The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-08-11

OF their number in each bay to watch
the cylinders while the rest gather
behind the traverse, as being a
slightly safer spot
when day breaks fair wind is
blowing, straight towards the Ger
man trenches. But, of course, II is
now broad daylight, and the gas will
be visible as soon as II leaves the
pipes. The gasmen know what to
expect. They know that as soon as
the greenish-gray clouds appear out
side their parapet there will be run
ming messengers and hurried tele-
phoning in the German lines. They
know that within few minutes the
word will have reached the German
big guns at the back, and that every
piece capable of flattening out a par
apet and burying them, mangled and
broken, among their own cylinders
will be concentrated upon the front
line trench in which they stand.
thine! over the top the jet
pipes are flung, and then, simultan-
eously along almost two miles of
trench. there arises a sibilant hiss,
as OF some monstrous and venom
Gus snake suddenly aroused from
slumber. Now the gasmen are work.
ing frantically the wheel and spanner
and key, and the hiss increases in
shrillness and volume. Outside the
parapet the green poison fog is al
ready spreading like a foul blanket
over No-Man's land. Carried cease
lessly forward, its outer edge is rap
idly approaching the German trench
es. into which 1t will presently sink,
spreading agony and death among
those who cannot escape.
"No rife or machine gun fire has
been ordered this time, and from eth
er line scarcely sound is heard ex-
cept the deadly hiss of the escaping
fumes. The minutes pass in tense,
ominous quiet Nature herself seems
to pause aghast to watch this latest
devilry practiced by her children
upon one another.
Mend Leaks With Mud
Behind their masks the gasmen
begin to breathe more freely, and
then suddenly, on the left. Crash!
And crash again, and yet again.
This time on the right, somewhere
case at hand. The men crouch low
err over their cylinders; the explos-
ions follow one another almost too
rapidly to count, and in any case
their minds are no longer fitted TO
counter care. Only the valves
must be turned, and the pipes must
be watched, and the sudden squirt OF
yapor which marks a leak must be
checked by the application of
handful of mud, which the gas i'm
mediately freezes into an iron-hard
and impenetrable mass.
"In one of the bays, the parapet
rocks suddenly and falls forward,
burying the men and their cylinders.
Almost Immediately the men scram-
BILE out unhurt; but the pipes are
broken, and the gas is filling the
trench. With spanner and mud the
thing is stopped, new connections are
rugged up. and the death vapor Is
again directed outside what is left
of the trench. But one Of the men has
had the mouthpiece of his respirator
broken, and already he is coughing
and choking painfully. I've got 1t!
he gasps hoarsely, and goes behind
the traverse to suck an ammonia
ampule and die slowly.
"Closing-up time! Rapidly the
valves are shut down, the jet pipes
withdrawn and plugged and stacked
away. Feverishly the men work at
bagging up their cylinders again. I'M
perturbably a sergent stalks down
the ruined and battered trench. shep-
herding his flock toward their dug
out. He is an old-timer-a transfer
from tne lHluHtIy- anu nv 'N"A~~'
ouivers as a shell bursts behind
traverse he has just left. Quietly
he directs two of the men to carry
an unconscious case to the nearest
point of the communication trench
where the stretcher-bearers may be
found.
I'm the dugout, with the shells
still pounding overhead, the sections
roll is called. Most OF the men an
swered by comrades as wounded and
for others no one answers at all.
"But over in the German trenches
hundreds of men are choking and
gasping in agony for an hour before
they can die. They have been made
to quaff their own medicine"
FIVE DROWN WHEN