Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1917-07-18
This War VIII Be Won by Tired
Men," He Asserts; Eve Be-
come a Little Child In
Gods Hands"

one, that
MY first trip to the trenches was
| up to No Mans Land. I went In the
early dawn and came to Mime. Tus-
saud's show OF the dead, frozen into
immohility In the most extraordinary
attitudes. Some Of them were part
way out Of the ground. one hand
pressed to the wound. tho other point.
ing the head sunken and the hair
plastercd over the forehead by repeat
ed rains. ! kept on wondering what
my companions would look like had
they been three weeks dead My Inn
| agina'ion became ingcniously and Wv
idly morbid. When I had to step over
them TO pass 1t seemed as though they
must clutch at my trench coat and ask
me to help.
Poor. lonely people. SO brave and so
anonymous In their death! Somewhere
there is a woman who loved each one
| OF them and would give her life for
my opportunity to touch the poor clay
that had been kind to her. It's like
walking through the day Of resurrec-
ton to visit No Mans Land.
Then the Huns see you, and the
shrapnel begins to fall You crouch
like dog and run for it,
Soon after that a terrifying sdven-
ture befell the novelist. OF which he
makes light In letter to his mother:
Today had the funniest experience
OF my hfe-got caught in Hun cur
tain Of fire and had to lie on my tum-
my for two hours In trench with the
shells bursting five yards from me-
and never q scratch. You know how
used to wonder what I'd do under such
circumstances. Well laughed. An
| could think OF was the sleek peop1s
walking down Fifth avenue AID tfl~
equally sleek crowds taking tea at thu
Waldorf. 1t struck me as ludicrous
that I, who had been one Of them
should be lying there lunchfess-
ForYets to Be Afrxid.
'Oh, II get lack how differently
shall write.' he exciaims n another
letter. and he adds:
when you've faced the WORST In 30
many forms you lose your fear ana
arrive at peace There's a marvellous
grandeur about all this carnage and
desolation-men's souls rise shove the
distress--they have to In order to sur
vive. When you see how cheap mems
bodies are you cannot help but know
that the body Is the least Isart OF per-
sonalitv.
Il plan novels galore ard wonder
whether I shan ever write them the
way | see them now. Ny imagination
IS TO an extent crushed by the stupen-
dousness OF reality think am chang
ed IN some stern spiritual way-strip-
ped Of fabbiness. | am perhaps hard,
er-I can't sry. That should be q
novelist seems unreasonable-it's 70
long since l had my own way In tho
world and met any one on artistic
| terms"
Here is fine passage In letter to
his sister:
THE great uplifting thought Is that
we have proved ourselves men In
our death we set standard which In
ordinary life we could never have fol.
lowed. Inevitably We should have
sunk below our highest self. Here we
know that the world will remember us
and that our loved ones, In spite OF
tears. win be proud of us. What Goo
win say to US we cannot guess. bat ht
can't be too hard on men who did theil
| duty"
He relates some terrible anecdotes O
the front, among which the worst 1
this:
II met solitary private wanderin,
across shell torn field. ! watches
him and thought something was wron,
by the aimiessness Of his progress
When spoke to him he looked at m
mistily and said: Dead men. Moon
, lit road He kept on repeating th
phrase, and 1t was all that one coul
get out of him. Probably the dea
, men and the moonlit road were tn
last sights he had before he went IL
a sane"
IT don't know whether nave bee
able to make any Of my emotions clef
/. to you In my letters" says Coningst
q Dawson. writing after months Of COZ
4 slant fighting. Terror has terrib
: fascina ton Up to now have alwa,
J, been afraid-afraid Of small fears.
!. last | meet fear itself, and 1t stinl
4 my pride into an unprecedented cou
. age" And in letter to his father
) strikes forth this graphic bit:
1--WE owed you q letter for son
a time, but I'VE been getting very lit
4 leisure You can't send steel messag
= to the kaiser and love notes to yo'
! family in the same breath"
8. One Mans Behavior.
= The spirit of the whole book-tl
l. spirit which made the novelist's faith
N choose Garry On" as title for q
, volume OF his sons letters-is nowhe
better shown than In these passages
10 There's a man know Of who had
he record sheet Of crimes. When be ~