The Elk Mountain pilot., 1918-06-13

front line where they stick to the END Of their
wires under terrific shell IRE until ordered to re-
Join their commands II they can get through alive
AN experience Of this kind happened TO me
short time ago in 4 lonely chateau Of the Ypres-
Aenin road" an English oficer wrote home. THE
chateau was the center Of 4 perfect hell Of Ger
man shrapnel for nearly a week, until It became
almost untenable and was abandoned BY the head
quarters staff.
The general gave instructions that telegraph
list was to remain behind to transmit important
messages from the brisades, and was left in
charge Of the instruments In this shell-swept
chateau for a day and a night.
ION the second day the Germans broke through
our trenches and the wires were cut by the shell
nre was given orders to evacuAts the building
and smash up my instruments. These saved BY
buryng In a shellproof trench. and then had to
escape between own IRE and that of the
enemy's across q neld under q terrible tornado Of
shrapnel.
'On the early morning Of the same day Of
our cable detachments was cut up and another
captured BY the Germans, only to be retaken BY
our sappers and drivers after desperate and
glorious fight"
The linsmen also have regular patrols, stretches
Of line which have to be constantly examined not
only for breaks but also to make sure that they
have not been tapped BY enemy spies in such q
way that every bit of Information sent them
finds its way to the Germans. In the Aisne once
where the hill country offered good to spies
the wires were constantly being tapped
Oue uhy u uuemdu passing dlOn& tne ROAD no
ticed lot Of cable lying at one SIDE He started
to coil 1t up and found that a piece Of wire had
been tied to the main line. When he traced It he
found that 1t ran to q haystack. He went on
tapped the line and sent in word to HEADQUARTERS
and an armed escort found a spy hidden in the hay
with several days supply Of food.
They autocrats in their way. these wire re
pairmen, and one is permitted to interfere with
the swift execution Of their work. Word coming
over the line that the wire to a battery was re-
paired is often the sweetest sound in the world to
an observation ofcer up front, even II 1t comes in
a rough brogue which French weather has not i'm
proved.
So when anybody else breaks in on the line and
interferes with the repairman he gets rolled, es-
pecialy II he has been sitting for several hours in
a shell hole with an icy rain dripping down his
back. An English ofiicer told Of what happened
to q general who broke in once.
"A general came In the hut and told me I rang
up the telephone just now and said, "Give me the
- brigade, please" but some with a loud
voice replied deliberately and distinctly: Get OF
the blinking line" got of remarking that a.
apologized and explained that the line had been
down and was being repaired. He went on with
a merry twinkle in his eye"
As the number of men In the American army
abroad grows with the weeks, the number of line
men. those who make possible all that the artl
iery and infantry together accomplish, will stead
lily increase until they small army in them
selves. And probably 1t will not be long before an
nouncement will be made that some plain Bill
Smith, wire repairman, has been given a medal for
bravery under fire, which attracted attention even
among the hundreds of brave acts which these
men perform every day 4rr, &C. rir