Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-03-20
BY PATRICK MAC GILL.

TAIKb1SN MAJ
LONDON, March 20.-"Down tools, F"
said the platoon sergeant and blew his
whistle. The hour was noon and we
had been working since dawn on the
fields by LaBasse road, digging deep
trenches. Across the road was an es-
timanet; and, accompanied by my mate
Spudhole, l made my way to the place
hoping that / could get something
tasty.
The estimanet was crowded and we
made our way to low rooted room at
the rear, and here we found two per-
sons, man and a woman. The wo-
man was sweating over stove frying
outlets; the man as sitting on the
floor, peeling potatoes into a large
bucket. He was thick set lump of
a fellow with long, hairy arms, dark
heavy eyebrows set firm over sharp.
inquisitiye eyes, snub nose and q
long scar stretching from the butt OF
his left ear up to the eye almost. He
wore nondescript pair of loose. bag
gy trousers, fragment of short and
a pair of bedroom slippers. He peeled
the potatoes with knife, a long, ra-
pier-like instruments which he hands-
ed with marvellous dexterity.
Digging trenches?" he asked, huri-
ing a potato into the bucket and
splashing water over us all. I under
stood French spoken slowly. / told
him yes.
But the Boche will never get rs
far as here unless as prisoners" said
the man.
"They may thrust US back" said.
"One never knows"
Never Thrust Back.
Thrust us back! Never!' A pota-
swept into the bucket with a whizz
like a spent bullet. Their day has
come. Why? The big English guns
and the many shells. And then there's
the rs, the little love. The beautiful
gun: one of the best. It's the very
devil when it starts. Pip. Pip. Pip.
Pip% Four shells in the air one be-
hind the other. Nothing can stand
them. Bomb. One lands in the Ger
man trench. Run. Some go right
some go left. The second shot lands
On the right, the third on the left AMI
the fourth finishes the work. The dead
are many. Other guns are good, but
none so good as the 75."
What about the gun that sent this
over?" AS l spoke I pointed to the
percussion cap of one Of the gigantic
shells with which the Germans rak@d
LaBasse road in the early stages or
the war, what time the enemy's en-
thusiasm for destruction had not the
nice discrimination that permeates Il
now. The remnant on the mantlepiece,
the remnant of a mammoth Krupp de-
sign. was cast off by shell in the
road opposite the door.
"a great gun, the one that sent that, A"
said the Frenchman digging the clay
from the eyes of a potato and looking
at the percussion cap on the mantle
niece which lay beneath picture Ct
the Virgin and Child. But compared
70 the Is. it is nothing. The big shell
comes. Boom, 1t is in no hurry. You
hea hear it. and you are in your dug
ont before it arrives. 1t Is Ike the
thunder which you hear and you are
n shelter when the rain comes. But
the u is lightning. 1t comes silent
w. quicker than its own sound"
DO you work here?" l asked.
81 work here" said the potato peel
er.
In the coal mine across there? l
asked.
Not in q coal mint" was the an
swer. Il peel potatoes"
Always
Sometimes said the man. 81 an
hack now on ten days leave from the
trenches. First time since last sum
mer. l just got back this morning.
oh" calculated. "Then you have
seen some fighting?"
Fighting said the man. Yes
little.
in fact. a great amount" His eyes
lit M with fire and he sent potato
stripped clean of its jacket up to the
roof, but with such precision that 1t
dropped down again, straight into the