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r ^ - v - . x i * 1 L . in mind that all snb scriPtions to The Her ft m j aid must now be paid m a IZ_vJS. advance. This is the ^ ^ C*-^the law, and we will : JlfllSS Hatttteg If?ntli $2.00 Per Year in Advance. BAMBERG, S. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1918. Established in 1891. * AMERICAN TE WINS ARGC / ___ \ Troops From South, East f West Crash Through f . of War's Most Nota Doughboys Appeal Bayonets Fixed * The following is trom tne siars and Stripes: The thick wall of German resist* ance in Argonne against which the k First American army had been hammering since the last week in SepW tember gave way with a crash on November 1, and the Yankee troops, who had gone stubbornly through > . with more than a month of murder Sr. ' ous, inch by inch, hammer and tongs fighting, came at last into their reward. To them at last came the heart warming though somewhat fatiguing experience of chasing the Germans as fast as their trucks and their horses and their legs \fould carry them. Marshal Foch has sent General Pershing the following telegram: "Operations begun November 1 by j the First American army have alI ready assured, thanks to the valor of the high command and to the *? -[energy and the bravery of the troops results of the greatest importance. I am happy to send you my warmest congratulations on the success of these operations." By the end of the fourth day, with increased resistance developed all along the line, troops working along the west bank of the Meuse were throwing pontoon bridges across the rain swollen river, under fire from enemy guns perched on the palisades I beyond, the fire of which wiped out one of the four bridges. A brigade :''u moved across in the darkness, and by daylight of the fifth day a whole division was operating on the eastern | . heights. On the sixth day the advance was - * stiH going forward on both sides of the Meuse. Meanwhile, at the center, Beau',snont with 500 good French citizens . released, lay for behind the advance '* - "v.* j ' of the Americans, who had moved forward 25 kilometers since last Friday morning and 45 kilometers since the battle began on September 26. jj ;. It was on last Friday morning, when the eastern sky line was tinged with the first promise of day, that the* infantry moved forward for the ) third great assault of the Argonne drive?moved forward after the most stupendous artillery prepara/ tion in American history. It is not V . enough to say tnat behind them the i guns were wheel to wheel. The cannon used in some areas could not all ?^lave been crowded in had they been Sypf^pJaced wheel to wheel. Snapshots of Whole Line. XT?.* mino On/1 tanVe aXI H I 0 Jt-f- l\Ul UlClCi; &UU.O auu vuuuu . airplanes helped, however. The very earth and air and sky seemed in alliance with the doughboys. For a (f week the weather had been kinder far than those of us who remembered last fall in France had dared even to hope. s k For a week the winged cameras had been hovering over the German front, uncovering his every secret and supplying to the high command such a complete set of photographs that the guns, by a few rays of merciless firing, had been able, calmly and . systematically, to wreck the :4' ir enemy works, castering and decimat. ing his reserves, harrying his train, "bewildering his communications., p Now, on the morning of mornings, with dry ground*under foot and a pleasant warmth in the air, a low, almost impenetrable ground mist } overlay that devastated land, providing for the onmoving infantry such a screen as no merely human chemical corps has yet been able to devise. Shielded by that and preceded by a barrage that was precise and flexible beyond all our previous experience, the doughboys went forward. Under the avalanche of shells the Germans ? had vanished discretely underground: no one could have stayed out and lived. When the barrage moved on and they emerged it was to find all the surface of the earth in their neighborhood in the possession of young Americans in large numbers, who came at them out of the mist with bayonets ready for business. St. Georges Goes First. For the first few hourse?for the first day in some places along the front stretching from Grandprs to the J . iAM WORK )NNE BATTLE , Southwest, and Central German Lines in One ible Engagements? rOut of Mist With i FoY Business. Meuse?the resistance was bitter, the outcome doubtful, the fighting nasty. But one by one the bastions fell. The foil n'oo Q+ (loftrcoc fnr nil uioi iu iau nao u*.V4 their mazes of barbed wire and their gd!?risons of gunners, so that within an hour the excited observers were reporting long columns of prisoners, hundreds of them trotting back through the mist to the waiting cages. Further to the west, Champigneulles held out all day, and so did the Bois des Loges, that sinister little forest near Grandpre, which resisted capture even after 30,000 rounds of ammunition deluged its bristling underbrush. But once this final line of defenses fell, the way was clear, and for the troops that had broken through there remained only the task of a breathless and exhilirating pursuit. Some Resistance, to be sure, was encountered all the way. Machine gun rear guards there were, and not me/ely these, but skillfully placed and bravely manned batteries of light artillery sprinkled through the copses and ravines of Ardennes to delay the pursuit, much as an escaping man twitches a chair down behind him for his pursuer to stumble upon. The Tricolor Reappears. But the Americans pushed on at full speed, capturing battery after battery, reclaiming town after town, inexpressibly heartened on their way by the sight of brave, gray little tricolors fluttering once more from the windows of many a good French home, which for four black years had been forced to shelter comfort loving German officers. By the fourth day they had gone more than 20 kilometers. Sedan lay nearer than Montfaucon. Beaumont was theirs, and they were abreast of Stenay. As for the famous Mezieres-Longuyon railway shuttle?artery of the German occupation?it was not merely within reach of an occasional shell from a long range gun. It was at the mercy of our ordinary heavies. As for the Kriemhilde line, that formidable stretch of reinforced crests to which the Germans had retired early in October and from which it had bfeen so desperately hard to drive them?the Kriemhilde line lay behind. By the end of the secorid day it was glowing with a thousand Yankee campfires, and the troops settling down there for even a few hours! rest were scornfully described by those in the line up beyond Buzancy and Fosse as loafing in the S. O. S. The American communique of November 3 wound up with this sentence; "In addition to regulars, there were in this attack divisions composed of National army troops from Texas and Oklahoma; from Kansas, Missouri, Colorado and New Mexico; from New York, from New Jersey, Maryland and West Virginia; from Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia." But the story of hte German retreat from the Kriemhilde line has not been fully told till the roll has been called of all the divisions which have fought in 'the Argonne since September 26. For that advance was but the third phase of the one Datue, me Dattie nseir, 01 course, but part of a greater battle extending from Verdun to the border of the Netherlands. To some of the troops which had shouldered part of the original burden of the battle?to the New York division, for instance, which had driven the Germans foot by foot from their strongholds in the evil old for- j est of Argonne itself?fell now the distinction of sharing in the final pursuit as well. But others, who had 1 gone through with some of the most bitter fighting of the war, were not present in the line?did not happen to be present in line?when the great break came. Chase, Not a Battle. They shared, nevertheless in that victory. When a wall, hammered a dozen times by a battering ram, 4 . UNPUBLISHED CASUALTIES. Pershing Estimates Number Yet to Come 66,892. Washington, Dec. 19.?Casualties of the American expeditionary forces which have not been published, but which have been announced officially by Gen. Pershing, had been reduced at noon December 18 to a total of 66,892. These, the War Department announced today, were classified as follows: Major casualties, including killed in action, died of wounds, died of j disease and died of other causes, 1-,680; wounded, 64,862; missing and n - a prisoners, oov. , A large proportion of the 64,8 62 names listed as wounded are minor cases, it was said, many patients having long since recovered and returned to duty. Officials explained that the total is really less, due to the fact that Gen. Pershing's total--included marine casualties of 1,202 killed and more than 4,000 wounded, which al-j ready have been published by the marine corps headquarters here. crumbles at the 13th blow, it can not be said it was the 13th blow which j brought it down. And it can be said that if it had not been for certain minor, little chronicled operations which preceded the final thrust of November 1?if it had not been, say, for the wedges driven into the Kriembilde line by the bloody fighting which cleared Bantheville forest and gave us^the hills of Chatillion and Dame Marie, the drive which began last Friday morning would not have been made so easily and might not have been made at all. What followed for a few days, when the break did come, was not a battle at all. It was a wild and exuberant chase. Its gait was breath taking, it was impossiDie to Keep | up with the doughboys; it was hard enough in all conscience to keep tabs on where they were in any given hour. v They were soon beyond reach of the finest lenses set in the high watchtower of Montfaucon. Telewires could scarcely be strung fast enough to keep check on them, and, after all, runners have only legs. It fell to the swift couriers of the air > lanes to keep posted the generals toiling, beaming but breathless, in the doughboys' wake. For the guns, they set a maddening pace. All the first day there was but one law of the highway: "Make way for the guns?make way for the guns." It was at once a war cry, a traffic regulation and ,a gospel. By 8 o'clock of the first morning some ' the guns called it a day, packed up and started forward. They moved eight kilometers before opening fire and then next morning they had to take to the road again. The artillery that started up past Champigneulles, having left half their guns behind and doubled their horses for greater speed, hoped at each cross roads to stop and resume business. They never unhitched for 48 hours. Lost in the Pursuit. A few wildcat guns kept apace with thfl infnntrv hnastine- that, tliev would make good with point blank fire when their chance came. They did make good, but some of these loose pieces fell behind and were lost in the chase. "We'll just keep going," one captain confided to the surrounding traffic, "and when we catch up to some doughboys, any doughboys, we'll stop and help them out. However," he went on with some 'feeling, "it's a little hard, now that they seem to have issued each doughboy a Ford car for his personal use." The commander of the brigade which took Buzancy and Authe?a colonel who with his blankets on his own back, clawed his way for 22 days through the forest of Argonne at the snail's pace enforced on the troops which cleared that jungle of Germans and who now carries in his pocket a cigarette case engraved, "In memory of St. Juvin, October 15, 19IS"?must have felt, when his battalions raced ahead of him through Ardennes, that he had gone back to his old cavalry days. From behind there came from time to time the plaintive cry of the commander of another brigade: "I have orders to leap frog you. But, my God, how can I when I can't catch up!" For Buzancy, by the way, there was a great race. Every unit knew of its spacious chateau and aspired to occupy it as headquarters. One regimental P. C. did spend a night there, but they were hustled out next morning with biting inquiries as to what they meant by staying so far 30th DIVISION CASUALTIES 7,023. Figures Cover Period Up To November 23.?Home Lads in Division. Washington, Dec. 16.?Gen. Pershing cabled the War Department today that practically complete reports of deaths in action among the expeditionary forces should reach the department by December 20, and of severely wounded by December 27. Total casualties to November 23 in the Thirtieth division (North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee National Guard) were given as 7,623. The casualties were classified as follows: Killed in action, 1,-1 168; died of wounds, 238; died erf disease, 15; died of other causes, 5; * ? ? -i - - ? -t < n 1 . a _ J severely wounuea, 1,101; wuuiiueu, degree undetermined, 805; slightly wounded, 3,973; missing or captured, 193. Gen. Pershing reported that the | number of duplicated casualties discovered in the central records' office since November 27 frould not operate to reduce the total for the entire expeditionary forces, given in his summary of that date as additional casualties reported more than offset the duplicates. In asking regarding the j casualties in the Thirtieth division j the department said there had been j much apprehension here about the! losses of this unit, which helped the British army break the -amous Hindenburg line. behind the lines. Of course, the kitchens felt it, the j strain of that pursuit. Slum and cof-! fee were brewing in transit, the driv-j er lashing, the K. P. stoking, the j coek stirring. One mountainous j cook, the beginning and end of whose ! religion?which will get him to heaven?is to carry hot food to the front line, come what may, reinforced his mules with a huge German horse and i * - ? ' ?- - i-u-1 i. tnen pusnea me Kucneii musi ui in*;; way with human muscles. A hungry passerby begged, a bit of Another cook. "Sorry, Buddy, but I've just sent the last drop forward." "Good," said the beggar. That was the spirit of the pursuit. One sergeant .was given a limber loaded with well filled thermos cans. "Here's some food for the doughboys. They are miles and miles up that way somewhere. Get it to them." And he did, though his rig balked at the last bridgeless stream and he had to carry the cans on bis b^ck over the last stretch. Real War of Movement. But only the message bearers can; really tell the story. One of them j would start forward with tidings for a P. C. that had moved on sev- j eral miles during the morning. Now, j with night coming on, he would push j on afoot, wriggling through stalled j traffic that even a motorcycle could j not penetrate, slipping in the mud, j taking the wrong turning, using his j last match to consult his map once j more, getting back to the right road,: groping his way forward and finally | stumbling through the aarK to wnere a crack of candle light, gleaming un- j der the fiap of a gunny sack curtain,! told him he had reached bis goal. | "Here's a message for the brigade i commander." "Well, he ain't here. This is an j engineer headquarters now. The bri-1 gade P. C. is up six kilometers ahead, i Or at lea3t it was late this afternoon, j There was some talk of its moving! _ _ 9 9 i on. Here was war of movement with a vengeance. And, after all, it is in such a cross country battle as developed in Argonne on November 1 that the affiliation between all branches of the service is strained and tested. It is easy enough to maintain liaison in trench warfare, it is another matter when the battle line lurches forward nine kilometers in a single day. ? * * *? i-1 ' - ?S il. A Yet never nave an me arms ui iuc First American Army shown better team work than during the past week. Artillery and infantry sang each other's praises as they jogged along together. The airplanes were go-betweens, and when the guns could not reach the receding enemy line in time, the aircraft substituted | for the guns, traveling back and forth with loads of bombs. Also, they bombed the main German railway, hectored enough as it was, with the sorry business of the retreat. They bombed the railway centers. At Montmedy on Tuesday, for example, an expedition of 145 of our planes wrought most gratifying destructions. The overhead combats were incessant. When it is reported that during the first three days of the fight we lost 29 planes in bringing down 124, the whole story has not been told. It should be added that quite 90 per cent of these combats (Continued on page 5, column 3.) I REDEEM YOUR WAE To the Citizens of Bambe I must again call your ; enviable position our co' redeeming our pledges m? paign for War Savings, county pride when we fou first county in the United quota, and that we ranked ties of our State in the s ita, but now we find tha DEEMING our pledges t ?just four counties beloi feel good. Friends, as I see it, it w us not to have pledged oi large amounts and fail to NAME AND HONOR 0] STAKE! Other counties saying: "You made a g pledges, but we notice yoi the goods!.'-' I refuse to believe the remain so. Time is out December i that your neighbor buys 1 J. CAJ NEWSPAPERS AND THE WAR. j Weekly and Semi-Weekly Publica-; tions Suffered Most. I ??? #1 The Republican publicity associa-1 tion, through the president, Hon.! Jonathan Bourne, Jr., has given out j the following statement from its j Washington headquarter^: "No other business has been bit, harder by the war than the news-' paper business, particularly in the' smaller cities and country towns. The larger metropolitan papers prob vl" Inact ITln rin c 1Q17 &*\Jiy SUli<7X cu a v * t more than 1,200 publications wentj out of business. After making al- j lowances for new papers started, it appears that there #as a net loss of 62 dailies and 569 weeklies. "The mortality statistics for 1918 will probably show as great a loss j for the storage of paper, the in-! creasing cost of all kinds of supplies, I and the higher wages, together with j the heavy call upon newspaper men I for military service, have been more severe this year than last. "And one of the serious features of the situation is that the people of j the country probably do not realize I that the most valuable portion of! the press has .sustained the greater^ loss. Under popular government the j country press, including not only j the country weeklies, but the smaller j dailies, is the real voice of the peo-! pie. Editors of large metropolitan j papers do not have and cannot have j the close touch with the people that I is a necessary incident of the life of j the country editor. Just as Wash-; ington is the poorest place in the country to get in line on the political! thought of the nation, so the big city j newspaper office is the poorest place to get a correct picture of nationalj thought, either political or other-1 wise. The people of the United; States should realize this, and should j see to it that whatever else happens | the country press shall be maintained j "Freedom of speech and of the! press is the first essential of a re- j publican form of government, for the representatives of the people cannot know the thought and aspirations and desires of their constituents unless voiced through the mediumship of the local press to which they have; access either directly, through the publication of communications, or indirectly through the editors interpretation of the reviews of his com-! munity.. "The country press, including the smaller dailies, represents the producing element of our national life. The large metropolitan press repre-[ sents the commercial factors. Justj ? 5" occonHd 1 nf I ctis piUUUCHUU IS IUQ iiigt v>javut.Awt va permanent prosperity, so the maintenance of that portion of the press that speaks for the producers is most important. "The metropolitan press has its place in our national life and nobody wishes it ill. The fact remains however, that the vital interests of the nation are most promptly and most clearly represented and the thought of the people most freely and most courageously voiced by the country press. The people of the country may not see it now, but they will some day realize that the large preponderance of suspensions among the weekly publications is a n^nace to national welfare." SAVINGS PLEDGE! rg County:? attention to the very un- unty holds in regard to ide during the June camIt made us thrill with nd that Bamberg was the 1 States to PLEDGE her I second among the counimount pledged per capit in the matter or REve rank FORTY-FIRST ff us?it doesn't make us ould have been better tor ae cent than to pledge buy them. THE GOOD ? OUR COUNTY IS AT ; are pointing to us and reat hurrah over your 1 are not coming up with people will allow this to 31st. Buy yours and see lis! LDWELL GUILDS, County Chairman. \ NOVEL LIQUOR SCHEME. Bottles Are Shipped in Barrels of Tar # To Georgia. Cincinnati, Dec. 19.?According to government agents, who today sealed up a cellar here which they claim contains a large amount of contraband liq,uor, a wholesale bootlegging establishment has been revealed. With the arrest of ~avld Shaw of Macon, Ga., the government men claim to have put a stop to the shipnine of $20.000 worth of whiskey a month into Georgia. The manner in which the liquor was shipped, according to the government men, was in the form of barrels of tar. A three inch layer of tar was put in the bottom of the barrel. Then a quantity of bottled whiskey with the bottles wrapped in wax paper to prevent sticking, was put in. Tar was poured in on these and the process repeated until the barrel was filled, with the three inches of tar on the top. Then the barrel was sealed and shipped to its destination, said by the pfficials to be Macon, Ga. FLU TAKES HEAVY TOLL. Marlboro Man Loses Four Children in Two Days. Bennettsville, D *c. 11?.?Tii9 Influenza epidemic is as-.uming alarming proportions in Bcmettsville. Robert Spears, a few miles South of CnnnAt+crilla Inc* r\riSi nhil'1 SfltllT UvliilUl lo v iv/cv vuv v**?a >w?vv?day. two yesterday and one today, / making four in two days from influenza and pneumonia. Tncir ages ranged from twelve to twenty yt ars. Julian Stross, one of Bennettsville's well-known young business men, died today of pneumonia, following an attack of influenza. He was a son of Mr. and Mrs. L. Straus;-, of this place. Since leaving school he has been associated with his father and brothers in business, making one of the county's most reliable and successful firms. He is survived by his father and mother, three sisters and four brothers; one brother, Dr. D. D. Strauss, is now in France with the American army. Another death from the same cause is that of John Foundas, a young Greek who had not been here very long, but had made a very favorable impression on those who came in contact with him. ? Willie Told the Truth. "Willie," demanded Mr. Smith savagely of his offspring, "did you eat any of those pears I left in the cupboard?" "Pa," answered the youthful George Washington, "I cannot tell a lie; I did not touch one." The parent eyed the child wrath" " 1 3? ?. It v. a ootr?/* IUliy. IIU W is 11) no aoacu sternly, "that I found three pear cores in your bedroom and only one pear left in the cupboard?" William disolved rapidly toward the garden gate. "Father," he said, "that is the one I didn't touch." Disappointing Papa. Miss Prettikid?"But, father, he's a man you can trust." Her Pa?"Gracious, girl; what I want is one I can borrow from."? Indianapolis Star.