Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-01-29

Camp Dodge, Iowa. Jan. 29.-"Come
on. pfessor. Give the lady some gas.
| Get the 'hallowed acre ready,
Here comes victim
! Now. to adjust the mask"
Girl reporters are used to gas. Es-
pecially il they've interviewed fanat-
les, or heard politicians boast of their
prowess. But that's different sort
OF gas from the brand they're using at
Camp Dodge to train. men of the
Eighty-eighth division for the big
fight "over there"
The writer knows how it feels to
be under an attack of poison gas She
even put on gas mask without fun
bling very much. And cloud OF
chlorine or bromasatone hasn't any
terrors for her now For she's been
through the whole works, and still re-
tains her girlish laughter.
1t was a real personally conduct
ed tour which she took Friday un-
der the leadership of Captain H. c.
Woltman and Lieutenant Van L. Bohn-
son, instructors in the gas school at
Camp Dodge. They left no detail of
gas attask to the imagination, but
showed ell the tricks they teach their
classes.
The trip started with the inspection
of the dugout Areal dugout, too
no makeshift there A great under
ground room, reinforced overhead
! with timbers, it's an exact replica OF
those used over on the western front
| Captain Woltman was suave when
he invited her to come in to inspect
the dugout. Unsuspecting and gullible
she followed him into the dark cav
ern. AS she looked around the tears
welled from her eyes and rolled SLOW
ly down her nose. The longer she
stayed the more fearful she became
and she'll wager that the most hard
hearted person would have done the
same thing. For that subterfanean
chamber was filled with bromacatone
a sweet, penetrating lachrymatory
gas.
lacks on artillery" Captain Woltman
explained. "A little of it won't hurt
you, but a couple of hours in that at
mosphere would cause the eyes to
close and would bring much suffer
ing to the victim
She believed him She cried all the
way up to the gas house where they
keep the chlorine chained and muz-
zled Near the house, clustered around
a blazing bonfire, was group of Off
GERS waiting to be put through y
They grinned commiseratingly at the
sight of her tears. They evidently
had been there"
The chlorine gas was next In the
receiving line. Lieutenant Bohnson
suggested that she smell little be-
fore they brought her a mask. She
shifted. She coughed She sneezed
There was a raw feeling in her throat
and her nose registered irritation.
Three or four good shifts of that
would knock man cold,' the lieuten-
ant said. "a paroxysm of coughing
would result which would finish him.
Up came the captain with mask
1t was notwithstanding thing. She
knew it wouldn't be becoming. With
the aid of safety pin the officer made
the mask more nearly the proper size
Then he demonstrated the proper
method of adjustment; showed her
how to shorten the strap on the case
so that the breathing tube would be
in the proper position, and how to fas-
ten the case securely with cord, sc
that she could have run or gone
through all sorts of contortions with
out displacing the mask. The adjust
ment of the mask itself was the hard
est part, but under the captains direc-
ton she took grip on the rubber
mouthpiece. clapped wooden nose
piece over her nose and looked out on
the bleak landscape through some
huge isinglass windows.
Lieutenant Bohnson took her into
the alright house, which was filled
with enough chlorine to kill an army
The poison was there, all right, for the
lieutenant showed her how to remove