The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-08-03
HORRORS OF THE TRENCHES.
American Stood 1t For Twenty
Months and Then Quit.

Months and Then Quit.
A unique, horrible word picture
of war has been painted by Elols
Bordin, who recently left New York
for San Francisco, after experiences
in French trenches facing the Ger
man line.
Stories galore have been told by
men back from the trenches But
among them Bordin's narrative
stands out distinctively in a class by
itself.
His viewpoint differs from the 9TH
ers. vastly so-for Bordin quit the
trenches after he became convinced
that war is no job for human be-
ing"
He makes no bones of the fact that
he deserted. Just how the oppor-
tunity came he does not say, for so
doing would involve others. But he
did not "quit" because of coWardice.
He played his part with bravery in
six different attacks on the German
lines in the Champagne district. He
was four times disabled-tWice Dy
poison gas and twice within week
by shells which buried him under
ground.
Bordin is an American of French
birth. He enlisted at the beginning
of the war and saw twenty months
of service.
'I ought to know about war;
says Bordin. From the soldiers
standpoint, that is. AS to the stand
point of the men who send you into
the war, that is altogether another
matter. 1 do not know anything
about that. No soldier does. In the
French trenches the soldiers were al
ways asking each other, What are
we here for? What are we fighting
about?' Nobody could answer.
Soldiers Just Slaves.
"I saw twenty months of trench
fighting. At the end of that time a
chance offered itself and I quit. 1
feel about that quitting exactly as
the American slave, in the days be-
fore the Civil war, felt when he had
managed to run away from his mas
ter. Soldiers are slaves. Nothing
more. Just slaves.
stI quit my job after I had had
plenty of time to become convinced
that it was no job for human be-
ing. No man has any right to send
other men into the places where [
have been or to do the things 1
have DONE 1t was right to quit.
'Mud is the soul and essence OF
trench life. 1t is always with you.
1t gets into everything, and every
thing gets into it.
Mud is Sickening.
cit is a peculiarly sickening sort
of mud. 1t has things in it that are
not in regular mud. ALI the trench
offaI, cast aside by crowded army
of men becomes part of that foot
deep mud. Old garments, shoes,
food, bits of metal, are added to it.
The arm or leg of man who has
had his arm or leg shot off, drops
into the mud, rots and itself passes,
after days, into the condition of mud.
There are worms in that mud-mag-
gots.
''The old soldier is always soaked
in it, bathed in it, picked in it. 1t
is in his eyes, his hair, his nostrlls,
his mouth. There is an oil prepara-
tion they give you to rub your trou-
sers and boots with, but it is of little
avail against that mud. The daily
shower comes along, the shell-torn
ground becomes Shiny, the horrible
odor increases, the surrounding hill
locks drain down into the trench and
the mud in the bottom of the trench
becomes a rotting soup, infinitely
horrible, infinitely foul.
''The climax of trench horrors is
reached when the order comes down
the line to attack.
"For weeks you have been COVER
ing in that Internal ditch, eating
there, sleeping there, never standing
fully erect, never daring to expose
a finger tip. The edge of that ditch
has come to mean to you the limit
of the world. Beyond that edge there
is nothing. Oblivion. The end.
Order to Charge.
tNow comes the order that you
and your fellows are to clinch over
that dreadful edge and rush for the
German trenches.
'"That is the moment at which I
have seen pitiful scenes. Not all
that has happened in the European