The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-12-14
The Degeneracy
of Modem War
By Captain F. A. Mitchell

rope, Salu the VI. a. IL. veteran, Wnen
it's all over. What kind of war Is
1t, anyway? A hundred thousand men
march up against a line of trenches de-
Tended by rapid fire guns, electric
wires and grenades; 10000 or 10000
of them are either killed or wounded,
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 party OF
men sitting on chairs tilted against the
outside of a 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. r. man doubtfully.
"Whar is it? Why. that war was
brimful of it. 1t was spread over a
big country; there were comparatively
few battles; u small amount of takin'
Notifications and all the rest was rO-
nance 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
boys? said I'd been a fireman on a
locomotive and could run q machine
tol'able well. He yanked me of 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 Il regiment through to
the rescue. The officer commanding
the guard had telegraphed that he
couldn't hold out much longer. when
| the wire was cut.
1.-THE train was made up and 400
men were hurrying into the cars. A
locomotive was being fred up, and
Jumped aboard and took the throttle.
"Well, now, mebbe there was nothin'
adventurous in that ride! The colonel
commanding the regiment and the ad-
jutant were in the cab with me. and
It wasn't long before they were made
aware Of the fact that we were rum
ming gauntlet. 1t was the people
along the road who were trying to
wreck us that made 1t amusing.
Rounding n curve, I saw about half
the length of the train ahead tie
wedged in under the rail. 1t was too
late to stop, but reversed and wait
ed. There was thump, but the en-
CINE stuck to the track. There were
seven out Of ten chances that we would
have been ditched and most OF us In
the cab killed or MANNED.
1.-THE next amusing occurrence was
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 excitement
out of it that did. | was strainine
my eyes into the darkness ahead with
my hand on the throttle, expecting
every minute to run up against an OBJ
struction. The shadow of tree was
a log felled across the track; the shad
ow of stump was tie on the rails
I And sometimes the distractions were
real. Once | pulled up within few
: feet Of a log that had been rolled
square across the rails. Another tint
| slowed up before reaching switch
and found that it had been left opeI
5 to run us up against brick house
You see. IL they hadn't really beer
D tryin' to wreck us there wouldn't a
been any excitement.
e "And if there hadn't been any neces
sity OF goin nj rapid gait ther
4 wouldn't "a been any fun neither. |
. we didn't get there in time to save tn
bridge it meant the retreat OF tn
whole army. SO you see was oblige'
to let her out, danger or no danger
for if | didn't we wouldn't be in time
G and we might as well be wrecked a
e too late. Besides, if I'd wanted to
E slow the colonel, who was at my e
e bow. wouldn't have allowed it.
Y "The last obstruction was post pu
l. ND on end as a cattle guard only
e few miles from the bridge. Seem
that | couldn't stop in time. put
steam ana snapped il off like twig
&c After passing this we heard hrin
d. and knew that the bridge was not We
lost | blew long blast on the whi'
tie and heard a distant cheer. VINE
L we came near the bridge the colont
u ordered me to stop the train in Gu
le The men got out and, forming on on
side of the cut on high ground. chars
he ed down on the attacking force an
ie drove them off.
~ Now. that's what | call the romano
). of war-the adventurous romance
= When got back to CAMP the genera
II sent for me. and thought he was g
ing to hug me. | never saw ma
u look so tickled in my life. I'd save
III hundreds of square miles of territory
- what chance has any soldier to q