The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-06-15
TOPEKA VICTIM


what had become Of him. After the
gas got me, I went to hospital in
Bordeaux Yes, there were a number
of field hospitals near where / was
stationed. But when they get man
in those trenches, they get him good,
and there is little temporary repair
ing needed, such as they do in field
hospitals.
"One day after 1 was on my feet
again, was walking thru the hospital.
Suddenly 1 heard some one calling
my name. 1t was Wilson. Both arms
were shot off. 1t was a terrible sight.
no worse than hundreds of others,
that's true, but to me it was because
I had known Wilson only a few
months before in the best of health"
Horrors of the Trenches.
Wilson described the trenches tc
Kennedy. Neither Kennedy nor Will
son knew French and their compan-
Rered. s-.. .ft-
He told me the food was abomina-
ble." said Kennedy. They didn't
feed the men all at one time. The ra-
ton was first given to every third
man. Another round would be made
and every other man would be served
and when the third round was COM
pleted all would be fed. They didn't
hand the ration to you, they showed it
at you. If you caught it, well and
the ground or not.
Wilson told me he often missed
catching his ration and on wet days
when such catastrophe happened, he
would reach down into the trench half
filled with water and pick up his
bread, squeeze the water from it as
from sponge and eat it,
The fact that Kennedy didn't know
the French language didn't handicap
him in receiving messages. He under
stood the code and merely had to
write down the letters sent over the
transmitted to an officer.
They let us know just as little as
possible about what was coming in
ever the wires" said Kennedy. Some
of our messages came from Glasgow"
The top of the station was covered
with metal.
Trucks filled with ammunition, a; =
mored cars and ambulances filled the
reads at all hours of day and night
Strs nge, it seemed to Kennedy, that
Studebaker, made in America. ForGs
by the thousands were used in field
work.
The Rat Horror.
MANY trucks came back from the
tire inches filled With sacks of Fats" he
said.
Rats"
YES" he replied, didn't you know
the soldiers fear rats more than they
do the guns? Rats, millions of them,
infest the battlefield and live off the
flesh and blood of soldiers, many
alive but unable to fight off the hum
cry animals. At first, they killed them
! by gas and buried them in holes, dug
| by the bfg milometer guns. But as
! time wore on, these graves We're I'M
I earthed and the decomposed bodies
filled camps with disease. Now,
they're killing or catching them as best
they can and take them to crematory
/ plants"
! Hundreds of men with noses shot
off or other parts of their face gone,
are now working behind the trenches,
noses and other features supplied by
wax. Others have metal plates in
their heads to take the place of a
| skull blown away.
Its awful, awful said Kennedy
as he looked out the window of his
room onto Thirteenth street today. 81
can't realize that such things are hap
pening as 1 lie here now
French Not Discouraged.
And are the French discouraged ?''
NO." he replied, they never think
of the war ending anyway, excepting
in a victory for them"
When Kennedy returned to Canada
and was discharged, they would not
permit him to keep camera pictures
in anyway aid the enemy.
II got back my civilians clothes and
money and that's about ALL he said