Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-05-03
THE OHIO FRONT IN FRANCE


The Germans put Paine's fireworks to
celebrate their going. The men marched two miles
down the long, open hill through aisle of fam
in she'll bursts
I'VE are lucky men," said the French officer
IN llaison. Very lucky men. For not man has
They came into the little village at the foot of
the NIL with their heads up. They had made good
ana they knew it. They were tired and ragged
ana dlrty--"tve got little Goodies feeding on the
big Goodies now" said humorst-but they
were full Of pep, They began to hum that song
"hlch begins with the name Ohio, and contains
ly licked
Wen buy key of booze
And we'll drink it till wabbe in shoes.
And the fact that the village they entered was
being taken apart by German high explosives did
not bother them. They hummed cheerily
through the darkness their bilIets for the night,
and there some good Samaritan found little beer
Tor them, and they tossed off their steamng packs
and drank it and sang some more. They believed
to the last man of them that they belong to the
division in what will be the best army in the
world For two weeks Jerry has been sending
them his export products, and he hasn't leased
them They were a little nervous when they went
IN, because this is new game to them. But not
any more.
We've got their number now" they say.
THE COLONEL AND ME-
AT later day the story of their stay in the
trenches will be told. One might hint at it now
at the discomforts OF dugouts, and at the
knee-deep mud that stands the year around in one
sector of the trench and at the vicious German
the telescope sights to snipe unwary strangers who
look at the landscape the lip of parapet. But
today the tale in hand is that of the getaway Aft
err two weeks of real war the men started on their
way to rest.
In the battered little village at the top of the
hill the advanced post located. Whereabouts
one walks canny, eye the nearest dugout
and the right hand on the gas mask. There was
not an hour of the two weeks in which something
unpleasant did not drop there In the battered
little village at the foot of the hill the regmental
headquarters had been established A tWo-mlle
long open road Joined them. There wasn't cover
for a sparrow that pike. At the crest of the
hill camoufage painstakingly hung
up each night. Next morning Jerry carefully shot
them down again
The rest had already been withdrawn from the
advanced area The headquarters staff had been
sent away from the battered little village at the
foot of the hill to establish new Headquarters
elsewhere. When l got there yesterday afternoon
only Colonel B. w. Hough-he decorated with
the Croix de Guerre today, and so the censor will
let me mention his name-was at headquarters,
with his orderly and the French officer in liaison
He waiting until he could formally turn over
his command of the sector to the French colonel
who succeeded him. The day before this little
town had been humming with activity. Americans
were everywhere, cars were back-fTing, mules we're
braying. Today the colonel and the French cap
tain sat, chairs tipped back against the wall, in
front of the headquarters building. Both
smoking. They seemed glad to u.s. Red
crooked a finger at me and led me aside. Red"
is the orderly
4 hope you've got drop to drink Mr.. Corey"
said Red" dsconsolately. They're Smelling hell
out of the colonel and me-"
OVER DANGEROUS ROAD
The town morbid and unwholesome in its
silence | had lived there for two weeks, and had
made divers visits to the dugout, but it had never
seemed so desperately unpleasant today. We
left on the highest speed of which the was
capable over the torn-up roads. A crash heralded
our going AS looked back through the win
dow in the limousine end a squirt of black
smoke over the rooftops. The two lonely
from their chairs in front of the headquarters
and started YEARLY toward the dugout. 1t was
old to them. The dugout is cold and damp and
dark and they had told each other all their best
stories. More crashes single French sol
dier appeared from where knows, and ran
across the street. There
The long road up the hill toward the advanced
post was as naked as a snake. Not only there
no shelter it, but it is perhaps the only road in
France which is almost straight. That has helped
Jerry's target practice. Here and there dugouts
have been built at the side of the road, but they
are fit only for protection against she'll fragments
The French captain said they were rocketproof
only A shell landed square in the middle of the
road The camoufage screen at the top of the hill
suddenly burst into flame An American dispatch
rider on motorcycle whirled into sight against
the skyline and then sped down the long slope
IT seemed as though his machine leaped into the
air like a bucking horse when it struck the shell
made thank-ye-marms.
Darkness forever in coming. Possibly the
German knew the relief to take place that