New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-19

the first thing about ours, and by all
accounts they don't understand the
French any better, either. They ex-
pected the French to crack up couple
Of years ago, and look what's happened
since then! Why, even the little I've
seen of the French is enough to show
me what fools the people were who ex-
pected they'd crack up.
They're like-like race horses, the
| French; full of breed. They crack
yes-but not till they are killed. The
Boches reckoned We could never officer
an army, even if we could get together
the rest Of it. Tssal We could officer
! half a dozen and then have enough over
to teach Master Fritz a thing or two.
We've done more now in couple of
years than they've managed in forty"
The sergeant gazed out into the late
afternoon sunlight through the wide
I open window beside his bed. 1t was
only London sunlight and London air.
But-well, we could see tiny section
| Of a chestnut tree just unfolding its
! first leaves; and London afternoon sun
light is not bad, by comparison with the
sinking smoke Of II. Z. and the dust
that hangs over shell-pitted, corpse
strewn earth out there to the southeast
of the Sens6e, north Of Croisilles.
( Whether the sergeant saw the trees
Young LEAKAGE or only other and quite
! different things, far beyond it, one can
/ not say; but he went on talking, rather
slowly, with an occasional hard suck at
his empty pipe.
Called Him mister Miss"
"There was my platoon commander
now; his proper name don't matter, for
! he only Joined us that afternoon; but
one of the corporals called him Mis-
| ter Miss directly he caught sight OF
! him, and | daresay the name might we
/ stuck for q bit, the way names DO
/ in the army. even when they come
to mean something quite different.
reckon he must we bin one OF the
/ Youngest officers at the front; delicate
| looking young Teller, too, and | could
/ see he was just as nervous as ever
/ he could hold together; though, mind
you, he made no show Of that to the
| men. We'd had no officer for near o
/ month, and he only came to us Just
| as we were going to march up, after
/ an early tea. / had few words with
| him as we moved up, but could see
! he was too strung up for talking; he
/ hadn't been a week in France, and .he'd
/ never been as near the Boche as we
/ 49, nod nragCpd bit
I on the right of the Curlies, and we
were TO shove him out there and con-
solidate round a bit Of a knoll that
had an old broken plough on top OF 1t,
stuck up in the air like tree stump.
az don't think Fritz was expecting US
that evening. Maybe his Emma-Gee
1 men were asleep. Anyhow, our bat
/ talon went through him all right, and
! showed him back out of that little loop
| line with very few casualties. | was
keening a sharp eve on our Mister Miss.
! He was very ierky and thoughtful till
we got quite close, as though he was
on wires. you know, and then when the
veil came / daresGy he lost his head
"He went cavorting on ahead most
rampageous. His voice was rather
, high, and somehow thin, and 1t was
quite queer TO hear him screaming out.
What ne was trying to say was some
thing encouraging to our boys to make
| 'em follow on-not that they wanted
any encouraging-and all kinds of
terrifyin' curses on the Boche. Only
he'd evidentlynever been used to much
swearing. and ne got il rather funnily
mixed, though / daresay il was all the
same 10 Fritz. The only one who actu-
allv got in Mister Miss's way had
rather a thin time.
81 daresay he would have been quite
pleased to surrender in the usual
Boche way, but Mister Miss had no eye
for detail lust then. He went at that
big Boche like bird tapping against
a window pane, and | think he killed
the chap about eleven times before
they were disentangled, what with his
revolver and his trench dagger, and
his elbow in the Boche's face and the
Boche's loss Of his rife and bayonet.
Fancied He Was Making for Berlin
"Im afraid l rather neglected the
Plateau lust then; | was that interest
ed in Mister Miss. Anyhow, when IL
was getting dark found we'd got Nos.
9 and sections with US, and that l
. and 2 were somewhere out OF sight
behind. We were certainly ahead OF
our objective, and until | pulled him
up fancy Mister Miss was making fol-
Berlin. We were on the edge of q
queer, deep hole with a very narrow
front. Two or three of the lads had
shovels, and we all had trenching
tools, of course. | was for making
back, but Mister Miss he said, Not at
allv He would dig in, be said. So we
got to work opening out the narrow
front OF that hole into trench OF
sorts, to give US a fire position TO our
front. An hour or two later, when II
was real black dark, squad of Boches
tried to rush US, but we were ready
for them-Mister Miss had mounted
four sentries for a start-and those
that didn't get our bullets got the
steel, good and hearty, except re"
that scuttled back.
and then it was very quiet for
long while, and most Of US managed 70
get smoke, taking turns for the best
cover. | don't think Mister Miss took
his ewes of the front for a second.
He'd got q kind Of detached COM
nand, YOU see. As | watched him
, wished ! could tell what he was think
ing about Il all. His first night on the
front, you see; and there he was with
both TANKS in the air, and nobody TO
give him an order. .
every likely he's never seen dead
man before, and now he'd killed one
with his own hands, and there were
several Boches lying round about us
done up pretty nasty. He thought II
I li44lo poipt yyaid