Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I i i v . . . j SYNOPSIS. CHAPTER I?Fired by the news of the taking of the Lusltania by a German i submarine, Arthur Guy Empey, an American, leaves his office in Jersey City and J goes to England where he enlists in the j British army. CHAPTER II?After a period of train- i tag, Empey volunteers for immediate service and soon finds himself in rest billets "somewhere in France," where he first makes the acquaintance of the ever-present "cooties." CHAPTER in?Empey attends his first Church services at the front while a Gertaan Fokker circles over the congregation. CHAPTER IV? Empey's command goes j into the front-line trenches and is under l lire for the first time. CHAPTER V?Empey learn? to adopt the motto of the Brtish Tomifiy, "If you are going to get it, you'll get it, so never ; worry.." _ .. _ i~~CH33?TER VI?Back In rest billets, EmIpey gets his first experience as a mess > > i order!v. $ CHAPTER VII?Empey'learns how me British soldiers are fed. v CHAPTER VIII?Back in the front-line trench, Empey sees his first friend of the 1 trenches "go West." CHAPTER IX?Empey makes his first jvisit to a dugout in "Suicide Ditch." CHAPTER X?Empey learns what con< \ ,'stitutes a "day's work" in the front-line r.V..,r i.trench. * -V: .. *j r' CHAPTER VIII. . The Little Wooden Cross. ... ('; After remaining in rest billets fori ' feight days, we received the unwelcome j V; - (tidings that the next morning we would j Hgo in" to "take over.** At six In the '* ; morning our'march started and, after a long march down the dusty road, we Jagain arrived at reserve billets. f '. "I was No. 1 in the leading set of fours. The man on my left was named "Pete Walling," a cheery sort of fel-j t low. He laughed and joked all the ' . s: vay on the march, buoying up my ; iffinooping spirits. I could not figure out anything attractive in again occupying;. / the front line, but Pete did not seem to j ipind, said it was all in a lifetime. My left heel was blistered from the rubbing of my heavy marching boot Pete noticed that I was limping and offered i tp carry my rifle, but by this time I had loomoH the ethics nf the march in the British army and courteously refused ms offer. K; We had gotten half-way through the communication trench, Pete in my immediate rear. He had his hand on my shoulder, as men in a communication trench have to do to keep in touch with j : each other. We had just , climbed over ; : a bashed-in part of the trench when J;In our rear a man tripped over a loose \ signal wire, end let out an oath. As Ifi [usual, Pete rushed to his help. To reach the fallen man he had to cross j , / this bashed-in part. A bullet cracked In the air and I ducked. Then a moan fromthe rear. v My heart stood still. I went back and Pete was lying on the ?: Aground. By the aid of my flashlight i vj I saw that he had his hand pressed to his right breast The fingers were coveted with blood. I flashed the light on his face and in its glow a grayishblue color was stealing over his coun-; jtenance. Pete looked up at me and [said: "Well, Tank, they've done me in. I can feel myself going West." His yolce was getting fainter and I had to j kneel down to get his words. Then he 1 gave me a message to write home to his mother and his sweetheart, and I, like a great big boob, cried like a baby. I was losing my first friend of the ' Frenches. Word was passed to the rear for a TTo hofAro it Arrived. w iTwov of us put the body on the jstretcher and carried it to the nearest (flrst-aid post, where the doctor took jan official record of Pete's name, num^ . per, rank and regiment from his identity disk, this to be nsed in the casualty lists and notification to his . - jfamily. We left Pefe there, bnt it broke onr hearts to do so. The doctor informed , jus that we conld bury him the next morning. That afternoon five of the [boys of onr section, myself included, iwent to the little ruined village in the irear and from the deserted gardens of the French chateaux gathered grass > land flowers. From these we made a jwreath. ; While the boys were making this ; 'wreath, I sat under a shot-scarred L i apple tree and carved out the followjing verses on a little wooden shield f "which we nailed on Pete's cross. i 'True to his God;, true to Britain. J Doing his duty to the last, [Just one more name to be written | On the Roll of Honor of heroes passed? {Passed to their God, enshrined in glory, ; Entering life of eternal rest, 'One. more chapter in England's story ; Of her sons doing their best i'\ jRest, you soldier, mate so true, j Never forgotten by us below; * |Know that we are thinking of you, Ere to our rest we are bidden to go. 1 [Next morning the whole section went [over to say good-by to Pete, and laid ihim away to rest. f After each one had a look at the fac$ [of the dead, a corporal of the R. A. iM. C. sewed up the remains in a blanjket. Then placing two heavy ropes 'across the stretcher (to be used in lowering the body into the grave), we liftled Pete onto the stretcher, and revi :*i ^ y-~ . - ' a i: S \MDKM 50LMT1 o went * * fflYMEY Z CONNER,MG IN FRANCE?' . ?1917 err ! ARTHIiig COYEftPnr I erently cov ~od him with a large union jack, the flag he had died for. The chaplain led the way, then came the officers of the section, followed by nf tho mm pjirrviri2r a wreath. Im mediately after came poor Pete on the flag-draped stretcher, carried by four soldiers. I was one of the four. Behind the stretcher, in column of fours, came the remainder of the section. To get to the cemetery, we had to pass through the little shell-destroyed village, where troops were hurrying to and fro. As the funeral procession passed these troops came to the "attention" and smartly saluted the dead. Poor Pete was receiving the only salute a private is entitled to "somewhere in France." Now and again a shell from the German lines would go whistling over the village to burst in our artillery lines in the rear. When we reached the cemetery we halted in front of an open grave, and laid the stretcher beside it. Forming fc hollow square around the opening of the grave, the chaplain read the burial service. German machine-gun bullets were "cracking" in the air above us, but Pete didn't mind, and neither did we. When the body was lowered into the grave the flag having been removed, we clicked our heels together and came t<x the salute. I left before the grave was filled in. I could not bear to see the dirt thrown on the blanket-covered face of my comrade. On the western front there are no coffins, and yon are lncky to get a blanket to protect you from the wet and the worms. Several of the section stayed and decorated the grave with white stones. Tfiat night, in the light of a lonely I* i i??? S^wBfl|^n^^raH9H^BxflH|^B^M^fflHHHi sa^^?nHW^HH^^K::flHH^B:^H^?^?; |HHHH^BBaHWpK^BwK<w?c^3^^^BH fflK 8 "' ' ii , , Taking Provisioi canaie m tne macnrne gunners augout of the front-line trench I wrote two letters. One to Pete's mother, the other^lo his sweetheart. While doing this I cursed the Prussian war goc with all my heart, and I think that St Peter noted same. The machine gunners in the dugout 1 ^ .. ~v: nnH Tf> thpm wcic laugmug uuu I Pete was unknown. Pretty soon, In the warmth of their merriment, my blues I disappeared. One soon forgets on the western front CHAPTER IX. Suicide Annex. I was in my first dugout and looked around curiously. Over the door ol same, was a little sign reading "Sui: cide Annex." One of the boys told ; me that this particular front trench was called "Suicide Ditch." Later or I learned that machine gunners and bombers are known as the "Suicide Club." That dugout was muddy. The men I slept in mud, washed in mud, ate mud, and dreamed mud. I had never before realized that so much discomfort and misery could be contained in those three little letters, MUD. The flooi A ? J? ? ?/Iqatv in Or 1116 UU^UUl >\ an lai.u ucty n. water. Outside it was raining cats and dogs, and thin rivulets were trickling down the steps. From the air shafi immediately above me came a drip drip, drip. Suicide Annex was a hole eight feet wide, ten feet long and sis feet high. It was about twenty feel below the fire trench; at least there were twenty steps leading down to it i These steps were cut into the earth | but at that time were muddy and slip ; pery. A man had to be very careful j ?>r else ne would "shoot the chutes.The air was foul, and you could cut the smoke from Tommy's fags with a knife. It was cold. The walls and roof were supported with heavy squarecut timbers, while the entrance was strengthened with sandbags. Nails had been driven into these timbers. On each nail hung a miscellaneous assortment of equipment. The lighting arrangements were superb?one candle in a reflector made from an ammunition tin. My teeth were chattering from the cold, and the drip from the airshaft did not help matters much. While I was sitting bemoaning my fate apd wishing for the fireside at home, the fellow next to me, who was Writing a letter, looked up and innocently asked, "Say, Yank, how do you enoll 'onnffqcrrfltinn'?" I looked at him in contempt and answered that I did not know. From the darkness in one of the corlers came a thin, piping voice singing )ne of the popular trench ditties entitled t "Pack up your Troubles in your Old Kit Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile." Every now and then the singer would stop to cough, cough, cough, bu^ it was a good illustration of Tommy's cheerfulness under such conditions. A machine-gun officer entered the dugout and gave me a hard look. I sneaked past him, sliding and slipping, and reached my section of the frontline trench, where I was greeted by the sergeant, who asked me, "Where1 in 'ave you been?" I made no answer, but sat on the muddy fire step, shivering with the cold and with the rain beating in my face. About half an hour later I teamed up with another fellow and went on guard with my head sticking over the 'top. At ten o'clock I was relieved and resumed my sitting position on the fire step. The rain sudi denly stopped and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We prayed for the mornt->r? flia i>nm Iccna lllg auu lilt; x uui Iiouvi CHAPTER X. Tf" 'The Day's Work." I was fast learning that there is a regular routine about the work of th? trenches, although it is badly upset at times by the Germans. The real work in the fire trench commences at sundown. T.ommy is like a burglar, he works at night. Just as it begins to get dark the word "stand to" is passed from traverse -to traverse, and the men get busy. The first relief, consisting of two men to a traverse, mount the fire step, one man looking over the top, while the other sits at his feet, ready to carry messages or to inform the platoon officer of any report made by the sentry fe'^^^8fc^fc^*,''^^B^^W'lL'>X'aHEBKjw^HM^^'fy? c< vxffWvff^jg is to the* Front. as to his observations in ino Man'! , Land. The sentry is not allowed t< relax his watch for a second. If he is ; questioned from the trench or aske<3 his orders, he replies without turning around or taking his eyes from the ex I panse of dirt in front of him. The re ;1 mainder of the occupants of his trav : | erse either sit on the fire step, witl bayonets fixed, ready for any emer i gency, or if lucky, and a dugout hap , pens to be in the near vicinity of the traverse, and if the night is quiet, thej are permitted to go to same and trj and snatch a few winks of sleep. Littl< sleeping is done; generally the men sii i around, smoking fags and seeing wh< I can tell the biggest lie. Some of them > perhaps with their feet in water, woulc j i write home sympathizing with the I ! "governor" because he # was laid ui L | with a cold, contracted by getting hie II feet wet on his way to work in Wool I, wich arsenal. If a man should manage i nfT likplv As not he would wake j with a start as the clammy, cold feel L i of a rat passed over his face, or th< ! next relief stepped on his stomact , while stumbling on their way to relieve I the sentries in the trench. > Just try to sleep with a belt full ol ammunition around you, your rifle boll [ biting into your ribs, intrenching too: I handle sticking into the small of yorn ; back, with a tin hat for a pillow anc - feeling very damp and cold, witj , "cooties" boring for oil in your arm > pits, the air foul from the stench ol : grimy human bodies and smoke from t ; juicy pipe being whiffed into your nos ? trils, then you will not wonder whj . Tommy occasionally takes a turn ii , the trench for a rest. .While in a front-line trench order; 1 (Continued on page 6, column 1.) CITATION' NOTICE. The State of South Carolina? County of Bamberg?By J. J. Brabham, Jr., Esq., Judge of Probate. Whereas, J. H. Roberts, M. D., hath made suit to me to grant him letters of administration of the estate and effects of Mrs. S. E. Roberts, deceased. These are therefore to cite and admonish all and singular the kindred and creditors of the said Mrs. S. E. Roberts, deceased, that they be and appear before me in the Court 01 Probate, to be held at Bamberg, on Wednesday, March 27th,. next, after publication thereof, at 11 o'clock in the forenoon, to show cause, if any they have, why the said administration should not be granted. Given un !er my hand and seal this 12th day of March, Anno Domini, 1918. J. J. BRABHAM, JR. Judge of Probate. To Core a Cold in One Day. Take LAXATIVE BROMO Quinine, it stops the Cough and Jleadache and works off the Cold. Druggists refund money if it fails to cure. E. W. GROVE'S signature on each box. 30c. If It Helps! S3 R 9 There can be no doiibt I fi g I as to the merit of Cardui, N B I the woman's tonic, in II the treatment of many troubles peculiar to M women. The thousands gkl^j of women who have been ffij| helped by Cardui in the 71 5 a past 40 years, is conclu- I gj ja sive proof that it is a m w good medicine for women fjLM who suffer. It should Py8 help you, too. PJJ ^ Take ^ raThe Woman's Tcn!Gg| %% Mrs. N. E. Varner, of B|B 1 g H Hixson, Tenn., writes: N 0 # g "I was passing through g ill the ... My back and g | g j?J| sides were terrible, and &? rT8 ray suffering indescriba- rfl ble. I can't tell just how IkT^l N and where 1 hurt, about V.g 8 g all over. I think . *. I H fl m 8 began Cardui, and my g I g g g pains grew less and less, H g - 11 until Fwas cured. Iam SIH ir? remarkably strong for a PjV woman 64 years of age. ^4 1 do all my housework." ^4 gg Try Cardui, today. E-76 W B Read The Herald $1.50 the year. jg ARAGON BRA1 I A.M. I I DRY ( I 2 JOBE ' Manufacture] |g Being frie M ^ berg County n 5 H O nice business ; J H ? assure you our | m Q way possible 1 i B *5 are pleased to |p$ our line for sr M one of vou pa; ? we know we ( C5 wish to call yc ^ by Mr. C. J. T <! goods first" tc complete in th Trusting ing the comin: I ^ orders. IS TH I? Write | GE Represents ARAGON BRA1 E" ' : A^A A^A A. Ak jj^k ^i| I JUST RECEIVED 1 *?* t | FRESH CEREALS TOASTED OATS YAM NUTS | | CREAM OF WHEAT QUAKER OATS | JL nnn/\mTnn 1 f/TTi > X OI UlNHo tAKCO X 4 VARITIES f *f 1 x .1; * | Indian River Oranges and Grape Fruit | V r 'Jp 1 tom nucKF.r I I X 'PHONE 15 WE SELL U. S. WAR SAVING STAMPS BAMERG, S. C. X >. ? Teach Children to 1 ML J I rMI Beware of Flies i - ij^j' ' R ' | Explain to them how flies are hatched ,/ri K-SflfeI 1 in filth. Kow, after crawling around | J^S^i 1 in outhouses, privies, manure piles B.* I, 1 and over dead animals and decayed BI sjg i matter, they come into the home n 1 f ffi and wipe their nasty feet on the 1 family food, leaving a trail of dis|| ease germs everywhere. " / ^ | 1 FKes Cause Infantile Paralysis, S^\A|iL 'J v| ^J Typhoid and Other Fevers X The best doctc.-s in the world will ? V U pMaMl^ j!$ y?n that flies are the cause of g 4 \ \ , MMBirVli 11 j.jSjfagg a great deal of sickness, especially * ? I I(if|Hi\ [I'1 '*I'limBlM summer complaint, infantile paraly- 1 i ;? sis, dysentery, typhoid and other B <^T fevers. Don't let flies bring sickBp^iiiHfflinniinniiziii!Mi^Bni3minisii!i26EEniinSi^^^^ iV1L4L^ * 1 iM *J I FOR SALE AT ALL GROCERS Write for Free Booklet "PREVENT"; f\ ID GOODS ARAGON BRAND GOODS ! B | <i 7T > I ROBINSON CO? j IOODS & NOTIONS I I Q ^B ' !ERS AND IMPORTERS ? I H ' rs of SHIRTS, PANTS and OVERALLS 02 I '/J ATLANTA, GA. 9 nds and neighbors of tlie merchants of Bam- K iy house and I wish tovthank von all for the Bj Bm rou have given us for the past season. We g cooperation at both ends of the line in every > B to serve you to the best of our ability. We . ? 8 say we have ready for shipment anything in fcj 8 immer or fall, and would like to have every W H . v us a visit to Atlanta at our expense, then [> B 3an do business with you. Especially do I. % B >ur attention to our silk department, headed q B Williamson, who always has the " up-to-date O B > offer you. Our silk department is the most ? B e entire South. ^ 20 B I may have the pleasure of seeing you dur g year, and assuring you promptness on all E HOUSE WITH THE GOODS > I or Wire Me When I Can Serve You. O I Thanking you all, u o. s. smith 11 BAMBERG, S. C. O I lg A. M. ROBINSON CO., Atlanta, Ga. I ' * >">:^v35 : '. '- ' . - '/'" '?*. -&.?fj&&