The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-09-25
WAR IN ALL ITS
WORST HORRORS
Moments When No Man May
Boast Of His Courage.
FIGHTING FOE EYE TO EYE.
Charging Over Heaps of Bodies, Going
ing Horses Last Drop of Water-"A
Gentleman Has to Do That" Says
Zouave Hero Wounded at Meaux.


THAT is the story, without any re-
touching Of my pen, of a young lieu
tenant of Zouaves whom l met after
the battle of Meaux, with blood still
splashed upon his uniform says
Philip Gibbs of the New York Times
London Chronicle war service in a dis
patch from Creil.
Said this Zouaye, who was put out of
action by a piece of shell:
"They did good things, those zouaves
of mine, but it wasn't pleasant work.
We fought from village to village, very
close fighting, so that sometimes we
could look into our enemy's eyes. The
Moroccans were with u.s. The native
troops are unlike my boys. who are
Frenchmen, and they were like demons
with their bayonet work.
Our gunnerS were Smelling Germans
from pillar to post. as it We're, and
strewing the ground with their dead.
1t was across and among these dead
bodies that we infantry had to charge.
Quick Firers' Clever Style.
''The enemy's quick firers were mar
velous. They always maneuver them
i'll the same style. and a very clever
style it is. First of all. they mask
them with infantry. Then when the
French charge they reveal them and
put us to the test under the most with
ering fire. 1t is almost impossible to
stand against it, and in this case we
had to retire after each rush for about
go meters. Then quick as lightning
| the Germans got their mitrailleuSes
across the ground which we had yield
| ed to them and waited for us to come
on again. when they repeated the same
| operation.
1T is quite untrue to say that the
| Germans have a greater number Of mi
| trailleuseS than the French. | believe
| that the proportion is exactly the same
to each division, but they handle them
more cleverly, and their fire is much
more effective than ours.
The German aeroplanes are really
wonderful i'll the way they search out
the positions of our guns. We always
know that within half an hour of OBJ
servation by aeUoplane shells will begin
! to fall above gunners unless they have
altered their position.
For four days this hunting among
the villages on the left bank of the
| Ourcq went on all the time, and we
were not very happy with ourselves.
The truth was we had no water and
were four days thirsty. The heat was
terrific during the day. and some Of
us were almost mad with thirst Our
tongues were blistered and swollen,
our eyes had a silly kind of look in
| them and at night we had horrid
dreams. 1t was intolerable agony.
Thirsted That Horses Might Drink.
Il have said we were four days with
out drink. and that was because we
used our last water for our horses. A
gentleman has to do that, you will
agree. Even then the horses had to
90 without drop of water for two
days. and I'm not ashamed to say, l
wept salt tears to see the sufferings of
those poor innocent creatures who did
not understand the meaning of all this
bloody business and who wondered at
our cruelty.
THE nights were dreadful. All
around us were burning villages and
at every faint puff of wind sparks
fioated about them like falling stars
But other fires were burning. Tn,
der the cover of darkness the Germans
had piled the dead into great heaps
and had covered them with straw and
parafIin, then they had set a torch tc
these funeral pyres.
"Carrion crows were about in the
dawn that followed One of my owr
comrades lay very badly wounded. aud
when ne Weakened out of his uncon
sciousness one of these beastly birds
was sitting on his chest waiting fol
him to die. That is war.
when Every Man Is Coward"
The German shells We're terrifying
| confess to you that there were time!
when my nerves were absolutely gone
| crouched down with my men wv,
We're in open formation and duckeC
my head at the sound of the burstin!
shell. and l trembled in every liml
as though | had a fit of ague.
1T is true that in reality the Ger
man shells are not very effective. Onl,
abodL bIic III IDdl GAlllOde'S# Nicely Dtl
it is a bad thing when. as happened t
me. the shells popped around in
diameter of fifty meters. One hear
the ziDzip of bullets. the boom of tn
great guns, the ste-tang of our Frencl
artillery, and in all this Internal ex
perience of noise and stencil tn
screams at times of dying horses an,
men Joined with the fury of gun fir
and rising shrill above it, no man ma
boast of his courage. There were me
ments when | was a coward with al
1 of them
| But one gets used to it. as to al
/ things My ague did not last long
! Soon [ was shouting and cheering
!. Again we cleared the enemy out o
: the village of Breezy, and that wa
where | fell, wounded in the arm pref