1914. Nellie goes to war
You thought your life was a war. Creditor storms, bankers’ ambushes, court battles, lawyers’ trips, betrayal of the most loyal ally. You considered yourself a veteran of many battles. You’ve fought so many of them. Alone against the whole world. But now you need peace. That’s why you decided to sail to Europe. Destination: Vienna. The official purpose of the trip: to obtain funds to help solve your financial problems. What you really need is a break. However, fate likes to play tricks. A war has begun in Europe, a great war. A powerful call, the reporter’s instinct, drives you to the front. At all costs. To hell with the creditors! The only thing that matters is to see it with your own eyes and describe it. With a smile, you remember the words you said to Margaret Collins, your faithful assistant, just before boarding the Oceanic: “See you soon, Margaret, I’ll be back in three weeks.” You came back after five years. You saw all the possible horrors: death, mutilation, ruins, misery. You told about it to people on the other side of the great water – people who only knew the distant ones the memory of that terrible conflict that was the Civil War.
In the quiet hospital of St. Mark’s, you listen to the sobs of a suffering patient and think of all those boys (Austrian, German and Russian, no distinction) torn from their lives, their souls and bodies ruined by a fury they cannot even comprehend. You try to relax, but you can’t forget what you saw. You are upset, the doctors are worried, because pneumonia is a serious matter. You should rest. And you are in a vast, uninhabited field, plowed with endless corridors carved into the ground. They look like open graves. You look around, but all you see are trenches. You go forward, looking for the path that led you here. You want to go back, but this place seems suspended outside space and time.
There’s a torn coat on the ground, mismatched shoes, and a deformed cigarette case. The paltry remains of a life cut short by the murderous precision of a sniper. You run, you trip, you lose your balance and fall to the ground. You are afraid of. The hiss of bombs can be heard in the distance. You try to get up. There is a canvas backpack nearby. A little further along, a corpse. Maybe the owner of the backpack. You are afraid to look at his face, but you want to know something about him. With muddy hands, you open the bag and look through its contents. You don’t notice that the corpse has come to life, now standing behind your back. He gently places a hand on your shoulder, you turn around and freeze. You can’t believe what you see. A face ravaged by suffering, sunken eyes. He struggles to find the words, but he wants to tell you something. You move closer to him. Tears dissolve the mud on your cheeks, forming irregular troughs. You no longer feel afraid. You recognized this man. You gently wipe away his tears with your fingers, without saying a word. This is Gilman asking you for forgiveness once again.
On August 1, 1914, Elizabeth boarded the ocean liner Oceanic. She planned a trip to Europe, specifically to Vienna, where she planned to meet Oscar Bondy, a wealthy Austrian entrepreneur, to discuss his possible investment in American Steel Barrel. Bondy is a sophisticated businessman. He owns one of the most important sugar factories in the country, but he handed it over to his faithful nephew, Norbert Rie. He prefers to engage in art – he boasts a collection of approximately two thousand objects, decorated with masterpieces by Pieter Bruegel the Elder – classical music and banquets. He maintains relations with the Viennese intelligentsia and has excellent relations with the Habsburg aristocracy. Nellie develops a deep sympathy for him. To help her, she buys a solid block of shares in the Steel Barrel Company. He intends to protect the company against attempts by Iron Clad’s creditors. Nellie trusts him, and he is infatuated with this determined, unconventional American journalist who fell in love with Austria-Hungary. Bondy’s favor is an excellent opportunity for Nellie to raise funds that could save the company, but above all, a chance to breathe, find peace, and escape the lawyers, judges and banks besieging her. And it doesn’t matter that the winds of war are blowing more and more strongly in Europe. Elizabeth wants to escape her own war.
Funeral ceremonies after the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia. Visible coffins standing in the port of Trieste public domain / National Digital Archives
On July 28 – four days before Nellie boarded the transatlantic – Austria declared war on Serbia, which it blamed for the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia in Sarajevo. Within days, the murderous mechanisms of interlocking alliances transform Europe into a great battlefield. Russia, standing up for its Serbian allies, announces general mobilization, Germany stands with the Austrians and declares war on the Tsar. France, Russia’s ally, also decides to mobilize troops on the day when the Oceanic leaves the New York pier. Two days later, Germany declares war on France. Almost immediately, Britain declares war on Germany. When Elizabeth arrives at the American embassy in Paris on August 11, 1914, there is war in Europe. A war that will lead to the mobilization of sixty-five million soldiers and the collapse of three empires, that will claim twenty million military and civilian casualties, and that will leave twenty-one million maimed. But no one can even imagine this, least of all Elizabeth, when, without her travel trunks (because they got lost somewhere between transfers), she asks an embassy employee to issue a special passport so she can go to Switzerland. He receives the document, leaves for Switzerland, and on August 22 he is already in Vienna. In the imperial capital, Nellie realizes that fate has catapulted her into the middle of an ongoing story, and like any self-respecting journalist, she wants to tell her readers everything in detail. What matters most now is not what she left behind in New York, but how to get to the Eastern Front as quickly as possible. The reporter’s instinct awakens after years of lethargy. Nellie Bly is back – stronger and determined than ever.
He chooses the Imperial Hotel as his headquarters, a luxurious building with floors decorated with subtle mosaics, marble staircases and Corinthian colonnades. Everyone important in Vienna comes here. It is in the hotel lobby, between one meeting and the next, that Nellie meets government official George de Pottere. He introduces her to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Leopold Berchtold, on whom the journalist makes an incredible impression. It cannot be otherwise, after all, Berchtold is perfectly aware of how useful the intimacy with the world-famous American journalist Nellie Bly is for propaganda purposes. A journalist who has had an extremely strong antipathy towards the English since time immemorial. The American ambassador in Vienna, Frederic C. Penfield, has known Nellie for many years and has great respect for her, which is why he unhesitatingly issues her a letter of introduction to be forwarded to the head of the press communications department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oskar Ritter von Montlong . Penfield – aware of the pressure on all journalists during the war and sensing the Austrians’ intentions – calls Elizabeth to his office and before handing over the letter asks her to take a certain oath:
?Nellie, promise me that you will remain who you have always been: a defender of truth and justice. And, just as importantly, never forget that you are an American.
Elizabeth never forgot that and never will. Penfield’s letter turns out to be unnecessary. On October 22, Nellie Bly’s name was added to the list of four correspondents who were granted accreditation and access to the war zone on the Eastern Front. Apart from her, these are two Italian journalists, Aldo Borelli and Cesare Santoro, as well as a colleague from the American United Press news agency, William G. Shepherd.
“I’m going to the Eastern Front” – this is the telegram Nellie immediately sends to her colleagues from the Journal. Her presence in the war zone is doubly beneficial for the Hearst newspaper. On the one hand, the reporter deals with a topic that is still not covered by the world and American press, but is strongly influenced by English propaganda. On the other hand, it satisfies Hearst’s requirement as a publisher to also give voice to the Austrian-German side of the conflict. Brisbane is struck by the thought that his friend Nellie is the big woman for the big occasion.
Yesterday, October 29, I went to the front. They woke me up at five in the morning. Washing yourself in the dark was not a very pleasant experience. The electric light had burned out and the sun had not yet risen.
This is how the chronicle of the journey to Przemyśl, a Galician fortress on the eastern borders of the empire, begins. A war zone is a piece of land over which Russians and Austrians are fighting. First the Russians captured it, then the Austrians recaptured it. And now neither of them can break the enemy lines. They will remain in this stalemate for almost the entire duration of the conflict. The history books will call it a war of attrition. The loss of life from the very beginning has been extremely high. Nellie realizes this while traveling along the narrow and muddy roads leading to Przemyśl.
We moved slowly, cart after cart, six vehicles in total. We left the route, then came back on it, giving way to slow convoys going in the same direction as us and endless lines of wagons going in the opposite direction. These mainly carried wounded soldiers, although sometimes there was one filled with rifles and backpacks, which told the story of hastily dug, water-filled graves.
The closer to the front, the more the aura of death pervades every inch of space, making the horror of war more realistic. “In times like these,” Nellie notes, “one does not lose pity, but becomes aware of one’s powerlessness. Maybe this is the most terrible aspect of war.”
The Extraordinary Life of Nellie Bly promotional materials Sign
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
