The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1915-09-23
Town Has New Aspect.

Town Has New Aspect.
The pale, overwhelmed town did not
now any longer resemble woman
who had tainted in public, but one
who must endure III public all manner
Of private woe and still with hands
that never cease working possesses her
soul and is sanely strong.
The guns began to speak again among
the hills that we dived into. The air
grew chillier as we climbed. Forest
and wet rocks closed around us in the
mist to the sound Of waters trickling
alongside There was a tang of wet
fern, cut pine and the first breath OF
autumn when the road entered tun-
mel and new world.
"Alsace.' said the governor Of those
parts thoughtfully. 1.-The main thing
was to get those factory chtmneys
smoking again.
They were doing so in the little fats
and villages.
You won't see any girls, because
they're at work on textile fabrics. Yes.
it isn't u bad country for summer no.
tells, but I'm afraid it won't do for win
ter sports. We've only a meter Of
snow, and it doesn't lie except when
you are hauling guns up the noun
tains. Then, Of course, it drifts and
freezes like at Davos. There's our new
railway below there Pity it's too
misty to see the view"
Medals His Only Decoration.
But for his medals there was moth
ing in the governor to show that he
was not English. He might have come
straight from an Indian frontier com
mand. One notices this approximation
Of type in the higher ranks, and many
Of the Juniors are cut Of the same
cloth as ours. They get whatever fun
may be going. Their performances are
as incredible and outrageous as the
language in which they describe them
afterward is bold but convincing
I overheard the tail end Of yarn told
by child Of twenty to some other
babes. 1t was yelled in the Obscurity
Of the French tongue, and the points
were lost in shouts Of laughter, but
imagine the subaltern among his
equals displays just as much reverence
for his elders and betters as our boys
do. The epilogue was as old as both
armies.
And what did he say then! Oh, the
usual thing. He held his breath till l
thought he'd burst; then he damned
me in heaps, and l took good care to
keep out Of his sight till next day.
But officially and in the high social
atmosphere of headquarters their man.
ners and their meekness are Of the
most admirable. There they attend
iors. who treat them, so 1t seemed.
with affectionate confidence.
The Front That Never Sleeps.
When the days reports are in all
along the front there is man, an ex-
pert in the meaning Of things, who
boilS them down for that cold official
digest which tells us that there was
thc usual grenade fighting at -; we
made IN appreciate advance at -"
etc.
The original material comes in
Sheaves, and sheaves where individ-
| Nal character and temperament have
full and amusing play. 1t is reduced
for domestic consumption like an over
whelmins electric current; otherwise
we could not take it in. But at closer
range. say at any general headquar-
ters. one realizes that the front never
sleeps, never ceases from trying new
ideas and weapons. which as soon as
| the boche thinks he has mastered them
are discarded for still newer annoy
ances and bewilderments.
The boche is above all things OBJ.
servant and initiative" said one who
had counted 5000 boches dead in front
OF his sector.
Enemy Thinks Slowly.
When you present him with new
idea he thinks it over for day or two
then he presents his riposte. YES,
mon general that was exactly what
he did to me when did so and so. He
was quite silent for day; then he
stole my patent, and you and had q
notion that he would do that, 80 1 had
changed the specification
Thus spoke the staff, and 80 it is
among the junior commands down to
the semi-isolated posts where boy Ma
poleons live on their own though unbe
lievable adventures. They are inven
tive young devils, these veterans OF
twenty one, possessed Of single idea
to kill-which they followed out with
men as single minded as themselves
Battlefield tactics do not exist when q
whole nation goes to the ground. There
can be none Of the victories of the OLD
bookish days, but there is always the
killing, the we'll schemed smashing OF
\ full trench, the rushing and moving
down of its occupants, the unsuspicious
battalion far in the rear, located after
two nights at extreme risk alone among
a rubbish Of masonry and wiped ou
as it eats or washes itself.