Grand Forks daily herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1914-1916, 1914-12-12
(By Herbert Corey.l

copyright, 1914, by Herbert Corey
London. Dec. 12.-"And So" said
the old "he died screaming
) 1t was in a little village in France.
This war has been oddly spotty in it
A]operations. Here ~ nay find a It.
ztle patch Of territory that's untouched
sTwenty niles away from the greatest
may De running regularly. People are
going about their affairs So it was
In this little town. Its people had
hardly heard the thunder Of the guns.
'It was a stranger who did it," said
the old "A mailman. Jacques
was walking down. the street, peace.
full as you and me. thinking OF his
ducks, good man. This stranger me,
him. They. talked together, and then
jacques died screaming"
All this happened six months ago.
The stranger was not a soldier, but
n mailman. He IL nov presumably
euafe in some asylum. The tragedy
the M tragedy of that happy village
for fifty years-has been the topic of
conversation ever since. Its people
have heard. but they have not com
pretended the stories Of murder by
wholesale only d few miles away
They still think OF the murder in de-
tail Of which they know.
We are all that way. to a greater o!
less extent. The censored p~hraseology
in which the story is told means moth
ting to us. To say that the British held
the line" is as pallid as to a they
had a breakfast of bacon. To say "the
Germans made u%lavailins efforts to
break through" offers no picture. One
must bring Imagination to bear to
visualize the lorried scenes Of slaugh-
ter and agony out there on the front.
That is my apology for this relation.
1t is an effort to furnish a few of the
frightful facts on which imagination
may feed.
why the British Moved Back.
"Our line has been moved back
British officer. speaking Of n mar
row point upon the battlefield. 1T
was not thai We were forced back.
We could not stand tho STENCIL"
The. Germans had charged across
an open field upon that first British
trench. They had died there by hun
dreds. They had fallen there wounded.
Neither side would agree to an armis-
rice. Few Of the sorely wounded wer.
darkness. The dead lay thereto
rot.
Rot-that's the only word-to rot.
They could not be buried. Neither
side would give an inch. Other Ger.
mans charged over these dead forms,
and in their turn were down by
machine guns. and fell and rotted. Be.
tween charges the Germans could and
did retire to a distance from tina aw
full field. The British stayed in their
trenches.
Our men could not stand it," said
the officer. Twice we dug new trench
es and moved back. But we held the
line"
Unusual? Not at all. The same
thing has been reported from every
corner of a two-hundred mile field.
The general offices on both sides well
come the cold weather. They do not
fear they will be unable to provide
their men with food aud clothing and
shelter against the weather. Even if
they were unable to do SO the men
could stay in the weld. They could hold
the line. But there are stenches too
CHASTITY for humanity to, stand.
when frost comes" the officers
will tell you. conditions will inn
prove.
That is the military way of sugar.
coating a fact for soft civilian con
sumption. Let me give you another
picture-a keynote glimpse at the
monstrous thing that is going on over
there in France. AS this is being