Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1918-06-07

II have seen an officer who wouldn't
say d--n for a thousand quid spend
Eve minutes with the old hoy, and
when he returned the flow of language
from his lips would make navy
blush for shame.
"What l am going to tell you is how
two of us put it over on the old scamp,
and got away with it. 1t was risky
thing, too, because Ola Pepper wouldn't
have been exactly mild with us If he
had got next to the game.
"Me and my mate, lad named Har-
ry Cassell, bombardier In ID 23S bat
terry, or lance corporal, as you call 1t
In the infantry, used to relieve the
telephOnists. We would do two hours
on and four off. would be on duty
in the advanced observation post,
while he would be at the other end Of
the wire in the battery dugout signal
ing station. We were supposed to send
through orders for the battery to fire
when ordered to do so by the observa-
ton officer In the advanced post. But
very few messages were sent. 1t was
only In case Of an actual attack that
We would get chance to earn our
two and six day. You see, Old Pep
per had issued orders not to fire ex-
cept when the orders came from him.
And with Old Pepper orders is orders,
and made to obey.
"The Germans must have known
about these orders, for even In the day
their transports and troops used to
expose themselves as IL they were on
parade. This sure got up our nose,
sitting there day after day, with fine
targets in front of us hut unable TO
send over a shell. We heartily cussed
Old Pepper, his orders, the govern
ment. the people at home, and every
thing In general. But the Boches
didn't mind cussing, and got very care
less. Blime me, they were bally in
sulting. Used to, when using certain
road, throw their caps into the air as
taunt mt our helplessness.
"Cassell had been telegrapher in
civil life and joined up when war was
declared AS for me, knew Morse,
learned II at the signalers' school back
In 1910. With an officer in the ObSer-
walton post. we could not carry on the
kind of conversation that's usual he
tween two mates, so we used the
Morse code. To send, one of us would
tap the transmltter with his finger
nails. and the one on the other end
would get IL through the receiver
Many an hour was whled away in this
manner passing compliments back and
forth.
"In the observation post the officer
used TO sit for hours with n powerful
pair of field glasses TO his eyes.
Through cleverly concealed lOOphOle
he would scan the ground behind the
German trenches, looking for targets
and finding many. This officer, Cap
tain A by name, had habit Of
talking out loud to himself Some
times he would vent his opinion, same
as common private does when he's
wrought up. Once upon n time the
captain had been on Old Peppers staff
so he could cuss and blind in the most
approved style. Got to be sort of a
habit with him.
About six thousand yards from us.
behind the German lines, was road
In plain view of our post. For the last
three days Fritz had brought compa-
MES of troops down this road In broad
daylight. They We're never shelled.
Whenever this happened the captain
would froth ut the mouth and let out
volume of Old Peppers religion
which used TO make me love him.
Every battery has "A range chart On
which distinctive landmarks are noted,
with the range for each. These land