The Cordova daily times., 1918-03-16

dismouhtea on the fire step ready for instant use. We shared A dupout with the Lewis gunners. At stand to" we would mount our gun on the parnpet and go on watch beside it until stand down m the morning. Then the gun would De dismounted and again placed in readiness on the fire step.
 We did eight days in the fron+-Iipe trench without anything unusual hap pening outside of the ordinary trench routine on the night that Ne were to "carry out" a bombing raid against the German lines was pulled off. This raid ing party consisted of sixty company men, sixteen bOmbers, and four Lewis machine guns with their crews.
 The raid took the Boches by surprise and was a complete success, the party bringing back twenty-one prisoners.
 The Germans must have been awful ly sore, because they turned loose barrage of shrapnel, with few Min nles" and "whlzz bangs" intermixed. The shells were dropping into our front line like hailstones.
 To get even, we could have left the prisoners in the fire trench. in charge of the men on guard and let them click FritZs strafeing but Tommy does not treat prisoners that way.
 Five of them were brought into my dugout and turned over to me so that they would be safe from the German fire.
 In the candleligbt, they looked very much shaken, nerves gone and chalky faces, with the exception of one, a great big fellow. He looked very much at ease. liked him from the start.
 got out the rum jar and gave each nip and passed around some flags, the old reliable Woodbines. The other prisoners looked their gratitude, but the big fellow said in English, "Thank you, sir, the rum is excellent and I ap- preciate 1t, also your kindness"
 He told me his name was Carl Schmidt, of the Sixty-sixth Bavarian Light infantry; that he had lived six years in New York (knew the city bet ter than l did), had been to Coney island and many of our ball games. He was regular fan. 1 couldn't make him believe that Hans Wagner wasn't the best ball player in the world.
 From New York he had gone to Lon don, where he worked as a waiter in the Hotel Russell. Just before the war he went home to Germany to see his parents, the war came and he was con scripted.
 He told me he was very sorry to hear that London was in ruins from the Zeppelin raids. I could not con vince him otherwise, for hadn't he seen moving pictures in one of the German cities of St. Paul's cathedral in ruins
 I changed the subject because he was so stubborn in his belief. It was my intention to try and pump him fOI infornEtion as to the methods of the German snipers, who had been caus ing us trouble in the last few days.
 l preached the subject and he shut ID like clam. After q few minutes he very innocently said:
 "German snipers get paid rewards for killing the English"
 eagerly asked, What are theyY
 He answered:
 'For killing or wounding an English private, the sniper gets one mark. For killing or wounding an English officer he gets five marks, but If he kills Il Req Cap or English general, the sniper gets twenty-one days tied to the wheel of q Timber as punishment for his careless ness"
 Then he paused, waiting for me tC bite, l suppose.
 bit all right and asked him why the sniper was punished for killing an English general With a smile he re piled:
 Well, you see. if all the English gen. erals were killed, there would be no one left to make costly mistakes"
 shut him up, he was getting too fresh for prisoner. After a while he winked at me and I winked back. then the escort came to take the prisoners to the rear. I shook hands and wished him "Fhe best of luck and a safe jour- ney to Eighty"
 I liked that prisoner, he was fife fellow, had an Iron Cross, too. ad- vised him to keep 1t out of sight, or some Tommy would be sending 1t home to his girl in Blighty as a souvenir.
 One dark and rainy night while on guard We were looking over the top from the fire step of our frOnt-ine trench, when we heard noise imme- diately in front of our barbed wire. The sentry next to me challenged, Halt, who comes there?" and brought his rife to the aim. His challenge was answered in German. A captain in the next traverse climbed upon the sand bagged parapet to investigates brave but fOolhardy deed-"Craek" went bullet and he tumbled back into the trench with hole through his stomach and died few minutes later. A lance corporal In the next platoon was so en- ragged at the captains death that he chucked Mills bomb In the direction