New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-11-08

Germans had just withdrawn to the
Y east bank and the Allies held the
west the French soldiers built huge
bonfires and huddled around them. When the
lack Johnsons,' as they call the 6-inch how
itzer shells that strike with burst of black
smoke began TO fall, sooner than leave the
warm fires the soldiers accepted the chance OF
being hit by the shells. Their officers had to
order them back saw this and wrote OF it.
A friend refused 10 credit it. He said it was
against his experience He did not believe
that, Tor the sake Of keeping warm, men would
chance being killed.
But the incident was quite characteristic. In
Zines OF war you constantly see men, and
women too, who, sooner than suffer disconl-
fort or even inconvenience, risk death. The
psychology of the thing is think, that man
knows very little about being dead, but has a
very acute knowledge OF what it is 20 be un-
comfortable His brain is not able TO grasp
death but it is quite capable OF informing him
that his fingers are cold. Often men receive
credit for showing GOODNESS and courage IN
times Of danger. when, in reality, they are not
properly aware Of the danger and through
habit arc acting ant 2tcally. The girl IN
Chicago who went back into the Iroquois The
atre FIRE to rescue her rubber overshoes was
not heroine She merely lacked imagination
Her mind was capable of sppreciating how
serious for her would be the loss of her over
shoes, but not Of being burned alive At the
battle Of Velestinos in the Greek Turkish war.
John F. Bass, Of The Chicago Daily News,
and myself got into a trench at the foot OF
hill on which later the Greeks placed battery.
All day the Turks bombarded this battery with
cross FIRE Of shrapnel and rifle bullets which
did not touch our trench but cut OFT our re-
turn 10 Velestinos Sooner than pass through
this cross FIRE, all day we crouched IN the
trench until about sunset. when it came on 70
rain. We exclaimed with dismay. We hao
neglected to bring our ponchos II we oon
get back to the village at once, we assured
each other, I'VE will get wet| So we raced
through half mile of falling shells and bull
lets and before the rain fell, got under cover.
Then Bass said: For twelve hours we stuck
10 that trench because we were afraid If we
left il we would be killed. And the only rea-
son we ever did leave it was because we were
more afraid Of catching cold!'
CIGARETTES ROUTED FROM HIS MIND ALL
THOUGHT OF PERIL.
In the same war was IN trench with some
infantrynen, one OF whom never raised his
head Whenever he was ordered to tre he
would shove his rifle barrel over the edge OF
the trench. shut his eyes and pull the trigger.
He took no chances His comrades laughed
at him and swore at him, but he would only
grin sheepishly and burrow deeper After sew
eral hours friend in another trench helu up
d bag of tobacco and some cigarette papers
and in pantomime dared" him TO come LOT
them. To the intense surprise OF every o".
he scrambled out Of our trench ana, eXPoSeu
against the skyline, walked TO the other tfen'"
and while he rolled handful OF cigarettes
drew the FIRE of the enemy. 1t was not that nc
was brave; he had shown that he was not ne
was merely stupid Between death and cigar
cites his mind could not rise above cigaret'eS
Why the same kind OF people are so diner
emily affected by danger is very hard to unoer-
stand II is almost impossible to get Inc
on it. I was in the city OF Rheims for three
days and two nights while it was being DOM
barded During that time fifty thousand people
remained in the city and, so far as the shelIs
permitted, continued about their business Inc
other fifty thousand fed from the city ana
oamped out along the road 10 Paris. For hve
miles outside Rheims they lined both edges OF
that road like people waiting for circus
parade. With them they brought rugs, olan-
kets and loaves Of bread and from daybreak
until night fell and the shells ceased to fall
they sat in the hay fields and along the grass