Evening star., 1916-07-13
SEES NO OMAN'SFACE
YET HEARS VOICES
Correspondents Experience
Along the Battle Line in the
Argonne Forest.
SHELLS BURSTING IN AIR
OVER MEN IN TRENCHES
Weird Conditions in Woods Where
the Absence of Ordinary
Sounds 0ppresses.
Copyright. 191s)
BY HERBERT COREY.

BY HERBERT COREY.
| IN THE ARGONNE. July This is
a forest of enchantment. Nothing here
| is as it is in any other forest. One
might walk for leagues-if the Ger
, mans would kindly refrain from shoot
| ing the pedestrian-without seeing
man. Yet at every foot of that march
one might hear voices. The men are in
| the trenches. 1t is marvelously
soundless wood. A stick breaking be-
meath ones feet startles by the crash.
| Yet shells are breaking everywhere
and at a near distance the big guns of
the French are playing on the enemy.
1t is the little, accustomed noises of
the grove that one misses. In their
absence the minor silence falls as
pail.
In writing of such a wood one must
deal in contradictions. A bird begins
| to sing. and it's CHEEKY song seems
out of place. Almost shameless The
| trees in one of which it will build its
! nest are being torn down one by one
| by the German shells Death is on
| every hand. We talk of the idiocy of
| that bird. singing in a wood. instead
of the shells. We appear to be fasci-
| mated by it. Time after time the con-
versation returns to 1t. One might
think we feared it. 1t Is as though
each harbored conviction, unadmit-
ted even to himself, that this bird
would betray us to the gunners hidden
on the slope of the distant hill. Per-
haps this thought furnished the COM
ment of the officer who accompanied
US:
"A French bird" he said, rather
grimly. Always gay"
Neither Side in Forward Move.
In this forest of the Argonne the
combatants have practiced a war of
attrition for months. Neither rests and
yet neither has for some time launched
a determined forward move. The pro-
sale daily task of each is to kill as
many of the other as possible The di-
vergent national characteristics show
themselves in the manner in which this
| is accomplished. The French remain
| silent for hours. Suddenly they con-
| centrate storm of artillery on sec
| ton of the German lines in which it is
believed men are unwarily showing
themselves. AS suddenly as it begins
| the storm ends.
We try to catch them unaware" said
the French officers. and we stop before
| they can locate our artillery positions"
The Germans practice diametrically
opposite tactfce. At certain hours they
shell heavily. Between times they do
almost nothing. Sometimes they will
monotonousIy shell a certain road. or &
given sector. During that time traffic
is suspended and the French remain in
their bombproofs. When we came to
this part of the front the general COM
manding refused to permit us to visit
the trenches after noon.
You must go in the morning." said
'e. Then the Germans are quiet and
it will be perfectly safe.
n,,;o< Mor,;,~
Civilians sometimes encounter a re-
| grettable lack of precision in the en-
| ployment by the military of the more
| ordinary terms. This morning was
| quiet on the front. Every one as
sured us of this. Yet shells were fall
| ing in the wood with a certain dull
| regularity. One had just time between
: the crashes in which to SAVIOR that
weird silence of which l have spoken,
and to reprehend the useless song of
| the birds. There were not many birds.
There were so few inducements to nest
| building. So many trees had been
| broken off half way up the trunk
, We left our automobiles at the field
| hospital. Here another contradiction
| bright and sunny place. mostly
white enamel. and nurses with red
crosses on their arms. This was a
| 1ug-out in the side of a hill. rooted
| with heavy logs on which fifteen feet
Of earth had been piled as protection
aga ainst shells. The front was open. SO
that one looked down a picturesque
ravine in which little clouds of smoke
the enemy. Bark-covered logs and
| forest made divans gave 1t that touch
| Of artistry one finds so often at the
| French front. If one forgot the fifteen
fAz of ay.fI h oh do fla0 nof .
| might have been lounging place at
miilionaire's camp in the Adirondac acks.
We left our chauffeurs contentedly
smoking in the hospital. They had
fancy for that sort of roof.
mo patients" said the hospital or
deriy, who talked English. The Ger
mans-pah. They are no good"
Some Trenches Almost Dry.
In some places the trenches were al
most dry. The mud hardly covered our
shoes Then we would splash into a
soupy mud almost knee deep, on which
the corduroy bottoms of the trenches
floated. At times we descended by cor
duroy stairs into tunnels, shoulder
wide and dripping. At the bottom of
such a tunnel we would find the sleep
ing places for the men. by the aid OF
our pocket electric torches or the
trench candle of the handtest soldier.
Half the work of war on the Argonne
front seems to be the unwatering of
these dug-outs, by force pumps and
wire wrapped hose. The air was fresh
enough in them. for 1t was forced in
nv other pumps. Sometimes little fires
were sparkling in these sub-earth and
sub-water caverns in a heroic effort to
dry them.
'iYet he men are cheerful?' we asked.
Look at them" was the reply.
Sure enough. They were cheerful. in
snite of rheum atism and trench foot and
the other ills of wet trenches. Some
thing of this cheer had its birth in the
fact that summer is coming, when the
Arsonne trenches will for perhaps a
month be something less than flooded.
Most of it was born of the conviction
that, little by little, the french are
getting the better of the invader. This
is something more than the courageous
optimism of the soldier.
Can we not see what we are doing"'