The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-08-06
FRENCH men
Get TO KNOW
FOE BY NAME
Soldiers Lay for Enemies
With Cool Determination
and Regale Companions
With Tales of Death.
IN CONSTANT DANGER
Correspondent Through Per-
iscOpe Sees Germans With
Bombs Ready to Stop At
tack.

LONDON, Aug. 5.-A British cor
respondent at the front with the expe-
dictionary force in Flanders, sends the
following graphic descriptions of life
in the trenches:
This war, particularly this trench
warfare-'the war Of positions as the
Germans more correctly call its 80
utterly unprecedented that one often
searches the mind in vain for some
suitable parallel which will make the
people realize what 1t means to have
to live for days, sometimes for weeks.
on end In a narrow ditch seeking to
compass the violent death Of persons
in another ditch within hailing dis
lance with whom not a year ago one
might have been lunching or dining.
II was in some trenches the other
day. We were having tea round a
table In dug.out. The trench ran
through cornfield, as l remember,
and as we drank out tea we had
Ane view of some ruined buildings
against the sky. The German trenches
were very close and II you had a fancy
to finish life all you had to do was
to take two steps from the tea table
and poke your head for an instant
above the sandbags of the parapet.
Carry Away Body.
ION the German side an oficer had
tried to do this that morning. Five
minutes afterwards three men with
stretcher had taken the body away.
Somebody remarked on the strange
ness Of our position. Here we are,
he said, in a ditch in a cornfield.
Rather a good spot for a picnic it
would have been, wouldn't it, with the
old farm back there to furnish hot
water for tea and this nice view in
front Of us? l dare say people used
to come here on summer evenings like
this a year ago. Yet here we are, a
lot OF men who probably never heard
of Flanders in their lives before this
war, living in an adjectival cornfleld,
with only one idea in life, and that
to kill as many as possible Of another
bunch of fellows living in another
corner of the same old cornfield.
Funny war, amt It? Who'll come and
snipe?'
He and another man, having finish.
ed their tea, went of down the trench
where the bullets were whinneying
and popping and smoking great wads
out of the sandbags of the parados
with resounding smack that fairly
deafens you If your head happens to
be alongside. l could see them for
a bit creeping daubled up along a
stretch of low trench marked down as
a bad corner. Later l caught sight
of them in ruined barn. They were
kneeling motionless with their rifles
NJ fv,v
I knew whom they were waiting for,
named Peter Weber, a sniper. whose
for him for three days. They didn't
get Peter Weber that day.
Know Their Enemies.
Men who live like this. almost en-
tete-a-tete with the Germans, posi-.
sight. They give the snipers names
fulness by Karl and Fritz and Her
mann's evening hate One of our
snipers, a private, who had found him
self an admiral BILE spot to operate from,
was quite an authority on the inmates
OF the trenches only a biscuit throw
away. 1t was he, incidentally, who
"bagged" the German oficer that
morning. He RECALLED his mates with
fabulous tales of old Germans with
their long white bears who roamed
fellow. this sniper. a dead shot, with
an open face and fearless eye. You
can't stop him. his captain said to me.
Every minute Of the day he can spare
he is at it. He's the pride of the
company
The other day l was in position
which Is less than 80 yards from the
German trenches, where the few men
holding the place squat doubled up in
narrow trench with stack OF
bombs at hand to repel an attack. The
trench runs through some ruined
buildings. where the dead Of many
months are lying, some buried in, the
soil through which our trenches run,
others entombed beneath piles of loose
bricks. / sat down on the ground be-
side the Irishmen who were in that
foul place and chatted with them. In
- piece Of mirror stuck up on the
parados l could see the German trench
at a distance considerably less than
the width Of the Strand at it's mar
rowest point. There's an Alleman
that comes out O that trinch one and
agin,' they said to me in hoarse whis-
pers Sure. and we often see him
pattering about, a gran big fellow
with great whiskers on him. It's
pity not to shoot him. We could get
him every time touched the mirror
to move it. The next instant two bull.
lets struck the sandbags on the par
ADDS on either side of the glass The
men laughed. They can't hit you the
way you have your head now. sorr.
they said, but don't be raisin' your.
self"
WAR IN INDIANAPOLIS.