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

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Of the river that looked so steep. and
was IN reality only a small fattish
mound among mountains, resemblCd no
land on earth. II the Matoppos had
married the KarroO they might have
begotten some such abortion Of stone
speckled, weather-hacked dirt. All
along the base Of il, Indifferent 20 the
thousands Of troops around 10 the
scream of mules. the cough of motors,
/ the whirr Of machinery and the Earring
carts, lay in endless belts Of cemeteries
those Italian dead who had first made
( possible the way to the heights above.
I'VE brought them down and buried
them after each fight" said the officer
There were many fights. Whole regl-
ments lie there and there and there.
Some Of them died in the early days
when we made war without roads. some
/ OF them died afterward. when We had
/ the roads but the Austrians had the
guns. Some Of them died at the last
/ when We beat the Austrisns. Look"
/ As the poet says, the battle is won
/ by the men VINO fall. God knows how
many mothers sons sleep along the
/ river before Gradisca in the shadow OF
the first ridge Of the wicked Carso.
/ They can hear their own indomltaole
/ people always blasting their way tow
| ard the east and Trieste. The valley
/ OF the lsonzo mutiplies the roar of the
/ heavy pieces around GOritzla and IN the
mountains to the north, and sometimes
enemy airplanes scar and rip up their
resting places. They lie, as IT were, IN
/ a giant smthy where the links Of the
new Italy are being welded under
smoke and flame and heat heat from
D h. lrsr ul l. Of Ia
and heat from the dry ridge behind
/ them.
The road wrenched itself uphill
among dead trenches. through wire en-
! tanglemcnts red rusted on the ground
/ looking like "harrows mt 10 reel men
] bodies out like silk between the usual
mounds of rUptured sandbags, and
round empty gunpits softened at their
angles by the passage OF the seasons.
/ Trenches cannot be dug, any more
! than water can be found, on the Carso,
/ for a spades depth below the surface
/ the unkindly stone turns TO sullen rock,
and everything must be drilled and
/ blasted out. For the moment, because
spring had been wet, the stones were
grecned over with false growth OF
weeds which wither utterly IN summer
/ leaving the rocks TO glare and burn
alone. As il all this savagery were not
enough the raw slopes and cuspS OF
desOlation were studded with number
less pits and watersheds, some eXquls-
/ itely designed by the devil for machine
gun positions, others like small craters
capable of holding 1l-inch howitZers,
which opened at the bottom through
/ riffs into dry caverns where regiments
/ can hide-and be dug out
/ | saw one such place which had been
used IA a bombproof by couple OF
/ Austrian battalions, not far from for
/ lorn little assembly Of inside house
walls, all silvery gray, which leaned and
whispered together in the thin air ike
ghosts. These were what remained OF a
village often taken and retakcn. The
only thing with life in it was an engine
pumping water through pipes up the
hills and over the stone flats and be-
yond. across the far haze TO thirsty
4 troops lying in waterless trenches. I've
had the Austrians full on the run here
once" said the officer. THE only thing
/ that stopped US was want of water.
I Our men went on till they choked in
( the dust. Now these pipes so with
/ them"
( We wound under the highest rise Of
the ridge and came out on its safest
side, on TO what Arabs would call a
belly of stones. There was no pretencc
of green-nothing but rock, broken and
rebroken, as far a the eye could carry,
by shell fire, as though il were the far
end of lydd ranges. Earth. however
battered, one can make some sort OF
shift to walk on, but here there was no
more foothold than in nightmare. No
two splinters were the same size, and
when a man stumbled on the edge of n
she'll crater its sides rolled down with
the rattle Of dried tongue in the
mouth. Great communal graves were
heaped up and walled down their long
sides with stone, ard on one such stack
of deaths harvest some one had laid an
old brown thighbone. The place shiv-
/ cred with ghosts in the hot daylight as
/ the stones shivered in the heat. Dry,
/ ragged points, like cows hips, rose
along the ridge which we overlooked.
/ One of them, only a few feet lower than
we stood. had been taken and lost six
/ times. They cleared US out with ma
chine guns from where we are now"
/ said the officer, $50 we had to capture
/ this highest point first. II cost a good
/ deal"
( He told US tales of regiments wiped
out, reconstructed and wiped out anew,
who achieved at their third or fourth
resurrection what their ancestors had
set out 20 win. He told Us of enemy
dead in multitudes put away some
where beneath the ringing stones, and
Of a certain Austrian Honved division
which by right Of blood claim that this
section of the Carso is specially theirs
to defend. They, too, appear out OF
+ the rocks, perish and are born again,
/ TO be slain.
/ "lf you come into this shell hole
don't think / should stand up too much
III try to show you what we want 10
do at our next push" the officer said.
Were just getting ready for it'-and
he explained with a keen foreiinger
how it was intended 10 work along
certain hills that dominate certain roads
which lead, at last, toward the head
of the Adriatic-one could see II. a
patch of dull silver to the southwark -
under some dark, shadowy hills that
covered Trieste itself.
A sun-warmed water pipe crossed our
she'll hole at about the height Of ones
chin, and the whirr of a distant shell
now and again helped US not TO stand
up too much. The officers explanation
was punctuated by the grumble Of
single big guns on the Italian side,
ranging in anticipation of the serious
work TO come. Then the ground hic-
cupped a few yards in front of Us and
stones the poisonous edged stones of
the Carso-whirred like partridge.
mines" said the officer serenely,
while the evils automatically turned
up their collars. "They are working
the steep side OF the ridge. but they
might have warned US"
The mines exploded in orderly line,
and. it being impossible TO run away