Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-30


What impressed me most. after seeing
the struggles Of our men to get up sup
piles, was to observe along the side Of
one wide trench n little railroad on
which the bCche hauled his supplies to
the front line.
To gain an idea OF the enormous ex-
tent Of this work one must bear In mind
that from the front OF the Hindenburg
and duEouts covered slightly more than
four kiiomcters. I tell only Of what 7
saw In the Argonne forest the same sort
Of line ran across the Champagne and
to the right of the Meuse. this being per-
hans a more elaborate defense than that
in the ArgCune. These were regarded
as absolutely safe, and there the German
officers seemed especially disposed to
make their men perform prodigious
labors for their comfort.
The Americans are driving their way
through the wood lying west 81 Expr-
mont in the Argonne forest. Yesterday
there was a fierce struggle for possession
of the Bots de Bouge, where the Ger
n had considerable material stored
and II took desperate work to drive them
ut of the forest north of the Brieulles.
In the fighting of yesterday about the
forest Of Scptsarges we used many tanks
with good results. These tanks are
French made. but are manned by Amer.
leans.
Fighting through great obstacles and
In the most dismal weather, the spirit of
the youthful Americans has stood up
s~plendidly. They have keen pride in the
fact that they are driving tho hoche from
positions that he has held for four years.
The behavior of the new American army
units has excited the greatest enthu-
siasm.
An American general, q man who has
seen many battles, was telling me after
a visit to a hospital. tina he asked a
wounded ~doughboy who had never seen
"A battle before if we could lick the
noche.
"why, sure was the reply. The gen
cral thought that the finest thing he had
heard in many n day.
The in"fantrymen returning from the
front line after being relieved are loud
I'm their praise of the service Of sup
plies and ammunition over the greatest
difficulties. TIN has been made possible
by the fine work Of the engineers in re-
making roads. building bridges. etc.
Many Of these engineer troops are
negroes.
\ detachment Of them was building
a bridge in the Aire Valley, with their
rifles stacked nearby, when some DER
man machine gunners in an overlooked
nest in a nearby woods. chose these un-
armed men as their target and nicked
several Of them. Seven negroes got
excused by the major and went gun
ming for the boches. Twenty minutes
later they came back with four prison
ors and the helmets of the other three.
whom they had killed.
Man said one big negro In telling
about ii, 81 had to use mash speedy
rifle on one bush German dat was up n
tree. | sAo' do wish / had some bird
shot. | don't like these hcah bush Ger
mans dey lone coaxcd me too far
way from mash home in Nicksburg."
One Lucky "Niggah"
These negro engineers are doing ex-
cellent work.
They never quavcr at lahOring under
heavy shell fire. and seemingly are inn
hucd with a remarkable fatalism.
"Dcv tells me- said one Of them.
'dat one soldier in five gets killed. Well,
! naturally don't believe | am dat firth
nigger. cause / always was a lucky
niger
Against this spirit the boche as don't
get very far.
one big engineer got tired of breaking
rock. and taking his rifle slipped off.
lie told his pal that he was going into
the woods to get some souvenirs. An
hour later he came back, showing along
with his bayonet "A German major and
his orderly. The orderly had on his
back n large bag. The negro turned