Semi-weekly herald., 1915-04-05
first feel a sense Of triumph.


you that you did the right thing.
My experience was like that. / was
standing beside my lieutenant one
day. He had fastened small mirror
to twig and was looking at the Ger
man trenches when suddenly he ex-
claimed:
"Get your gun! A Boche has come
out of his trench"
ran down the trench, got my gun
and came back to the loophole. 1 was
SO excited could hardly aim. Through
the hole l saw a German standing on
the edge of his trench. He had been
carrying huge board and had rested
It against his back while he tried to
light his pipe.
Get himl Get himl" said the
lieutenant.
l fired and missed. The German
struck another match and merely
looked contemptuously at the spot in
space where. the bullet had whistled
past him. He was only 45 feet away
from me, but through the loophole 1
could see only a part Of his body and
| wanted to hit him low if possible.
l aimed again, he wheeled around and
backed in circle, like drunken man
trying to keep his balance. Then he
threw up his both hands and fell
forward on his face. | turned around
to look at the lieutenant. He had
moved away. l was proud. Then
wave of remorse came over me; it was
the "Thou Shalt Not Kill" that is
buried deep in every san mans mind
and heart.
81 got a German" shouted to Il
soldier nearby. l told him how the
man had been standing there, holding
board.
"Did he have rifle?" asked the
soldier.
"Why, no." l said.
And you shot an unarmed man ?"
"I had direct orders," l answered.
felt like a dog. 1t seemed to me
that l must find some human being
who would say that | had done right.
told another soldier about it.
"Served him right" said the so,-
der. He'd have done the same thing
to you."
These We're splendid words for me.
had slouched along the trench be
fore | met him. After that | held up
my head. But the two feelings, the
IT. Ge aid the remorse fought in my
rind.
i At last | told it all to an old legion
soldier.
my boy" he said, "it's war. Could
you have refused to shoot under the
eye of the lieutenant? War is kill
ing and that's all there is to do it.
Suppose every soldier in the French
line were to obey his own instincts
about killing. None of the enemy
would die. The French have brought
You here to kill. You are ordered to
kill and you must kill, whenever you
can"
Il Technically l had done wrong, be
cause all war is terribly wrong.
sat behind "a machine gun one day
soon sfter that and killed eleven Ger.
r,ans who had built a barricade il
!. some nearby trees. They were shoot
ing at us, and l felt much better
about killing them than 1 did abou,
] the single German.
i And then later again in the bicycle
seat of the machine gun, and, at tn.
rate Of 700 shots minute, | fired al
advancing columns of Germans IL
close formation and watched Their
drop and squirm. They were coming
to kill us, if they could. 1t was only
fair to kill them, under the rules of
the war game. A terrific sense of
j power filled me; the rattle of that gun
was sweeter and grander to me than
the halielujah chorus. / knew what
II meant to be drunk with killing.
Olher machine guns were going too,
but 1 felt at the time as if mine wer9
the only one. The Germans turned
aud ran, their formation smashed,
their dead and wounded strewing tic
hillside.
Eut that night after had crawled
into my mud hole hut to sleep | did
nos dare to think of all the women
and children whose hearts had been
hit by that machine gun fire.
l had Joined the French foreign
legion expecting to be made mem.
ber Of the flying corps. Instead
had found my way to the trenches,
where killing was our only job, brutal
oat-and-out killing, with little science
and less chivalry.