The copper era and Morenci leader., 1918-02-15

SdlueTeU up. Duu SQ6llS are 6XplOQ- ed usually, because they are a con- stant danger, and as a matter of eco- nomy it rarely pays to unload them. Emptied shells and shell fragments are sent back to be melted down. Brass powder cases are dispi ched to the rear to be cleaned and refilled. The odds and ends of battlefield are gathered up. All are sent to salvage depot at one of the bases.
 Work of Salvage Grows Fast.
 In the particular salvage depot which I have been privileged to exam inc many people gre employed. There are hundreds of French men and wom- en and some German prisoners and some Chinese and a sufficient number of expert British workmen who have been taken from the fighting line to be placed where they can be more useful. A few months ago, compara- lively, 1t was housed in single shed. Now it grows almost while you watch it.
 The most impressive feature of the establishment is precisely the feature which l may only hint at, for it en- ables one faintly to comprehend the gigantic character of the business en- terprise which we call war. In a single 7 month, for example, unserviceable horseshoes by the hundreds of tons were assorted and sent to England to be reforged. Block tin weighing sev- eral hundred pounds was recovered from unserviceable utensils. Hundred weights of rusty horseshoe nails were cleaned and made fit for issue. Thou sands of mess tins which had been thrown away were retinned so that they are literally better than ever. Hundreds of thousands of pairs of boots were cleaned, oiled and repaired. Tens of thousands of German pistols were put in condition. Other tens of thousands of water bottles were made like new.
 Making Over Old Boots.
 The net result is the practical elim- ination of waste. When MT. Atkins at the front needs new boots now he turns in his old ones and, if he is for tunate, gets nice, well-broken in, com fortable old ones that have been fixed up. If he Is unlucky he is forced to take new opes. If he goes to the hos pital his old boots and his old clothes gre sent to the salvage works to be cleaned and repaired. The army joke is that the army head is of standard size, so that the army helmet is pre- sumed to fit all corners. But the wounded mans helmet is cleaned be- fore it is reissued, lest the original owner send on a scalp disease to the later wearer. Gas masks are cleaned before reissue for the same reason.
 Hundreds of French girls are en- ployed in the boot shop. Here two or three experts are seated in front of a mountain of old boots matching them in pairs. They go on by sort of an endless chain to the inspectors, who decide upon the repairs to be made. An enormous double bench Is occupied by girls who tear the old soles off by machinery. They are washed, new soles stitched or nailed on, they are dipped in an oil vat, and then trees are inserted to keep them in shape. A shoe does not stop moving from one end of the shop until it goes to the storehouse at the other.
 Here is a loft where old tents are inspected and either repaired or con- demned. Next to it army wagons and ammunition limbers are being made over. Leather and web equipment is actually better than new when it has been through the shop, because it is more pliable. Waste paper Is baled. So that finally one gets to the engine room, where the chief marvel of all is in being. The big boilers that fur nish power for factory fed entirely by the old shoes and other absolutely inutilizable waste of the works. One had never suspected that an old shoe is as good as steam coal in a fire box. But it is.
 "No doubt," said cheerily, for l am q humorous soul at times, you save I(the nails from these old shoes"
 The joke fell fiat. They do save the nails. Each day the ashes are sifted