Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-03-06
lcontInued from Last Week.

low that might be hit saw Two SneH
holes side by side that were as big as
this room I am not exaggerating. That
Is the kind of shell hole that is put
through that old concrete fort under
which this new fort was being built, and
the courage and the resolution OF the
men that did that work and the engineers
who designed it and constructed it is,
TO my mind, phenomenal. No wonder the,
French called their engineers Gene,
thinking of the Arabian Nights" and
the genie that came out of the vase and
accomplished all those wonders. Ihey
are the perfection of mathematiclaIs
They have figured out the influence OF
the earth on a shell travelling out Of the
cannon; how much farther it will shoot
north than south; how much the height
of the moon defects the shot, and what
Is called the ultimate error OF the can
non shot is disappearing under their
mathematics. Ii a commander cannot
point cannon within ten feet of the
shot he is not counted q success. That is
an engineering triumph and tnathenati-
cal triumph of the highest degree.
Somebody asked me tonight how they
located the shots. and whether by aero
planes. I said, mot alone. There are
three ways Of doing it-spot flashing,
sound ranging, and then the aeroplane
to check up both" The most uncanny
thing is sound ranging; it is shooting
around the corner, surely. They have
a very delicateIy devised wire that Is
heated red hot, and so sensitive that
IL you blow your breath on 1t it goes
out They put up six or eight Of these
wires at different points all connected
by electricity back to the central sta
ton, and then have a moving picture
machine. When the gun goes off but
ton is pushed and the moving picture
machine goes into action, and as the
vibration of that gun reaches each one
Of these stations there is little culver
in the line that is printed n that film,
and when it comes out it is handed over
to the officer. who goes to a carefully
calculated table and proceeds to locate
that gun by the vibrations taken miles
away from where the recording instru-
ment was, transmitted underground by
wires buried six feet and brought back
to this little encasement of his and
printed; and those little strips of paper
come back and locate the gun that fired
that shot Then he proves it by spot
flashing, and as the sound travels from
one place to another number of people
push button. and, knowing that sound
travels so many meters minute, they
prepare a map on which to locate It, Be
cause paper expands and contracts. they
make the map OF zinc and they cut the
paper IN two-inch squares. so that moth
ing In accuracy shall be lost by the ex-
pansion or contraction Of the paper I'M
der heat and danpness. They have a
parabeia around it with everything cal
culated, and stretch six strings around
that, and when the six strings get over
the same spot there is the gun, and
when the other six strings get over there
they are sure 1t is there and then they
can see II they are right, and 1t is nine
out of ten IL they drop shot over there
that that gun goes out of business. That
IS engineering gain. That is progress
right-angled corner to set up a stone
wall to put up cheap house
You and | have been taught to believe
that the French are the most mercurial
people on earth. I visited a Frenchman
In his fortiacation home and the map
showed it as cabaret dugout." I said.
General, why do you call 1t that?"
We'll" he said because nobody here
working in that little room a ships
clock struck six bells and / straight
ened and said, THAT is a singular sound
here" He said, That's touch of home;
am thinking of my wife" He had
brought from his home that little ships
clock that would carry him back to
Bordeaux. and once every hour for
moment his heart went back home and
the other tlfty-nine minutes 1t was
pounding shells into the boche.
/ have visited all the training schools
or training school in every army over
there. | have already said to you that
/ saw nothing to equal the engineering
work that Colonel Snyder has done down
at Augusta; but at one of the French
schools / saw a thousand boys of eighteen
out one morning at drill with ice on the
ground, stripped to the belt and not
thing on above their breeches. singing
and working and drilling as if they were
of July. | tell you. when we can drill
American boys up to that point-when
they will so out when IT. is cold enough
to freeze, with ice all around them. and
go to their work without clothes on,
then they win produce results.
They say that the French are amaze
mic and tubercular. There are not many
of those now. Man for man, they are
better than the German boys captured
at the Chemin des Danes fight of the
same age. They are healthy and muscu-
lar. No effort is made to make special
lists, They go in for an-round develop
ment. They have learned that special
lists have prolonged this war and they
are doing away with them. An instruc-
tor is detailed to every thirty-two to
forty eight men who takes them from
the setting-up exercise to the latest type
of machine gun When a boy has left
that school he has covered the whole
course of instruction; he is not n spe-
calist but a universalist in everything
that pertains to military art. That is
one of the lessons that three years of
warfare have taught them. It is the
man who studies it all that is able to
do it all, and he does it all. l saw
man fire eleven shells from Stokes NOR
tar and had them all in the air at one
time before one struck the ground, and