The Huttig news., 1918-04-20

put into q motor ambulance manned by Crew of two or three. At the field hospital. where he generally goes un- der an aneSthetlc. either to have his wounds cleaned or to be operated on, he requires the services of about three to five persons. From this point an other ambulance ride impreSses more men in his service. and then at the am hulance train, another corps of doe tors, k. A. NJ. c. men. Red Cross nurses and the trains crew. From the train he enters the base hospital or casualty clearing station, where a good-siZed corps of doctors, nurses. etc. are kept busy. Another ambulance journey Is next in order-this time to the hospital ship. He crosses the channel, arrives in Blighty-more ambulances and per- haps a ride for five hours on an Eng fish Red Cross train with its crew of Red Cross workers, and at last he reaches the hospital. Generally he stays from two to six months. or long, CT, in this hospital. From here he is sent to a convalescent home for six weeks
 If by wounds he Is unfitted for fur ther service he is discharged given pension. or committed to a soldiers home for the rest of his life-and still the expense piles up. When you real ize that all the ambulances, trains and ships, not to mention the man power used in transporting a wounded man, could be used for supplies ammunition and re-enforcements for the troops at the front it will not appear strange that from strictly military stand point, a dead man Is sometimes better than live one Gf wounded).
 Not long after the first digging party, our general decided, after careful tour of inspection of the communica- ton trenches, upon "an ideal spot" as he termed it, for machine-gun en- placement; took his map. made a dot on it, and as he was won't, wrote "dig here" and the next night we dug.
 There were twenty in the party, my
 
 shovels and empty sandbags we ar rived at the ideal spot" and started digging. The moon was very bright, but we did not care as we were we'll out of sight of the German lines.
 We had gotten about three feet down, when the fellow next to me, aft or mighty stroke with his pick, let go of the handle. and pinehed his nose with his thumb and forefinger, at the same time letting out the explosion, "Gott strafe me pink, I'm bloody well Eassed, not 'alf I ain't." I quickly turned in his direction with an inquir. ing look, at the same instant reaching for my gas bag. I soon found out what was ailing him. One whiff was enough md 1 lost no time in also pinehing my nose. The stencil was awful. The rest of the digging party dropped their picks and shoyels and beat it for the weather side of that solitary pick. The officer came over and inquired why the work had suddenly ceased. holding our noses, we simply pointed in the direc. ton of the smell. He went over to the pick. Immediately clapped his hand over his nose, made an about turn" and came back. Just then our cap tain came along and investigated, hut after about a minute said we had bet ter carry on with the digging. that he dld not see why we should have stopped as the odor was very falnt, but if necessary he would allow us our rts helmets while digging. He would stay and see the thing through but he had to report back to brigade head quarters immediately. We wished that we were captains and also had a date at brigade headquarters. With our gas helmets on we again attacked that hole and uncovered the decomposed body of a German; the pick was sticking in his chest. One of the men tainted. was that one. Upon this our lieutenant halted proceedings and sent word back to headquarters and word came back that after We filled in the hole We could knock off for the night. This was wei come tidings to us, because
 Next day the general changed the dot on his map and another emplace- ment was completed the following night.
 The odor from the dug-up, decom- posed human body has an effect which Is hard to describe. It first produces a nauseating feeling, which, especially after eating, causes vomiting. This re- lieves you temporarily, but soon a weakening sensation follows, which leaves you limp as a dishrag. Your spirits are at their lowest ebb and you feel sort of hopelessness and mad desire to escape it all, to get to the open fields and the perfume of the flow CTS in Elighty. There is sharp, prickling sensation in the nostrils, which reminds one of breathing coal gas through a radiator in the floor, and you want to sneeze, but cannot. This was the effect on me, surmounted by a vague horror of the awfulness of the thing and an ever-recurrng reflection that, perhaps I, sooner or later, would be in such a state and beHbrought to light by the blow of pick in the hands