Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-07-31

A column OF men winds out of the
long, cool avenue of cocoa palms,
pauses moment and strikes across
! the furnace of open meadow beyond
which lies the forest. In single file
they take the native wood-cutter's
winding path. which lies twisting
and turning up the incline where the
merciless rays of the afternoon sun
beat vertically, to be thrown culver
ing back in shimmering heat waves
that mask the outline of the dark
green wall beyond. Here and there
they dip into gully where month
ago a spring had been now dry and
parched. The flaming rays have
scared the vivid green till it blends
with the desiccated meadow grass.
This Shows "War Is HE'LL"
Heat, Heat. Heat. Hot noises. hot
smells, dry hot baking vegetation
that rustles crisply against their
thighs. In the impalpable powder
beneath their feet creep creatures
sitting to see; lizards breathing dust,
insects whose lurid glow is like an
ember Hot smells of dust and
scorched weeds burn their throats
aud nostrils. Over their head comes
the droning hum OF insects that
sounds like and overdose of quinine
and might be- From a dead tree a
bellbug strikes his clear. ringing note.
The contents of canteens are filter
ed through their hides in the first 500
yards; after that they slake their
thirst with thoughts Of the cool
springs in the woods above.
Late in the day they dip into a
ravine and cross cascade where the
water, strange to say, is clear and
cold. Here they camp.
While it is still light. two privates
stray away They poke and peer,
cut open nut, whittle a stick and
wonder at the play of colors in the
grain, and finally they find upon a
small bush handsome fruit, and be-
cause it much resembles a persim-
mon, they promptly eat. Then with
in easy earshot of the company they
stretch out nnon the moss and sleep.
; nor dream OF the furtive, stealthy
steps that encircle them as they lie.
The brother of one of the missing
, men, and an old chum of the other
are in the party that finds them
finds part of them--headless, weller
ing in pool of blood beneath a fern
tree.
The men of the searching squad
look at them for moment in silence,
silence observant OF every detail
One curses softly, another bursts
| into tears, not of sorrow aud SYM
| patty, but the tears that are dis
placed by an underlying load of
inconsistencies and past fever. An
| other man longs to grasp an object
that is lying near and dance and
shrek and rave. The corporal says
no word, but soon he shakes his head
and smiles, a smile to jar the reason
of those that see.
| Suddenly he whirs his revolver
| from the holster and fires straight
into the air. A man questions the
act and says that it is contrary to
order. for the evening before smokes
| were sighted.
Ashes to Ashes.
"D-n the orders. | wan; the
others to sect"
| The others ccme-and see The
i hard-faced captain gives some sharp
toned orders and the mutilated
corpses are quickly inferred where
they lie. At the conclusion a man
has chill, and after the chill he
raves. Two men carry him bound to
stretcher until he is able to walk
again.
The cultivated fields are passed.
| then the road dips through a thicket
before coming out upon the town Ito
| which the soldiers have come at the
pressing call of the presidente).
Here the jungle advances impene-
trably, thick as fog. darker than the
forest, for the light that they have
| just left.
The last SQUAD hac Uttered. when
rustling arises frcr tho n~eepers on
both sides-the rus.linr % an ana
conda as it uncoils. the ~ustl:ng OF