The copper era and Morenci leader. [volume] (Clifton, Ariz.) 1911-1929, 1914-11-20

are the questions which the censor rarely
sees At to answer. 1t is only from the
heart that we can get an insight into the
heart of the man whose sole duty. 1t is to
attempt to reconstruct, rue" out Of the ma
terial furnished by hundreds of letters
printed in the English and French news
papers, the battle the private sees it.
Manifestly the picture is composite one
but the incidents are authentic, every
oneD
London. Yesterday morning
marched with my regiment from the
village of Roye in a northeasterly di-
rection. not being exactly aware of my
destination. We knew, however, that
we were going to the front to relieve
Q regiment which for a week had been
facing the shrapnel fire from the Ger
man howitzers. The march was not q
long one, which pleased US nightly,
for when there is fighting to be done
we like to get 1t over with as quickly
as possible. All the way we could
hear the booming of great guns, and
the lesser but no less .ominous rattle
Of what they used to call musketry.
This roaring and rafting grew In vol
ume so steadily and at last became 30
terrific Though 1t was little more. than
dawn) that we realized we were ap-
preaching the big muss. go
Furnished With Day's Ration.
should say, Of course. that we were
IN reality,a part Of great detachment
Of whose numbers have no definite
knowledge. At a guess, there must
have been $4,000 Of us marching for
ward on this morning. We were fur
nished, each of US, with days ration
in addition, to the emergency. ration,
with which we were each provided on
leaving Paris, and upon which we
have had as yet no occasion to make
demand.
All the ground over which we
marched had been fought over in the
past week and there were many burned
and ruined houses. Great trees had
been cut down by shells and now and
then in the open fields we could see
immense caverns made by exploding
shells, some of which were wide
enough and deep enough to hold
horse and wagon. In other places we
saw the beginnings of trenches which
had probably been evacuated before
they were half completed. Now and
then we would pass a scared peasant,
but whether woman or man, they
showed little animation. The horror
Of the Germans was too fresh in their
minds. 1t was funny now and then to
see q tiny little house surrounded by
trees with autumn flowers blooming in
the garden all about it, and no sign of
war about the place, except the utter
absence of life The fields were bare
Of cattle. No dog rushed out to bark
at the passing troops and defy their
invasion; only now and then a cat
summed herself In the embrasure Of
the desolate window.
Woundef Men Gay.
We passed for a while heavily laden
ammunition trains and chugging mo-
tor-drawn field guns, big ones, even IL
they are not the T6tnchers they say
the Germans are using. They looked
quite big enough to- US as We passed
them.
Then we passed ambulance trains
going in the other direction with poor
wounded fellows. and some dead ones,
too, probably, stretched out inside.
We were ordered to halt while passing
one of these trains, and the fellow sta
toned next to me and myself peeked
under the cover. A young fellow lying
inside raised his hand to us. Go, get
'em, boys, biff, biff," he said. -Bfh.
biff," by the way, is as much Of slo-
gan as we have yet conceived. 1t
doesn't sound like much In telling, but
it means a whole lot when a wounded
soldier says it. :
Funny enough, the sight of that fell
low did not brighten me or my pal in
the slightest degree. We just wanted
to go out there and "biff, biff," as he
said. 1t wasn't long after this that we
felt we were very nearly in the midst
of the engagement. Dusty fellows who
had been in the trenches all night
passed us going toward the rear.
Bleary-eyed some Of them were, but
others were so cocky and jubilant you
would have thought them drunk. All
this time, remember, that same rattle
and roar was in progress, and now f.
nally we could smell the powder, and
once shell that must have contained
shrapnel burst in a little clump of
trees to our right and the shot kicked
up dust in the road not far ahead of
US.
Hill Tern by Exploding Shells
Damn poor shooting, that!" said
my pal, but he was wrong, because,
without knowing it, we were almost at
the battle front. A fellow dashed by
US on horse, an adjutant he must
have been, for almost Immediately
thereafter we were ordered to deploy.
We left the road, and our company
scattered over a front probably fifty
yards wide. There was a hill right in
front Of us-not a steep hill, but a gen.
tie rise. Its whole surface was torn
up with trenches and great caverns
that must have been made by explod-
ing shells in the fighting of the day
before.