The Jasper news., 1918-08-29

company four hundred prisoners. We
mad to retire because the men on our
sides did not get through and we
were being fianked. But we lost lot
of men doing 1t.
when we returned to our trenches
our outfit was simply all In and we
were lying around In the front line,
ike bunch of old rags In q narrow
alley. None of us showed any signs
OF life except working party that
was digging with picks and shovels ut
some bodies that had been frozen into
the mud of the trench.
used to think all the Germans were
big and fat and strong, and, of course.
some of the grenadier regiments are,
but lots of the Boches l saw were
little and weak like this fellow "got"
In my first charge.
1t was good piece Of work to take
the prisoners and novelty for me to
look them In the face-the fellows 1
mad been fighting. Because, when you
look Hun In the face, you can see
the yellow streak. Even If you are
their prisoner you can tell that the
Huns are yellow.
Maybe you have heard pigs being
butchered. 1t sounded like that when
we got to them. When they attacked
us they yelled to beat the band. 1
guess they thought they could scare
US. But you cannot scare machine
guns nor the foreign legion either. So
when they could not scare us they
were up against 1t and had to fight.
will admit, though, tn the first
time Fritz came over and began yell
Ing thought the whole q .rman army
was after me, at that, and Kaiser BIZ
playing the drum. And how they hate
bayonetl They would much rather
sit In ditch and pot you.
admit | am not crazy about bayo-
net fighting myself, as a general prop
osition, but will say that there have
been times when / was serving a gun
behind the front lines when l wished
for rifle and bayonet in my hands
and chance at Fritz man to man.
1t was In this charge that our chap
lain was put out of commission. AS
we were lined up, waiting to climb OH
to the fire step and then over the par
'apet, this chaplain came down the
line speaking to each man as he won't.
He would not say much. but Just a
few words, and then make the sign of
the cross. He was In black cassock.
He was just one man from me as
we got the word and stood I'D on the
fire step. He was not armed with as
much as pin, but he jumped up on
the step and stuck his head over the
parapet and got 1t square, landing
right beside me. i thought he was
killed. but when we got back we found
he was only wounded. The men who
saw 1t were over the parapet before
the order was given and then the
whole bunch after them, because they,
TOO, thought he was killed and figured
he never would know how they came
out about their VOWS. All the men In
the company were glad when they
found he was only wounded.
While half of us were on the firing
step throughout the day or night the
, other half would be In the dugouts or
sitting around In the bottom of the
trench, playing little games, or mend
ing clothes or sleeping or cooking or
doing thousand and one things. The
men were always In good humor at
such times and 1t seemed to me even
more SO when the enemy fire was
heavy.
If man was slightly wounded down
would come the rides to order arms,
and some poilu was sure to shout,
Fright this way. One franc" 1t was
a standing joke and they always did it.
The poilu who did 1t most was a Swiss
and he was always playing a Joke on
somebody or initiating some one of
US or making faces.
We were all sorry when this Swiss
went west" as the Limeys say, and
we tried to keep up his Jokes and say
the same things and 30 forth. But they
did not go very we'll after he was
dead. He got his in the same charge
In which the chaplain was wounded.
He was one of the bunch that charged
before the order was given, when the
chaplain got 1t, and was running pretty