The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1915-04-01
AMONG THE DEAD.
IN THE TRENCHES
An American Newspaper Man
Who Fought for Months In
the Trenches
TELLS OF GHOSTLY HORRORS
That Arc Encountered There Until
u Almost Makes Ones
Blood Chill

IHll Ilducl, we'll hIlOWIl UIllLeu
Press correspondent, is now in
London after service of several
months with the allies. i'm the
trenches, and his graphic des-
cription of the life lived there al
most makes ones blood run cold.
His regiment which entered the
service with 1900 men has now
been reduced to 385.
He begins his letter with the
sight of German body hanging
from the barbed wire entangle-
ments in front of the French
trench, which he has just left.
For two months he says that body
has been hanging there and was
q part of his every day outlook
on the world. There's pair of
nippers in the rotting hands.
For a long time the body was ar
ched up but it recently began to
sag and the clothes flap more and
more in the wind as the body
shrivels. Nobody from either
army has been able to get the
body to bury it and it remains
buried in the air.
Living cheek by jowl with dead
men turns men to beasts, but he
says it's an unavoidable part of
trench life. In time soldiers are
liable to watch men writhing in
agony with perfect equanimity,
and he gives number of incid-
ents to prove this. One day,he says
a young Englishman in his squad
named Samuel tried to shorten
the distance to the rear. Instead
of making the maze of trenches
he got out in front of them. A Ger
man bullet plunged through his
lungs and they saw him toppla
over not fifteen feet away. He
writhed and he moaned, but the
officers would not let the men try
to get him.
| The lieutenant sent to another
part of the trenches for red
cross man. He was young Swiss
doctor, named Schcrer. He climbed
right out of the trenches and start
ed to reach Samuels but a bullet
passed through his head and in
a moment he too was dead. Fin.
ally a lasso was made and Samuel
was dragged into the trench, but
i. by that time he was dead. Expert.
ences like this. he says, finally
harden a man until, if he get;
killed or wounded, he is blamed
for carelesness. He says that whei
merchant of Paris was killed
with rifle bullet through his
head when he was peeping above
the trench, Lieut.. Frances wht
Conducted the funeral ceremony
, said; This is lesson for you
|young men to take to heart. You
must not be SO careless.
i Most of the infantry bury
their dead right in the trenches
Sometimes they have to scoop
out a grave in the side of the
trench. They would not know OF
course where other divisions who
had occupied the trench before
them had buried their dead, ane
it was no uncommon thing tc
come across rotting body. Ther
part of the trench would be pol
luted for days until the rain ha(
washed away the last traces OF
the mass.
There the soldiers are among
their dead.It is a terrible life, stay
ing with their dead and sleeping
alOng side Of them. One gets tC
feel that the only difference be-
tween you and your dead is that
your little bullet has not found
you yet. And thus the letter runs,
to further illustrate the kind of
life the Europeans have to
live now. He closes by saying
IF you think heroism and fine
ideals grow in the trenches you
are wrong. Life is too beast-like
| for cI10h h,1n1on