davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1917-12-07

Mr.. J. D. Ray left this morning for
Weldon to spend some time on bust
ness.
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26

relieved from the big tent show up at the Somme and sent to our side show in Belgium for rest. Also 1t was sus- pected that artillery was being with drawn for the Somme. Especially we were anxious to bring back prisoners.
 In civilized war a prisoner can be compelled to tell only his name, rank and religion. But this is not a civilized war, and there are ways of making prisoners talk. One of the most eff fective ways-quite humane-is to tie prisoner fast, head and foot, and then tickle his bare feet with a feather. More severe measures have frequently been used-the water cure, for in- stance-but I'm bound to say that nearly all the German prisoners 1 saw were quite loquacious and willing to talk, and the accuracy of their infor- nation, when later confirmed by raids, was surprising The iron discipline which turns them into mere children in the presence of their officers seemed to make them subservient and obedient to the officers who commanded us. 1 mean, of course, the privates. In this way the system worked against the fatherland. Captured German officers. especially Prussians, were a nasty lot. We never tried to get information from them, for we knew they would lie hap oily and. very intelligently-well in- structed in the art.
 At last came the night when we were to go lover the top," across No Mans Land, and have q frolic with Fritz in his own happy home. I am endeavor- i Ing to be as accurate and truthful as possible in these stories of my soldier ing, and I am therefore compelled to say that there wasn't a man in the sixty who didn't show the strain fin his pallor and nervousness. Under orders.
 We discarded our trench helmets and substituted knitted skullcaps or empty
 mess tins. Then we blackened our hands and faces with ashes from a camp fire so as to avoid being seen as long as possible. After this they load ] ed Us into motor trucks and took us up
 to ''Shrapnel Corner" from which point we went in on foot. Just before
 we left q staff captain came along and gave us little talk.
 '"This is the first time you men have
 bern tested" he said. You're Cana
 dians 1 needn't say anything more t. ] you. They're going to be popping them
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26
Handy Literature.

Saunderson found it very hard work selling books. The volumes he had to offer, one of which he had to carry with him as a sample, were very heavy, and nobody seemed to want them. But he was a persistent man, and even the stubborn Mrs. Bowling could not send him away unheard. We have all the books we can use," she said, "and We really can't afford any more reading matter. Why, l haven't even opened the second vol tune of that Roman history you sold Us last spring. Now, if you were sell ing one of those adjustable ironing boards"- "I've got just the thing" said Saunderson cheerfully. "There are twelve books in this set, and you can use either one or two or three, and so on up to six, to tilt your board any way you want to. And between whiles when your iron Is heating you have good literature to refresh your mind"
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26

battalion offered. I was lucky-or un. lucky-enough to be among the sixty who were chosen. I want to tell you in detail about this bombing raid, so that you can understand what q thing may really amount to that gets only three lines or perhaps nothing at all in the official dispatches, and. besides th"t, it may help some of the young men who read this to know something little later about homl}ing
 The sixty of us chosen to execute the raid were taken twenty miles to the
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26
A Bonehead.

There are many things dropped in the subway ticket chopper by absent minded riders besides the little piece of pasteboard which entities them to a ride. An eccentric looking young man and his particularly eccentric looking wife hurried up to the door of Broad way theater last night. The man reached into his pocket, handed the doorman some tickets and, assisting lis wife before him, turned to receive the stubs. "These are subway tickets" 'aid the doorman. At the rate of two rockets per second the young man searched himself Then he clapped his hand on his forehead Good heavens. Annie" he gaspcd. q nut the seats fin the subway" And what Annie said bout boncheadS was only heard hy h2rsols.-Ncw York Cor. Pittsburgh Dispatch
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26

during their two hour "spell" of duty. Hanging on a string, at the elbow of each sentry on the fire step was siren whistle or an empty shell case and bit of iron with which to ham, mer on it. This, whichever it might be, was for the purpose of spreading the alarm in case of a gas attack. Also we had sentries in fastening posts," at various points from twenty to fifty yards out in No Mans Land" These men blackened their faces be- fore they went lover the top" and then lay in shell holes or natural hollows
 There was always two of them, bay onet man and a bomber. From the listening post wire ran back to the fire trench to be used in signaling. In the trench a man sat with this wire wrapped around his hand. One pull meant "All o. K.," two pulls, "I'm coming in," three pulls, Enemy in
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26

rear for a weeks instruction practice. Having only slight Idea of what we were going to try to do, we felt very jolly about the whole enterprise start ing off. We were camped in an old barn, with several special instruction officers in charge. We had oral in- struction the first day, while sappers dug and built an exact duplicate of the section of the German trenches which we were to raid-that is, it was exact except for a few details. Certain skeleton trenches" in the practice sec tion were dug simply to fool the Ger man aviators. If photograph taken back to German headquarters had shown an exact duplicate of a German trench section suspicion might have been aroused and our plans revealed. We were constantly warned about the skeleton trenches and told to remem- Der that they did not exist in the Ger man section where we were to operate Meanwhile our practice section was changed little several times, because aerial photographs showed that the Germans had been renovating and making some additions to the trenches in which we were to have our frolic with them.
 We had oral instruction, mostly dur ing the day, because we didn't dare let the German aviators see us practicing a bomb raid. All night long, sometimes until ? or 3 o'clock in the morning, we rehearsed that raid, just as carefully oc T hearse play. At first there was dis position to have sport out of it.
 Well" some chap would say, roll ing into the hay all tired out, "I got killed six times tonight. S'pose it'll be eight times tomorrow night"
 One man insisted that he had discov- cred in one of our aerial photographs a German burying money, and he care fully examined each new picture, so that he could be sure of finding the dough and digging it up. The grave and serious manner of our officers, however, the exhaustive care with which we were drilled and, more than all, the approach of the time when we were to "go over the top drove all sport out of our minds, and I can say for myself that the very thought of the undertaking as the fatal night drew near sent shivers up and down my spine.
 A bombing raid, something originat- ed in warfare by the Canadians, is not intended for the purpose of holding ground, but to gain information, to do as much damage as possible and to keep the enemy in a state of nervous ness. In this particular raid the chief object was to gain information. Our high command wanted to know what troops were opposite us and what troops had been there. We were ex- pected to get this information from prisoners and from buttons and papers off of the Germans we might kill It was believed that troops were being
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26

sight" and four pulls, Sound gas alarm" The fire step in trench is a shelf on which soldiers stand to look out and shoot between the sand bags on top.
 In addition to these men, we had pa trols and scouts out in "No Mans Land'' the greater part of the night, with orders to gain any information possible which might be of value to battalion, brigade division or general headquarters. They reported on the condition of the Germans barbed wire, the location of m,chine guns and oth- CT little things like that which might be of interest to some commanding officer twenty miles back. Also they were ordered to make every effort to capture any of the enemy's scouts or patrols, so that we could get infOrma- tion from them. One of the interesting moments in this work came when a star shell caught you out in an open spot If you moved you were gone. I've seen men stand on one foot for the thirty seconds during which star shell will burn. Then when scouts or patrols met in No Mans Land" they always had to fight it out with bayo- nets. One single shot would be the signal for artillery fire and would mean the almost instant annihilation of the men on both sides of the fight Under the necessities of this war many of our men have been killed by our own shell fire.
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26
"Over the Top and Give iEm Helll"

The English Tommys battle cry as he breaks from his trench. The bomb raid and what happened. Of sixty that start ed forty-six failed to return because the Germans had prepared a surprise for them. Graphic description of Sergeant McClintock's terrible experience.
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26

off al a great rate while you're on your way across. Remember that you'd bet ter not stand up straight. because our shells will be going over just six and half feet from the ground where it's level. If you stand up straight you're likely to be hit ill tue head, but don't let that worry you, because if you do get hit in the head you won't know it. So why in h. worry about itf' That was his farewell. He jumped on his horse and rode off.
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26
The Daylight Hour.

At a little before daybreak came "stand-to," when everybody got but toned up and ready for business be- cause at that hour most attacks begin, and also that was the regular time for a dose of morning and evening hate" otherwise a good, lively fifteen minutes of shell fire. We had some casualties every morning and evening, and the stretcher bearers used to get ready for them as a regular matter of course For fifteen minutes at dawn and dusk bangs" "coal boxes" and "minenwer- fer' Smells from trench mortars) in such generous way that 1t looked as if they liked to shoot lem off, whether they hit anything or not. You could always hear the "heavy stuff' coming, and we paid little attention to 1t, as 1t was used in efforts to reach the bat teries back of our lines. The poor old town of Dinkiebusch got the full ben eft of it. When a shell would shriek it's way over, some one would say, ''There goes the express for Dinkie. busch," and a couple of seconds later, when some prominent landmark of Dinkiebusch would disintegrate with a loud detonation, some one else would remark:
 "Train's arrived r'
 About the only amusement we had | during our long stay in the front trenches was to sit with our backs against the rear wall and shoot at the rats running along the parapet. Poor Macfarlane, with flash of the old hu- nor which he had before the war, told a "rOOkie" that the trench rats were so big that he saw one of them trying on his greatcoat. They used to run over our faces when we were sleeping in our dugouts, and I've seen them in ravenous swarms burrowing into the
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26
The Prince of Wales.

A few days after this very young officer passed me in a trench while 1 was sitting on a fire step writing letter. 1 noticed that he had the red tabs of a staff officer on his uniform, but I paid no more attention to him than that. No compliments, such as salutes to officers, are paid in the trenches. After he had passed one of the men asked me if l didn't know who he was. said didn't.
 "Why, you d. fool," he said, "that's the Prince of Wales!
 When the little prince came back 1 stood to salute him. He returned the salute with a grave smile and passed on. He was quite alone, and I was told afterward that he made these trips through the trenches just to show the men that he did not consider him. self better than any other soldier. The heir of England was certainly taking nearly the same chance of losing his inheritance that we were.
 After we had been on the front line fifteen days we received orders to make a bombing raid Sixty volun- teers were asked for, and the whole
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26
'"0VER THERE
The Thrill and the He'll of the Trenches, Described
 by an American Boy.

Sergeant Alexander McClintock of Lex ington, Ky, and the Canadian Army Has Gripping Tale That Every American Will Read For He Tells the Facts-Unadorn- ed Wounded, Distinguished Conduct Medal Man, He Was Invalided Home, but Is Going "Out There Again to Fight For Uncle Sam and His Allies. An In- spring, Interesting, Personal Narrative, Full of the Spirit and Atmosphere of the Trenches.
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26

SudllOW graves Ol lhC NCuu' hoSI oI the soldiers legs are scared to the knees with bites.
 The one thing of which we constant ly lived in fear was a gas attack. l used to wake in the middle of the night in d cold sweat dreaming that I heard the chatter and whistle blowing all along the line which meant that the gas was coming. And finally I really did hear the terrifying sound, just at a moment when it couldn't have sound ed worse. 1 was in charge of the daily ration detail, sent back about ten miles to the point of nearest approach of the transport lOrries to carry Ill rations, ammunition and sand bags to the front trenches. We had lot of trouble re- turning with our loads. Passing point which was called Shrapnel Cor fer, because the Germans had precise range of it, We were caught in ma chine gun fire and had to lie on our stomachs for twenty minutes, during which we lost one man, wounded. l sent him back and went on with my party, only to run into another machine gun shower a half mile farther on. While we were lying down to escape this a concealed British battery of five inch guns, about which we knew nothing, opened up right over our heads. It shook us up and scared us So that some of our party were now worse off than the man who had been hit and carried to the rear. We finally got to- gether and went on. When we werd about a mile behind the reserve trench, stumbling in the dark through the last aid most dangerous path overland We heard lone siren whistle, followed by a wave of metallic hammering and wild footing which seemed to spread over all of Belgium mile ahead of us. All any of us could say was:
 "Gas!'
 All you could see in the dark was collection of white and frightened faces. Every trembling finger seemed awkward as thumb as we got out our gas masks and helmets and put them on, following directions as nearly as we could. I ordered the men to sit still and sent two forward to notify me from headquarters when the gas alarm was over. They lost their way and were not found for two days. We sat there for an hour, and then I ven tured to take my mask off. As nothing happened, ordered the men to do the same. When we got into the trenches with our packs we found that the gas alarm had been one of Fritz's jokes. The first sirens had been sounded in the German lines, and there hadn't been any gas.
 Our men evened things up with the Germans, however, the next night. Some of our scouts crawled clear up to the German barbed wire, ten yards in front of the enemy fire trench, tied empty jam tins to the barricade and then, after attaching small telephone wires to tbe barbed strands, crawled back to our trenches. When they start ed pulling the telephone wires the empty tins made chatter right under Fritz's nose. Immediately theGermans opened up with all their machine gun and rifle fire, began bombing the spot from which the noise came and sent up IS O S" signals for artillery fire along a mile of their line. They fired $1O,00O salute and lost nights sleep over the noise made by the discarded containers of shillings' worth of jam It was q good tonic for the TOmmies.
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26
/ No.2. The Bomb
 Raid By Sergeant Alexander McClintOCk, D. (. M., 87th Overseas Batt., Canadian Gren. Guards.
Copyright, 1917, by tho Bell Syn
 dicate, Inc.

Sergednt McClintOch 1s an American boy of Leria0ton, Ky., eoho has seen serUice in FrGnce, a0Gs decorated for 6raUery, Vounded, dnUalided home and noto is returning to accept c commits sion. This ts the second article in the series. In tue first article he describ- cd his trGini'p0 up to the point Where be reached the front hne trenches.
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26
The Bomb Raid.

The Bomb Raid.
 The point we were to attack had been selected long before by our scouts. It was not, as you might suppose, the weakest point in the German line. It was, on the contrary, the strongest, It was considered that the moral effect of cleaning up a weak point would be comparatively small, whereas to break in at the strongest point would be something really worth while. And if we were to take n chance it really wouldn't pay to heSitatS about degrees. The section we were to raid had d frontage of 150 yards and depth of POO yards. It had been explained to us that we were to be supported by a "boX barrage," or curtain fire, from our artillery to last exactly twenty-siX minutes-that is, for twenty-SiX min utes from the time when we started over the top" our artillery, several miles back, would drop a curtain" of shells all around the edges of that 150 yard by POO yard section. We were to have fifteen minutes i'll which to do our work. Any man not out at the end of the fifteen minutes would neces. sarily be caught in our own fire, as our artillery would then change from a "boX" to pour q straight curtain fire covering all of the spot of our opera tions.
 Our officers set their watches very carefully with those of the artillery of. ficers before we went forward to the front trenches. We reached the front at Il D. m., and not until our arrival there were we informed of the "2erI hOur"-the time when the attack was to be made. The hour of 12:10 had been selected. The waiting from II o'clock until that time was simply an agony. Some of our men sat stupid and inert. Others kept talking con- stantly about the most inconsequential matters. One man undertook to tell n funny story. No one listened to it, and the laugh at the end was emaciatcd and ghastly. The inaction was driving us all into a state of funk. l could aV tually feel my nerve ooZing out at my finger tips, and if we had had to wait fifteen minutes longer l wouldn't have
 
 About half an hour before we were 10 go over every man had his eye up the trench. foP we know "the rummies' 1 were coming that way. The rum gang serves out stiff shot of Jamaica just 1 before an attack, and it would be a ! real test of temperance to see man refuse. There were no prohibitionists in our set. Whether or not we got our | full ration depended on whether the 1 sergeant ill charge was drunk or sober. ] After the shot began to work one man next me pounded my leg and hollered | in my ear:
 "I say. why all this red tape? Let's l 70 over now"
 That noggin of rum is a life saver. When the hour approached for us to 1 start the artillery fire was so heavy i that orders had to be shouted into ears l from man to man. The bombardment was, of course, along a couple of miles of front so that the Germans would not know where to expect Us. At 12 o'clock exactly they began pulling down a sec. tion of the parapet so that we wouldn't have to climb over it and we were off.
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26
FRESH FRUITS.
AppIEa
APPLES
 Jersey, Delaware ana

Jersey, Delaware ana
 Maryland, basket .....,,.. 5Oe. Q Baldwin, barrel ............. 4eo ~ Northern Spy, barrel....,.. b'o0 m Ben Davis. barrel........... 300 e PEACHES
 Georgia. Elberta, carrier. 2.& @ I'SKMELONS- Georgia. standard crate.... 75e. C California ..,,,........,...... 2.s5 C 2 WATERAtELONS-
 South Carolina, car.......... l5ooo @SOI ORANGES
 California, boN..,..,........ l.65 c
Connecticut western news., 1917-07-26

There are six articles in this remark able series by Sergeant McClintock. Two have already been printed, and the third will appear soon. It is the most interesting one of the series thus far and is entitled:
The Denver star., 1917-03-17

Montgomery, sAla.-Among the thou
sands of young men in the south who
are making good and who are forging
to the front is George w. Chandler,
founder of the United Order of Good
influential organizations in the south
for the good Of the race. 1t is to Tai
ladega, Ala, that the credit for this
young man is due, because it was
there he was born, and it was there he
received his foundation for an educa-
ton in the public school and then Tai
ladega college His father was one of
the original pioneers in the vicinity of
Talladega and was one Of the first of
The Denver star., 1917-03-17
HOWARD ALUMNI PROGRAM
HAS MANY UNIQUE FEATURES
General Association at Washington
Ready For Ssmiesntsnnial Functions.

Washington,-Follo the 'get to-
gether' of the Howard university alum
nj. which was one of the most success
full and enthusiastic preludes to the
semicentennial which will be celebrat-
ed March l to 4. inclusive. the alumni
have designed button about the size
OF quarter of dollar commemora-
tive of the coming celebration. The
button has background of the official
blue Of the university. with lettering
In white. completing the colors blue
and white. In the center the let
ters n. o." are monogrammed, while
on either side appear the dates 1857
1917" At the top OF the semicircle
Is the word "Semicentennial" and at
the bottom Howard University" The
outer edge Of the design is white, CIV
Ing the whole finished setting.
Robert A. Pelham. financial secretary
OF the General Alumni association. was
present at the midday chapel services
OF the university recently and present
ed to each undergraduate button for
the tickets distributed on the night of
the "get together" meeting.
The General Alumni will send out to
the different local branches of the as
ISOLATION samples of the buttons and
have them order in numbers to supply
the membership Of their several organ
zations, so that by the time of the Gel
ebration in March every alumnus in
each locality and, here may recognize
the others in the effort and plans for
alumni day.
The program feature of March 3.
which is alumni day in the celebration,
is being shaped and will be announced
in few days. The parade from the
to Convention hall March
will include the officers. trustees, men,
bers Of the faculties and alumni.
The Andrew Rankin Memorial chapel
will be the mobilizing point for the
and every alumnus Is expected
to be on hand at 6:3O p. m. so as to be
formed under the marshal for the oc-
casion into groups or assignment in the
line. Reports from outside associations
and individual alumni indicate a
hearty response to the call. and the
appeal has awakened new
interest and is the slogan on which the
alumni stand united