El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-03-05
VERNINANDFOOD
BOTHER SOLDIER
Men in the Trenches Loath
Former and Constantly
Crave Latter.
Continued from Page u


most Of the work lying on your bach
in the mud. and If you jingle the wire
| Fritz traVerses No Mans Land witt
his rapid-firers with a fair chance o
! bagging something.
At the end of the five days the
1 whole battalion was pulled out fol
| rest We marched a few miles to th'
rear and came to the village of Petite
Saens. This town had been fought
| through, but for some reason had suf-
| fered little Few of the houses haC
I been damaged, and we had real billets
Ny section, ten men besides myself
drew a big attic in a clean house
/ There was loads Of room and the ROOT
was tight and there were no rats. Il
! was oriental luxury after Bully-Gre-
nay and the trenches, and for a won
der nobody had a word of ''grousing'
| over "kipping" on the bare floor
/ Aged WOmnn's Pathetic Story.
The house was occupied by a very
! old peasant woman and very little
] girl. three years old, and as pretty as
q picture. The old woman looked i'll
and sad and very lonesome. One night
as we sat in her kitchen drinking
/ black coffee I persuaded her to tell
| her story. It was, on the whole
rather a cruel thing to ask, I am
! afraid. It is only one of many such
| that I heard over there. France has
| indeed suffered. 1 set down here. as
nearly as I can translate, what the old
/ woman said:
Monsieur. am very. very old
now, almost so. but I am a patriot
and love my France. I do not COM
plain that I have lost everything in
this war. do not care now, for I am
old and it is for my patrie; but there
| is much sadness for me to remember.
and it is with great bitterness that
think of the pig Allemand-beast that
he is
Two years ago lived in this house
happy with my daughter and her hus-
band and the little baby, and my hus-
band. who worked in the mines. He
was too old to fight, but when the
great war came he tried to enlist but
they would not listen to him, and he
returned to work, that the country
should not be without coal
The soninlaw enlisted and said
goodbye and went to the service.
BY and by the Boche come and in
a great battle not far from the very
house the soninlaw is wounded very
badly and is brought to the house by
comrades to die.
Hun Brutality.
The Boche come into the village,
but he is too weak to 60 The Boche
come into the house. seize my daugh-
ter, and there-they-oh, monsieur
the things one may not say-and we
so helpless.
Her father tries to protect her. but
he is knocked down. try, but they
hold my feet over the fire until the
very flesh cooks See for yourselves
the burns on my feet still
Ny husband dies from the blow he
gets, for he is very old, over 80. Just
then soninlaw sees a revolver that
hangs by the side of the German Of
ficer and. putting all his strength to-
gether, he leaps forward and grabs
-
officer-and my poor little daughter
and then he says goodbye and through
the head sends a bullet
The Germans did not touch me but
once after that. and then they
knocked me to the floor when they
came after the pig officer. By and by
come you English. and all is well for
dear France once more; but 1 am very
desolate now. I am alone but for the
granddaughter. but I love the Eng
lish. for they save my home and my
dear country"
I heard a good many stories of this
kind off and on, but this particular
one, I think. brought home to me, at
least, the general beastliness of the
Hun closer than ever before. We all
loved our little kiddie very much. and
when we saw the evidence OF the ter
rible cruelties the poor old woman
had suffered we saw red. Most of Us
tL4Eu d AALLlE- N4lAlAh that mat OAAC
story made each Of US that heard it
mean, vicious fighter for the rest OF
our service. I know it did me.
Trials of Trench Life.
One of the first things British SOL
der learns is to keep himself clean
He can't do 1t. and he's as filthy as a
pig all the time he is in the trenches.
but he tries. He is always shaving,
even under fire, and show him run
ming water and he goes to it like a
duck.
More than once I have shaved in a
periscope mirror pegged into the side
of a trench with the bullets swapping
overhead. and rubbed my face with
wet tea leaves afterward to freshen
up
Back in billets. the very first
thing that comes off is the big clean
up Uniforms are brushed up and
equipment put in order. Then comes
the bath; the most thorough possible
under the conditions After that
comes the "cOoty carnival" better
known as the shirt hunt" The
"cooty" is the common body louise and
he is the soldiers worst enemy. You
can't get rid OF him wherever you
are, in the trenches or in billets, and
he sticks closer than a brother.
No Choice in Victims.
The cooty isn't at all fastidious. He
will bite the British aristocrat as
soon as anybody else. He finds his
way into all branches of the service.
and 1 have even seen a dignified
colonel wiggle his shoulders anx-
iously.
Some of the cooty stories have be-
come classical. Like this one, which
was told from the North sea to the
Swiss border. 1t might have hap
pened at that.
A soldier was going over the top
when one Of his cooty friends bit him
on the calf The soldier reached down
and captured the bitter. Just as he
a shell whiZzed over where
his head would have been if he had
not gone after the cooty. Holding
the captive between thumb and fin
ger, he said:
''Old Teller, I cawnt give yer the |
Victoria cross, but I can put yer /
back"
And he did.
The worst thing about the cooty is |
that there is no remedy for him. The |
shirt hunt is the only effective way. |
Food n Burning Issue.
And that brings US around to the /
subject of grub. Food is a burning /
issue in the lives of all of us. 1t is /
he main consideration with the SOL
iier. His life is simplified to two |
principal motives, l. E., keeping alive /
himself and killing the other fellow.
The question uppermost in his mind
avery time and all of the time is
When do we eatg'
In the trenches the backbone of
rommy's diet is bully beef, Machoni-
sie's ration, cheese, bread or biscuit, |
am and tea He may get some of \
his hot or he may eat 1t from the II