The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1914-11-18
WOFUL SIGHT OF
MARCH TO REAR
Wounded Soldiers PlOd
Painfully On.
LITTLE THEY SEEM TO KNOW
Of Actual Conditions Of the
Great Life and Death
Struggle.
STILL WARNING TO FIGHT


The advance of the soldiers into
battle is inspiring: it contains al
the glory of war. The retreat of the
wounded is not inspiring, but it Is
an interesting picture. This is de-
scription provided by u Paris cor
respondent of the New York Times:
We were crossing battlefield
four days old. II was remarkable
how it resembled the ordinary kind
of field. The French had conquer
ed quickly at this point and the
dead had been buried Except for
frequent mounds of earth headed by
sticks forming a cross; except for
the marks of shrapne1 in the roads
and on the trees; except for the de-
sertion of every living thing, this
countryside was at peace.
The sun was shining. The frost
had brought out flaming tints on the
hills. II was glorious Indian sum-
mer. The road We were motoring
wound far away through the battle
field. For the armies had fought
over front of many miles. We
travelled slowly. AS We topped a
rise we stopped and searched into
the valley below with our glasses.
A mile away in the cup of the val
ley we saw u moving mass. 1t filled
the roadway from hedge to hedge
and appeared to be approaching us.
We drove more slowly and stop
ped several times. We saw that the
moving mass stretched back con-
siderable distance-perhaps the
length of a city block. We stopped
our engine and waited in the road.
As the mass came nearer it out
lined itself into men. We saw that
they were soldiers. but We could not
distinguish the uniform. So we
waited. We even got our papers
ready to show if necessary. Then
we saw that the soldiers were not of
the same regiment-that their uni
forms were conglomerate. We saw
the insists of the French line regi-
ments. the gay trappings of the Spa
his and Chasseurs d'Afrique, the
skirt trousers of the Zouaves, Tur-
COS. and Senegalese, the khaki of
the English Tommies, and the tur-
bans of the Hindus. But all these
men in the varied costumes of the
army of the allies wore one common
mark-a bandage. Arm or head or
face was wrapped in white cloth.
For these on whom We waited We're
the wounded who could walk. They
We're going from the battle trenches
TO the rear.
The men in the front rank glanc-
ed wonderingly at the big motor
than blocked the middle of the road
and moved aside in either direction.
Those behind did likewise, until
there was "A lane for the car 10 pass.
But We waited. As the front rank
came level with us, dust-caked
British Tommy. with a bandage over
one eye, winked his good eye at us
and touched his cap in salute. We
took our hats of as the tragic crowd
surrounded us. The Tommy sat
down on our running board and I
handed him cigarette.
The cigarette established cordial
relations at once. Tommy's lean
face was Drowned by the sun and
streaked with dirt. About the ban
dage which encircled his head and
crossed his right eye were cakes of
dirt lie asked me-; rs this
Frawnce, or is it Belgium ?" At my
answer he squirmed around on the
running board, called to compan-
ion in khaki just coming up. his arm
in a sling. "'E says it's Frawnce."
The other shrugged his shoulder in
differently and saluted us.
| asked the man concerning the
battle. but again he only shrugged
his shoulder The man on the run
ming board turned his eye upward
and said: ITS ell. that's wot II
is. 1 replied that my question had
~ do with The course of the battle
which side was winning: and 'he.
too. shrugged. al that, Then he arose
and blodded on. and gave ciga-
fette to ais tonpanio1. s}LI1
A score OF men stood about the