The Cook County news-herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Cook County, Minn.) 1909-current, 1915-06-10
All Is Not Death and DesoIation.
The Fighters Abroad Tell Of
GreWsome Humorous Incidents,
and It's the DaredeviIs Who
Give Most Whimsical Twist to
Their Narratives.
TTUMOR, like hope, springs eter-
nal in the human breast even
when it is serving as target

UMOR, like hope, springs eter-
nal in the human breast even
when it is serving as target
for the enemy's bullets. One
Of the most interesting features Of the
world war is the fact that it has actual
1y stimulated and increased the pro-
duction Of humor, amateur and pro-
fessIonal.
A keen sense Of humor is the DOM
inant note in most Of the soldiers let
tiers from the front, while in conversa-
ton I have noticed that officers, as
well as men, instnctiyely tell you the
lighter incidents, passing up the horror
Of the grim reality, and that the sense
of humor becomes keener and more
frequent the closer you get to the front
and the hotter the fire, as If this safety
valve Of nature opened up automatical
iy. I noticed, says correspondent on
the German front, that invariably the
men who had the most dangerous jobs
cavalry officers who had come back
alive from daring patrol rides, aviators
who had not made their last fight,
pioneers-were thus gifted, and If in
spite of their modesty they could be
prevailed upon at all to talk about
themselves they would invariably give
r. whimsical twist to the narrative.
Tho Headless Enemy.
Many good war stories are, Of course,
obviously apocryphal, as the famous
Irish bull attributed to the Bavarian
landsturm man who was asked by an
enemy officer to carry him to the field
hospital, as he was wounded in the
leg. The Bavarian packed his prisoner
and carried him pig-a-back, but on the
way shell flying low carried off the
enemy's head without the Bavarian no.
dcing it. He deposited his headless
burden before the astonished field sur
geon with the request to have the fel-
lows leg attended to. The surgeon
says tart things about what he consid-
ers ''bum joke in being asked to
try his skill on headless man. The
nonplused Bavarian finally sees great
sight and explodes: what liars some
people are! The fellow told me with
his own lips that he was wounded in
the leg. Not word about his head
being gone"
Some of the best stories, however,
have the merit Of being true Cen
eral Won Heeringen, the venerable COM
mander in chief of the til army, told
me sprightly narrative of how they
had recently taken prisoners Of an en-
tire French company, with it's captain.
The company, cut off by the German
! advance, had managed to maintain
themselves for two months in hiding
! in a wood eight miles in the rear Of the
| German lines. They were discovered,
said General Won Herringen, only by
fiuke, for the French captains boots
wore out, and he sent them into
nearby village to be resoled. A sharp
witted landsturm man who noticed
the native shoemaker repairing foreign
looking boots reported the matter, and
the clew led to the discovery Of the
French garrison in the woods at the
Germans rear.
'That Frenchman was splendid,
competent officer to have been able to
keep his company together for two
months under such conditions" was
the generals admiring comment.
I&S Zouaves Desert to Germans.
"A German war correspondent: vouches
! for the truth Of the following story
sAt one Of the trenches between Rheims
and Laon four DESERVING zouayes came
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