Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-12-27
COBB TELLS Of
HORRORS OF WAR
Man Who Interviewed Kit
chener Declares It's Impos-
sible to Tell It All.

VIA
use them) of schools of journalism as
the only man who ever interviewed
kitchener of Khartoum and the only
man from Paducah who ever wore a
WristWatch, was the guest of honor of
the Green Room club Monday night
Some funny things Mr.. Cobb told a
reporter about how it felt to be a
dinner guest in New York, where
there is always an open season for
banquets, might be recorded here,
were it not for the possibility that Mr.
Cobb, following the custom of the
season, would deny the authenticity of
the interview And any way the
speech he made was deadly serious
with just Ial dash of the negro dia
lect stories for which he is justly fam
GUS.
"All to whom l talk about the war;"
said Mr.. Cobb, in closing the speech
he made after the dinner, TASK me
about Belgium. If l could write the
story of Belgium as I saw it l would
crowd the Recording Angel out of
his job"
I If the speaker cared to repeat his
talk of last night he could undoubtedly
of their jobs, for it was a burning
word picture of the horrors Of war by
a man whose training has been to OBJ
serve facts and relate them. There
is space here for only one or two Of
the incidents Mr. Cobb described. The
reporter used no pencil and the
thought at least is Mr.. Cobb's.
'"The difficulty in conveying any
adequate impression of this war, in
which one-half of the world is fighting
the other half" said Mr.. Cobb, is
that it's immensely is so staggering
that the human mind cannot grasp it
and that the nearer one gets to it the
more difficult it is to get any per
spective Of the whole. And then il
is not at all like we have been taught
in literature war is. A. visit We made
to the center of the German lines OF
the Aisne will illustrate this.
Zone eff the big German batteries
was stationed there in field. There
were five 21-centimeter guns hidden
beneath leaves and branches to dis
guise them to the aviators. The 20l
or more men in charge of the battery
: lived in huts to the rear, and when We
arrived they were scattered in and
around the huts writing letters, sleep
ing, smoking Or playing the German
national game of -pinochle. n
"a telephone rang. The telephone
by the way, is one CT the disillusion-
| ers of modern warfare. Gone is thu
messenger who used to come stagger,
ing in the second act, shls shoulders
/ covered with Fullers earth. The tele
| lphone is the modern messenger. L
\ rang, and the men put down their let
\ tiers and their pipes and YEARLY man
h med the guns and placed great four
4 foot shells in them.
il Phone Calls Direct Firing.
Il eve were warned to- keep ou
i mouths open, which was superfluou
i information for me, and then fiv
guns turned loose their deafening roa
land somewhere five or seven mile
over the tops of the poplars the shell
fell, maybe among the enemy.
"The men resumed their previou
occupations until another phone cal
a should send them again to their posts
talked to the captain of the battery
university man. He said that h
y had been there for several weeks, dur
3 ing which time, although he had neve
seen a sign of'the enemy, he had los
= four of his officers, 60 per cent eft nj
men and many of his guns.
"These had been replaced, and un
. ill he was killed or till the end O
! the War, perhaps. the captain said h
would stay there serving his gun
night and day, sending shells ever tn
tops of the poplars at an enemy II
and waiting for shells that woul
! of death.
cat the Nord station, in Maubege
what to me is the sorriest feature O
the war was brought home to meth
L position of the wounded man. Their
on the road, which is the main lin
of communication of the German rign
and center, we saw, for the first. time
v the troop trains going to the front o.
:, lone track and the trains bearing tn
wounded coming back on the other
: the raw material going to the mill ant
: the finished product coming back.
: "The troop trains were full of splen
: did young fellows, loaded down will
flowers, singing the songs of tn
+ Fatherland, the cars festconed will
r. /
streamers.
= "A half hour after we, reached thu
= station 400 wounded men arrived o
. the first train bearing wounded. Fo
+, five days they had been coming from
the front 80 miles away, packed o.
y straw in cars The fresh troops ha'
:. seats, and because they We're needle
. were. given the right of way, Will
those men who We're no longer o
use could die, mayhap, on sidings
They We're fed the rations given thu
fresh soldiers. if they could eat.
: $4,000 Wounded in Week.
"The Germans, and l suppose it /
SO with the other armies, call"a ma
\ who is still in one piece slight
= wounded. And SO these men Wer
Slightly wounded whether they ha.
: a Jaw shot away, a hole through bot
legs or through the abdomen.
s'We he1ned unload some of then