The Washington herald., 1918-10-19

Telephone Service Good.
The telephone service on the Amer
ican front is very good. 1t is not quite
as easy to give a man In a front-line
| dugout a ring as it Is to call up
Spring 1907 in New York, but all
things considered the service is good.
The "heayiss" got Capt Milt Brown,
of Tennessee. on the wire. Brown was
! In charge of the lights" He is a
brother OF Innes Brown, Of New York.
| the newspaper man. Capt. Milt
/ listened intently TO what the heavies
had to say. When he had heard all
the news he answered dryly:
We'll, l reckon nobody's told these
birds opposite us yet They're she'll
J ing hell out of US"
/ The news was telephoned on to a
| French outfit still further ahead, The
| commander was quite excited about
It, but his answer was in line with
Browns remark:
so the Boche, he don't know it?"
he said He still fighting here
Football Coach with the Guns.
From another light battery po-
sition a voice that had a famil-
lar sound 20 the listener in the
"heavies" dugout came rasping
along the wire.
Hey, who is that" demanded the
listener. "This is Frank Canaugh,"
said the voice. who are your?
The old Dartmouth coach was well
up amid the lighting with the light
guns. He said Minot, the great Har-
ward back. was with his outfit, For
few minutes football was the
| topic of the conversation, with the
shellfre making more racket at
| each end of the wire than the root
ing section at the Yale e-Harvard
/ game.
This day produced mighty dreary
weather. 1t Tained. II was cold. A
gray haze hung over the world.
| Out OF the grayness moved that
everlasting parade OF dripping in
| fantTymen, trucks, wagons and ar
tillery sloshing to the front as the
echoes OF the laundering guns came
drifting back.
II the men could choose the days
for battle no man would ever choose
such a day as this. The horses gave
of steam as they strained against
the tugs. The men went along kick
ing blobs of mud from. their shoes
with every step.
The rain soeped through ones
very soul.
Tanks In the Mud.
Tanks were used in the fighting this
morning. 1t was the first time in
this particular attack. Mud makes
10 difference to the tanks. They lum-
ber out OF the haze like big mud
turtles and move against the enemy
lines.
The "heavies" and lights" were
pasting "Jerry's" line with dreary
monotony. The heavy artillery man
has a prosaic job In this particular
drive. He works on the Germans
from a couple Of miles away. Often
he is shooting from behind hills. Big
shells were drifting their way out
OF the distant horizon. The lights"
sometimes go forward on the n,els
of the infantry. They are occasion
ally used to pot" machine guns.
However, back with the big guns life
is precarious, even il it is largely
routine. A whole flock of shells may
fall into a battery without doing any
damage. like a futile shot into a
Covey OF quail. Then, along will come
one loose chunk OF metal and cause
all kinds Of trouble.
Killed by Shell Splinter.
The other day two heavy artillery
men heard sheel wheeling in their
direction Both flung themselves on
| the ground. close together. The shell
! burst sixty yards from them. One
man got up wholly unhUrI but the
other man lay quite still He was
dead
/ splinter from a shell had dipped
along the ground and penetrated his
( neck.
Arthur Richardson, OF schroon. y.