]
ROTTERDAM, Dec. 1.--The psychology of the battlefield gets a rather
thorough and able treatment by an Austrian reserve officer, who, after
having been wounded in an engagement with the Russians, gave the
following interview to a Hungarian journalist. The officer in question
was with Gen. Dankl in the fighting southeast of Krasnik.
"You feel little or nothing while in battle," he said. "At least, you
forget how things affect your mind. The eyes see and the ears hear, but
those are perceptions which do not result in impressions one could
co-ordinate. They do not even affect your sentiments. But it is not
cynicism, for all that; merely the lack of appreciation of what takes
place. My Captain, a most lovable fellow, whom I did not alone respect
as an officer, but of whom I also thought a great deal personally, was
leading his company into fire when three bullets hit him in the abdomen.
I saw him fall, but thought nothing of it and marched on.
"In spite of the fact that you have no ill-feelings against the enemy,
and may not even fear him, you destroy him as best you can. On the
evening before our first battle we were sitting about the mess
table--most of us officers of the line. None of us had ever killed a
man. I said: 'Friends, when I meet the first Russian officer tomorrow my
impulse will be to shake his hand.' My comrades agreed with me. But on
the following day I was obliged to lay a number of Russians low.
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