The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1918-07-03

/ Is he as good fighter as his fathers
and grandfathers were in the Civil
war? The answer to this Is not so
simple because fighting in Civil war
days and i'm 1918 is by no means the
same thing, says Don Martin in the
New York Herald Whenever the
/ Yankees have had an opportunity to
meet the enemy i'm straight-out hand
tu-IHnd fight the American has demon
strated that he is chip off the old
block, and that, bear in mind, is saying
good deal.
People who have not been face TO
face with the war that has ravaged
Europe for nearly four years must of
necessity have but poor conception
OF just what war in these days Is
like. Read what an officer from a
Southern state, who served with dis
tinctlon in the Philippines and is
serving with distinction now, says
about it:
"If there were TO be few great
battles like Gettysburg, Spottsylvania,
Wilderness. Charlottesville, Cold Ilar-
Dor or Antictam it would be differ
cnt proposition. The boys would
know that the killing would occur mt
certain times, on certain days and the
victims would be recorded as having
fallen in some great battle about
which all coming generations would
read. But here there will be only Il
few great battles known as such by
name. There will be the Marine,
Somme, Aisne, Verdun, Ypres, Picardy
and some others, of course, but the
millions and millions of casualties
which this war has rolled up will rep
resent for the greater part side line
fighting and little subsidiary struggles
about which no one will ever hear.
"a division of any army might be
holding part of SectOr-a quiet sec
tor. too. There would be no great
There would be raids, meetings of pa
trolls, sniping, deaths by artillery ana
gas, accidents--a thousand and one
things, and at the end of year the
number of casualties in this division
would be as great as if the unit had
been in great battle. There is Il
certain romance about war. When men
can go into battle with colors flying,
hands playing and n world waiting to
near the outcome of the particular
combat, there is an incentive which
does not exist in struggle of waiting,
of hidden attacks and gas. But the
patriotic spirit is there. In fact, |
confidently feel that ii takes more pa
triotism to keep an army fighting as
armies fight now than it did in the old
days.
The Fighting of Today.
Let me give you an illustration.
Part of a regiment goes into the
trenches. 1t may stay there three
days. it may stay there eight days, F..
before it is sent back on repOse to |.
get ready for another siege at under /.
ground warfare. These boys know /.
that shells will be directed at their (,
trenches practically every night and .
maybe all day. The artillery also ,
know that the enemy artillery will be .
firing shells, gas and shrapnel at their .
batteries almost continually. Both the
and the lads in the
renches know that gas shells will be
hurled day and night and that death
will Turk everywhere for him who can
rhe possibility of a raid from the en-
my is not feared. In fact, ii is this
'ery possibility of real action, of
zeal meeting with the enemy, which
lets as sort of stimulant for the
nen in the trenches. To have shell
ome down on Il dugout, crushing ii in
nd perhaps killing and wOunding sew
raj men Is an unpleasant thing
loudly unpleasant because ii comes
rom some one who cannot be seen
nd whose identity will never be
.nOwn. There is the consolation, OF
curse, that the shells which we are
are causing death and injury
cross the line, but while we know we
re hitting them we do not really know
t that. 1t is a queer war. inhuman
t'uuNt lhf nun II oo anu h'o~ .
ltute of the amenities and chivalries
Z all other wars because the Hun pos
esses all the traits of the coyote or
he hyena.
"The Americans would like to meet
he Hun in n fair fight and have II out,
ut that cannot be. The Hun can
ot fight fair, because he knows in a
mir fight he would be cleaned off the
arth. He will be cleaned off any
ow, but it will take us longer; that's
H."
No doubt I'm the United States, as in
Europe, the question is asked mill
on times a day, How many fighting
len has the United States in France?
hat question can be answered only
! Washington. l don't know, and the
ansor, quite properly, would not let
lie tell II | did know. But l will
robably be permitted to say this
uch: The United States has very
rye army In France.
Yanks Have the Spirit.
They know how TO fight and they
ave the spirit. They know what