Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-09-06

Wv wound?" asked an officer
who was conducting me
! through one of the advanced hos
pitfalls on the Somme, pointing to the
badly swollen and 1acerated ankle
dressed. The puffy and discolored
! flesh might have come from a severe
sprain, but two or three black pun
ctures on either side indicated that
| the injury was more aggravated
one.
! If there were a tropical river
| about" L replied finally, L should
hazard a guess that the man had
stepped into the mouth of an alliga-
tor, or had been nipped by one wnIle
swimming. AS l have never heard
! of alligators in the Somme, 1 fear L
shall have to give it up. What did
| do it?"
Trench trap" was the laconic re-
! ply; "or, to be more exact, a wolf
trap. Ever since the steady pressure
of our advance began to tell-since
the Boche began to realize that he
would have to continue backing up
before our attacks. The Germans
have been leaving them behind in
the trenches, or laid in inviting little
runways through the wire entangle-
ments.
Few Were Caught
Not many of our men were
| caught after the first day or two
we have only had two or three cases
here-but several scores of trans
have been discovered, along with a
lot fore of diabolically ingenious
contrivances designed to hamper our
advance or to give us pause in the
matter of occupying abandoned dug
outs. In fact, the dodging of the
trench traps has addedNquite a new
interest and zest to our latest at
| tacks."
Scientific trench trappery" is In
deed new development of modern
things, it has taken the methodical
and thorough Teuton to bring out
its refinements, to make a fine art
| OF 1t. Ever since the discovery of
gunpowder the practice of mining L
position about to be abandoned, the
mine to be exploded when the ad-
Vancing enemy came over it, has
been resorted to, and that, indeed,
was just about as far as it had gone
even in the present war-up TO
the time that it became apparent
that the French and British pressure
| on the Somme was likely to go on
indefinitely and increasingly.
The wolf traps are only the first
of series of many devilish little
devices left behind by the ousted
Germans TO Gcliver a last blow at
the victorious Tommy or Poilu, a
rsot of modernization of the famous
Parthian shot.
Obviously, trench trappery' is
only practicable in the face of n
slowly and steadily advancing move
ment; Just such one as the present
drive is. Obviously, too, since the
proverb that once burned child is
twice shy applies with equal force to
the French and British soldier-it
must show a progressive develop
ment to stand any chance of sue
cess, must be constantly varied, con-
stantly carried on in a new way.
That the general scheme has been a
nat failure is principally due to the
| fact that the Germans have not been
able to vary their devices sufficiently
to battle their wary quarry, who,
meeting guile with guile, have as
often as not trapped the genuity of
the Germans concentrated upon
subtler but more deadly contrivanc-
| es, mostly of the mine or grenade
order.
An abomination of creased steel
has evidently been manufactured in
considerable quantities for no other
! purpose than to furnish unpleasant
surprises to precipitate Tommies.
The latter have nicknamed it the
tortoise" and until they learned
that, like its slow moving ANNA II
! prototype, it was unsafe to take lib
critics with, several of them paid the
penalty of their curiosity by being
| injured when 1t blew up as a con-
sequence of their friendly prods of
| investigation.
In that its very strangeness of ap-
pearance invites attention, the tor
toise is like the famous Trojan
horse, and the consequences of in
vestigation are. likewise, disastrous.
/ The least touch to the wobbly thing
/ established contact, doubtless
through illuminate of mercury,
which detonated twenty or thirty
pounds of explosive with force that
/ shat tered the thick steel shell
| creased as it was like the casing of
/ q hand grenade-and scattered the
| fragments ever a wide area.
/ The menace of the tortoise was
( over as soon as Tommy learned TO
/ curb his curiosity. On my visit TO
a collecting depot 1 was allowed to
play" with one of them, from
/ which the teeth" had been drawn.
and l must confess that the weird
roly-poly thing might we'll exercise
considerable fascination upon one