Newspaper Page Text
4A
Actual Contact With the War Puts an End lo Romance
AMBULANGE MEN'S PET
ALLUSIONS SOON VANISH
Everything on French Battle Line Is Concealed.
Men Who Bring in the Wounded Only Real
. Observers of Activities.
‘ s
' By ROBERT A. DRAKE, OF HARVARD,
g Winner of the French Cross of War.
While the Infantrymen are hidden
#n trenches for weeks at a time, and
While the artillervmen are shooting
from ‘behind screens and hills, the
ambulance driver goes past the bat
terios, past the third line trenches,
t the supply centers, past all the
guns and the raliroads «nd the
ormous machineries that make up
Wrxlmzatlon of the army.
» \Whenever his car climbs a high
Diuff he can see the smoking front
line trenches at work. He has al
:&‘m the observation facilities of the
viator, with the inestimable further
mdvantage of coming into Intimate
'o%a with the men everywhere.
e most oppressive factor about
the war is the unseen factor. All
things (except an occasional aero
zhlu overhead) are hidden. Bullets,
hells, guns, enemies—all are un
meen. |
_ The soldiers orouch In dugouts
. Wwhenever they can. The artlller,v‘
gires by telephone direction. The
whole war is so concealed that the
moldiers fight a thing rather than a
rcflonal foe. Practically the only
ime when the infantryman comes
t:to actual contact with the enemy
in a bayonet charge, and most of
these attacks are at night, when only
the unnatural glare of star shells gives
gmen anything to see.
It Is a war of listening rather than
seeing. Men hear the horrid screams
of the shells, and as the unearthly
moans sound In their ears day after
day they become more and more si
b,
Vhen I first saw the spectral star
!M‘l,llxhtlnu the sky in the distance
d: “Aha! Here is romance! It's
’ to be a great game!” ;
t actual contact with the war ob-
Jiterated all romance. I had thought
that war would reproduce knighthood
days. The illusion vanished soon. It
is e that the anclent armor, hel
breastplates, even spears had
back to partial use. 1 saw even
& ‘Matled fist”-—a glove of metal links
%o protect the hands of machine gun
: ars. But shells destroyed the armor
the illusion.
Instead of neolnf heautifully piteh
: rows of camps | saw soldlers snor
in ugly barracks or in “dog tenta”
hed any old way for concealment.
A World’'s Concentrated Effort.
But In recompense I saw a vast
: &vlfi of peoples, a concentrated ef
toward one vast denlfn that drew
on all the natlons and all the things
of the molo round world. From the
8 when we rolled out of Parls,
3 the busy munition factories
b till we came within hearing
: @ crashing front, we saw war dis
in all its phases and all its
le forms and efforts.
e time we began to hear the
booming of the cannon and saw
2 cotton white puffs of antiaircraft
_ phrapnel around the gleaming bodies
_of flylng machines high in the sky we
DRUG HABITS
DRUNKENNESS have been successfully treat
é in Sanatorium and rflun practice, for
years with B-N-B Tonle. Immediately eof-
Permahent results, Abwolutely harmliess.
-fim afier effects. No oplates, narcotics nor
x s Price $2. Write for hooklet
o hll u':t Biß NEED BLDG., Phlladel-
B i R
Farmer Had Chance to Clean Up
Big Money, But Couldn't
: Work. Lots of People
Just That Way Now.
|
i 3 YOUR STOMACH |
A "'SLACKER" NOW?‘
How in the deuce can any man huld‘
Eown & job even in this day of iuhm‘l
hortage. or a woman feel sweet tem-
E)ered and run a house when their
tomach is out on a strike and m‘nng]
like a slacker? |
John Boyd solved the problem down !
Ln Marvin, Va., last November when !
@ took a friend's advice and bought
@ bottle of Acid Iron Mineral, the
arkable iron tonic now being made
E:;nm the ore of a strange medicinal
ron deposit found down in Missig-
Bippl which builds people up like mag- |
fc, It the stories of countless users
Bre to be belleved. Mr, Boyd writes:
*] was suffering from stomach trou
ble and had been for seve.al years
&nd everything I ate hurt me so I
could hardly get around at all. I am
farmer and have to work hard, but
;tot 80 weak last fall 1 could hardly
Wwalk. A burning sensation and a
gniserable feeling after eating bore
me down and my appetite wasted
Away to almost nothing. I would
wften vomit a whole meal right up an
fiour afterwards and 1 was in de-
Bpair
“I only took one bottle of Aeid Iron
Mineral, and when I wanted to get
knother 1 found that my local store
Yvas out of it. Mr. Short, the pro
frletor. says he can hardly keep it
n stock, as it Is as staple as sugar
fnd coffee. It certainly is fine jed
fcine and I gladly recommend fixl to
fanybody suffering with stomach trou
ble>
. Doctors are using it because,
girangs to say, it doesn't hurt teeth
fike most iron remedies are apt to de,
"end the effect it has on the biood,
complexion, digestion and appetite is
bard to believe, It is stronger, cheap
®#r, better for you. Acid Iron Mineral
§& sold by your local druggist, $1 for
% jargs bottle. Jacobs' Pharmacy.—
Advertisement. k-
were in the very center of a mighty,
l resistiess current of traffic that mov
ed, wheel following wheel, teams,
lorries, motors, motorcycles, toward
the battle line, with only inches be
tween them.
I Compared with this trafflec of war
‘the traffic of America’s Broadway or
ll"mh avenue was pretty, Here were
lines of supply transport that extend
ed, literally, for hundreds of miles
through France.
New sights, new sounds, new odors,
even new tastes, were everywhere.
From overhead came the chur-r-r-r
of aeroplane motors, From ahead
sounded the rattle of rifle fusillade,
From another direction the rat-tat
tat-tat of machine guns, Dust filled
our mouths and noses, and we tasted
France. Coincldent with terrible
odors came hideous fly-swarms that
attacked like enemies.
| We saw lines of captive balloons—
our own, hovering high up but four
‘miles behind our own front trenches,
the enemy's great floating cigars
made tiny by distance, In places we
saw ®soo many of these opposing
“sausages” (which, on nearer ap
preach, changed to elephantine mon
sters with bulbous growths on the
sldes of their heads) that we could lo
cate the whole line of battle by mere
ly looking at the rows of French and
German balloons.
All these things we saw. We drove
whorever there were wounded to pick
up, wherever there were postes de
secours hastily constructed for sud
den emergency, We drove from town
to town behind the front—sometimes
s 0 close to war that the shells
smashed the roads over which we car
ried our red freight, sometimes so far '
in the rear that even gunfire could
scarcely bes heard.
Behind the Scenes of War.
Tattered canoples of camouflage
screens slapped our faces as we drove
toward the front. The wall of a shell
shattered the air close by, We
cringed involuntarily as a geyser of
smoke and dirt spouted beside our
road,
We groped, half blindly, Into dark
grottos, where the smell of disinfect
ant mingled with the odors of musty
tobacco smoke, and wounded men
‘were walting for trn.n-];lort to the
nearest rear hospital, while soldlers
barricaded doorways and walls with
’nand bags and rocks, |
We emerged in time perhaps to see
in German Fokker plane gyrate in a
“dead leaf fall” for all of a dizzy
mile of sheer height to escape a
French pursuer, and later on, in a
restful moment, we mignt learn from |
the machine Tunnou how th@" set up
and work thelr “typewriters,’
~ Pneumatic, trench caupuits, hand
grenades and bell-mouthed trench
cannon became commonplace objects
to us. We got used to seeing army
mechaniclans Install complicated elec
itrlcul outfits, gasoline power plants
‘und all the other appliances of civili
zation in the very midst of furlous
battle, and in the very zone of inces
sant shell explosion.
~ Before our eyes cavalrymen
‘whipped up thair horses madly and
screamed to them to urge their dan
gerous loads of ammunition past
shelled cross-roads, We ourselves
carcered over pontoon bridges with
our hearts In our mouths, praying
that no shell should arrive just then.
Everything was in full display be
fore us. In one day we might see a
balloonist showing how he leaps from
}hla wicker basket 4,000 feet In air,
and trusting to his white sllk para
chute to check his fall, and later in
the placid rear we might see acrobats
and gymnasts giving a eircus to
amuse thousands of resting troops.
Laundrymen pounding clothes by a
wayside stream; soldiers unloading
unexploded German shells to learn
secrets of contact plungers; surgeons
at work’ on hideous wqunds; camou
flage artists pnlntlnxgmnttled black
and brown blotches on armored loco
‘motives; florists decorating buildings
in honor of some dignitary; tailors
scraping the mud from faded uni
forms, so that they could sew up the
tatters and rents; gamblers bent over
their games, oblivious to shell and
shrapnel—all these we could see in
one jaunt between a fleld hospital
and front post.
The Vast Picture That Unrolls.
It is a vast picture that thus un
rolls before the eves of the men whose
service keeps them moving (and mov
ing fast and lnceasam{y) through long
distances and in all directions. What
Is there which war does not demand?
Here are druggists putting up anti.
lockjaw serum. There is a railroad
train whose men are waiting for tho‘
shelling near a road to cease slightly
that they may run the gantlet. Off
to one side is a pile of newspapers just
produced, news and all, in the trench
es themselves. Not far away is a pro
fessional dancer dancing in his poilu’s
unlform as he never danced in Paris,
‘with a raucous chorus singing “When
the Black Sheep Returns to the Fold.”
. By the side of a road sit watch
makers. They are repalring the deli
cate brass timing-device of an anti
aireraft shell. In a fleld are soldiers
on furlough helping old women to
brink in a crop. ’ |
The sound of hammering makes
one look to a bullding only to see
something not pleasant to see—piles
of wooden crosses and piles of rough
|bonrd coffins, Next, in a sentry
guarded building, there sits a solemn
court-martial, |
Priests,; chemists, Africans, Asiat
fes, soldiers, laborers, prisoners, gold-‘
laced general staffs, ragged men re-!
turning from an assaulted trench,
welfare workers, street c‘enners-——alll
crowd this huge space which is "be-‘
hind the scenes” of the blood-stained,
smoke-grimed, flame-tinged stage. \
Sail-makers are here, They are
kept busy sewing up the torn can\'asi
of tent hospitals and recovering the
remnants of burned balloons. Sani
tary engineers work side by side with
splotched plasterers to reconstruct
French towns, Naturalists study the
effect of war on natural life. . Bac
teriologists test drinking water, food,
HEARST'S SUNDAY AMERICAN .. A Newspaper for People Who Think — SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1918.
earth, There are even acoustic ex
perts. They study the art of the liste
ening posts, and teach soldiers how
to distinguish shell sounds.
War at First-Hand.
We ourselves feel the war at first
hand. Shell fragments become things
familiar, Our eyes water from sniffs
of lachrymose gas, or a milky white
cloud of laughing gas catches us and
makes us giggle Insanely without
merriment, We take our chances
with the poilus at dirty straw for beds
and meager rations from fleld kitch
ens that have ventured through fire.
Wao glck up wounded men before
their first smcreams have died from
their lips, We carry them to the am
bulances by the light of star shells,
white meteors rising from the enemy
trenches, or by the Incandescent flash.-
es of a great bombardment, Our
heads ache with the vast concussion,
and when we finally reach the hos
pital, German saeroplanes bomb the
tents and kill our wounded,
A few Impressions of {his vast, com
plex, ever-changing world of war ls
what I offer here,
Everywhere we saw Franece labor-
Ing at its utmost, using its last re
sources of physical strength, physi
cal and mental gkill, There were long
lines of pollus with gaps in their
straggling ranks-—-men whose wrink
led, weary features told that they
were old from the strain of war,
Helping themselves along with gro
tesquely carved trench-canes of a
hundred different shapes, they were
ltmping back from the front with
grizzled heads bent low; and they
passed long lines of little men, pow
dered with dust. who were sweating
away at the sides of all the roads,
cracking rock with sledge-hammers
to make the way smooth for the
fighters and their supplies,
There were roads that were per
fectly bare. And there were others
80 madly masked, so thoroughly cam
ouflaged, that It was like a fantastic
scene In a theater. Over some of these
“painted” roads the camouflaging wase
50 elaborate that screens of dried
bushes were hung across them at in
tervals of 60 feet, by wires stretched
between trees that flanked the roads.
All Races and All Tribes.
In the country that remained wood
ed were small armles of negroes,
brought all the way from Madagas
car, who were cutting and gathering
the precious wood that had so many
uses in this devouring war. Logs,
cord wood, bashes tied up with wires,
everything was loaded into walting
auto trucks to be carried to where
it was needed. Century old trees
that had been landmarks to genera
tions were cut down. Sometimes only
a dozen or fifteen trees stood against
a skyline as survivors of a wood that
once had curtalned the horizon.
The wood from these trees went to
be made Into gun carriages. It made
wooden footpaths for the trenches.
The bushes were used to line the
trench wall in woven basketry style.
Saplings made stakes to support the
barbed wire entanglements in No
Man's land. Debris, chips pnd small
sticks were used even to fill up shell
holes. ‘
All classes of people, all races and‘
both sexes were seen in the wide
sweep of view that the ambulance
Journeys gave us. We saw French
women in masculine garb working
among men. We saw Chinese, Afri
can negroes, Moroccans, nations and
tribes from far scattered parts of the
earth.
Long Ilnes of women, in dingy
colirse trcusers, we saw trudging
home from the great salt mines at
Rozleres, thelr faces blackened by the
hard toll,
Under the deserted sheds of the
great farms we saw thousands of dol
lars’ worth of elaborate agricultural
machinery—tractors, threghers, plows,
harvesters—all idle, mostly rusting
away, because France no longer had
the men to spare to use them. The
few who were left behind had no
choice but to return to the slow,
harassing toll of a century ago. They
labored with poor little hoes in the
huge flelds.
Yet, somehow, they made the crops
grow. No matter how early we might
take the road we were sure to see
‘the fields dotted with the bent fig
ures of these old men and women,
who were giving their llves for their
country just as surely as were thelir
sons at the front.
Their labor, slow and petty as it
seemed, tinted the flelds everywhere
with the rich shades of growing cer
eals. Later in the year we saw the
enormous two wheeled ox carts trun
dle away with great loads of grain
to feed France
The Freight Filled Roads of France
We got our first glimpse of the
transport system when we drove out
of Paris on our long jaunt toward the
fighting lines. Huyndreds of cars
crowded steel ralls so numerous that
they made a maze to bewilder even
an engineer. Two practically contin
uous lines of cars passed each other,
day and night, one geing to the front, |
the other returning to Paris. The
one long line of wheels bore food for
the men at the front and food for the
guns, The other returned with the
wounded from the fighting lines.
Parallel with the railroads ran the
gilver ribbons of the French canals,
filled like -the roads of the land with
transport-—huge canal boats piled high
with gasoline, oil, coal, everything
that could be carried at less speed
than the precious ammunition and
foo(}i
The food transport went as far as
the rail would carry it—to the rear
lines of the active army. Here there
~was a meeting of vehicles such as the
world never saw before. Carts drawn
by horses, mules and donkeys, vied
with motor cars, auto trucks and
everything else that would trundle on
wheels for favorable positions where
they should be as near as possible
to the freight car doors.
Traffic police, distinguished by
white grenade insignia on blue hel
mets, tried to direct and control the
vast stream of traffic, but a hungry
Frenchman within sight of food
knows no law.
“Go there!” the police might di
rect. But if the driver of a six-horse
truck thought he could get more by
going somewhere else it required only
& little skiliful guidance of flying
hoofs to brush the unhappy police
out of the way.
There was a melee of horses, wheels
and men every day in front of every
place where any kind of provision
was being served out; but the biggest
melee always was at the bread cars.
’ The men who served the bread out
were experts. They served three
army teams at once. In each wagon
a poiln was kept busy catching the
loaves that came out in a true river
of flying bread. They came skimming
out In twos from the freight car, and
were plled on the carts without wast
ing time or energy on such daintiness
as wrapping or covering.
After I saw the army bread unload
ed and loaded a few times, I had
fixed firmly in my mind several little
incidents of the work that led me to
take certain precautions when I ate
my share.
One thing I always remembered
particularly, was that the poilus in
the army wagons, whose business it
was to catch the flylng loaves, kept
their hands in condition for the ar
duous task by spitting on them fre
quently--and as the loaves never
stopped coming, the pollus had not
even time to wipe their hands on their
trousers.
Thereafter I always peeled the crust
from my share of bread.
The wine car was another place of
tempestuous struggle. The wine was
carried on open flat cars, which were
piled high with wine-tuns In a
mighty pyramid. Men who were
perched on the barrels knocked out
the bungs and stuck lengths of hose
into the foaming red liquid. At the
other end of the hose big-chested
poilus sucked vigorously till the wine
began to siphon out. Then there was
a jam of men with ten-quart meas
ures and empty barrels, all eager to
fill up for their comrades,
Every now and then, instead of a
proper receptacle, the swelling red
lips of a swarthy Madagascan would
appear, up-thrust under the hose, to
gulp Jdown what he could.
Traveling Butcher Shops.
The meat for the poilus at the front
was transported to their lines In
mighty closed autotrucks that onct
had been motor ombinbusses in Paris,
honking and glittering across the
Place de I'Opera. It was a continual
surprise to all of us that those peace
vehicles could stand the punishment
of enormous loads, rough roady, bad
driving and almost incessant service,
and still require so few repairs,
“I've been drlving this truck since
the beginning of the war,” one of the
drivers told me, “and the engine has
never been even overhauled.”
The explanation for the durability
of these trucks probably is that they
had been designed by army experts
before the war, for the very purpose
of making them so that they might be
thus transformed. Still, it was amaz
ing to see them, racing constantly, and
never wearing out.
The dust kicked up by all other
traflic, bad as it was, was nothing "’i
the clouds that accompanied these
immense trucks., It covered all the‘
flelds and crops. The driver and
crews looked llke men of white clay.
When we came up behind these ve
hicles, we had to pass ahead, and we |
always hated It ,for we were certain
to get a “flour bath”
They carried two guards at the rear
end, and one of these meén pulled a
bell rope to signal to the driver that
he must pull to one side. It was the
only way, for the trucks made such
an uproar of clatter that the drlversl
could not hear such a tiny thing as
an autohorn. nor could they see any
thing behind them; owing to the e¢nor
mous breadth of body on these trucks
The original windows of the con
verted busses were replaced with
screens, through which could be seen
quarters of beef hanging from the
same ralls that had once supported
the commuters of Paris. We called
these hig “dogs of war” our mascots,
because they always parked in the
same towns as the ambulances,
~ The Transport Through Shellfire.
As a general rule, horse-drawn ve
hicles were used to carry munitions
and food through zones of shellfire—
probably because trains or autotrucks
were too valuable and expensive to be
risked, It was only occasionally that
auto-trucks “fed” batteries near the
front, and then only when the shell
ing was not violent. a
Commonly the big camions (auto
trucks) discharged their loads some
distance In the rear, and the horse
drawn ammunition wagons then car
ried the supply to the guns at night.
The same roads that were used by
the teams were also used by little
narrow-gauge wire, corrugated iron
screens for battery protection and the
mighty shells for the large guns. The
tracks and ties were of steel in rigid
units, each twenty feet long. Thusl
if a shell smashed a section it could
be replaced easily.
The engines on these minlature
trains were armored gasolene trucks
—~—absurd little “caterpillars” that |
pulled trallers. Theyroar from their
exhausts sounded most important
making one expect a highpowered
racing autumobile going at least 60
miles an hour; but the actual speed
was a mere snail's pace,
The army wagons that bumped over
these same roads in the summer all
had straw braiding curiously woven
around their hubs and spokes. It was
done to protect the wood against dry
ing up and splitting from the heat.,
The automobile trucks had enor
moue {ron wheels and iron protection
for the radiators. The larger camions
could carry twenty or thirty soldiers
or several tons of ammunition. Some
of these camions dra?god two-wheel
trallers that carried all sorts of things
from fle'ld kitchens to airplanes.
The reserve supplies (other than
food) were stored in great “parks”
at the terminus of the narrow-gauge
railroads two or three miles behind
‘the front lines. These big reserve'
stcres were supplemented by smaller
‘piles of material in cellars and dug
outs only a half-mile or so behind the
lines. Barbed wire, iron rods, ready
made narrow wooden sidewalks for
trenches, and chests of ammunition
often filled the deserted streets of
villages. ‘
On one much-used road our ambu
lances passed daily within intimate
distance of great mounds of resvrvo(
ammunition for the 765. It was con
cealed under camouflage of painted
cloth and dry bushes, and while il}
was some dlstance from the road, it
was near enough to suggest anxious
speculation on the possible effect of
German shells falling there. We
could well understand the rather
haggard expression of the guards‘
who crouched there in their tiny shel- |
ters,
We had seen an object-lesson at a
place farther in the rear. It was an
area of about a hundred acres which
had been used as the ammunition sup
ply park for a whole army. Great
stacks of shells had been piled every
where-—not only 75's, but 155, 205, 380
and 420 shells. That, however, was
before German alrplanes found them
and managed to drop bombs on them
When we saw the park again, there
were onily huge holes and the charred
remnants of store houses.
In spite of the imminent danger
from flying machines and from shells,
it was absolutely necessary to pile up
such reserve supplies in accessible
places. for everything demanded pre
paredness for instant use. It might
have seemed a far cry from the in
significant gasmask that hung over
the shoulder of every poilu, to the
stacks of wooden crosses that stood
outside of the carpenter shops—but
both masks and crosses taught the
same lesson: instant readiness.
The Grim “Free Groupers.”
One of the romantic features of the
war was seen by us when we began
to learn something of the men known
as “Free Groupers.” The first knowl
edge that I had of this unique service
was in the sanitary dugout at Ostel,
when a stretcher-bearer brought in a
yvoung Frenchman with two fingers
shot off.
The stretcher-hearer exhibited his
patient’s avtomatie pistol and showed
us notches on the wooden butt. There
were fourteen. “Every one means a
dea’ Boche,” said the stretcher-bear
er, who then went on to say that he
was a mcember of the “Free Group,”
which he deceribed to us.
In each battalion of the Chasseurs,
those reckless and daring soldiers
whose fame has spread throughout
the world, there was a group of ahout
forty men who had the most danger
ous work of all. They were sent out
to creep in No Man'’s Land to see
what they could learn, find, capture
or rlay.
Some of these men were placed in
the group as a military punishment
for crime. The majority, however,
were volnteers, They were tempted
into the service by the fact that, he
sldes the opportunity it gave their
adventurous spirit, they were allowed
to rest at ease three or four miles
benind the lines all the time except
at such times when they were actual
ly on duty. Besides, every time one
of these groups captured or killed a
German he received seven days’ leave
of absence and 30 francs for pocket
money.
On these ralds the Chasseurs did
not carry rifles. Thelr weapons were
a sharp stlletto-knife and an auto
matic revolver, with perhaps a pock
etful of hand grentdes. The Free
Groupers always killed the Germans
unless they had specific orders to the
contrary.
1f the commanding officer of the
patrol said, “We want to examine
some prisoners tonight, boys. Go out
and bring me ten likely looking
Boches,” the men would crawl out,
and generally they returned with the
desired number.
“Here’s one of the trench knives
those boys use,” sald the stretcher
bearer, showing a long, slender knife.
“It's like a bayonet, almost round, and
ridged so that the wound will close
up when the knife is out. Such
wounds always get infected, and so
are much more deadly, There's one
chap in the Free Group who knows
how to use this knife, I can tell you.
He's been in twenty-seven attacks,
and he's only got a scratch on his
hand so far.”
The very next day I saw this par
ticular I'ree Grouper. He was sitting
in the dugout, and he laid his left
[hs nd on the table with palm up and
fingers well sperad. Then he lifted
’his right hand with the trench-knife
and brought it down like lightning.
Up and down flashed his armed fist,
making passes so swift that we could
see only a grey blur of knife. Yet
each time he stabbed clean and true
into the %aces between his fingers.
“Bah! Mauvais!” he growled, all
at once. He had scratched his thumb
and he was angry at himself for his
clumsiness,
“Ah! We are better men than the
Bavarian Free Groupers over there,”
said another Chasseur, pointing to
ward the Germa.. lines. “They carry
their trench-knives in their boots,
clumsy fellows.”
French Impetuosity.
French impetuosity was one of the
characteristics of the war that the
Americans soon began to accept as an
inseparable part of the poilu's tem
perament. “The Chasseurs left the
trenches flve minutes before the at
tack was intended to start.” This
was an oft-repeated report, varying
only in detafls. It f{llustrates the
striking lifference between French
and German methods of fighting. It is
French impetuosity against slower
German efficlency. The mechanical
German never dreams of “going over
the top’ 'before the time that has been
set, or before he gets his orders. The
Frenchman, when he gets excited,
does what he wants to do, in spite of
all restrictions—and he usually takes
the trench that he is after.
Anothor churacteristic was the ap
parent slackness of the French in
regard to such matters as allowing
men to take notes or make photo
graphs. We had heard so much about
the Prussian strictness in that line
that we were astonished at the easy
golng French way. ‘Why, I can make
practically any photographs I want,
and scribble notes all day long,” said
my chum, Wally. “A German Spy
would have an easy time here.”
But it seemed that their very care
lessness protected the Frenchmen.
Every little while their temperament
al natures made them change in a
flash from utter slackness to intense
strictness. Then, all at once, the
‘French organization investigated and
‘watched and probed with concentrat
ed zeal-—and caught their prey, be
cause spies, grown too bold, had over
\mted the French capacity for care
l lessness.
We heard from g\e French artil
lerymen that the Germans had at
least one way of sometimes stopping
a great British “tank.” “You see,”
said our Informant, “the Germans
construct a ditch in front of their
|flrst lines that is exactly so wide and
| exactly so deep. If a tank tries to get
‘over that obstruction, it drops bodily
into the ‘grave. And there it stays.
' Were the ditch even a foot wider the
tank could crawl down one hide and
up the other with its caterpillar
tractors. Or, if the ditch were a foot
narrower, the tank could straddle it
and so hitch itself across. But a
ditch of exactly the right measure
ment does the trick. It stalls the tank
‘long enough for the enemy artillery
to batter it to pieces.
“Of course the trick could be de
feated if the lengths of the tanks
were diverse; but in order to produce
’onnugh of these great machines and
keep them in commission, it has been
necessary to standardize them.
“However, if our artillery can pre
| pare the ground thoroughly first, and
lcan knock. these ditches well out of
shape and prevent the Germans from
repairing them, the tanks are invalu
able for taking the dangerous ‘ma
chine-gun points’ of the Germans—
i the miniature concrete forts that the
British call ‘pill hoxe~’
“Our French tanks, which were
used before the British monster, were
jonly orc!nary tractors with armor-
~ Miller's Antiseptic Oil, Known as
| ®
Wlli Positively Relleve Pain In Three
Minutes.
Try it right now for Rheumatism.
Neuralgia, Lumbago, sore, stiff and
swollen joints, pains in the head, back
and limbs, corns, bunions, ete. After
one application pain disappears as if
by magic.
A new remedy uséd internally and ex
ternally for Coughs, Colds, Croup, Sore
Throat, Diphtheria and Tonsillitis.
This oil {8 conceded to be the most
penetratin‘s( remedy known. Its prompt
and immediate effect in relieving pain is
due to the fact that it penetrates to the
affected parts at once. As an illustra
tion, pour ten drops on the thickest
piece of sole leather and it will pene
trate this substance through and
through in three minutes.
Accept no substitute. This great oil
is golden red color only. KEvery bottle
guaranteed: 30¢, 60c and &1 a bottle or
money refunded at Jacobs’ Pharmacy, 11
stores, Atlanta.—Advertisement.
|
plate on the outside. We found that
the German artillery often destroyed
them before tHey could crawl up even
as far as our own first lines.”
One of the war jobs that appealed
to venturesome men was the service
known a 8 the “listening posts.’
Their work was to crawl out into No
Man’s Land and as close to the Ger
man trenches as possible, to listen
for any word or other sound that
might convey intelligence of a pro
posed movement.
A particularly daring mlssion of the
listening post men was to toss a tele
phone recelver over into a German
trench, and then to retreat, uncoiling
wire as he crawled back. If a
thrower was unsuccessful, he did not
crawl back, as a rule. He did not
come back at all. If he was success
ful, he brought back to his officers
a wire that established telephone
“communication” with the enemy 80
well that one could hear even their
whispers. distinguish the thud of
rifle butts and be apprised of any at
tempted surprise attack.
Often one of these successfully
planted receivers was connected by
,wire with the headquarters of a staff
three or four miles in the rear, so
that a general could, If he wished, sit’
at his dinner table and hear the Ger
mans discussing the war prospects,
The telephone “exchanges” were in
dugouts, often in the sanitary postes.
The switchboard of such a central
telephone station with its hundreds of
plugs and its maze of wires looked
exactly llke a country telephone
exchange in the United States
—except that the operator was not
half so attractive to look upon as the
exchange girle across the big water.‘
(Copyright, 1918, by The Wheeler
Syndicate, Inc.)
Next Sunday’s article by Mr. Drake
will be “Where the Red Curtain Falls
on the Land.”
‘Traveling Men Will
Formal organization of the Georgia ’
Traveling Men's Association for Na
tional Service will take place Wuh-l
ington’s Birthday in the assembly hall
of the Chamber of Commerce.
All traveling men in the State have
been invited to attend the convention,
regardless of whether they are mem
bers of the association. The associa
tion now has 1,600 live traveling
salesmen working in the interest of
the financial measures of the admin
istration at Washington.
At the convention in Atlanta next
Friday Governor Hugh Dorsey will |
deliver the address of welcome to the
salesmen, and there will be brief talks
by Sam C. Dobbs and C. V. Hohen
stein. By-laws will be adopted, offi
cers elected and a general organiza
tion formed.
The members hope tha: the conven
tion will result in tLe enrollment of at
least 5,000 Georgia traveling men to
do war work in the interest of thrift
stamps, Liberty ILoans and other
financ%l measures. .
W. T. Pußose is chairman of the
general committee arranging for the |
convention, and J. N. Andrews is sec
retary.
Pt s i fiami
Beehive Coke Rates
eehive Coke Rates
Fixed by Garfield
(By International News Service.)
" WASHINGTON, Feb, 16.—Further
regulation for the sale and distribu
tion of beehive coke in Georgia, Ala
bama, West Virginia and Oklahoma
was ordered by Fuel Administrator
Garfield today.
The maximum price f. o. b. cars
at ovens for apy grade coke in Walker
Ceunty, Geortla, Durham Coal and
Coke Company, $8.76 a ton. Black
Creek, Brockwood and Blue Creek
districts, Alabama, $8 a ton, except
coke of the Empire Coal Company,
' $825. Big Seam district, $6.75, ex
cept New Castle Coal Company, $7.50
for coke made at its ovens from coal
‘mined in the same district. The
Uli.ited States Cast Iron and Foundry
Company, $8.50.
New River district, West Virginia,
SB. Oklahoma, the McCurtain Coke
Company, $10.76 for smelting coke
and $11.75 for selected 72-hour foun
dry coke.
CALLED TO CAPITAL. !
Miss Jane Van De Vrede, head of
the Bureau of Nursing, Southern Di
vision, American Red Cross, has been
summoned to Washington to attend
a conference called by the nutlonal‘
director of the department of nursing.
IT o
“Dodson’s Liver Tone” Straighténs You Up Better Than Salivating, Bangerous
Calomel and Doesn't Make You Sick—Don’t: Lose a Day’s Work—
Wonderful Discovery Destroying Sale of Calomel Here.
You’re bitious! Your liver is sluggish! You
feel lazy, dizzy and all knocked out. Your head,
is dull, your tongue is coated ; breath bad ; stomach
sour and bowels constipated. But don’t take sali-|
vating calomel. It makes you sick, you may lose,
a day’s work. l
Calomel is mercury or quicksilver which causes|
necrosis of the bones Calomel crashes into sour
bile like dynamite, breaking it up. That's whcni
you feel that awful nausea and cramping. a
If you want to enjoy the nicest, gentlest liver.
and bowel cleansing you ever experienced just
take a spoonful of harmless Dodson’s Liver Tone
tonight. Your druggist or dealer sells you a bottle
of Dodson’s Liver Tone for a few cents under my!
persoral money-back guarantee that each spoon
Tllinois Leads With
Shipyards Workers
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16.—Illinols
heads the States in enrollments for
the “army” of 250,000 shipyard work
ers.
The Labor Department today re
ceived reports showing the partial re
sults of the drive.
Rhode Island has enrolled three|
times her quota, a total of 6,000. Il- |
linois has 23,000 men enrolled. In{
New York City the total exceeds|
10,000. gy |’{
While the ‘“national shmbmldmsl
. e T S S
{
FOR WEAK LUNGS |
troubles that threaten to bacoms |
:;r'o‘::r;:“this Caleium compound will be
found effective, The handiest form yetl
devised. Free from harmful or hablt-l
forming drugs. Try them today.
. N
50 cents a box, including war tax
For sale by all druggists
Eckman Laberatory, l’hug.:ddphh
ity
’ |
Do not imagine that vour Kczema is]
the one case that will fall to respond |
to Poslwon's healing influenhce. Theg
more stubborn the affection, the more |
remarkable the immediate effects of
Poslam seem.
After you know Poslam’'s splendid
work you will look upon it as just so
much concentrated healing energy to |
protect your skin from all disordered
conditions. Itching stops; angry skin
is soothed at®once. ]
Sold everywhere. For free sample. |
write to Emergency Laboratories, 243 |
West 47th St., New York City. |
Poslam Soap is a daily treat to ten
der skin or skin subject to eruptional
troubles.—Advertisement.
- nN |
R ¢ N # i
K o b 7 O <3B w 3 g
: ¢ x!,,*’
: aw L
o7\ Used Sage Tea
4 )f,TO Darken
AN .
AN ISP Her Hain
Grandmother képt her hair beauti
fully dark=ned, glossy and attractive
with a brew of Sage Tea and Sul
phur. Whenever lrer hair took on
that dull, faded or streaked appear
ance, this simple mixture was ap
plled with wonderful effect. By ask
ing at any drug store for “Wyeth’s
Sage and Sulphur Compound,” you
will get a large bottle of this old
time recipe, improved by the addi
tion of other ingredients, all ready to
use, at very little cost. This gimple
mixture can be cepended upon to re
store natural color and beauty tc the
hair.
tul will clean your sluggish liver Better than 2
dose of nasty calomel and that it won’t make
you sick. )
Dodson’s Liver Tone is real liver medicine
You'll know it next morning because you will
wake up feeling fine, your liver will be working,
your headache and dizziness gone, your stomach
will be sweet and your bowels regular. You wil!
feel like working; you'll be cheerful ; full of vigo
and ambition.
Dodson’s Liver Tone is entirely vegctable.
therefore harmless, and can not salivate. Give it
to your children. Millions of peaple are using
Dodson’s Liver Tone instead of dangerous calon e’
now. Your druggist will tell you that the sale :
calomel is almost stopped entirely here,
registration week” closed tcday, each
State will continue to list volunteers
untdl its quota is full. The campaign
is now in its fourth week.
—9———-———————"—'—‘—""’
|
! |
v 1
i '
“Tiz"’ Js Grand for Aching,
Swollen, Tender, Calloused
| Feet or Corns. |
| ) !
l-'m'-.lu. 'y |
| myfeet . |
- i
5 P 4 b |
| 3/ A 9
| BT i
| ¥ - 1
| 4/ ' P
3 s |
it e |
Al Ry
B 2 ;
& “8 |
o :
Ah! what relief. No more th‘edfi
feet™ no more burning feet; nol
more swollen, aching, tender, uwoaty!
feet. No more soreness in corns, |
callouses, bunions.
No matter what alls your feet or
what under the sun you've tried
without getting relief, just use “Tiz.”
I'Tiz" is the only remedy that draws
fout all the poisonous exudations
iwhich puff up the feet. “Tiz"” cures
your feet touble so you’ll never
limp or draw up your face in pain.
Your shoes won’'t seem tight andi
your feet will never, never hurt or
get sore and swollen. Think of it,
no more foot misery, no more agony
from corns, callouses or bunions.
| Get a 25-cent box at any drug
store or department store and get
instant relief. Wear smaller shoes.
Just once try “Tiz” Get a whole
yvear's foot comfort for only 25 cents.
i’l‘hink of it.—Advertisement,
A well-known downtown druggist
says everybody uses Wyeth's Sage
and Sulphur Compound now because
it darkens so naturally and evenly
that nobody can tell it has been ap
plied—it’s so easy to use, too. You
simply dampen a comb or soft brush
and draw 1t through your hair,
taking one strand at a time. By
morning the gray hair disappears;
after another application or two, it
is restored to its natural color and
looks glossy, soft and beautiful. This
preparation {is a delightful tollet
requisite. It is not intended for the
cure, mitigation or prevention of
disease.—Advertisement.