The Washington herald., 1918-02-21

" - ''f 'r-'.
appear strange that from a strictly
military standpoint, a dead man is
sometimes better than a live one Gf
wounded.
Not long after the first digging par
ty. our general decided, after a care
full tour of inspection of the COM
! municating trenches, upon IAN ideal
spot as he termed it. for a machine
gun emplacement. Took his map
made a dot on 1t. and as he was
wont, wrote dig here" and the next
night we dug.
There were twenty in the party.
myself included. Armed with picks,
shovels, and empty sandbags, We ar
rived at the ideal spot" and started
| digging. The moon was very bright.
but we did not care, as We were well
out of sight of the German lines.
We had gotten about three feet
down, when the fellow next to me,
after a mighty stroke with his pick.
let go of the handle, and pinched his
nose with his thumb and forehnger.
at the same time letting out the ex-
plosion: ''Gott strafe me pink, Pm
bloddy well gassed, not 'alf 1 amt"
l quickly turned in his direction with
an inquiring look, at the same time
reaching for my gas bag. soon found
out what was ailing him. One Whit
was enough and lost no time in also
pinching my nose. The stencil was
awful. The rest of the digging party
dropped their picks and shovels and
beat it for the weather side of that
so itary pick. The officer came over
and inquired why the work had sud
denly ceased; holding our noses we
simply pointed in the direction of the
smell. He went over to the pick.
| Immediately clapped his hand over
his nose, made an about turn" and
came back. Just then our captain
came along and Investigated, but aft
er about a minute said we had better
carry on with the digging, that he did
not see why we should have stopped
as the odor was very faint, but II
necessary he would allow us to use
our gas helmets while digging. He
would stay and see the thing through,
but he had to report back to brigade
headquarters Immediately. We wished
that we were captains and also had n
date at brigade headquarters. With
our gas helmets on we again attacked
that hole and uncovered the decom-
posed body Of a German; the pick
was sticking in his chest. One of the
men tainted. was that one. Upon
this our lieutenant halted proceedings
and sent word back to headquarters
and word came back that after We
had filled in the hole we could knock
of for the night. This was welcome
tidings to us. because
Next day the general changed the
dot on his map and another emplace-
ment was completed the following
night.
The odor from a dug-up. decompos-
ed human body has an effect which is
hard to describe. 1t fast produces a
nauseating feeling. which. especially
after. eating, causes vomiting. This
relieves you temporarily, but soon
weakening sensation follows, which
leaves you as limp as dish-rag. Your
spirits are at their lowest ebb and
you feel a sort of hopeless helpless
ness and mad desire to escape it all,
to get to the open fields and the per-
fume of the flowers In Blighty. There
Is sharp, prickling sensation in the
nostrils. which reminds one of breath
ing coal gas through a radiator in the
floor, and you want to sneeze, but
cannot. This was the effect on me,
surmounted by a vague horror of the
awfulness of the thing and an ever
recurring reflection that, perhaps l.,
sooner or later, would be in such
state and be brought to light by the
blow of pick in the hands of some
Tommy on a digging party.
Several times I have experienced
this odor. but never could get used
to 1t; the enervating sensation was
always present 1t made me hate
war and wonder why such things
were countenanced by civilization,
and all the spice and glory OF the con-
flict would disappear. leaving the
grim reality. But after leaving the
spot and filling your lungs with deep
breaths Of pure, fresh air. you for
get and once again want to be up
and at them"
TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW