The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-08-11
BRITISH GASMAN WRITES A
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF
HIS WORK.
MUST HANDLE CAREFUL
Men Who Turn Deadly Fumes Into
Enemy's Trenches Always
In Danger.


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 business il is. he says, Ito doc
tor the Germans with their own med
icine."
Behind our lines" he writes, 1.-THE
sun set in blaze of glory. A glance
over the parapet shows the green and
scarlet of the POPPED No-Man's land
already merging into the gray mists
OF twilight; but $50 yards away, Xix
brown earth shadow among the
grays. hangs the rusty barbed wire
OF the enemy 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 moment they think OF the
choky, gurgling cough OF the men
who die by gas. II is not pleasant
to die by gas.
Connect up The order comes
down the line from the bay of the
trench to another, and the gasmen
Immediately get busy. The front
rows of neatly piled sandbags of
which each flre-step is apparently
solidly built are pulled out and dis
close cavity In which show, black
and ominous, the cowled heads Of a
row of iron cylinders. They are
sunk in pits well 'bagged up to pro-
tect them from possible crack or
puncture by flying fragment or rich
ochetting bullet. Each cylinder
weighs about 100 pounds and con-
tains sufficient compressed gas, If il
could be used without waste, to put
an entire company out of action.
ION top of the cylinders lies a
tangle flexible connecting pipes,
three and four-way joints. spigots,
and screwjets. and upon these, with
spanner and key, the gasmen start
work. The cylinders are all con-
nected up in series, and nothing re-
mains but to throw the jets over the
top of the parapet and open the
valves in order to release the deadly
fumes.
Needs Favoring Breeze.
But something is required TO car
ny the gas over to the German lines
n favoring breeze-and never did
sailor scan the sky more intensely
than the gasmen watch their little,
inconspicuous wind gauges. fixed to
the edge of a trench. They must
have a wind of a certain direction.
and they prefer il of a certain
strength. On this occasion, the d.
rection is satisfactory enough, but
the breeze shows signs of weakness,
and occasionally falls to a mere, al
most imperceptible zephyr.
ntn hOl tHt Wiiut Nilt
gas men are watching their pipes; re-
peatedly feeling and testing every
inch of tube and joint; for none
know better than they the danger OF
leakage and of the escape of gas in
to their own trenches. Persistenly
an officer passed down the line, cast
ing rapid though keen glances as he
goes at each set of sylinders 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 enc
my's trench and do its deadly work
among its occupants, begins to peter
out.
"At 1880 the gasmen don their
special respirators, which in the dim
light. give the wearers strange, al
most inhuman appearance. Masked
and goggled. with weird, trunk-like
pieces of hose running from the
mouthpiece to the box of air-purify-
ing chemicals strapped to their
chests, they look like some of the
snearthly beings who people the
books of Mr.. II. @. Wells.
"But not a breath disturbs the
still air. The feeble breeze has died
completely. Hurriedly the order
runs down the line: Cancel. and
stand byr Behind their masks the
gasmen grunt disgustedly. But sud
denly-crack! crack! rat-a-tat! rat
a-tat-tat!! The orders to the in
fantry have not been countermand-
cd. and the quiet of the night is
roughly shattered by long line OF
viciously cracking rifles and Lewis
guns, to which the Germans reply.
Apparatus in Danger.
1.-THE gasmen move uneasily. II Is
not for themselves they fear, but for
those pipes and cylinder heads lying
bare and exposed TO the hail of fly