Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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i ■ \ KAd'e tha** / > if & r ■ // <• T ay privates privileges. him In the trenches, because uir out fits'were nowhere near each"" other, hut .whcueyer we were in billets pt the same tifne, we were together' ns’ inwft EX'GUNNER AND CHIEf* PETTV^offieE^U.^NAVY^^ MEMBER OF THE FOREIGN .LEGION OF FRANCE CAPTAIN GUN TURRET, FRENCH BATTLESHIP CASSAPvD WINNER OF THE CROIX DE GUERRE Copynjht. 1918, by Reilly *nd Bnnoo Co., Through SpecuJ Amrvgerrwre Wih the George Manhew Adame Sc - • ‘ • ' 1 . . ' I’ ' ' t I : two snLpers to each company and be cause they t<*>k more chances-with their lives than the ordinary p they/ were allowecl piore When it was at all possible our snipers as w ere allowed dry quarters*' .the best of i , jtcov. n" v:is ft fuhriy car! and T never food, and they did not h:ive to follow saw-anyone else much li]:.- him. A ’the.usuail routine, but came and went tali, red headed,/dep^yim.king fel- as they pleased. I low. never saying much and slow in Our snipers-, as a rule, went over everythin!; he did or said—you would the parapet about dusk, just before j never think he anlounred to mttelt nr Fritz Rot his star, shells going. They [-was worth tii-t salt.' The/boys used to Would crawl out to sh li craters . or j call him. "Ginger" Iirown, batU on oc tree stumps or holes'- tiiat they had count of his red hair, and his slow spotted during the day— in’’ other words, places where they cofild see the* enemy Paija ftcrt-< but. c< at Id-not'be seen themselves, j Offer- in position/ they would .make themselves comfort- aide, sipear theiij tin hat| With dirt, jxet a good rest for their ritlck n-mi snipe every German they saw. 'They ■J. nnn DEPEW GETS HIS FIRST EXPERIENCE IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES AT DIXMUDE. Synopsis.—Albert Nr Depew, author of the story, tells of his service in the United States navy, during which he attained the rank of chief ph.tty ,officer, first-class gunner. The world war starts soon after he receives his honorable discharge from the ‘navv. and lie leaves Air France with a determination to enlist. lie jbpisThe Foreign Legion and is assigned to the dreadnaught Cassard,"where his-niarksinanshlp wins him liigivhonors. Later he is transferred, to the land forces and sent to v the Flanders front. ■ ' ■ v ‘ v/ , movements. Bfft.he would pull a sur prise on you every once In a while, like this'one that he fooled nie with. ' .r r ' • /. ■One morning about dawn we started r out for-a walk through what used to he Dixmiide— plies of stone and brick hnd mortar. Tjie're were rio civvies to bribe Jitsl.Cross motor corps of t.he I.>istr|rf of JUol umhia.. The District chapter District Red Cross Motor Corps Doing Good Work I- ... >. '■ '■ -*—. '■ ... , ■- , - ; W ASHINGTON,—Since.,thy-installation of tin* special telephone connection with thv wnr department a« many.as lo calls a day have beerr "answered CHAPTER IV—Continued. In the communication trench you have to keep your distance from «the our noses wqrse than the cooties. They, certainly werb game little devils, apd cijinie right hack at us. . So most of the poilus threw the «uau. ahead of • you. 1 his is done-so -dopc-at"-Fritz and fought the cooties .that you will have plenty of room to fall f hand to hand. There was plenty of food Ip 'the trencher most of the time, though once in n while, during a heavy bombard ment, the fntlgue—usually a corporal’s guard—wchild get killed in the coni- inuniearion trenches and we would not have time to get out to the fatigue and rescufr the grub they w ore bringing. Sometimes you could not find either tat* fatigue or the grub when you got to\the point where they had been hit. iu,t, ns I say. we were well fed most of the time, and got second and third helpings until we had to open our belts. But as the Limeys say: "Gaw blimey, the chuck was rough." They served a thick scjyp of meat and vege tables in bowls the size pf wash ba sins, black, coffee with or without sugar—mostly without 1—and plenty of bread. ^ Also, wei had preserves In tins, just like the Limeys. If you send any par cels over, do not pyt any apple and If they are still using trencher plum jamdn thbm or the man who gets it will let Fritz shoot him. Ask any Limey soldier and he will tell you the same. I never thought there was so much Jam in the £ world. No Man’s Land looked like a city dump. Most of us toctk it, after a while, Just to get The bread. Early in the war they till farther hack are the billets. Those i used the tins to make bombs of, hut •may he houses or^ barns ox ruined I thut was before Mills came along with churches—any place that can possibly , his hand grenade. Later on'they tlat- be used for quartering troops when j toned ont the tins and lined the dug- down in, and because if a shell should find the trench, there would-be fewer casualties in an open formation than in a closed. The German* artil lery is keen on communication trenches, and whenever they spot one they stay with it a long time. Most of them, are camouflaged along the top and sides, soThnt enemy'fivlutors can r i not see anything but thh earth ot bushos, when they throw an eye down on our lines. . »*. r • — • We took - over our section of the front lii>i* trenches from a French line regiment that had b Am~om the Joff Tttr 24 days. That was the longest time I liavV heard of any troops remaining .on th<\ firing line, Conditions at the front and ways of fighting are changing all the time, us each side Invents new methods of butchering, so when I try to describe the Dlxtnude trenches, you must real ize 4thut it is probably Just history by now ihere they probably look entirely dif ferent. . ’ But when I was nylffxniude they were something like ibis: \ • Behind the series of front-line trenches are the reserve trenches;|lu tills case five to seven miles away, and 1 \ 1 off duty. Troops were usually Jn the front line trenches six to eight days, and fourteen to sixteen, days iii the reserve trenches. Then back to the billets for six Yir eight days. We were not allowed to change our clothing in the front-line trenches— not even to remove socks, unless for inspection. Nor would they let you as much as unbutton your shirt, unless there was ap inspection of Identifica tion disks. We wore a disk at the wrist and tTmuher around the neck. Voir kmny the gag about the disks, of course: If your arm is blo\|n off they can tell "who you ary by the neck disk ; if your head Is blown off, they do not care who ^ou are. ’ - In the reserve trendies vou can % c * nmktfc yourself more comfortable, hqt you cannot g«> to such extreme "lengths of luxury jas" changing your clothes en tirely. That Is’for billets, where you spepj most of* your time bathing, changing Vloth^s, sleeping and eating. Believe me, a billet is great stuff; ft is like a sort of temporary heaven.. Of course you know what the word “cooties" means. Let us hope 'you will never know what the cooties themselves mean. When you get in or near the trenches, you take a course in tiie natural history of bugs, lice, rats and every kind of pest that has ovep beop invented. outs \<-tth them. > - Each man carried an emergency’ ra tion in his bag. _Tills .consistT^L-tHf bully beef, biscuits,'etc. TfiTsf ration- wits never used except in n real emergency, because no \>ne could tell when it might mean the difference between life and death to him. When daylight catches a man In a shell hole or at a listening post out in No Man’s Land lie (lo»>s not dfire to crawl back to ills trench before nightfall, and then is tiie tinie that his emergency ration comes in nandy. Also^lthu—stores failed to reach us sometimes, as L have said, and we had to use the emergency rations, \ Sometimes we received raw' meat and fried it in our dugouts. We quilt wore extra h.an<V>Ieers -of cartridges, since there was no telling how many rounds they might fire during the night. Sometimes they had direct apd visible targets and btluT■ times they potted linns by guesswork. Usually they crawled back just before daj - - Jurht, hut sometimes they were out 2-* hours iit a strefeh. They took—great j pride in the nunjber of Germans they knocked over, and if our men did not get eight,or ten they thought they had not done a good night’s w;ork. Of course it was. not wholesale killing, like machine gunning, hut it was very useful, because our snipers were al ways laying for the German snipers t and when they got Sniper Fritz they saved just so mapy of our lives. . * The Limeys have a great little ex pression tlint means a-lot: “Carry on.’’ | They say it is ,a cockndX’ expression, i When a captain falls in action, Jds. words are'not a message to tiie girl he, left behind him or any dope about bis gray-haired mother, but “Uarry on, Lieutenant Whosls.” If the lieutenant j gets his it Is “Carry on. Sergeant Jacks," and so nmis fay as It goes. Srr-Thf words \Used to mearv, "Take over the command iwid do tiie job right.” But now they mean not. only tlint but "Keep up your courage, and go to it.” One man will say it fo another sometimes when he thinks th e first man is getting downhearted, but more often, if he is a Limey* he will start kidding him. our men, of course, did not say “Carry on,” and in fact they did not hnVe any expression In French that meant exactly the same tiling. But they used to cheer each other along, nil right, and they passed nlong x tiie command when it was necessary, too. I wonder what expression the Ameri can troops will use. (You notice I do not call them Sammies!) ,1 took my turn at listening post with the rest of them, of course. A listen ing post is nny good position out in No Man’s Land, and is always held by twQ men. Their Job is to keep n live ear on Fritz and in case they hear any thing that sounds very much like an attack one man runs hack to his lines and the other stays to hold hack tiie Boches ns long as he can. You can figure for yourself which is the most healthful Job. As many times as 1 went om listen ing-post duty I never did get to feel ing homelike there exactly. You have to lie very still, of course, ns Fritz is listening, too. and a move may mean a bullet in the riiw. So, lying on the ground with hardly n change of posi tion, the whole lower |>nr( of juybofiy would go to sleep before I hnd_been at the post very long. I used to brag a lot about how fast I could run, so I had my turn as.the runner, which suited me all right. But’ every time I got to a listening post and started he seen; qyJ.y mules 1 and horses brihg- ipg up eu-Tvs «,f water, hags of beans. chloridT' of Hme, "barbed *vire.ntihm.il* . • jF-i— • • • • ? - nit Ion; -.etc. It was a good thing we were not superstitious. .At that, the shadows M'long the wall's made tile feel- 7 . i " ' shaley sometimes-. " ' * ^ ; • .* a a • ... . Finally- Brown said: “Cotne on down ; let's s.-e 'the ‘To’s.’ ” At this -time I ha<Lju>t seen a “To," except on a train goirig" to, the-front r. so I took him up right away-, but was surprised that he'should know where tiny were. ^.fter going lmlft way aroqnd Dix- t mude Brown said, "fiore we-arta".an<k started right into what was left of a big, house. I, kept vondering’how he w'ouLd know so much about .it, hut fob p ^ • ((" >v A ) — a We Started Right into What Was Left of a Big House. low(Ll him. Inside tiie house was a passageway under the ruins. It was about seven feet wide and fifty feet loug, I should Judge. At the other end was the great old “75,” poking its nose out of a hole in the wall. The gun captain and the crew were sitting around waiting the word for action, and tljey seemed to know Brown well. I was surprised at that,, hut still more when he told me I coujd exand^e tiie gun if I wanted to, JusXirsif he. owned it. So I sat in the seat and trained the cross wires on an_abject, opened apd closed the breeeff und examined the recoil. Then Brown saWl: "Well, Chink, you’ll Hee some real gunnery now,” and they passed the word and took sta tions. ^-^My eyes bulged out when I saw Brown take his-station with them! “Silence!” is about the first eom- ot the Bed Cross umt.or,c<#'ps .has !>***>n in existence since the United States:* entered tie- wur.v Mrs*'Jr" Borden I Jar- riman. is the colonel (oimnanding., « The work of the^orps falls, rough- % ly, into t*(L,general divisions--ambu- lanee wnr^k. find ' trunsport - s* rvb e. _ Calls for Transport >ervT7 v e rntige from, those for national head?|uarters. tfia I'otpmne /division, and'. the-D»r«^rlcf"*- < hopt> r to tho>!» for tli*- civilian relief workers on their erfands of, mercy, . .-•••"r— — oftentimes fap into the country, or lV calls for the taking of tonvab o i nt soldiers at Walter I.teed hospital out for airings, l our cars are detl«il6>l eluh day for the service of t\iu canteen workers.^ ' ’ .* . . ' ■ Recently a troop] train was'getting up, steam outside a cant?(>b. '(lilted soldier had s|rnft' his entire rest time trying to get^Uhiladelldtiii oa rite Tele- ~ phone. Just as in' obtained tiie connection llnNsei gtjitnt annonneed that it was time to gOvaboard. Tiie lad was distressed, and the Wet'-present motor wotriftn came to his rescue with, "Can’t l give the :iie«.xage for youl” “Sure," said tiie soldier. “My name Is John Smith, and I want her. to marry nje before I sail.” ' — - T The unusual proposal was-unde Irr Trreat baste by the Bed. Cross worker. r J'lie girl in I’biladelpbia declined, as far as the wedding was concerned,„but ifgrethl to nu efe her ln-ro before he sailed. T in* motor woman ruslpifi^to the side of The fral-n T by thaT time In 1 motion, and deilvered tho tTres>a(>e to 110*"" mam-who, leaning far out of tiie window, yelled hitek “Thank you mlsft, and don’t worry; she'll marry nielli rielit when sin* sees me in uniform.” ; ^ _____ ■ ■ , ' Proof That One ( Can Be Mistaken in Judgment I . % * S IIE was i»ink and white and a trifle coarse like a pork chop. T.'erfair,'fat and fortliiess was imrnessed Into wdmtever bout rapt, Ion it Is that Women use to coippress tlieir t<>o, too solid etcetera Into tin* sfate of mind they call ; svelte, ond sin; was QreMSgfl in all-over embroidery ami a" rose sweater ten years too 'jyuing for hor—or, to ho en tirely fair, make it nine.' And anybody! with half an eye could tell that sin* was longing for the time to come to get home and put on - something loose. , With ln*r was a woman ns plain as n bar of soap, who- was saying tills —allowing for tiie drawbacks of>one who had to listen from behind: “I wouldn't think of paying smli f-prlres *as cooks are asking tiihsedaps of food cost, so we broke up'und went ' to bfmrding." 1 ' . Jhe soap woman ended her experience with thro complacency of one who has satisfactorily solved a country-wide problem.. But the woman who wasn’t a fine bird for all her foolish-fine fmtliewi held a different view. “That’s all rigid, if your husband likes boarding, but Jim couldn't live anywhere except in his own home. Ami the way I,look at It, I ouglit to keep ^iouse in turn for all lie does for me, especially as in* thought enough of me to put tiie deed in my ? name. Ijlo every stitch of my own w*rk, and it's got so now I wouldn’t know what to do with u girl in my kitchen." “And you do all the work In that'big house? Then what are you doln^j all fiddled up tlds time of day? I should think you would he home getting dinner.” “Thursday is my day out ,the same ns other «|ooks. I always meet Jim after oflice and we go to a cafe for dinner and tiie movies afterward. And I have ro lie rigged out In my best, because he likes his frien<ls to s<v how' nice he ciin dress me." » —-— ) And if you had lieen walking behind you would have felt-cheap foh mis judging a pork chop for trying to look like a bird In fine f da there. It is so easy'to find fauli. Any mean-souled tlung can do it. Cfoo EVfRT | I STiKH oP ^ U mt own j ^/\ -1-1-- \ •y r It is funny .to see some, of the qewV omers Vhen they first discover nl cqotie od tlieni. Some of them cry. j • If they really knew what it was ^;oing ; to lie like they would do worse than j Then thdy^stnrt hunting all over each other, Just lik^ monkeys. They team up for this purpose^, and many times It c Is in this w;iiy : that a couple of men get to’lfte trench partners and coine.ta be pals for llfoL-which may not he a long time* at Hurt. ' ^ In the front-line trencheKit is more comfortnhie- to fall asleep on The pnrn- pet fire-step than in the.dugoths, be cause the cooties aYe thicker down belqiw, and they simply will not giVe you j minute’s rest. They certainly ~nre :S fectlve little pests. We used "To make* hack scratchers but of ce_ptpiu' weapons that had flexible handles, -nfit never had time to use them'vvTien we needed them moat. We wdre gjven .Hbttles of a liquid - - which smelled itke l^sol ’ifndjvyere sTTp^ \ posed to soaji our clothes la It. It wasl „ thought that the cooties ’would object to the smell and quit work._ Well, —-’a wotle that conld stand our derthes' 1 without the dope on them would not i be botltared b/ a little thlqg like this ^l stuff.' Also, our clothes got ao sour «ind I>':rible smelling that they hurt \ They Potted Huns by Guess Work. regular clay hvens in^fitydutouts, with imitation “Tfi’s" -would only flr(* five g., This, of course; shots very rapidly anj^Uien "cough"—j puff, yuff. puff, with nwfhing coming out. The destructive power of the. “75’s" is enormous. These gun.s have saved the lives Y)f thousands of pojljis und Tommies and It is largely due to them that the French -are’uow able to beat Fritz at ids own game and gIVe back shell for shell—and then some. to thijik about what I would do' if Fritz should coitio over ami wondered how good a runner lie \yas, I took a long breath and said, “l-'eet, do your duty.” And I was strong on duty.' ^ 1 After I had done fay* stunt in the front-line ahd reserve trendies I (vent back with riiy company to billets,Hyur bad only •been there for a day ur fwo iiefore I was detached and detailed to the artillery position to tin* rightof us. 1 wdiere Jioth the .British and. fpench had mounted run pi guns„--'Tlu>MU\vere_ guns vf all calil)ers there, bdfh uaval and field pieces, and I got a good look at the ffitnous “T.Vs,” -(Vhleh' are tiie best gpns ln the world, in my estima tion, and the one thing that saved Verdun. f \ - The "75’s” firt^l 30 shots a minute, where the best the .German guns could do was six. The Amedvan Three-inch field piece lets To six titne* / 9 minute, too.. The French gpvertmient owns the^ medyrhlsm that mfid<U When the first the Germans knew the Pfendi had found a new weapon, so ynvy were very anxious to get one-jtft the] guns and learn \he sec they captured eight jipiris by ,a mass attack in which, the allies.claim, there were 4.000 Ger- -fnan troops klljefi. The Boehes studied the guns and tried to turn out-pieces like them/fit the Jvnipp factory. But somehow/they could not T?et it. Their iron tops for broiling. /This, of course; was In the front-line trenches only. We worked twYi hours on the fire- step nhd knocked off for four hours, in wfijch time we cooked and ate and "slept. This routine was kept up jilght anfi day, seven days a week. Some times the 1 program was changed; for instancy, vvhen there was to be an at-" tack or when Fritz tried to come over and visit, but otherwise nothing dls- TurKed'bur routine unless Jt was a 'gas attack. ; r * ‘ -< "‘)’ , • The ambition most privates is to become a sniper, as the official shan>- shdoters are caTted. ' After a private has been In the trenches for six months fer a year and has shown his marksmanship, he becomes the great man he has dreaofed about. We bad . CHAPTER V, . I With the “75:s." My pal Brown, of whom I spoke be- forife, had been, put Idl. the Jnfaqtry when he enlisted in the Legion, be cause he had served hi. the L'nlted States Infantry. He soon became a sergeant, which had been, his rating in the American service. I never saw Just What Made Shabby Woman “Look Different" ourmt-: is am.ui me urs^coiu-. - WOMAN was crossing the cubbies mnnd a gup-crew gnts'when it is going ft broken-out4m-a rash of junk slid into action, but I. forgot all about it, tongues -and-shouted out and asked Brown how in* gnt to be a gunner. But lie only grinned and looked dopey, as usual. Then I citiiie to and expected to get a call down from the officer, but he only •grinned and so did the .crew.' It seems they had it all framed to spring on me, and they expected I would be' surprised. So we put cotton in our ears and the captalii called the observation tower a short distance away and they gave Trim the rafige. Then the captain "called 4128 meters" to Brown. They plneed the nose «»f a'shell in a. fuse adjuster and turned the handle until iff reached scale 412.8. This set the fuse to explode at the range given. Then they slaimned the shell-Into the breech, locked it shut and Brown sent his best to Fritz, , f The barrel slipped back, threw out for.T of ^ street downtown. It was a street ps and clamorously •Hatty '/«th foreign The woman, herself, hud the saffron skin and glazed black hair of another land than ours. Her >futl>by frock was sUmber enough for chief mourning, except for its vivid UoWer on her breast—a red rag of a rose— and her head was “Mmtofuia-eoveredj with, a rusty luce sbaTvl full .of ..holes. The triiditiop-a thousand of’women might have Crossed the street with out attracting notice. This one was an exception. And it is the exception that counts. - * * I’^r one thing," shfticnught the ex cited interest of a couple of obvious residents on tiie heights of • Vanity Fair, w ho must have Men cross-eutting to get soiuewliere to aecoui# for tlieir being so fur from home. Both •ejaculated at sight of ihe foreign woman, and the one who was iii white - china 'ilk made open confession to tiie one wiio was in pale hl%ie gi'orgette. “If I*could look like - that I’d spend tin* balance of my days in black satino and rusty lace. Must be the' red flower that makes her look so different I -got a picturesque walk, too.” x But it w as tiie shaw l that put tiie saffron-faxed one in a class" to [herself, the shell case at our feet'and returned l y i . over a cushion of grease. Then we received the results by telephone, from the observation tower. After he had fired twelve shots the, captain said to Brown, “You sho'uld never waste your self in infantry, son." AihI old dopey Brown just stood there, ami grihrted. Thnt was Brown every time. lie knew about more things than you could think of. He had read about gunneriy and fooled around at Dlxmude until they let him play with the "7”>’s,” and flhally here he was. giving his kindest In theTmintllla of the woman’s countn’ is folded the ionianjLe history of Spain.' Tw.mystery or Its grace cannot he learned fi-um a‘ fashion page. It must be/taught in Spain. • 1 ... \ And/by way of a first lesson, one"must be born there* ?’ t* the to old Fritz*, with the rfist of them. Members of the Foreign Le gion, all, soldiers of fortune, swear vengeance^when they see the Germans place Belgian Wom en and children in front of them as shields against the enemy's fire.. Gunner Depew tells about this In the next installment. \-i; i ^ N0,SlK,rH' y MAJOR HAStfr COME TO (VORK ,V (TO 'BE CONTINUED,) 8he Won't Believe It. 7 A man maybe a hopeless idiot, but 4f he admiTos a-woman you can’t con vince her that he Isxitazyv' . -—•- H— Trinidad Is increasipgj^a petro^um production, the output last year being almost 56,000,000 gallons. /. Official’s Office Boy Just a Mite . Too Truthful H E IS su<t a hard-working soldier that tiie following story will serve to '•emphasise tho ninny hours a day he puts In on hlV job. For Major Dan Donovan, director of the draft in the District, has made the-'ky ills limit when it comes to working on the job of put ting docnl registrants into camp. Day and night he may he found at w’ork— /early in the inornin’ sending men to Camp Meade—lirte o’ night Inducting them Into tiie service. -—---v--- But one morning last week he \ \ a®' must have overslept himself, i»ecnuse he failed to show up at the office as early as usual. , ~ I Now, there Is*In the office a boy— n bright-faced; truthful-boy. 1 Truth Is one of the finest things a s . boy can tie to, alUngre* in saying. A boy Should.be truthful. Sfiit when a boy is a sort of confidential messenger to a major, he ought to use—er, t-acL After this pnrTTrutirr~rtoy has b»-*'ii \Vni1tIn'g"sohie monlfis"1i*hger~tTian’Tie now has weeks he will learn to ^ey: “No, sir; the major is tn u conference.” or “Nd, sir; the major Isn’t here riglitlnow—he has Jlist stepped out of the office.” He won’t <lo as he dijd that other morning, when someone called up on tho telecom- t and. a^ked fur.the.maJor^ _— Tl.r nright-faced boy picked up the phone -Heitor he^called., “Ia Major Donovan there?’f . \ i , “No, 8lr,**.'replle<r the truthful boy.- "Major Donovan hasn’t dome t» work T*' ■ \ ■