New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-10

| little" said the officer. 1--WE are going
to a mountain OF mud. 1t is dry now,
/ but this winter it never stayed quiet
/ An acre or so Of the climbing road
side was still uneasy and had slid face
/ down in spatter of earth and tree
roots which men were shovelling oil.
ITS rather a fresh road. All to-
gether, we have about four thousand
miles Of new road.-and old roads i'm
proved on a front Of six hundred kilo-
metres. But, you see, our kilometres
are not fat
The landscape, picked out in ali the
green's of spring, was that Of early ltal-
ian holy pictures-the same isolated,
Scared hummocks rising from en-
amelled meadows or drifts of bloom
into the same elaborate entablatures Oh
rock, crowned by campanile or tufted
with dark trees.
On the white roads beneath US the
lines of motors and mule transport
strung out evenly to their various
dumps. At one time We must have
commanded twenty full miles, ell work
ing at once, but never could We spy q
breakdown. The Italian transport sys-
TEN has been tried out by war long ago.
The more the road sank TO the plains
the more one realized the height of the
mountains dominating us all around
podgora, the mountain of mud, is a
little Gibraltar sbou. eight hundred
feet high, almost sheer on one side,
overlooking the town Of Goritzia, which
in civil life used to be sort OF stuffy
] Cheltenham for retired Austrian Off
GERS. Anywhere else Podgora Hill
might be noticeable, but you could set
down half a dozen Gibraltars among
this upheaval of hills, and in a month
the smooth Italian roads would over
run them as vine tendrils overrun rub
bish heaps. The lords Of the military
situation round Goritzia are the four
and five thousand foot mountains,
crowded one behind the other every
angle, upland and valley Of each offer
ing or masking death.
The mountains are vile ground for
aeroplane work, because there is no
where to alight in comfort, but none
the less the machines beat over them
from both sides, and the anti-aircraft
guns, which are not impressive IN the
open plains, fill the gorges with multi
piled coughings more resembling a
lions roar than thunder. The enemy
hy high, over the mountains, and snow
against the blue like bits OF whirling
ash off a bonfire. They drop their
bombs generously, and the rest is with
fate-either the blind crack on blank
rock and the long, harmless whirr OF
slivered stone, or that ripe crash which
tells that timber, men and mules have
caught it full this time. If all the
setting were not so lovely, if the
/ lights, the LEAKAGE, the blossom and
the butterflies mating on the grassy
kips of old trenches were not allowed
TO insult the living workmen OF death,
their work would be easier TO describe
without digressions.
/ When we had climbed on foot up
and up and into the bowels Of the
mountain of mud, through galleries
and cross galleries, to dlscreetly
yelled observation point, Gortzia,
pink, white and blush, lay TO all ap-
pearance asleep beneath US amid her
full Towering chestnut trees by the
talking Isonzo. She was in Italian
hands0won after furious fights but
the enemy guns from the mountains
could still she'll her at pleasure, and
the next move, said our officer, would
be 10 clear certain heights. Can you
see our trenches creeping up to them
from their menace?" There and
there, he pointed, the Italian troops
would climb and crawl. while thus and
thus would the fire of our guns cover
them. till they came TO that bare down
and must make their rush-which Is
really a climb alone. II that rush
failed, then they must dig in among
rocks and lie out under the bitter
skyline. for this was war among the
mountains, where valleys were death
traps and only heights counted.
Then we turned TO the captured hills
behind US that had lived so unconsid-
cred since they were made, but now,
because of the price paid for them,
would stand forth memorable as long
as Italy was remembered The heath
en- mountain in front had yet 10 be
baptized and entered on the roll OF
honor, and one could not say at that
moment which one Of them would be
most honorable, or what cluster of
herdsmen's huts would carry the name
of months battle through the ages.
no bag Dc hfcr
push cloaked both lines. No one, ex-
cept few pieces who were finishing
some private work, was saying any
thing. The Austrians had their own
last touches to put in, too. They were
ranging on convent up a hillside
one deliberate she'll at time. A big
gun beneath US came lazily into the
game on our side, shaking the whole
mountain of mud, and then asking
questions Of its observing officer across
the valley
Suddenly boys voice, that had been
taking corrections, spoke quite unofi- T.
cially al the receiver in the gloom /
under our feet. ooh! Congratulations.
il cried. Then you dine with US to-
night, and you'll pay for the wine
Every one laughed
Rather a long walk" said our guide /
and friend. THE observing officer-he
is down near Goritzia-has just tele-
phoned that he has been promoted to
aspirant -sub-lieutenant, don't you
say? He'll have 70 climb up here 70
the artillery mess tonight and stand I
drinks on his promotion"
II bet he'll come" some one said f.
There were no takers. So you see,
youth is always Immortality the same.
GOritzia
We dropped from Podgora into Co !
ritzia by a road a little more miracu-