The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-04-05

chapel cellar sends admonitionS to us fellows in the trenches that we must not speak bad of the "Fritzies."
 They Are There to Kill
 But what in the name of thunder do these unfit for service" crows think we are in France for? We sure ly did not get there to make love to the Hun, now did we? The only way to end this war is to kill all the Huns or capture them.
 When there are no more Huns left to carry guns the war surely will end all by itself.
 So in the 'trench-land we soldiers are learning the art of killing Huns But do not forget for a minute that we are neglecting the finer art ef 'Rat-catching." "Whata is 'rat-catch- ing'"?
 "Rat- Catching as 8 Fine Art''
 Well, it's not case of blowing our own horn to assert that we can lick Fritz hollow at the game of night hunting.
 Rat-catching we call it, and it's a fine art with us.
 By the way, in the trenches we had many serious arguments, about pro- perly naming this art. I myself do not like the term "rat-catching." If I had my say in the matter I would rather call 1t "Hun-kidnapping." But that was too mild an expression for the boys. So you can see why and whence the name "rat-catching'' came.
 The fact Is that it's all a mat | ter of temperament. Our lads love it. Fritz hates 1t, or so we judged | from the readiness with which he al- ways threw up the sponge when he was caught in the act, so to speak That's a funny thing about the German.
 We've seen 1t over and over again Put him behind gun, a machine | gun for preference, and he'll stick there till all's blue, or until you get too near him to be comfortable.
 At certain moment, however, he will just collapse sudden-like and ] shout "Kamerad." He doesn't like close quarters Fritz.
 Rivalry Among Raiders Of course, his own night-hunting means close quarters for him, don't deny, but then he's forced into It .A, begin with. Our boys, believe me- don't need any forcing. | I've seen night raids and, against all types, from Prussians to Saxons but I never knew anyone to hesitate | taking part in them. In fact, there used to be a sort of l regimental rivalry as to who would excel in them. Now, I don't think there's anything of that sort on the German side.
 At any rate, as say. they always give in pretty readily when they find seem glad to be out of the business with whole skin-if they're lucky enough.
 This affair, or rather both affairs, | ours and the Huns, occurred some little time after we had bitten off a slab of the ridges, and not long be- fore we had arranged to bite off an- other slab.
 There was great excitement about our stunt, for we hadn't had one for a long time, and nearly everybody hoped they would be in for the job. | It was to be no easy task. You see, we had rehearsed it all beforehand, i and although we felt letter-perfect yet the real thing, wG knew, would be ticklish, for we had an unusually long way to traverse before we got to the enemy lines, and if anything went wrong! However, we were not banking on failure, rather the oppo- site.
 So after final rehearsal, we got ready. I was one of the party.
 An Ideal Night for Hun- Kidnapping
 It was an ideal night for it was dark, with a slight rain, but not dars enough or drizzly enough to allow us to lose touch with each other on the way over!
 The ground, too, favored us, fol there was a slight swell to the left under which we could manoeuvre 1T the vicinity of the Germans with out their having much chance of de.
 tecting us.
 We'll, out we set, with everything ready to the last bomb. The journey
 itself, thanks to the "swell'' was un
 eventful, and at the pre-arranget } place, when the pre-arranged sigma was given, we found that everybod, ' was toeing the line, as it were, to tn, second.
 All seemed just ideal for the swool , itseG when 10 our dismay we heard , movement and hoarse voice rais ! ed as if in challenge. The next min ute German sentry loomed up , few yards in front! . That was breathless moment, lit
 orally, and otherwise. l We could hear our hearts beating
 But not a man stirred. ; The sentry stood still. Would h ? never go?
 No?
 l Well. then, we knew what had t 3 be done in such a circumstance, an r the man nearest the sentry did ii 3 There was just the slightest move s ment the slightest exclamation , smothered almost as it was uttered g and the sentry lay flat.
 How was 1t done? yl Oh, we can all wrestle a bit. Be