The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-22

silhouette against the white paper of the map and the whitewash of the wall. (Dvery inch soldier and a gentle manD He turned so that the light fell on the map and his fingers traced out certain sectors and lines as he talked. "Our division has been called upon to take its part" he said. Tt is to be sacrifice movement" And then he told me of the plan. I knew the territory intimately, and the concentration of fine enemy divisions opposite our front. I had no need to ask any questions fol- lowing his explanation, I knew that under his leadership the men of his division would carry through that sac rifice. As we stood there, in the silence of the night, with the fire dying on the hearth, l felt, as I had never felt
 before. the meaning of the responsi bility which rests upon the leader of fighting men--the accountability for the cause and for their lives.
 On the afternoon of the next day moved out to the headquarters of the regiment which presumably was to have the hardest brunt of the battle. The senior officers were in consulta- ton. I wandered out with some junior officers to the grassy slopes of hil. leading sharply down to the plain on whose mud flats we had forced the Germans to reconstruct their positions. Together with the French divisions on either side we held all of the heights. The roads and villages, the clumps of forest, and the lines of the old trenches and the new outpost positions were to be seen spread out before us In a great natural relief map.
 You can come along with me and help establish F. O. at Marchvile, said the colonel, s'swhere, you can have a Closeup or you can see the whole thing from an observation post on the hill. We'll have breakfast at o'clock. The adjutant had given me his cot in the dugout. He would be sitting at the telephone all night I thought I might get in couple of hours sleep before the barrage, as I had had prac tically no sleep for two nights But this dugout was connected by two or three doors with all the other subter
 ranean chambers. I could not close my ears to the drifting conversations, nor shut out from my brain thousand and one crowding speculations. About 10 o'clock there was an augment to the general stir and I heard somone say that the general himself had come. One of his aides pushed open the door and automatically suggested that the corner in which I was curled up was the only exclusive corner in the dig gings. As a non-com bantant, had felt 2 certain responsibility about staying
 'put"--kfeping out of way of the ma chinery, so to speak. I was glad for this excuse to stir about. We lighted a half dozen candles and tossed things into some sort of order for the gem erals reception.
 By that time it lacked only a half hour before the opening shot of the barage. We sat waiting. There was an ominious stiffness. Occasionally some one came in with a report that the Heinies were sending up flares Evidently they were suspicious. We had kept them rather nervous every night so far. The general asked me If I had talked with any of the men, and told him about the afternoon and evening. It was now 1O:55. Our watches had been synchronfzed by a wireless from the Eiffel clock tower in Paris. I sat looking at the minute hand. One minute went by, another, and another. The hand lowered upon the point of the hour. The guns were speaking.
 Our shells were going over