The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-12-13

the haywood. Between puffs from a
/ ftailor-made' fag he was entertaining
a crowd of soldiers and civilians and
! he made striking appearance among
them with his English-cut coat of
khaki, olive drab tie, French buttons,
leather puttees, and everything
And yet despite the dignity impaired
by his uniform there was an unmiStak-
| able boyishness about his speech and
smile that betrayed his age and told
/; the careful observer that he was barely
out of his teens.
They tell me you re some talker, -
I yentured with assurance, $50 I
thought maybe you'd talk little for
me. Wen give it a martial title, you
know, fix it up with a box-head-mean-
ing, of course, the "head" in the pa
per-and run it as feature. Get mes"
Sure, I get you," he answered
curtly. "I've been talking to Ger
mans so long that I understand every
thing white man says without fur
Their explanation. But what you re
thinking about-there s not chance
that s all. I haven It done anything to
speak of much less to write about-so
you might as well put up your little
pad and stick your pencil in your
pocket. L I'M about as sociable as a
Sphinx when l want to be and when
ever see a newspaper man it makes
me feel like another Egyptian Deity
Here, have one on me and forget all
about my experiences and your box
head or whatever it was you called
it,
With that he offered cigarette and
proceeded to wink covertly at the gen
tleman on his right.
There s only one left, I replied in
desperation. "Give it to him or take
it yourself. I can t smoke and write
at the same time. Now listen here, get
busy and say something or I'll write
it anyway and sign your name to it.
1t s customary for daily papers to come
out at regular intervals and we we got
one due at four clock today. It's
too cold for hot-stuff like murders and
drownings but not for war-dope from
! someone who knows. Besides there are
a bunch of people in Kenosha who want
to know about the ambulance service
in France and if you don't tell them
I'll have to-
On the Firing Line
"This is just like war; he said.
eff they don't get you one way they
do another and you might as well stop
trying to buck the game. But to begin
with, WASH It in the hospital service
[ went over to drive an ambulance, but
when [ got there they put me on NUM-
lions truck work and I spent six
months carrying shells and hand gre
nades to the artillery posts and commu-
nlcation trenches. 1t WASH It so bloom
In bloody as the other stuff but it was
just as exciting and I liked it.
"You see," he went on without
realizing that he was being interview
ed, "we did all our work at night.
Everything was dark except for flashes
from star-shells and exploding bombs
and it made you feel like all the Fourth
of Julys you ever lived had some way
or other been canned up and shipped
over to Flanders. Then too the boche
aviators made life a little dangerous
and added spice to routine work that
might otherwise have been monotonous.
"We Weren' It much afraid though
because we knew they were looking for
the hospitals. Incidentally they usual
~ got them too. Every moonlight
night while was there they raided
first aid station near our barracks and
on one of 'em they wrecked eleven
rooms with one bomb. Several patients
and nurses were killed and twenty or
more soldiers were frightfully rewound-
ed. They got it again on another night
until we felt safe in our dug-outs
with the knowledge that they'd get the
hospital first''
''Facing Cas-"
"But really,' he continued with an
exuberance that showed full and com
plete surrender, "dodging shells is not
in it with facing gas. That's the real
horror of the war. The uncertainty of
it is awful. With the old pineapple
gas you could see it coming and pro-
tect yourself but with the new bombs
mustard gas they call it because it
smells like that-you can It see it and
you hardly know you're gased until
1t 8 over and you find yourself horribly
burned beneath your arms and around
your neck. Sometimes it leaves you
blind or paralyzed and even the lucky
ones that aren't killed by it are due
to die with gas-consumption within the
next five years. After all it gas and
not bombs, that is leaving so many
graves in France
The Latest in Graves
"Funny, ism u it," he said with
characteristic grimace, "they have to
have styles for everything in France
even graves.
EfT4 mead n he +bo4 !, x4,oo5o~, o.o..