The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1918-10-04

of the big ones landed there was an
eruption vf brick. stone and filing that
filled the surrounding landscape.
"what did you dor" 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 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
1t would burst upon the town again
in sudden deluge of flame and fly
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
diers all agree that the woman "Y"
worker kept her nerve during all the
trying ordeal. Now and then a shell
would fall close to the trench in which
she was standing, but fortunately none
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. "I'm
here, I'm woman, and I'm useless.
I'll stay where I am" was the reply
the soldiers say she made.
And there she stayed However,
along toward noon the bOmbardment
abruptly ended. and after waiting to
make sure 1t had, the soldiers urged
Miss Clark to make her escape. AS
the cloud of smoke and dust settled,
made her way along the now ruined
street to the regimental headquarters.
There was ruin everywhere along
the way. The BOche, evidently in q
fury at the punishment our boys had
inflicted on him day or so before,
had flung about everything he had
into the village. The main part of
1t, of course, was shrapnel and me-
dunn caliber shells, but mixed in with
this were a number Of the huge Aus
TRAN high explosive shells. Where
they fell they had wreaked devasta-
ton to the surrounding walls. Stone
and brick filled the street; and there
were craters where the high explo-
sives had landed.
No Place for a Woman.
At headquarters Miss Clark found
the colonel. He had cash on his
cheek, q 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 OPP
portunity. Besides the chaplain and
the colOnel's orderly there had been
other casualties; so that it manifestly
was not place for woman. Even
though Miss Clark protested at being
made to leave her charge, army or
utIS are lItAOIdDle, anu tIlHC alter
noon Y. M. c. A. car took her back ]
to town out of range of the German
guns.
at 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 I 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 1t 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. M. G. A. has decided
to have her work in less exposed
position