Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-01-23

III Tile FREDERICKSBURG MICH
Shoot Themselves to Avoid
Further Military Service
Megaphoning War News to
Enemy. ~ ,,c.
(AssociGted Press Correspondence.) ::
Armentieres, France, Jan. Zone
of the American ambulance workers
who had been with the British in the
neighborhoodeOf this town for month.
says the attitude of the British SOL
der is utterly incomprehensible to the
Frepchman who is fighting beside him.
To the French" he, says, the
British seem to take the war as a
sport, and talk of their losses like a
score at cricket or football"
:. ! hear you lost two guns the other
day., heard one young English cap
tain say to another" he continued.
Yes, rotor luck was the reply,
hut Cecil lost ten, you Know
! NJ have even met officers who seem
to take pride i'll their lack of know
ledge Of military matters. l inquired
of one such how many guns there are
in battery. l really couldn't say,
you know he answered. I am Of the
Lancers.'
He says the many cases of bad feet
have been due not SO much to cold
as TO standing about in water which
causes the foot to swell
Il first visited the trenches he con-
tinues, beyond Laventie, Is kilom-
OFT Of I.avQnTin
is now a mass of ruins, having been
shelled by the Germans III the first
week of December. The populace left
in a mad rush, leaving bed-clothes
hanging out the windows and half
eaten meals on the tables. For nearly
a mile from the trenches there was
hardly q sign Of life. A few cows were
wandering about. anxious to be milk
ed. The fields contained many dead
animals of all kinds, dogs, sheep,
horses and even cats. Nearly every
farmhouse was wreck and the roads
and the farm lands were marked by
| enormous shell-holes.
Il remember seeing one grave of a
| soldier who was killed on December
second. The name could not be de-
| ciphered, but I made out of a little
/ tag that he belonged to the East Lam
! cashires. The crosses became more
| and more frequent: then we came to
abandoned trenches full of caps, can
| teens and the coats of men who had
I been hastily buried.
Finally we came 20 the mud-plaSter-
| Cd fellows in the trenches and for
several weeks have lived with them.
| There is an average of one man to
| each ten feet Of trench and the nearest
reinforcements are at La Gorgue and
Estaire. Tie first day l walked about
! four miles along the trenches and
| began 10 realize the significance of a
remark I had previously heard that
man could probably walk all the
way from the English channel coast
Of France to Switzerland without
| showing his head above the ground.
l. Anybody who is hit in the trenches
nowadays is usually hit in the head
by a bullet coming through loop
hole and that means his death. Dur
| ing December in this part Of the line
| there have been very few wounded.
Most of the hospital cases are the
| dreaded bad feet. When mans kit
| is taken away, as 1t is when he is
! brought to the hospital, it is pathetic
! to see what little souvenirs they save
cut Of them. IN some instances it will
| he a photograph, or some old letters:
! one fellow vino had shoulder wound
clutched half loaf Of bread for which
! he had paie franc and he would not
! awe it up.
"A major of the Medical Corps told
me it was scandalous how many cases
| there are Of men who had shot them
selves through the hand in order to
get out Of the trenches. 1 personally
/ saw some of these cases at Bethune
among the Indian troops. I was told,
! though do not know that it is true,
! that several men guilty of this had
! been taken out and shot in front Of
! their fellows. On the main road from
| I:staire to La Bassee we met sold
| Ter whose hand was swathed in blood
| stained bandages. He said his rifle
| had gone off accidentally and the bull
let had pierced his hand. but he was
under arrest and escorted by a COM
panion with, fixed bayonet.
Il was in the trenches when news
| was received Of the sinking Of the Ger
man ships Off, the FallSlands. A meg
| ApIlOHc Was ulIuE VI Wrapping paper
| and the report shouted to the enemy
whose trenches were not over 30 yards
| away. I am afraid it was not believed.
even If the English was understood.
! for the night before the Germans had
announced in similar fashion a great
victory for their feet IN the North
Sea. There is fraternal spirit here
that seems strange. more as if one
I were in a shooting-box, or as one Of
fcer explained it, behind the target
ct rife practice"
| Diseha rges from bankruptcy have
been allowed by Judge Hale of the U. S.
district court in the cases of: Melvin T.
! Bean, Bangor; Percy 4. Briggs. Au-
burn: Henry Crossman,' Portland; Aus.
ten M.-Ryder. East Livermore Sidney