Catoctin clarion., 1918-10-17
THIIRMONT FREDERICK COUNTY, MD, THURSDAY. OCTOBER

Of the big ones landed there was an
eruption of brick, stone and tiling that
filed the surrounding landscape.
"What did you do?" Miss Clark was
asked.
"Do? Why when the soldiers duck.
ed, I ducked too. There was nothing
else to do"
Woman Keeps Her Nerve.
Occasionally there were brief lulls
in the firing. None of them lasted
more than few minutes. and each
evidently was a trick on the part of
the Hun to entice the unwary into the
open. At any rate, the firing would
cease for two or three minutes, when
it would burst upon the town again
ing steel. Anyone caught out at this
instant was almost certain to suffer.
Miss Clark does not profess she
wasn't frightened That storm of
noise and bursting metal would have
frightened anyone. However, the sol
uItTS dil dSIte llul tlc WollluH L
worker kept her nerve during all the
trying o: '2?' Nov and then shell
would fall close to the trench In which
she was standing, but fortunately none
fell into the trench itself, Again and
again, though, the soldiers in the
trench begged Miss Clark to crawl
into the comparative safety of the
angle, but this she refused to do. "Im
here. I'm woman, and I'm useless.
ri stay where I am" was the reply
the soldiers say she made.
And there she stayed. However,
along toward noon the bomhurdment
abruptly ended and after waiting to
make sure il had, the 3Dluiors urged
Miss Clar,, 70 MAT ner escape. AS
the cloud Of smoke and dust settled,
she climbed out of the trench, and
made her way along the now ruined
street to the regimental headquarters.
There was ruin everywhere along
the way. The Boche, evidently in a
fury at the punishment our boys had
inflicted on him a day or so before,
had flung about everything he had
into the village. The main part of
1t, of course, was shrapnel and me-
dium caliber Shells but mixed in with
this were a number of the huge Aus
trian high explosive shells. Where
they fell they had wreaked devasta.
tion to the surrounding walls. Stone
and brick filled the street; and there
were craters where the high eXplO-
slves had landed.
No Place for Woman.
At headquarters Miss Clark found
the colonel. FIe had a cash on his
cheek, a memento of the shell that had
killed his orderly; and as he saw Miss
Clark his relief was evident. Divi-
sion headquarters, he announced. had
wired over, ordering her to be re-
moved from the town at the first op.
portunity. Besides the chaplain and
the colonel's orderly there had been
other casualties; so that 1t manifestly
was not q place for woman. Even
though Miss Clark protested at being
made to leave her charge, army or
ders are ineXorahle; and that after
noon a Y. M. c. A. car took her back
to a town out Of range of the German
guns.
"It was pretty thrilling" said Miss
Clark. 81 shall never forget the sight
of those huge shells landing every
where about me, raking down the
walls of the houses l had come to
know. Neither can forget the sound
the shells made when they came roar
Ing toward us, then burst. The worst
part of the experience was when our
boys began dropping into the trench
with an account of the casualties.
"You ought to see SO-and-So his heads
shot Off" they'd report; or "They got
So-and-SO; helped to scrape him up"
One or two Of the victims they told
about I knew personally, and it was
dreadful to learn they had gone"
Miss Clark. In spite of what she
went through, Is not any the worse
for her experience, but in spite Of her
appeals, the Y. NJ. C. A. has decided
to have her work in less exposed
position.