Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-05
SOLDIERS AWAIT
CALL" TO DEATH
Every Warrior in France Ex.
poets to Receive Pre-
monition of Fate.
Copyright, 1851
BY HERBERT COREY.

+!
BY HERBERT COREY.
| AT THE FRONT IN FRANCE, June
2s-At home the sergeant was a stock
broker. An Unconditional, materialistic,
cynical sort of man. At the front he
| did his duty WELL but in bored fash
ion. He once avowed that he had
rather hear good news of his stocks
and bonds than of a victory. Last
night he walked down lonely road.
well in the rear of the first line. A
casual shell dropped on that road and
killed him.
| He knew it was coming" was the
avowal at mess that night He got
his call yesterday"
1t was 10 o'clock in the morning that
the call came. He had awakened in
| about his business he always did.
Shortly before lunch he turned to the
! one man in the company with whom he
chummed.
go now to write a letter to my wife.
| See that she gets it"
Point to Many Instances.
| At first one is disposed to dismiss
this as a coincidence. Then one makes
this discovery: Whether there be such
a thing as premonition or whether it
is only Indigestion combined with
chance, the men in the front line firmly
believe that here and there one of
their number gets his call" That call
is never to the hospital only. 1t is
never answered by a flesh wound. AL
ways, in the belief of soldiers, 1t
means death.
There is an endless number Of stories
| to be offered in support of this theory
Two weeks ago surgeon attached to
a dressing station, presumably out OF
range of shell fire. had asked leave. 1t
was due him, and he felt certain that
he would receive it. One morning he
felt the call His mates in the hospital
laughed at him, for he seemed to be
in as safe place as one could be near
the front, Before night he was dead.
A stray shell had killed him. No other
shell has struck near that hospital
neighborhood before.
Believes In the Call"
II could give you the names Of half
dozen men of my own company
who have had the CALL" said Daniel
w. King, the young Harvard man who
was transferred from the Foreign
Legion to a line regiment just in time
to go through the entire battle Of Yer
dun. Il have never known II to Iall
1t always means death.
Two men were quartered in an old
stable in shell range of the front AS
they went to their quarters one OF
them asked the other to select another
place in which to sleep that night
1t was bitterly cold and the stable
had been riddled by previous fire and
the army blanket under such condi-
tions seems as light as it seems heavy
!, &c Jc n, a
Why not rolf"up together. said the
other man. That way we can both
keep warm
NO" said the first man. Il feel that
shall be killed tonight
How He Met Death.
The man who had received the warn
ing went into the upper part of the
stable. the other pointing out. in utter
unbelief of the validity of call. that
the lower part was the warmer, and
that if his friend were killed it would
make no difference whether his death
chamber were warm or cold shell
came through the roof at midnight.
1t was 'dud'-which is to say that
it did not explode. The man who had
been warned was killed by 1t. If it
had exploded the other would probably
have been killed likewise. AS it was
he was not harmed.
A few days ago the chief of an aero
plane section at the front felt a pre-
monition of death He was known to
all the army for his utterly reckless
daring He liked to boast of the
number of men who had been killed
out of his section. He was always the
first TO get away on a bombing expe-
dition and the last to return. He had
received at least one decoration-ac-
companied by a reprimand-for flying
over the German lines in order 10 bring
down a Fokker.
Il have written my letters he said
to his lieutenant When you have
heard of my death send them on
The lieutenant laughed at him. That
sectr- of the line was quiet, he pointed
out. No German machine had been in
the air for days. He might have been
justified in his premonition, the,lieu
tenant said, on any day of three months
past, but now he was not in SO much
the taxicabs. That day general Wis
tied the headquarters and the chief
went up in a new machine to demon
strate it. Something broke when he
was 5000 feet high and the machine
fell side wise like a stone.
Soldiers Are Fatalists.
THE men do not blench when the
call comes" said Mr.. King. in discuss
ing this subject One notices in them
a forced gayety. perhaps. They laugh
jokes and slap their friends on the
back little harder. That is the only
sign they make. All soldiers are fatal