The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-11-23
COLLEGE MATES
IN U. S. GRIM
FOES In EUROPE
Harvard Volunteers. in
Europe Subject Of Newly
Written Book
Under the little crosses where they
rise
The soldier rests. Now round him
undismayed
The cannon thunders, and at night he
lies
At peace beneath the eternal fusi-
lade.


At peace beneath the eternal fusi
lade.
{Erom champagne, 1914-1915," b!
Alan Seeger, 10 killed in the Somm.
battle in July. in North American Re
view.)
Let us call 1t chance that opened
the crimson-bound box to page Eat
And probably it was the same guild
| ing deity who placed thereon these
words:
/; Fritz Daur, s. T. M, IA, killed
! lighting In German Army in Flanders
November, 1914"
| For here is the epitome Of this
volume. this blood-colored volume
Tho Harvard Volunteers in Europe
fresh hom the Harvard University
Press.
!, It seems to bring home the fact that
Harvard's relation to the great inter
national catastrophy is bigger than
her surgical units, her hospital work
or her ambulance driving for the
Allies
1t proves, andNit takes a tragedy to
pr0ve it, that Harvard men are to be
found all the world over in all the
worlds pursuits, destructive as we'll as
constructive; that in this war the
bullet from the gun Of q Harvard man
may find its mark in body covered
by a uniform Of different hue and diff
ferent allegiance, yet Of one who alike
looks to Cambridge-on,the- Charles
with fondest memories.
DO, fov- r ao1
And it is pictures Of real war that
bindings of this Harvard volume.
Here the writings Of her sons who
have been intimately connected with
the war in Europe have been gathered.
Some Of themes, many Of them
are reprinted from sundry college
publications; other are set in print
presumably for the first time. To-
gether they make up volume which
might well be called "a Book Of
Tragedies" Here is one OF them:
A Mine Explosion.
Early In the war, the book tells us,
Andre Chernot Champollion. '02, q
natural1xed American citizen Of
French descent, enlisted in the French
"A ".
Austin Corbin and a greatgrandson Of
Jean Francis Champollion, the eminent
E8yptologist, who deciphered the
R0setta Stone. @>
On March 1, 1915, Champo1lion was
rent to the front ito I'LL the gaps left
by other petty officers, who have been
'kn1cked in the black The quota
ton is from one of his letters. Nine
teen days later, sitting In the mud of
. trench, he wrote this description Of
4 German mine explosion -
I'VE had travelled along the COM
munication trench about half an hour,
and we were about to enter our shelf
err In the second line trenches, when
not far away came two fairly loud
bomb explosions In quick succession
Then the earth seemed all Of
sudden to reel There was a COM
motion Hike the bursting OF a volcano
Two hundred yards OF, above the
trees, q column Of huge rocks, Jumps
OF earth, uee-trunks, and probably
numerous human limbs, rose slowly
and majest1cally.
The upper fragments. as they rose,
seemed to advance menacingly in our
direction, As II they must surely hit us
when they returned to earth They
seemed suspended In the air for an
Indefinite space Of time, as If there
were no hurry at all about their fall
ing back
.-They seemed TO Cross and crisis
cross tn all directions, now obscuring
half the sky.
"A Bit Too Rough"
a'CraduaI1y the mass assumed the
shape of the upper portion of an elm
tree, and then began to subside- Then
could be heard the smashing sound of
the tree branches as this mass Of rock
and earth fell back with the crushing
force Of an avalanche Everybody
ducked and plunged head first into
the shelters.
Almost Immediately there came
the sound Of thousands OF heavy rain
drops on q stir canvas or the swapping
Of innumerab1e whips; all this
punctuated by peculiar biz, biz,
WIKI sound like someone whistling in
suYprise.
II could not. help making the In
ward remark, T knew war tough. but
look here. boys, isn't this q bit too
1oaaghT
TT seemed that the Germans had
exploded a mine under one Of our
trenches, then opened a violent fusi-
laAe to capture what remained Of it"
Here. then, was the first glimpse of
war by q man sent to the front to take
the place Of an officer who had been
Knocked in the block
And three, days afterwards, Cham
pollion's body lay In a trench at Bois-
a bullet wound in the fore
head. He had merely gone the way
Of those before him
Only One Of Many.
Cfampo11ion's story Is only one Of
many. Last year. for instance, Prof.
Copeland OF the English department
a short Letter, from a young
Enslishnan, Harry Gustav Byng. who
graduated from Harvard in 1912.
'.Af the present moment" 1t ran, II
am sitting in a 'dugout' while our
gunners and the Germans are having
some practice-fl1is is monotonous.
AT first you worry about the land
Ing place Of the shells, but there are
20 many different noises that, not be-
ing able to keep track Of them all. it
II simpler to ignore them. Yer never
'ars the bullet wot cops yer is the
Tommies phflosophy-and It Is the
best one."
He wrote that early in March. Then
he got a Through, went back to Lon