The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1914-11-27
WEARY OF KILLING.
French Officer ViviGly PortrayS
Horrors of War.
aWe FIred-My eod-and Ihey
Stretched Out Dead-our Grape
shot Tore Chunks In Them'
But still They Came"

New York.-Vividly portraying the
horrors of the war in Europe In nght-
inc in mud-fIled trenches with French
and German and Briton tearing al
each other like savages, killing untii
evbausted but always killing, ser
geant Louys of the Two hundreu anu
SIXTEENTH regiment of the French IN
fantry reserves has written remark
able pen picture of the ruthless war III
a letter which his fiancee in this city
has just received.
Writing from his cot in the General
bosnitaI at Havre, the soldier con-
cIudes this grim epic of a modern war
with a picture of the Sisters oil Cnar'
fly. ..h
with his company, the Nineteenth
the sergeant found himself in a trench
near Fontenoy, where the conilct
ragged fiercely, day and night. After
Ave dsys of furious fighting, his COM
pany was sent back for short rest
while fresh troops piled into the mud
filled trenches into which dut'
leaden rain was dripping.
"TiIxe caricatures fashioned OF mud
suddenly called to life, we hoooled
YEARLY cut of the holes where we
had lived under hell Of bursting
shells. soaring fame and nauseous
gases for days" he writes. We were
relieved by other troops, who saluteu
-, ae thev naSsed
an the trenches we crouch while
the shells and bullets from the Ger
man infantry play over us-and' aias'
on us. Overhead the moon struggles
about in the clouds, for the rain mas
ceased a little, while mad streaks OF
white light whisper their way from
foa German trenches and touch some
whore along our line. In a moment
there is A screaming shell where the
light was. and we know that some OF
onr comrades have answered Frances S
last call.
1--WE we're not paying much atten-
ton to anything after two hours OF
this. We just fired when told. Then
suddenly at daybreak the Germans
came. Fifty yards away we saw
them in the streaky light that beck
ons the sun in these table lands. They
came like solid blocks which were ma
chimes. We fired-my God! We fired
into their faces, and they stretched
out dead. But they came on, some
times shouting. sometimes putting. We
heat them with the butt ends Of ouI
muskets and we stabbed them with
our hayonets. 1t was horrible.
"we were exhausted from killing
Then came the order to abandon the
trenches There were so many there
wb,, -gculd never hear that order, anE
othsrs who cried out when they fount
they could not crawl away from those
men who kept on coming and coming
They looked horrible in the new light
with their stubby, dirty faces; thei
tight uniforms of the color of thu
earth.
81 walked six miles to Vic-sur-Aisne
to the big hospital. My way was alonI
the pathway of the fire which hat
baen there a short time before. Every
where death and desolation. How
France suffers! There were tears Il
NV eyes, and they were not tears O
pain, ma petite.
cat Vic-sur-Aisne the surgeon there
after treating me, sent me, with otf
ers to a sanitary train at the STATIC
Of Villers-C Cotterets, 20 miles away.
For II days now l am here. w
all are comfortable. We have the a
tendance of the best physicians 1
Havre, and we have, above all, tn
care of the Catholic Sisters of Chart!
''How shall praise enough thes
angels of earth? OF infinite goodnes
are they, without senrimentality, {
affected sensibility. So l have see
them where death and destructio
abounded, and SO | see them here
the same. In these women one fine
no romantic goodness that is in rea
ity only selfshness projected for sci
satisfaction. One finds The goodnei