The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1918-06-14

front line. where they stick to the END of their
wires under terrific shell hre until ordered to
join their commands If they get through alive.
An experience of this kind happened to me a
short time ago in lonely chateau OF the Ypres-
Aenin road" an English officer wrote home. '"Ths
chateau was the center Of a perfect hell of Ger
man shrapnel for nearly week, until 1t became
almost untenable and was abandoned by the head
quarters stan.
The general gave instructions that a telegraph
vt was to remain behind to transmit important
messages from the brigades and I was left In
charge Of the instruments In this shel-swept
chateau for day and a night.
"On the second day the Germans broke through
our trenches and the wires were cut by the she'll
nre. / was given orders to evacuate the building
and smash up my Instruments These saved BY
ouFying In shellproof trench, and then had to
escape between our own fire and that Of the
enemys across a field under . terrible tornado Of
shrapnel.
"On the early morning Of the same day one Of
our cable detachments, cut up and another
captured by the Germans. only to be retaken By
our sappers and drivers after a desperate an4
glorious fight"
The linsmen also have regular patrols stretches
Of line which have to be constantly examined not
only for breaks but also to make sure that thsg
have not been tapped BY enemy spies In such .
way that every bit Of Information sent over them
finds its way to the Germans. In the Aisne onoa
where the hill country offered good cover to spies
the wires were constantly being tapped.
One day q uneman passing along the road no
ucsd lot Of cable lying at one side. He started
to coll 1t up and found that q piece Of wire had
been tied to the main line. When he traced Il he
found that 1t ran to . haystack. He went on
tapped the line and sent In word to hsadquartere
and an armed escort found q SPY hidden In the hay
with several days supply Of food.
They autocrats In their way theee w1rs n:
pairmen and no one 10 permitted to intsefsee with
the swift execution Of their work. Word coming
over the line that the wire to q battsey was ~
paired Is often the sweetest sound in the world to
observation oficer up 'front.' even II It comee n
a rough brogue which French weather has not i'm
proved
So when anybody else breaks in on the line and
interferes with the reparman he gets rolled. e.
pecially he has been sitting for several hours in
q shell hole with Icy rain dripping down his
back. An English officer told Of what happened
to . general who broke in once.
"A general came In the hut and told me 4 rang
up the telephone just and said "0ive me the
- brigade. please" but some one with a loud
voice replied deliberately and distinctly: "Get OF
the blinking line" ! got OF remarking that -
soon convenient should like to speak, ]
apologized and explained that the line had been
down and was being repaired. He went OF with
merry twinkle in his eye"
As the number Of men in the American army
abroad grows with the weeks. the number Of line
lery and infantry together accomplish, will stead
selves And probably It will not b long before an
nouncement will be made that some plain Bill
Smith, wire reparman, has been given q medal for
bravery under fire, which attracted attention even
among the hundreds Of hEave acts which these
men perform svszy aAy