New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-08

trenches, and then crept back in single
file to the camp under the hill. Not
word was spoken while we were in the
station. Men whose posts were there
communicated by signs
Longest Way Proves Shortest.
When all our party was gathered
once more under the hill we took the
road again for the automobiles, but
this time the colonel commanding there
said he would show us a short cut and
led us to another communicating
trench. | think it was a short cut,
though we walked nearly twice as far,
for as we passed under the hill which
our former path had crossed | saw
shells bursting on its crest. They were
hitting not $50 yards from us, and the
field we had crossed was pitted with
she'll holes.
/ know something of what can be
done with shells, for | have stood be-
side a battery of 75s in action and
have seen gunners under the direction
of officers control the objective TO a
fraction of an inch. 1t needed but the
barest movement of a little wheel by
a German gunner to drop those shells
on US.
That was war-that was modern war.
Insects Hide in Crevices.
That is what a communique means
when it speaks of heavy bombardment
trenches where no man even whis-
pers, rife bullets humming at the fiut-
ter OF a leaf scream and crash of
shells, SCARED and pitted fields and
over all this hell the vast desolation of
a great desert, where even the insects
HI do in tho crpVicpS of rocks
Afte. visiting 200 miles of the first
line understand why this is true, but
it is still hard TO realize it and harder
still TO believe that ! can make you
realize that this is what an observer
sees in the most desperate war OF his
tory. 1t would be perfectly truthful
and quite simple to write that for four
DAYS and a half was almost constant
" under fire. and perhaps | would be
wiser 10 follow distinguished examples
and start from that basis.
might tell you of creeping forward
from trenches to crouch behind thick
" grown hedge of young saplings and
peering cautiously between their
branches at the German lines. only
few hundred feet away; OF the bee-hke
hum of bullets, of leaves cut from their
branches by rife fire and fluttering to
the ground at our feet, of the spat OF
bullets into the solid wood of full
grown trees. But that would give you
no true picture.
Saw Two Germans at Is Miles.
What is true is that have seen only
two Germans. Last Sunday afternoon,
looking through powerful glass.
saw two German cavalrymen riding
into Contains. eighteen miles away.
Etain is a humming hive of Germans,
ten miles nearer What | saw there
was a white line Of German trenches
600 yards from the edge Of the town
trenches | knew were filled with SOL
diers-and not a living thing.
| have looked down over the great
plain Of Woevre. French trenches
stretched behind and on both sides Of
me. German trenches made hSh net
PATTERN in the valley. heard the boom
Of guns and saw white clouds rise
where shells struck and burst. All
over the plain saw those little clouds
rising. And the only living man | saw
was the French officer who stood be
side me and pointed out towns and
strategic places.
A battle was in progress there. To
our right was place Of peculiar. IN
terest. which is mentioned in the com
munioues almost daily. ! focused my
glasses on it and studied it carefully.
Next day the communique told Us that
a desperate attack had been made on
that position. All had seen were
white clouds on the hillside. where Ger
man shells burst, and more white clouds
in the valley, wheye French shells an
swered