The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-05-31
The Degeneracy
Of Modem War
By Captain F. A. mitchell

make stories about this big war in Eu-
rope" said the G. \. II. veteran, when
it's all over. What kind of war is
it, anyway? 4 hundred thousand men
march up against line of trenches de-
Tended by rapid fire guns, electric
wires and grenades; 60,000 or 10000
of them are either killed or woSded,
while the rest capture few yards of
territory or are driven back without
having accomplished anything. You
might as well extract romance from
the Chicago stockyards on killing day"
The remark was made to a party of
men sitting on chairs tilted against the
outside of country store.
where's the romance in the war
you fit in?' asked an old farmer, tax
ing his pipe out of his mouth and look
ing at the G. A. II. man dOubtfully.
"Whar is 1t? Why, that war was
brimful of it. 1t was spread over a
big country; there were comparatively
few battles; small amount of takin'
Notifications and all the rest was ro-
nance. l don't mean girl romance,
though there was plenty Of that.
mean adventure romance. l was con-
cerned in one of 'em myself. We was
layin' quiet in camp, down in Tennes-
see, one summers evening, singin',
When this cruel war is over or 'Lo-
| rena' or some other of the romantic
war songs of that time, when my cap
tain came along in hurry, shoutin,
ANY locomotive engineer among you
| boysg l said I'd been fireman on a
locomotive and could run a machine
| tolable well. He yanked me Off to the
general, who asked me few questions,
then told me that the bridge guard
across the Tennessee river, twenty
miles above us, had been attacked and
| unless he could get re-enforcements
there right off the bridge would be
taken and burned. This would break
our line of communications and we
might have to give up big stretch OF
country we occupied. He wanted an
engineer to take a regiment through tC
the rescue. The officer commanding
the guard had telegraphed that he
couldn't hold out much longer, when
the wire was cut
, "The train was made up and 40C
/ men were hurrying into the cars. A
locomotive was being fired Up, and
| jumped aboard and took the throttle.
"Well, now, mebbe there was nothin
, adventurous in that ride! The colone
! commanding the regiment and the ad
iutant were in the cab with me, anC
1t wasn't long before they were made
a aware of the fact that we were run
|, ming a gauntlet. 1t was the people
I along the road who were trying Z
1 wreck us that made it amusing
, ! Rounding n curve, l saw about hal
the length of the train ahead q til
+, wedged in under the rail. 1t was to-
late to stop, but reversed and wait
q ed. There was thump, but the en-
= CINE stuck to the track. There wer
a seven out of ten chances that we woul'
a have been ditched and most of us II
the cab killed or manned.
. 1.-THE next amusing occurrence wa
the rattle of bullets against the cab
, Nobody was hurt, but you'd better be
lieve every man ducked. not excepting
the colonel.
"But they didn't get the eXcitemen
Il out of it that did. was strainin
my eyes into the darkness ahead wit
/ my hand on the throttle, expecting
every minute to run up against an OF
structon. The shadow of tree wa
y log fcled across the track; the shad
IL ow of stump was n tie on the rails
y And sometimes the Instructions wer
real Once | pulled up within a fey
: feet of log that had been role
square across the rails. Another tim
!. l slowed up before reaching a switc
n and found that it had been left ope
y to run us up against brick house
e You see, If they hadn't really bee
q tryin' to wreck us there wouldn't I
been any excitement.
II "And If there hadn't been any nece
T. slty Of goin' at a rapid gait thel
d. wouldn't "a been any fun neither.
e we didn't get there in time to save Il
3 bridge it meant the retreat of I'll
II whole army. So you see was oblige
< to let her out, danger or no DANCE
IS for If I didn't we wouldn't be In tim
y and we might as well be wrecked
too late. Besides, If I'd wanted to 6
l slow the colonel, who was at my c
q bow, wouldn't have allowed it
Ie 1.-THE last obstruction was a post p'
l. up on end as a cattle guard only
Il few miles from the bridge. SeeiI
that l couldn't stop in time, l put
-. steam and snapped it of like twig.
after passing this we heard fri
and knew that the bridge was not y
lost. l blew long blast on the viii
tie and heard a distant cheer. Wh'
we came near the bridge the colon
ordered me to stop the train in a CT
The men got out and, forming on o.
side of the cut on high ground, char
= ed down on the attacking force al
drove them of.
a "Now, that's what call the roman
of war-the adventurous romano
M When l got back to camp the genel
-eI sent for me, and thought he was {
ing to hug me. l never saw a m
look so tickled in my life. I'd saw
,er hundreds of square miles of territor.
what chance has any soldier to
ill anything like that in this big Eu
pean slaughter business? do
blame fellows for not volunteering
a such a war It's like volunteering
a certain death without any Of the
he element that was so fascinating in
ad, racket we had from 81 to '65."
i'd "How about them fellers fightin
or the SKYE" asked listener.
The G. A. r. man gave no reply.