The Washington herald., 1918-02-20

IN CHESl lEK.
, Good morning, Props" we hailed
him. How are the costumes coming
| on?'
Lieut.. Bill drew himself slowly back
from the far. far away, and sighed,
and smoothed his OF ear.
They'll be there" he said. He
smoothed his other ear and knotted
his brows. IT don't know where I'll
get them, but they'll be there"
: or such is our pet passion. When
| the fourteen beautiful wavelets
pranced on the scene, led by a world
famous entymologist and a six-foot-
two Englishman with a monocle, they
wore bright blue filets around their
heads. were decked with blue bows
! and steamers, hgttered bright
blue billows.- and were draped in shin
! ing white-for this was a camou-
haged ocean. with the foam beneath.
| Neptune wore a proper crown cut out
Of linen collars, and a proper strident
made of a broomstick, and proper
whiskers combed from the faxen
ropes end. which, with the addition
Of red bathrobe and life preserver.
made him intensely realistic. The two
beautiful mermaids, impersonated by
the leanest and lankiest men on the
boat wore flowing fiaxen tresses of
the same material as Neptune's whis-
kers, and Solomon In all his glory
was not more magnificently arrayed
than the other principals. But the
triumph of achieving the impossible
was in the blue decorations of the
wavelets, and for this we especially
shook Lieut.. William So-and-So by
his honest hand. and. with moIst-eyed
gratitude, complimented him and
asked him how he had done 1t.
Painted sheets Blue.
Last minute stuff" he confessed
with grin. II stole the sheets of
my bunk, and stood over the ships
painter while he painted them blue.
cut them into strips myself"
You see, it had never crossed Lieut.
Bills mind that We couldn't have blue
fiets and things, 1t had only become
a part Of his system that he was to
produce blue filets and things; and he
made good. He'll do any place!
Now we go to Leftenant Tom. He's
an American. too. but he's in the ar.
] tillery branch of the British army.
Been in service a year and a half.
1 ~ SNAOhbly "llIl lIlt IOGa IndL
the world should be made safe for
civilization that he couldn't wait for
America to get into the war. Trying
now for his transfer to the American
army, however; feels that that's s
where he belongs. Leftenant Tom
/, has been wounded three times In ac-
tion. He's just been mended again,
and by the time this gets into print
will have exchanged his nice, soft
featherbed at an expensive hotel in
Paris for the rougher accommodation
of the front, where he'll have to crack
the ice to get his shaving water.
Leftenant Tom is an extremely mod
est young man, and it took eight or
ten OF US. sitting around on the chairs
and chaise lounge and bed and floor
OF coZy little apartment, to coax
him into telling about the last wound
Of his. This is how he described that
thrilling moment of his life:
| The order came to go over the top.
somebody from the artillery had to
go along on observation, so they said
Here's Tom. He's just been on leave.
Hes fresh;' so l got It. took six
men with me and followed the first
wave"
| "Whooping and yelling and dashins
madly forward, 1 supposed" inter-
rupted the latest arrival, a war-raiI-
road man.
Faced Creeping Barrags.
well, no." corrected the leftenant,
Strengthening his leg cautiously. Its
the slowest thing there is; no excite
ment about it. You see, we followed
n creeping barrage. The ground is all
laid out in imaginary squares, and a
platoon of guns has to drop IS shells
on that square. If two or three OF
the guns are out of commission. the
| rest of them have to divide 1t up. but
IS shells must drop on that square
which makes it pretty certain thai
there won't be any living thing left
on top of the ground. Then the guns
are trained on the next square ahead,
and the infantry follows up to hunt
the Boches out of. the. pill boxes.''
What time was this; dawn" came
from one who craved picture.
| NO, about 80" considered the
leftenant. We'll, about $50 after I'd
sent back two observers and a couple
of pigeons, the enemy's barrage came
forward to meet ours, and shell
dropped behind me, and got me in the
hip. Ny light went out for a minute,
but came to right away. I lay there
seven hours in the mud, but it didn't
hurt very much. I was pretty COM
Portable. In that time, two barrages
passed right over me, our own an the
enemy's. At about o'clock the
stretcher-bearers found me. Say,
they're the brave fellowsp'
No Drnmatics Here.
! That's the way he told It. No can
mons red glare, no ear-bursting din,
no pandemonium tearing loose, no
fierce, struggling figures amid the
rolling smoke. like wierd demons let
out of hell, no straining forward un-
til the blood veins seemed bursting
in the temples; no mortal gasp as the
fragment struck him, no frenzied ef-
fort to preserve consciousness as he
slid into the dim shadows of oblivion:
no taking US in on his probale vivid
pictures Of home and mother. and the
boys on the Main street, and the girl
at the garden gate. and no seven long
hours of agonized torture while the
battle ragged about him and DEATH
dealing shells were dropping on every
L