The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-07-20

dred yards had been covered when a
wounded soldier came limping back
from the firing line. He was very
pale, with a great splash Of blood on
his coat, but on his feet and walking
without support. Another soldier
was ahead, and one behind, ready to
give assistance.
1T is nothing, only ball in the
hip he said, "but my companion
was killed outright"
''It is nothing" he kept repeating,
as he held up the flag of his coat,
showing a small round hole cut as
nicely as with a pair of scissors. But
it was not this, or the ball in the
hip, which was giving him paint
was his companion killed at his side.
Shortly after this another grew
some incident interrupted the explor-
alton of the trenches. An officer of
high rank arrived suddenly to report
to the commanding general-a mine
had just been exploded, killing Capt.
c. and wounding two lieutenants
and forty men. This he told hastily
as the general paused to receive the
report. Capt. G., he went on,
had lived long enough to write few
words to his family. The explosion
of the mine had not only scattered
deadly fragments among the officers
and men, but most of them had been
overcome by gas fumes.
Merely an Incident.
\ This tragedy, hastily reported to
the general as the party trudged
through the trench, was only one OF
the incidents of this greater tragedy
going on night and day all around
here. Gen. Hellouin spoke of the
gallant service of Capt. c., gave
directions for suitable care of the
body, and the party passed on to in
Sp0CL LQ0 CrSuCueS.
It is no easy thing-this walking
through the front trenches. they
have tried to floor them, to keep the
men raised out of the sticky clay.
But the floor is of round saplings,
about the thickness of telegraph
poles. laid side by side, making a
bumpy surface. 1t is all right for
the poilu in his wooden sabots. But
for a civilian it is like going over
railroad ties. And besides there IS
the zig-zag, for the trenches turn
sharply every twenty feet. And the
width of these clay walls is not great
er than four feet-much like excava-
tions one sees in the street for a
sewer or gas main. Every hundred
feet the visitors head strikes one of
the heavy timber bridges thrown
across the trenches.
"See how this works." said a
young officer commanding this Sec
ton of trench, as he pointed to a
cheveaux-de-frise balance above the
trench, ready to drop and bar all
progress should the Germans break
through. The cheveaux-de-frise was
a stocky frame laced and wound with
ugly barbed wire. A long wire ran
away to a point of observation.
Barrier to Trenches.
stClose the TRENCH" shouted the
young officer, and the ,cheveaux-de-
frise came tumbling town, fitting ex-
actly across the trench, and immov-
able in it's barrier of twisted wire.
Every few feet the clay wall of the
trench showed a large black hole
the entrance to the subterranean
pits, where the men sleep and eat
and live. Gen. Hellouin wanted the
party to see everything-the real liv-
ing condition of the men-so down
one of these black holes the guests
went. Soon the daylight disappear
ed and there was darkness of tun-
mel and the damp earthly smell of be-
ing underground. There was a call
for candles, and then suddenly this
cavern was brightly Illuminated as
the electric current was turned on
for the general and his party. Now
the men could be seen plainly, some
in the narrow banks ranged against
the clay walls, others at table with
a lantern At the further end was a
small separate hole in the earth-the
quarters of the officer commanding
the trench. He had put up photo
graphs on the clay sides, one of them
a picture of Gen. Joffre, and his little
table had several books and trinkets.
'It is not so bad," he said with
pride, as he showed his things, "and
it is very practical, and even COM
Portable, when you get used to it,"
Telephone System.
A telephone stood handy to the
80 ho eoofion and tho