The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1916-08-31

young fellow whose name don't
know. wish l did, for he was cer-
tainly the nervieSt man | ever saw
NO. z was hardly out Of the oicer's
mouth before he had his dispatch md
was on his way. About five minutes
later the signal came that the dis
patch had been delivered.
"My officer told me afterwurd that
the French general to whom he hnd
handed the dispatch hud taken the
Mednille Mlltaire off his own breast
and pinned 1t on that Of this young
dispatch rider. He was also later
awarded the Victoria Cross and given
a commission. 1t Is things like this
that make one proud to belong to
such an army"
Shipping a Sniper.
After spending Christmas, 1914, in
the Ypres trenches. Robinson helped
n second lieutenant In the Royal IGngi-
neers to snipe n German sniper on the
Dickebusch- Hollebeke road. AS they
rode over a. wooden bridge bullet
whistled. Neither spoke. but on the
way back, three hours later, the off,
Ger said: "Thnt blasted sniper has
potted at me once too often. Wen
leave the road here and sneak down
opposite the hedge under cover Of the
! trees"
| Tetherng their horses, they crept
near the bridge. waited until wagon
passed and heard the sniper's shot,
from behind. They crawled hun
| dred yards and waited. Soon they
| heard the rifle crack again, not far
away. Creeping little further they
waited again. watching the trees.
They came SO close to tho sniper,
without seeing him. that next time he
fired they heard the ejector fly back
and the bolt snap. Then they spotted
him. He was well up tree. with his
rifle fitted on n tripod, so that when
ever he heard anyone on the wooden
bridS, he had only to pull the trig-
ger. But he had ended his sniping.
The lieutenant and Private Robinson
fired together, and "Mr. Sniper came
down like thousand OF bricks"
The british Tommy" Of those dnys,
according to William j., was great
gambler" rs well as great fighter.
One Of his forms Of gambling was a
kind Of tontinc, known as a "trench
pool"
about ten fellows got together,
and each put ten francs in n pool lust
before they went into action. They
left this money with someone behind
the lines, for they would he in action
anywhere from six days to three
weeks. The Idea Of the pool was this:
Those who lived to get back would
take the money and split 1t evenly
among themselves. IF only one lived
he would have the whole lot.
Daredevil Officer.
The Tommles kept canaries, rats.
mice, dogs, cats. goats. and even pigs,
as pets, and would go hungry before
the pet hungered.
The "biggest daredevil" that Robin
son heard Of was known as the "hfad
NInjOr"-nn artillery officer who kept
his own ncroplnne for range finding
purposes. When he wanted to cor
rect range he just flew over and
dropped smoke bombs on the pnrtic,l-
lar spot he wanted his guns to hit.
Then he went back and set the guns
to work. One day, being annoyed
with a German 17-inch hOwitzer, he
few over with n 100-pound bomb. nose
dived TO within 400 feet, dropped the
bomb and blew the howtzer to atoms.
He returned with ha planes ridflled
with bullets.
Mr. Robinson indicates In q few
words what happened to two men,
woman and two children when
Tnubc dropped bomb in the SQUIRE
at PopcrInghc. 1t Is enough here to
say that they were killed, and thnt
the bicycle one Of the men was rid
Ing wna Sound twisted and bent on
lamppost about fifty yards away.
lie also describes briefly the killing
Of two officers in n m0torcar by n
German 15-inch shell on the rond 20
ing into Ypres. The DRYER escaped,
but was sent nearly mad by the shock.
His nerve was gone and he had to be
discharged.
This was during the second battle
OF Ypres when the city was being
DESTROYED by shell fro and the houses
were burning.