The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1914-10-02

than good-it is excellent. But ~
British soldier is a difficult neroo. It
impress or depress, even bv imnsa~
shells filled with a high explosir.
which detonate with terrific yiolo"
and form craters large enough to a''
as graves for five horses.
Scott at German Shells.
"The German howitzer shells
from eight to nine inches in ca,iba'
and on impact they send up corms.
Of greasy black smoke. On accon.
of this they are irreverently dubh,s
coal boxes black Marias.' or .Io.t
Johnsons' by the soldiers.
Men who take things in this sn;-i,
are, 1t seems. likely to throw ont IN.
calculations based ON loss of moral
so carefully framed by the German
military philosophers.
"A considerable amount of inform,
ton has been CLEANED from prisonar.
1t has been gathered that our bom
bardment on the fifteenth produced
great impression. The opinion also !,
reported that our infantry makes sucb
good use of the ground that the Ger
man companies are decimateG by our
rifle fire before the soldier can no
seen.
From an official diary captured hv
the First army corps it appears that
one of the German corps contains an
extraordinary mixture OF units. If the
composition of the other corps is sim.
liar it may be assumed that the pres.
ent efficiency Of the enemys forces is
in no way comparable with what il
was when the war commenced.
Germans Lose Many Officers.
THE losses in officers are noted as
having been especially severe. A br.
gade is stated to be commanded by
major; some companies of foot guards
by one-year volunteers, while after the
battle of Montmirail one regiment lost
ffty-fve out of sixty officers.
THE prisoners recently captured an.
preciate the fact that the march on
Paris has failed, and that their forces
are retreating, but state that the OBJ
ject of this movement is explained
by the officers as being to withdraw
into closer touch with the supports
which have stayed too far in the rear.
THE officers are also endeavoring
to encourage the troops by telling
them that they will be at home by
Christmas. A large number OF the
men believe that they are beaten.
Among the items of news are the
following: Recently pilot and OBJ
server of the Royal Flying corps were
forced by a breakage in their aero
plane to descend in the enemy's lines
The pilot managed to pancake his ma
chine down to earth and the two es
capped into some thick underground in
the woods.
The enemy came up and seized and
smashed the machine, but did not
search for our men with much zeal
The latter lay hid till dark and then
found their way to the Aisne, across
which they swan, reaching camp in
safety but barefooted.
Numerous floating bridges have by
now been thrown across the Aisne and
some of the permanent bridges have
been repaired under fire. On the
twentieth Lieutenant (name deleted
OF Third signal corps, Royal Engineers,
was unfortunately drowned while at
tempting to swim across the river
with cable in order to open up fresh
telegraph communication on the north
Telephone Aid to Spies.
Espionage is still carried on by the
enemy to a considerable extent. Re-
Gently the suspicious of some OF the
French troops were aroused by com
ing across a farm from which the
horses had been removed. After some
search they discovered a telephone
which was connected by an under
ground cable with the German lines,
and the owner of the farm paid the
penalty in the usual way in war for
his treachery.
After some cases of village fight.
ing, which occurred earlier in the war,
it was reported by some of our Off
GERS that the Germans had attempted
to approach to close quarters by fore
ing prisoners to march in front OF
them. The Germans have recently re-
peated the same trick on larger
scale against the French, as is shown
by the copy of an order issued by the
French officials. 1t is therein referred
to as a ruse, but If that term can be
accepted it is distinctly illegal ruse
Charges Tricks to Germans.
During a recent night attack the
order reads, the Germans drove col
umn of French prisoners in front OF
them. This action is to be brought to
the notice of all our troops, ~ in
order to put them on their guard
against such a dastardly ruse, (2) in
order that every soldier may know
how the Germans treat their prison
ers. Our troops must not forget that