week the roads dribbled stretchers loaded with masses of flesh, clothes and blood. The bandaging places overflowed and the living were so busy helping their wounded comrades to live there was no time to bury the dead. 
107. Japanese Soldier On His Way for Water.
The Japanese private soldier with the two kegs is on his way to a well for water. It is such a cold morning he has covered his throat and ears, but in spite of the severity of the weather he has thrown aside the American shoes, furnished to the army by the Japanese government, and is wearing the native straw sandals and cloth stockings. When the Japanese were asked how they took Two Hundred and Three Meter Hill they replied eagerly: "By taking off our boots." When the soldiers had reached the last resting place below the mouths of the guns on the hill, when they found that it would be impossible to climb the precipice in boots, they, without waiting for orders, pulled the boots off and, improvising sandals from the rough rice sacking, thus prepared their feet for the task before them. A whole day they lay still, the Russians 150 yards above them. When night came they crawled up like ants on a wall and, quietly leaping over the parapet, put the Russians to flight in a final deathly struggle. 
108. A Treat for the Boys In the Japanese Camp.
This is a scene in one of the many camps around Port Arthur. It is one of the streets between the tents. The background is formed by a hill, which protects, the camp against the fire from the Russian forts. The place was laid out by the army engineers, slightly slanting, so as to afford a good drainage. Ditches were dug which quickly carried off the surface water, so that even a rainstorm did little harm to the camp. The two soldiers shown in the picture have just brought a tin case with biscuits or hard tack to vary the diet of their comrades, who welcome such a change from the everlasting rice and dried fish with great pleasure and gratitude toward the Emperor, who thus shows his loving care for his soldiers in the field. The photographer just happened along as the two men had deposited their load and easily persuaded them to pose for their picture. 
109. Band Practice, Japanese Army.
The Japanese army was organized after the pattern of the Germany army, and it is wonderful how quick the Japanese were to learn not only the outward form but the living spirit of the great organization of their masters. Only in one single respect they have been unable to imitate or to improve upon their model, and that is in the line of the regimental music brought to such a high standard in music-loving Germany, where every regiment has its full military band, under a well-trained, talented leader. This the Japanese did not even attempt to imitate, and wisely so. At Port Arthur they had one such band, which played for the generals at luncheon and for the convalescents in the field hospitals, but very quiet music, avoiding the military, the dramatic and the inspiriting. Of these the Japanese had no need. With them war was business; cool, rational business, in which enthusiasm has no place. 
110. Recreation in a Japanese Army Camp.
The Japanese have a wonderful way of acquiring Western ways. They investigate everything, and whatever they think will improve their way of living or working they readily accept. They even had a commission examine the advantages of Christianity over their own religions, but the commission reported that the Japanese were much gentler and more honest and moral people than any Christian nation as a whole, and that the Christian zealots and hypocrites had no counterpart in Japan. Our picture shows Japanese private soldiers dancing a quadrille under the instruction of an American war correspondent. The Osaka band is playing and these soldiers are practicing with an earnestness as if all Japan had their eyes on them. Their pastimes were all innocent sports with nothing rough about them, games like fox and geese, and occasionally the low singing of an endless victory-hymn by General Fukishima, who fought under Marshal Oyama. 
111. Japanese Water Guard, Protecting Camp Supply.
The peninsula on which Port Arthur is situated is long and narrow, in consequence of which there is little running water, and the natural scarcity of the water was enhanced by the destruction of every vestige of shrubbery or forest by the Russians, lest they might serve the Japanese as hiding places or for fuel. The Japanese posted sentries at all the wells, brooks or other sources of water supply, who permitted no one to approach or use the water without orders from the General in charge. In this picture the sentry is guarding a small stream, and the soldiers are permitted to use the water for washing and other purposes below the sentry, while above him no water might be taken, except for drinking purposes. Another difficulty with which the army had to contend was the scarcity of fuel. Every bit of cornstalk or straw was gleaned from the fields to serve as kindling, and the whole peninsula and the mainland nearby was searched for old wooden buildings that might be torn down and used to make the tea-kettle boil. 
112. A Japanese Cavalry Hostler.
To the foreign war correspondents it was an ever new delight to witness the inborn politeness of the common Japanese soldier. The courtesy of the officers was so continuous and exacting it became embarrassing, but even the camp-servants and hostlers vied with each other in extending the utmost kindness to the foreigners who had come to witness their victories over mighty Russia. The soldiers had 3 cents a day to spend, and the Manchurian peddlers did a thriving business among them, selling them beer in bottles, cigarettes and such other small articles as they might want. When a war correspondent came to inspect the horses the hostler, whose picture this is, was always ready to greet them with a friendly smile and, producing his cigarette box, insisted on their smoking with him. He was a student and of good parentage, as there were hundreds of them doing the work of common laborers behind the lines of soldiers. 
113. Transports Bringing Rice for Japanese Army.
Rice formed the most important part of the rations issued to the Japanese soldiers. During the campaign in Manchuria the army, consisting of over 400,000 men, used over 600,000 pounds of rice a day. The labor and expense of transporting this enormous quantity of rice, together with the immense quantities of other supplies used, was handled by the Japanese commissary in a most systematic and expeditious manner. The same consummate foresight and skill, which the Japanese evinced in the preparation of their army and navy for this life-and-death-struggle with Russia, was also evident in the manner in which the army was provided for during the whole war. The Japanese government set their soldiers to tasks deemed impossible by military critics as well as by the world at large, but they also accomplished wonders in keeping their men at the top notch of fighting trim. 
114. The Government Office at Dalny.
Under the Russians Dalny was not only a port but also the seat of the civil government, destined to wield a tremendous power if Russia was permitted to extend its empire gradually over the whole of Manchuria, as they expected and secretly plotted to do. China was powerless to resist Russia, and the opposition of the European great powers to the Russian plans was being avoided by a peaceful annexation, virtual rather than nominal or formal. Russian merchants followed in the wake of the Russian soldiers who were stationed all along the Manchurian railway from Harbin to Port Arthur, and these merchants settled down in favorable spots, selected by the government, and forming the nucleus for future larger settlements. It was this "peaceful" secret annexation, well known to the Japanese, that hastened them to declare war as soon as they believed themselves to be ready lest the Russians might entrench themselves too firmly in Manchuria. 
115. The Front Parallel Before Port Arthur.
When the foot of the slope of a Russian fort was reached by the zigzag trenches, the last great parallel, extending along the whole face of the front, was cut for the purpose of assembling here the troops for the final dash upon the fort. From this parallel the Japanese cut tunnels straight through the bowels of the hill until they found themselves immediately below the massive stone walls of the fort. Here cross tunnels were cut, parallel with the walls and immediately below them, in which tons of dynamite were placed and the wires laid ready for explosion. Of course, in many cases the trenches were located by the Russians, and desperate night sorties were made in the endeavor to break up the work. But it went remorselessly forward, and at a favorable moment the dynamite was exploded, and the infantry rushed out of the trenches and through the gap into the fort. This picture was taken just before the grand assault on Fort Keekwan on September 21. 
116. Japanese Cavalry Officers.
The Japanese Cavalry did not play a very prominent part in the siege of Port Arthur, but it was a most thoroughly disciplined and highly organized troop, held ever ready to pounce upon the Russians if they should venture out upon a sortie, which, if undertaken with great force in the direction of Dalny along the coast, might have met with a temporary success and inflicted very serious damage upon the Japanese. The children of Nippon are of small stature and their horses were small too, but well trained and very hardy. In the Manchuria, in the battles and skirmishes before Liaoyang and Mukden, they often tried conclusions with the Cossacks and won great praise. In the background of the picture are seen two bomb-proof stables for the horses, and beyond them some stands for the short periods, when the guns of Port Arthur were silent. 
117. A Chinese Village Barber Shop.
Whether Russia and Japan were engaged in the most terrible war of modern times, whether the deathly combat was being waged right near their own villages, and whether their own political destiny was in the balance, seemed to be very immaterial to the inhabitants of the Manchurian villages near Port Arthur. They went about the pursuit of their daily labor quite indifferent to the tremendous conflict, unconcerned about its outcome, and regardless of flying shot and shell. Their own little business affairs and the observation of their own personal customs were to them of vastly greater importance than the question of Russian or Japanese supremacy in Manchuria. This picture represents a Chinese barber shaving the head of a customer in front of his dwelling, in the shade of a screen made of cornstalks. His assistant is bringing warm water with which to remove the soap from the shaven head. 
118. Japanese Boiling Water for the Army to Drink.
The Japanese paid greater attention to matters of hygiene, sanitation and medical care than has ever been shown in any of the great armies of the world. They believed that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure, and, convinced that a very large percentage of the sickness and death in war is due to the drinking of impure water and the eating of improper food, they inaugurated a most perfect system of providing for their soldiers a sufficient quantity of good water and wholesome food, and saw to it that the soldiers everywhere in the vast field of operations had easy access to both. It is not too much to maintain that a great share of the unprecedented military and naval successes of the Japanese is due to this foresight, which made every soldier feel that every minute his whole country was standing behind him, tending to his wants in the most liberal and rational manner. 
119. Sutler Opening His Stores in Japanese Camp.
The Chinese inhabitants of Manchuria, merchants and traders by nature, found a profitable business in supplying merchandise and supplies of all kinds to the Japanese soldiers, who spent their money freely, feeling that they might never return from the war, and that the money received for their services would be of no value unless they spent it. The other three persons in the picture are a Manchurian peasant and his two children, driven out of their peaceful home, that lay in ruins, soon after the deadly struggle for the possession of Port Arthur began around it. The poor fellow is waiting for a chance to help the Manchurian merchant open his packages and erect a tent, thus earning a little money for the support of his family. In the background is the viaduct of the railroad leading to Port Arthur. It was a part of the Transsiberian Road, on which every Russian soldier and every bit of ordnance, ammunition and provision was brought east 6,000 miles. 
120. Boiling Drinking Water for Japanese Camp.
There never was a war so well prepared as the one between Japan and Russia, at least on the part of the Japanese. Ever since the day when Russia interfered in the peace negotiations between Japan and China in 1898, forbidding Japan to take an inch of Chinese territory on the Asiatic mainland, the latter had no other idea than to take vengeance and to defeat Russia. They went to work with incredible energy and sagacity, working night and day to accomplish their purpose. They engaged German officers of high rank to drill their army and to instruct them in modern warfare; they armed their men with the most improved modern guns, and provided them with everything that could possibly be of service, down to rubber-covered nippers with which to cut the electric wire entanglements in front of the Russian forts. Each army also had a large number of immense kettles in which to boil the water for the soldiers to drink. 
121. Manchurian Merchants on Market Day in Dalny.
On May 26th the Japanese Second Army, which had been landed at Petsewo Bay, attacked the first line of Russian defense at Nanshan, eighteen miles north of Port Arthur, and gave an inkling of their mettle by taking the position on a frontal attack. The four other successive lines of defense, running parallel to each other across the peninsula of Liaoyang, were also captured in quick succession, as the Japanese were eager to take Dalny, which they needed as a safe port for landing their reserves, their siege guns and the ammunition and other supplies for the army. The fiercest fight in these three bloody days took place at the double height, Kenshan and Wuteugshan, which Stoessel vainly re-attacked for three days, losing three times as many men as were lost in his defense of the position. On May 25th Dalny was occupied, and became the base of the besieging army. Manchurian merchants flocked here in great numbers and did a thriving business. 
122. The Day's Rations in a Japanese Army Camp.
The Japanese soldier's daily ration consisted of one and a half pound of rice, a little dried fish or meat and some relish. On this simple but nourishing ration the little yellow soldier accomplished wonders in withstanding the hardships of war. Furthermore, all this food could be easily packed, shipped and transported more easily than any other food, and the final preparation was also a matter of very little simple work, that anybody could attend to. The picture represents an officer from the commissary department distributing a day's rations. He dips the rice out of the box with a measure holding exactly one pound and a half of rice, and can thus quickly and honestly give each soldier his due. The scene is in the camp street, lined on both sides with open shelter tents and laid out in the most approved fashion by the Japanese Army engineers. 
123. Japanese Wounded Bound for Home.
The hospitals at Dalny were so crowded with wounded that it was necessary to send as many as possible over the sea back to Japan. Every transport that returned to Japan after discharging its load of provisions, ammunition and other army supplies at the wharf of Dalny, took back a full cargo of wounded and sick soldiers. Our picture shows a number of such wounded soldiers on their way to the wharf, while others were taken there on stretchers and jinrickishaws. One of the officers who were thus returned to their homes told Mr. Barry a touching story of how his life was saved. He had had one of his legs shattered by a Russian shell during an unsuccessful assault on a Russian fort, and in the following night Russian soldiers walked about the battlefield killing every Japanese wounded in whom they discovered a flickering spark of life. As one of them came near him, the officer offered him a biscuit, and the Russian dropped his bayonet and carried him on his shoulders to the trench, where his comrades received him. 
124. Waiting for Room in the Hospital at Dalny.
It was in August that the Japanese took the Eternal Dragon (Panlung), advanced their outposts beyond its walls, threw up trenches, and settled down a few yards nearer the coveted goal. In this fearful fight a certain part of the contested field was taken and retaken seven times, and finally a piece of ground, 300 yards across, over which these repeated charges had occurred, lay partly within the Russian lines and partly within the Japanese. On this field 110 living thing could exist, the hostile lines being but 300 yards apart, a distance at which even a poor marksman could hit a head or arm. The two opposing trenches were lined with sharpshooters a rod apart and on the constant lookout. On this field lay hundreds of dead and wounded, Russians jowl by cheek with Japanese, so thick that a man might have walked from one trench to the other without touching the earth. The Japanese tossed biscuits and aluminum tea flasks at random among this mass, hoping that a wounded comrade might find one of them. 
125. Chinese Coolies Taking It Easy.
These two Chinamen look comfortable enough, don't they? By looking at them one would never guess that they are seated half-way between two fighting armies. But even while this picture was taken, the Japanese shells were flying over their heads into Port Arthur, screaming and whistling. From their position the men saw before them the Japanese lines and the smoke and flames spouted by the eleven-inch mortars. Behind them was a slight ridge of rock, protecting them from any bullets or shot from the Russian lines. It was only ten minutes' walk, as the crow flies, from Port Arthur. These men were returning from Dalny and had ventured to make a short cut between the hostile camps to reach their home on the other side of Port Arthur the sooner. The baskets by their sides had contained eggs which they sold at Dalny at a good price. 
126. Jin Rickshaws for the Wounded in Dalny.
This picture was taken in Dalny on the day before the last terrible assault on the Two Dragons (Ehrlungshan). The fourth grand attack on the north battery of the East Cock's Comb (Keekwan) had succeeded, the hospitals were full, but a new large crop of wounded was coming in on the next day, and the Red Cross Corps got ready. When the Japanese reached the last moat at the foot of the almost perpendicular wall of the fort, the Russians had prepared a new trap for them. The moat was strewn with straw upon which kerosene had been poured, and when the Japanese soldiers leaped into the moat the kerosene was lighted. In an instant the whole mass was aflame, and many Japanese perished miserably. Few survived, but these few accomplished that for which hundreds died: they made possible the advance. Twenty out of a thousand reached the top and with the aid of those who followed took the fort. 
127. Wounded On Way to Home-Bound Transports.
This picture shows a troop of wounded who were sent to Dalny to go aboard a transport that was to take them to Japan. Among them were a number of seriously wounded men, so that a stop had to be made several times to give them a chance to recover their strength. Several of the men were too sick to go on board when they arrived in Dalny. One of these was a young officer who in the third assault on October 29th. half-way up the Cock's Comb (Keekwan), leading a squad of men, had come across a Russian mine. One of his men stumbled over the contact and the entire lower shoulder of the hill was blown into the air, taking with it some twenty-five Japanese. The officer was wounded but kept on, and, rushing forward, half fell, half jumped into the moat, where Russian sharpshooters, hidden in a small fort the size of a bay window, shot him down. Hundreds of Japanese died in that moat before their comrades could kill the Russians in the bay window forts. 
128. Choice Rations for the General's Mess
This picture represents the barnyard of the Commissary Department of the Japanese Army before Port Arthur. Here were kept the few ducks which on special occasions furnished an extra dish for the highest officers, who generally had the same fare as the officers and men. This place was not far from the shore where the tiny stream emptied into the sea, thus avoiding the soiling of the water by the ducks, where it was needed for drinking and cooking purposes. The bare trees indicate that this picture was taken in the fall. At the left in the background looms one of the hills around Port Arthur, crowned with a Russian fort. The viaduct is part of the railroad leading from Dalny to the junction with the main line, the Manchurian Railroad, which connected Port Arthur with the Siberian Railroad. The horseman seen at the right in this picture is a Japanese mounted courier. 
129. A Peace Offering Bound for Port Arthur.
This picture was taken on October 29, 1904, during the height of one of those terrific bombardments that preceded every assault. It shows three Japanese soldiers conveying a 500-pound mortar shell to the eleven-inch battery. The building shown in the distance is a destroyed station on the Manchurian Railroad, the last station before reaching Port Arthur, distant only two miles. Up to this station the enormous guns were brought by railroad, and from there the little narrow-gauge track was laid to the place where the batteries were erected. From there the guns were hauled by hand, for horses or Manchuria oxen could not be used where silence and concerted intelligence were essential. Eight hundred men were detailed to each gun, which was mounted on skids such as lumbermen use in the woods. Four abreast, with hemp thongs across their shoulders, and all attached to a cable as thick as a man's leg, the men labored on through the mud after dusk, with the Russian shells bursting over their heads and often, often killing and wounding scores of them. 
130. Getting Ready to Fire an "Osaka Baby."
The man standing at the breech of the gun is lieutenant in command of the battery, and he is engaged in finding the range with a quadrant. The chief gunner to the right of the lieutenant is elevating the parallel of the great gun, and the soldier at the extreme left is the powder bearer with his empty cannister, returning after delivering his charge of gunpowder to the gun. The din of a bombardment of Port Arthur was something terrible. The paper windows of the Manchurian houses two miles away were blown out by the concussions; the mountains trembled. Whoever got within a hundred yards of the guns had to wear cotton batting in his ears and walk on tiptoe to save his ear-drums. These big coast defense mortars from Osaka, which hurled shells the size of a large pig, and the naval six-inch guns roared incessantly on the ten-mile front during four hours, until even the stoutest nerves were on the point of collapse. 
131. Japanese Soldiers Retiring from a Forage.
The group of Japanese soldiers in the center of the picture are returning from a foraging expedition in the nearby Manchurian villages. Their trip evidently has not been very successful, as the first man is carrying nothing but an old biscuit can and some cooking pots. None but the poorest Manchurians had remained on the narrow peninsula on which Dalny and Port Arthur are situated, and what the Russians left, as they gradually fell back from Nanshan Hill to Port Arthur, was hardly worth mentioning. The peninsula furnished nothing, and, although the Japanese government had an excellent system of providing supplies, it would have been impossible to sustain the army here except for the utter want-lessness of the Japanese soldier, who existed for months on rations on which an American would starve within a week. The Japanese soldier on the right is a guard stationed at the little well of water to prevent its contamination. Above a certain point it was not allowed to use the water except for drinking and cooking purposes. 
132. The City Hall in the City of Dalny.
Public buildings and improvements in Dalny, constructed by the Russians, are much superior to those of other Russian cities in the far East. By them may be measured the grand hopes for supremacy on the Western Pacific which the Russians sought to realize when they spent hundreds of millions in the construction of the Transsiberian and Manchurian railways, in the fortification of Port Arthur, and in the foundation of Dalny, the port destined in their estimation to rival Hongkong or San Francisco in importance. By them also may be measured the depth of despair and disappointment into which Russian ambition has been cast by the victories of the Japanese. The whole superb dream of Russian supremacy in the far East has been shattered because Russia would not share the empire of the East with the Japanese, but sought to exclude them from the mainland. They might have had them for their allies. By treating them with contempt they made them their enemies and lost to them all the fruits of their vast labor. 
133. Richard Barry and Frederick Villiers.
These are excellent portraits of two very noted war artists and correspondents, Mr. Richard Barry, who was with the Third Corps of the Japanese Army in front of Port Arthur from the very beginning of the siege, and Mr. Frederick Villiers, the well-known artist of the London Illustrated News. Mr. Barry, who stands at the left in the picture in a long overcoat, took all of the photographs from which this set of pictures is reproduced. They are therefore authentic and true to life. Mr. Barry's descriptions of the famous siege were published in the Century Magazine, Colliers Weekly, Everybody's Magazine, Saturday Evening Post and other high-class periodicals in America, England and France, and the best of them are to be found in his book "Port Arthur," together with fresh material that nobody could write except one who was in the thick of the fight and spent months in camps with the little yellow men from the Island Empire. 
134. Japanese Recruits Just Off the Transport.
 General Nogi had 60,000 men before Port Arthur, and as Stoessel was assumed to have 35,000 men when the Japanese land army first confronted him at Nanshan, it was supposed that the Japanese outnumbered him enough to offset his great advantage in fighting behind bastions and stone walls. But the Russians were more stubborn fighters than their enemies had given them credit for. From the 26th day of May, when General Oku took Nanshan Hill, to the 12th of August, when the real siege of Port Arthur began, fighting had gone on almost without interruption. Between Nanshan, where the peninsula connects with the main land, and Port Arthur there were four grand series of Russian defenses to be taken, each victory exacting a bloody price, and the capture of Taikushan and Shokushan, the outposts of Port Arthur, just in front of Keekwan Forts, had also cost many, many lives. The futile assault on the fortress lasting from August 9th to August 26th cost 25,000 men. The transports were kept busy bringing fresh troops to Dalny. 
135. Chinese Camp Peddlers.
Just when the photographer was ready to press the bulb, a Russian shell burst fifty yards to the right of the group, and the two older boys turned their heads to look and ducked their shoulders a little, while the man and the youngest child took no notice whatever. It was not often that luck favored the photographer to a similar extent. These four people peddled fresh vegetables and eggs throughout the Japanese camps around Port Arthur. They lived in the neighborhood villages. The three boys were orphans, their parents having been killed in the terrible days in May, 1904, when the Russians were driven along the peninsula into their stronghold, Port Arthur. In the background is seen a viaduct forming part of the Manchurian Railroad, of which Port Arthur was the southernmost terminal. 
136. Rations for an "Osaka Baby."
In this picture we see a number of Japanese artillerymen placing one of the 500-pound shells on a small track, by means of which it will be drawn along the little narrow-gauge railroad to one of the immense siege guns. These enormous shells, when directed at the forts, tore gaping holes in the parapets, and, according to the testimony of General Stoessel, they had a terrible effect both on the solid rock and masonry and on the morale of the Russian soldiers, who saw the "impregnable" forts melt and crumble away under this awful bombardment. The mortars from which these shells were fired had a bore of eleven inches, or twenty-eight centimeters. The shells were designed to burst on contact. They were loaded with a high explosive, the invention of the Japanese, Dr. Shimose, and corresponding in its terrific effect to the American maximite, the English lyddite and the French melinite. 
137. Unlocking Breech of an "Osaka Baby."
The enormous coast defense guns which the Japanese brought over from Japan to use against Port Arthur were christened "Osaka Babies" by the war correspondents. These guns were designed to defend the coast of Japan against a naval attack, and were not expected ever to be moved from the foundations on which they rested. But when it became evident that the Russians had taken the heaviest naval guns from the useless warships in Port Arthur and had mounted them on their posts, it became necessary to have weapons of equal power to combat them. The "Osaka Babies" were dragged by hand from the sea coast to the valleys, where they were placed on solid concrete and masonry foundations, behind a ridge of hills that protected them from the Russian fire. Immense and unwieldy as these monsters appeared, they were handled by an ingenious machinery with the ease of a fowling-piece, and the breech was as delicate as clock-work, dazzling like a piece of jewelry. Port Arthur is located just beyond the hills in the background of the picture, and the shells from these guns fell into Port Arthur like thunderbolts out of the clouds. 
138. The Russian Cathedral at Dalny.
When the Russians decided to build a city at Dalny, they made their plans on a grand scale. Foremost among the buildings they erected was the cathedral of the Greek Church, a handsome building situated on a slight elevation and surrounded by a park, newly laid out, as is seen by the small trees. As soon as the Japanese took possession of the city, they utilized the church for a hospital for the wounded and sick officers, and the vast area of the church was often hardly large enough to admit all those who were brought here on stretchers and jinrikishas. After General Stoessel had capitulated on January 2, 1905, Russian officers too were brought here from Port Arthur, where the sanitary conditions had become frightful during the long siege, and Japanese physicians and attendants nursed them back to life. 
139. A Battery of "Osaka Babies."
The Russian fleet in Port Arthur had been twice defeated by Togo, but there was enough of it left to become dangerous, possibly at a critical moment, and it was the duty of the besieging army to destroy this fleet. The eighteen "Osaka Babies" brought from Japan accomplished this task, besides smashing the Russian forts and thereby disheartening the obstinate foe and raising the hope of the besiegers. From the top of 203 Meter Hill, eight miles away, on the other side of Port Arthur, the effect of every shell was observed and the range corrected, until the warships in the port, might they dodge as they pleased, were hit with unerring precision. The bomb-proof vaults of the forts too were smashed, and the smooth, unscalable fronts of the forts were ripped open and pitted, so that the assaulting infantry might find a foothold and a resting place on their bloody way up the sheer precipices. The gun at the left is ready to fire. Observe the high angle at which it is poised, minutely calculated so as to drop the shell within a space not longer than twelve feet square. 
140. A Chinese Pawn Shop In Dalny.
The Chinese characters on the walls of this building inform the passersby that the owner carries on a general merchandise business and a pawnshop. Keepers of pawnshops in general have the reputation that they are not very scrupulous concerning the origin of the articles that are brought to them, and the owner of the store shown in our picture was said to have secured the largest part of his stock at the time when the Russians precipitately evacuated Dalny and the Manchurian inhabitants of the town plundered all the Russian houses and official buildings. As the Russians never returned to Dalny, this merchant was not disturbed in the possession of his goods and disposed of them at great profit to the Japanese officers, who soon became good customers of his. The two men seen in the picture were just about to enter his store to buy something for their superiors. The one on horseback was a general's orderly.
141. The Endless Tread at a Manchurian Mill.
The native Manchurians grind their corn by means of primitive mills, one of which is shown in the picture. This mill consists of a large flat stone upon which a heavy cylindrical stone is revolved, crushing the corn to a fine meal or coarse flour. The mill is operated by a donkey and a woman, both of them harnessed to the two ends of the long pole. The donkey is blindfolded, lest the sight of the corn might tempt him to nibble at it or to refuse to work before he is fed. The woman, in this case a young girl, stalks around the well-worn track in a curious manner, as her feet are crippled after the Chinese fashion. Such a mill is a valuable possession. The owner is considered a wealthy man, because all the farmers in the neighborhood are obliged to pay him for grinding their corn. This picture was taken about two miles from the fortifications of Port Arthur.
142. Sending a Message to the Czar.
This picture represents one of the "Osaka Babies" at the moment of firing. The terrific concussion jarred the ground so that the camera vibrated, blotting the picture. The guns were stationed in the rear of the Japanese position, distant from the Russians, the nearest half a mile, the farthest three miles. The firing was what the military man calls "high angle" or "plunging;" that is, the shell traveled in the line of a parabola over two mountain ranges which separated the batteries from the Russian ships. The gunners never had a sight of what they were firing at. Only the lookout on 203 Meter Hill knew where the shells struck, and he got his knowledge through a hyposcope—that is, a telescope with a mirror arrangement—enabling him to see without exposing himself to the bullets of the Russian sharpshooters only 200 yards away. The hyposcope. the telephone and the quadrant, these were the scientific means of wiping out the fleet at which Togo could not get.
143. Bringing Chickens to the Market at Dalny.
This picture represents a street in Dalny. The man at the left is a Manchurian merchant, for whom a coolie is carrying on a long bamboo pole two immense wicker baskets containing chickens and ducks. The two men are hurrying toward the market place, where they expect to sell the fowl to the Japanese officers, who are glad of the chance to vary their bill of fare, which ordinarily consists of rice, dried fish, bacon and tea, like that of the common soldiers. These merchants scoured the country for hundreds of miles around the peninsula of Liaotung for chickens, eggs and other table delicacies, and always found a ready market for their wares at Dalny. And the same was true of the other, larger army under Nodzy, Kuroki and Oyama, who drove Kouropatkin and his 400,000 men northward toward the Siberian frontier. 
144. Poor Chinese Boy Begging Rations.
Many of the Manchurian farmers on the peninsula on which Port Arthur is located lost their lives during the fierce fighting at the end of May, 1904, by which the Japanese forced the Russians step by step to fall back from Nanshan Hill, at the base of the peninsula, to Port Arthur. The country is hilly, but has a fertile soil and was dotted with villages and farm houses built of wood, which were demolished or went up in smoke during the battles. Many a child became an orphan in these days, not only in Japan or Russia, but also in Manchuria, since the farmers, stolid and fatalistic as they were, never thought of fleeing from their homes, their only possessions. The poor children were saved from starvation by the kind Japanese soldiers, who fed them and allowed them to sleep with them, sheltered from the bitter cold Manchurian winds. The children soon became inured to their surroundings and played about, not even looking up when a Russian shell burst fifty yards away. 
145. Soldiers' Barber Shop in Japanese Camp.
Among the great hardships they had to endure the Japanese boys counted the Manchurian tiger mosquitoes and the vermin. Out of their tents the mosquitoes devoured them and in the tents even the proverbial cleanliness of the Japs did not suffice to keep them free from vermin. For this reason alone the soldiers had to keep their hair clipped short and change their linen frequently. In our picture we see a Japanese soldier cutting a comrade's hair with the clippers. Behind them stand two others waiting their turn. The tents are officers' tents. Just behind the barber's victim lies a heap of barbed wire used by the Russians for entanglements and cut down by the Japanese advance guards, telegraph wire and poles and other rubbish, once erected by the Russians at great cost of time and labor. The poles were chopped up and used for fuel, a welcome addition to the scant supply that the Japanese were able to glean on the peninsula. 
146. Japan's Famous Major, Yamaoka.
Major Yamaoka was the chief officer of General Nogi's personal staff. He was remarkably different from the average Japanese, not only in manners but in personal appearance. A square jaw, thick neck, broad shoulders, massive hands and a long face marked him and distinguished him among his comrades, and in his demeanor he was almost an American in vitality and freshness. He dispensed with ceremony, spoke decisively, almost brusquely, and looked one square in the eye with a twinkle that said he appreciated all the social gayety and yet kept back his own thoughts. He was very neat and walked like an athlete. He was one of General Nogi's most trusted men and was an orator. Accompanied by two trumpeters, he carried to General Stoessel the Emperor's offer of a safe convoy out of Port Arthur to non-combatants, which General Stoessel refused to accept.
147. Plunder Captured from the Russians.
The Russian fort, the interior of which is shown in this picture, was called East Tanlung (Eternal Dragon), which was taken after many weeks of patient sapping and by a final onslaught in the face of a murderous fire from rifles, shrapnel guns and machine guns. The picture shows Adjutant Kiri, of the Ninth Division of the Japanese Army, and some of the Russian ammunition left behind when they were driven out of the fort. The red packages are star-bombs, used as fireworks to light up the region in front of the fort to disclose any movement on the part of the Japanese and to enable the gunners and sharp-shooters to take aim as in daylight. It was from this fort that Captain Nashimoto with seventeen men, after hundreds had been slain in a vain attempt to rush Wangtai, the Watch Tower, a quarter of a mile beyond, reached the goal only to be slaughtered on the very brink of the little fort. The bodies lay-three months where they had fallen. 
148. Japanese Sentry, Ready for Night Duty.
Sentry duty before the enemy was almost certain death. The sentry must see, must expose his eye, and if, as at Port Arthur, the besieged and the besiegers were only 200 or 300 yards apart, the least carelessness in moving the body might mean death. When the Japanese had taken Fort Panlung (Eternal Dragon), they were under fire of the two adjoining forts, and as they sapped their trenches forward it became impossible to protect them entirely. But every few steps there was a sentry on duty, his eyes glued to a small round hole in a little heap of clay large enough to hide his forehead. To make it larger would have been making it a target for the Russian sharpshooters. But even as it was, dozens of men were shot through the eye or the head at these peepholes every day for months. Mr. Barry visited this trench one day. In his presence one soldier was shot through the eye, and when he asked the lieutenant how many had been killed at that hole on that day, the answer was, "Twenty."
149. "Fall In." Japanese Reserves Ready to Advance.
When the bombardment had lasted nearly four hours, then the infantry knew that their hour was at hand. The parapets of the Russian forts were alive with bursting shrapnels, a hundred guns were spouting tons of iron and explosives against the massive walls, splintering them and killing their defenders. The air was black and heavy with the noxious gases of the shells, and the wind blew clouds of dust into the sea. As a rule the Russians did not return the fire, saving their strength and their shrapnels together with their bullets for what they knew was coming. In the Japanese front parallels the infantry was on the move, invisible to the Russians, but soon to leave the protecting trenches and to dash upward as far as their breath would carry them. In the rear the second line and the reserves stood ready to advance at the signal to fill the trenches from which their comrades had just emerged to find victory or—death. 
150. Street Scene in Dalny.
A Japanese policeman on his bicycle, traveling his beat, two Chinese coolies carrying a wounded soldier to the hospital, Manchurian farmers and tradesmen peaceably going about in the pursuit of their business—such was the daily scene on the streets of Dalny during the siege of Port Arthur, entirely given up to the exclusive use of the Japanese Army and its helpers. Almost every house in Dalny was taken into the service of the Japanese, either as quarters for the men of the commissary department, or as a hospital, or as a sleeping place for the vast army of nurses, or for the officers on General Nogi's general staff. The wide streets of the city, well laid out and well kept, its splendid squares and long rows of wharves and warehouses were of infinite advantage to the Japanese. Would the Russians have done so much for Dalny if they could have looked into the future?