South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-09-30

vice. known as "duck-walks' or
duck boards"
These. TO the honor of the new
world be il said, are an American
institution. introduced by the Cana
dian troops. and are nothing more
nor less than the primitive "srat-
ing" or hltten sidewalks of the
lumber camps in the biz camps
made of two pieces of two-by-foul
scantlins. about 10 inches apart,
with battens of rough two-inch
strips nailed across them at inch
or tvo-inch intervals.
They are usually made i'm about
elEht foot lengths so that the sec
tions can readily he picked up and
carried 60 be relaid wherever need
81. and fer all their simplicity they
are a positively life-saving device.
The mud was not only extremely
disagreeable and destructive 10
clothing, % say nothing of reducing
the speed OF all operations over tie
surface of the ground from 80 10
10 percent. but IL was extremely
unhealthy. 1t worked its way
Through the boots and puttees and
clothing of the men and caused
distressing irritatiOns and inflam-
r1ations of the skin, one form of
which eliminated in the dreaded
"trench-feet" or "trench-gaugren
in which whole toes would turn
black and slough off.
This WAS little to be wondered
at because sanitary ARRANGEMENTS
are very difficult to carry out
thyroughly and scrupulously under
almost inCessart shell fire. And a.
there were several thousand men
Ia each mile OF trench. and in tac
earlier days of the war, when no
one had any idea of its CHASTITY per
rOanence. tho dead had been buried
pretty much where they fell. in
some instances under heavy fire iu
inches scooped out in the walls of
trenches themselN es. the mud could
hardly he described as clean" mud.
The three new diseases which
nave developed during the war
trench feet trench nephritis, a
slow chronic inflammation of the
Kidneys. with alpuminuria. and
trench fever. q curious, relapsing
fever something like a very mild
typhoid With nalaria-like inter
missions are all now believed 10
have been due 10 the constant rasp-
ing and soakirs of the skin with
this filthy and poisonous mud
although their precise causation
still defies us the first has almost
entirely disappeared and the other
two are rapidly Diminishing. par
/ allel with the disappearance and
ldiminuuon OF the mud
Not only did these serious results
come from the wet mud. but guam
/ titles of il. OF course. dried on and
stuck 10 the clothing or was rack
/ ed into the nuts. where il turned
/ L. dust which irritated the noses
| and throats Of the men and greatly
/ favored the breeding of fleas ana
other even more intimate parasites
| Altogether. the soldiers grum
| bling about the mud, which he re-
rardeG as a TAR more annoying en-
envy than the k5iser and a worse
! hardship than shell fire, had album
cart Justification. II is literally j
plague and pest. and the good in
| nueuce which has been all-power-
1 FIJI in exercising IL has been tn,
I blessed "duCk-walk."
/ IL can be laid almost over night,
Iit Will not sink into the ground
even in the boggiest spots. but halt
| floats. half spraddles itself above
/ the boz. II can be laid upon sup
/ ports. thrown across the bottoms 81
the trenches or nailed 70 the verti-
/ cal beams Of the revetments. and
/ raised or lowered. accordinr 10 chC
ebb and flow OF the Shiny tiGe 81
mud.
! Crushed stone is excellent, II YOU
have plenty OF IL. but short lengths
CT il viii he literally buried under
| the "gobs" o. mud deposited on II
by hundreds OF hurrying feet, and
no rain viii wash il clean, while
tie duck board, 5y virtue of is