Gilpin observer., 1915-07-08
WHERE FRENCHMEN ARE FIGHTING TO
REGAIN LOST PROVINCE Of LORRAINE
Edward Clark Describes Visit to the French Trenches Near
Nancy-Nose Of the Batteries Is Terris-Men Live Under
ground Day in and Day Out, Yet Keep Their Spirits
Above Ground Sees War and Peace Side by Side

place where the shells are fred you
get to the place where the shells drop.
1t could not have been more than four
miles out Of town before the pound
Ing Of the guns hit my cars and hit
them in most unpleasant way. When
the tenderfoot goes forth to war the
tenderness Of his feet is likely to find
companionship with the tenderness of
his heart
Noise 10 Terrific.
The trouble with the internal she'll
ing as far as 1t affects the man who
Is going forth to see 1t, Is that you
never know where one of the things Is
going to drop. The noise is terrific,
and while all the batteries along the
front may be firing at something
miles away. the hearer and the onlook-
er does not know this necessarily, but
II he suspects 1t and thinks that dan
ger Is remote he has full realization
that a variation of an inch or two
to the right OF to the left of the muz-
zle of one of the big guns will change
the direction Of the fire SO that the
next projectile may land in his lap.
We reached the firing line. Now, II
people have any idea that on the mod
ern battlefield, except on the occasions
OF charges and countercharges. there
are thousands upon thousands men
in view, the idea may as well be fore
gone. There are two big armies In
the field here. and yet you don't see
them, SO to speak. individually. The
GnldiorQ NJ
a. either covered by the dense woods
or else they are underground like so
many thousands of r: bbits In their
burrows.
The cannonading is terrific and yet
1t is difficult unless you happen to
| be at the exact point where the
shells fall. to tell what all the row Is
about. In this section of the coun-
try the French biplanes and the Ger
man taubes make their high and lofty
excursions for the purpose of detect
ing some point in the enemy's line
which, it is considered the part of
war wisdom to lombard. 1t may be a
blockhouse hidden in the woods but
commanding some pathway through
the trees which has been discovered
by the sky pilot When such is the
case the artillery will open as accu-
rately as possible upon the spot des-
| ignated by the flying machine scout,
and then after the shells have rained
| OF infantry to capture the position.
Labyrlnths Of earbed Wire.
II did not seem possible to me that
there was SO much barbed wire in this
big world Of ours as is strung along
through the woods and fields of this
part of France. 1t is a deadly wire
for 1t has more prickles than any burr
that grows in the fields. and these
prickles are OF steel. The wire Is
strung into labyrinths through which
it Is impossible to thread ones way
except under guidance. Back OF these
mazes of barbed wire are the trenches
and in these trenches are the soldiers
of France. although you do not know
it until you drop down into theil
midst.
| Keep Up Their Spirits.
do not understand how men car
live underground day in md day ont
and keep their spirits aboveground
The French are doing it, however, ant
suppose by the same token that the
Germans are doing it ,lso. Once IL
while they get surceas- from stag
nation by an orde to Charge. 1t II
an event. the effect of which In buoy
ance Of spirits lasts for weeks. wier
one side Of the other takes a single
trench from the enemy and holds it