The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-07-08
Conceived in Georgia Village It
Bears Fruit In No Mans
Land.
DEAD FOX AIDS and kBETs
Now Abraham Lincoln Davis Goes
Hungry to Feed Bunch Of Ger
man Messenger Dogs Lured
Into Trench.

OF the two threads out Of which
this yarn Is spun one started In O lit.
tie village situated about Is miles
inland from Savannah, Ga, and the
other started I'm the Office of the Ger
man high command I'm Berlin. In the
Georgia village-I don't recall the
name OF Il now--a pickaninny devel-
oped the idea that the best kind of a
dog to chase a rabbit was a long
legged dog. Likewise In the Office OF
the German high commander there de-
veioped the idea that a dog, having
considerable intelligence, would make
q better messenger than n German
soldier on the battlefield, and aiso
that If a dog had long legs he would
be a faster messenger dog than a mes
senger dog with short legs.
Threads Come Together.
So the threads of the story started
far apart and stretched a long ways
to the French 'front.' where the erst-
while ~pickanInny is a first-class pri-
vate in the army of his Uncle Samuel,
and where a short ways off the Ger
man military dogs carry messages
back and forth to the Boche pillboxes
and advanced posts. Abraham Gin
coln) Davis-his pals all call him Ike
has lodged a lot of German bullets
and gas ~grenades.
Ike hadn't been In the trenches long
before he began to hear about the Ger
man messenger dogs. Every now and
then, through a peephoIe in the top of
his trench, he caught sight of n OF
the messengers, although they gener-
ally did their work at night. He de-
veloped q respect and an admiration
for these dogs, and he could scarcely
choke down q fight when a sniper pick
ed of one of the animals. When one
Of the dogs was brought In after q
German raid. Ike made up his mind
TINT he had to have n of those dogs
to chase rabbits down In Georgia. /
don't believe he realized that he was
to have a kennel of them.
1t was an evening in early spring
when Ike was seated by the edge OF q
deep French well on the outskirts of a
dilapidated little village, where he was
billeted during a rest period. He saw
something leaping along the top OF a
hill a mile away. A second sight told
him 1t was a fox, and then he forgot
about II. The next night and the day
after Ike saw the fox, and then there
flashed through his mind the remem-
brance that q dog that chased a rabbit
chased a fox when he got q chance. To
make this part of the story short, when
he went bRck to the trenches a few
days later Ike had the fox, dead.
On the next two or three nights Ike
volunteered regularly for patrol duty
In No Mans Land. The third night
he got permission and took the dead
fox with him.
Gets Results at Last.
On the third night after he started
p~atrolling with his dead fox. he got re-
suits. But let the next part Of the
story be told by Ike's commanding Of
flcer. I wish I could mention his name
but the censorship rules forbid.
1T was along about A o'clock In the
morning" this officer said, "just after
one Of our patrols had come In. i re-
member 1t was raining slightly. The
patrol reported II had encountered no
Germans and that things seemed rath-
err quiet. ! was about to go away when
there was q scrambling underneath
our wire and q German messenger dog
popped over the edge Of the trench
and right into the arms of one of our
big buck privates, named Davis. The
dog had q message around his neck oil.
rected to one of the pill boxes, telling
the gunners there that American pa
trolls were out. / took the message and
started to lead the dog away to have
my orderly take care of 1t when Ike
begged for It so earnestly that / told
him to watch It while / got some sleep,
II forgot all about the dog and was
thinking OF home and mother some
hours later when one Of the lieuten-
pnts reported that during the night six
other German dogs had come into our
trench at about the same place and
that Ike had been near enough to grab
each n of them. / went to look for
Davis and that darkey had those sever
dogs corralled In a ready-made dugoui
as neat as you please and was feeding
them his own chow and all that he
could beg, borrow or steal. I'm darned
II / explain It, but I know that II
the gunners had got the instructions
those dogs carried all our patrols
wouldn't have come back.
sCome on. I'll show you the cir
cus.w
he took me 200 yards away and al
we mounted q little knoll I saw a bis
negro hastily completing the job Of
covering up something he had buried
n ! hole. He dropped the spade and
sa1uted As his officer came up.
sPrivnte Davis" said the officer
sehOw the gentleman those dogs"
Here they Is, subj he answered
and llfted q heavy board. Down
thrquGh the opening were seven lanky
doG1 Wifh powerful lees and Ions