Omaha daily bee., 1918-05-22

aspire to be. In fact it did not re-
! quire a very vivid Imagination to see
that my round head encased in d
helmet moving along must have look
ed to Friend Bosche good deal like
those ducks that slide along. in the
shooting galleries at Coney Island and
fall down wkeE you hit them amid
ships. Everybody knows how much
| fun those things are to shoot at. |
think | compressed several vertebra
in my neck beyond the point of pos
sible normal expansion again, but did
not duck and am selhshly pleased to
relate that did not get my tin hat
even dented.
Looking From Observation Posts.
I'VE went everywhere and from
each observation post looked out
through slit. \ got hold OF the en-
tire situation and was satisfied that
my full duty had been discharged,
when 10 and behold, the French
colonel allowed thefe were some
points we could see better if we got
up on the parapet. SO up he climbed
and | went along and the French cap
tain followed me. There we stood. he
pointing out points of interest with
his cane, while | was showing the
greatest interest in said points of iii
terest, at least on the surface To
be sure, we were at long rife range,
but the artillery was firing over our
heads constantly. Thinks |, my
F ench friend, | can stay out here
just as long as you can! and | did,
and little longer for good measure,
but he stayed out an awfully long
time. AS we progressed | finally got
wise to the shell firing so that I could
tell which was thevs and which were
ours. and was gratihed to learn that
those which had been making the
most noises travelling through the air,
that is those which screamed the loud
est, were French. shells. and we could
see them break on the German line,
see the big puff Of smoke, and the
dirt they kicked up and then hear
the exposion. With the Bosche shells,
however, which came our way, the
explosion was about concurrent with
the visual observation and the whine
came afterwards. They call them, re-
spectively, departures and arrivals.
Our boys call them, going and COM
ing They are really not nice things
at ali.
The front lines were very quiet
when | was there first, not. much do
ing except the artillery. Occasion
ally movement detected, or a light
or shade seen in a loophole on one
side or the other, would bring forth
the rat-tat- t-tat-tat of the machine guns,
but it was much quieter, except for
the artillery. and the men were much
more Composed than the women are
at quilting party. l found the COM
mand posts of the ma jors and cap
tains to be fairly comfortable, but of
course not suitable for drying clothes
i'll. Water drips constantly through,
but NEST of them have electric lights
also and are certainly better than |
expected to find. Some of the shell
ters and bombproofs for the men are
very wet and muddy and terribly
dark, but others are not so bad. /
think our sector is probably partic
ularly clean one. At that | saw places
where a subway builder might inn
prove the situation, which of course
we will proceed to try to do.
Birds Only Signs of Life.
"When W, were standing outside,
as I have tried to describe, the thing
that impressed ME most during the
brief periods when could close my
mental and physical ears to the terri
Bile screaming and detonations of the
shells was the fact that over miles
and miles of hideously SCARED earth
where churches, houses. cemeteries
and groves of trees had been literally
shelled into powder and splinters,
there was not visible one single liv-
ing being, man or beast. except the
birds which flew around and occa-
sionally lit and hoped here and there.
But | knew that within the range of
my vision were many thousand cut
throats watching for chance to get
at each other. | think | have never
seen so large surface entirely de-
serted except on the ocean or the
Egyptian desert.
81 came back last night to move the
other two battaliors up closer to
await their turns, for they are going
to rotate successively few days and
then we take over, instead of a bat
talon sector, our own regimenta1 Sec
tor. l will feel pretty smart when
that day comes.
The boys who went in were in the
very highest spirits. Even the lame
and sick men begging to 60, and the
officers of the two battalions whom
| did not pick to 60 first were very
disappointed and inclined to be sulky.
They need not worry. for l guess they
will get their fill of it, because | am
beginning to understand how serious
a quarrel l have with a man by the
name of Hohenzollern over here, a
quarrel which has already come to
blows and which must inevitably lead
to considerable bloodshed. However,
the Fifteenth Foot wears hobnail
boots, which from now on we expect
to be putting in his face pretty regu-
larly."