The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-05
''C|V|NC GERMANS
 OWN MED|C|NE," !" ' TOLD BY: BRITISH
Censorship Taken Off To Permit Description of
 Deadly Gas Attacks.

-LOnQOn, Aug. 0.-BeIOr0 the pig squeeze" began discussion of British gas attacks was strictly prohibited but now the taboo has been lifted, and a British "gasman" has been allowed to write a graphic account of the work of his own special corps whose busi- ness it is, he says, "to doctor the Ger mans with their own medicine"
 Behind our lines," he writes, "the sun set in blaze of glory. A glance over the parapet shows the green and scarlet of the poppied No-Man's Land already merging into the gray mists of twilight; but 150 yards away, like a brown earth shadow among the grays, hangs the rusty barbed wire of the en- emy and just beyond a white, chalky upthrow marks his front line trench. The gasmen stare across the silent shadows at that white line and for a moment they think of the choky, gurg- ling cough of the men who die by gas. It is not pleasant to die by gas.
 Connect up!' The order comes down the line from one bay of the trench to another, and the gasmen inn mediately get busy. The front rows of neatly piled sandbags of which each fire-step is apparently solidly built are pulled out and disclose 8 cavity in which show, black and ominous, the cowled heads of row of iron cylin- ders. They are sunk in pits well bag ged up to protect them from possible crack or puncture by flying fragment or ricochetting bullet. Each cylinder weighs about 130 pounds and contains sufficient compressed gas, if it could be used without waste, to put an entire company out of action.
 "On top of the cylinders lies a tan gle of flexible connecting pipes, three and four way joints, spigots, and screw-jet, upon these, with spanner and key, the gasmen start work. The cylinders are all connected up in se- ries, and nothing remains but to throw the jets the top of the parapet and open the valves in order to re- lease the deadly fumes.
 "But something is required to car ry the gas over to the German lines or scan the sky more intently than the gasmen watch their little. incon- spicuous wind gauges, fixed to the edge of a trench. They must have wind of a certain direction, and they prefer 1t of a certain strength. On this occasion, the direction is sat- isfactory enough, but the breeze shows signs of weakness, and occa- sionally falls to a mere, almost inn perceptible zephyr.
 "When not watching the wind. the gasmen are watching their pipes; re- peatedly feeling and testing every inch of tube and joint: for none know better than they the danger of leak age and of the escape of gas into their own trenches. Persistently an officer passes down the line, casting rapid though keen glances as he, goes at each set of cylinders and their connecting pipes. And in every bay he. pauses and whispers two words to the corporal in charge: Eleven o'clock But the wind, without which the gas will not reach the en- emy's trench and do it's deadly work among its occupants. begins to peter out.
 "At ten-fifty the gasmen don their special respirators, which in the dim light, give the wearers 8 strange, al- most inhuman appearance. Masfled and goggled, with weird, trunk-like pieces of hose running from the mOuthpfece to the DOx or a1r-pur1- flying chemicals strapped to their chests, they look like some of the un- earthly beings who people the books of MT. H. G. Wells.
 But not breath disturbs the still air. The feeble breeze has died completely. Hurriedly the order runs down the line; Cancel, and stand by Behind their masks the gasmen grunt disgustedly. But sud- denly-crack! crack! rat-a-tat; rata tat-tati The orders to the infantry have not been countermanded, and the quiet of the night is roughly shat tered by a long line of viciously cracking rifles and Lewis guns to which the Germans reply.
 '"The gasmen move about uneasily. It is not for themselves they fear, but for those pipes and cylinder heads lying bare and exposed to the hail of flying fragments. We'll they know the danger of bursts and of trenches filled with gas and no wind to move it. But they cannot bag up with