The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-06-25
SHARE DANGERS
With SOLDIERS
Y. N. C. A. Workers Are Almost
Constantly Under Fire
in France. &.
MANY HAIRDREADTH ESCAPES
Moments Delay Saves Red Triangle
Man From Death by Shell-Ex-
periences That Are Test
for Real Man.

MISUNDERSTANDING shells are
everyday, %everyhour experiences in
the lives of all soldiers and Y. NJ. G.
A. workers anywhere within % miles
of the Boche guns. DIR. George Louis
Meylan, who has just returned from
France where he was engaged in rec
reation work for the Y. M. G. A,
threw some strong light On the con-
ditions under which all persons back
of the trenches live-and die. He had
been asked to tell some specific in
stances of "Y" workers under fire in
frst-line trenches.
"Those over here who have not been
In the wal zone must forget their old
time ideas of warfare and its dan
gers" said Doctor Meylan. "Forget
this old idea of open fighting, with
troops battling across a plain the size
of a large athletic field. Modern ar
tillery shoots for miles and is always
shooting. Every person within 20
miles of the trenches is under fire
practically all of the time, yet the re-
ports do not call this a battle. The
reports announce The artillery was
active and that means shells any,
where five to twenty-five miles back
of the trenches.
Dodge Shells Constantly.
early in April the Germans made
night raids and their airplanes were
active in bombing. Two of my or
ganizers were visiting camps eight or
ten miles back of the front-line
trenches. The Germans kept up the
bombardment for three days during
which time those ~ men were dodg-
ing shells constantly.
ION the second day they were in a
Foyer de Soldat-one of the soldiers
recreation huts provided by the French
with " men in charge-when, within
five minutes two shells struck, one a
few yards away, the other hitting the
hut. The ~ men were thrown down
by the S~oncussion. 1t seemed a
miracle they were not hit, for soldiers
were killed and wounded all around
them.
cit is strange that although we have
only about one woman worker to every
hundred men workers, not q single
'Y' man had been killed up to the
time / left France, whereas Hun shells
had killed two of our women workers,
Miss Crandell and Miss Winona Mar
tin.
'In a certain woods the shells were
dropping so thickly that the French
commander ordered our men to aban-
don their huts. AS the order was not
received until evening, a W man of
my acquaintance decided not to leave
until next morning as he wished TO
take his stuff. Next morning he was
approaching the hut when a French
officer stopped him to exchange fare
wells. This took little more han a
minute. and the Red Triangle worker
started on his way when a she'll ex-
ploded on the path near the hut at the
point where he would have been had
he not beer detained.
Close Calls Every Day.
"Some ~ workers are having hair.
breadth escapes every day. not every
man every day, but each in his time
with a regularity to Justify saying
some men every day. Eight of oul
men with the Canadians have beer
killed, and we cannot expect to escape
~unscathed. They work from siz
o'clock In the morning until clever
o'clock at night, seven days a week
with a week off every three months
and many never take their week off
On one occasion of which / know the
workers were up at three o'clock ii
the morning with hot coffee to warn
the French soldiers coming in aftel
a three-mile wade through mud ant
rain. Those Poilus appreciated that
MANY of our workers slept on th'
ground in zero weather this winter
with nothing but a blanket between
them and the frozen earth, and witt
no shelter but a hut made often o.
green lumber which warped. LETTING
I'm icy blasts. A test for a real man
81 went forward toward tn,
trenches to meet the American sol
diers coming back after their baptism
OF fire at Chemin des Danes and the.
were all eagerness for more. Tn
Germans had sent picked troop
against them, their strongest men II
brand new equipment, to impress tn
sAmericans that Germany had a
abundance of everything, materia
and robust men. Quite a contrast I
the ill%-equipped emaciated men tn
French had taken prisoners. TIL
Americans gave such good account o
themselves In this fight that tn
French could not praise them enough.