The Jasper news., 1918-08-22

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they were the toughest bunch ever
saw.
After they saw the Germans using
the Belgian women the way they did,
almost every man In my company took
some kind of vow or other, and
most Of them kept their vows, too. l
believe. And those that were religious
got more SO after that.
Our chaplain had always been very
friendly with the men, and while I
think they liked him they were SO
tough they would never admit 1t, and
some of them claimed he was Jonah,
or jinx, or bad luck of some kind. But
they all told him their vows as soon
as they made them and he was sup
posed to be sort of referee as to
whether they kept them or not.
During my second stunt in the front
lines things got pretty bad. The Ger
mans were five to our one and they
kept pushing back parts of the line
and cleaning out others. And the
weather was as bad as 1t could he
and the food did not always come reg
ularly. Now, before they took their
VOWS, every last man in the bunch
would have been kicking and growing
all the time, but, as 1t was, the only
time they growled was when the Ger
mans pushed us back.
Things kept getting worse and you
could see that the men talked to the
chaplain more and quite few Of them
got real chummy with him.
One morning Fritz started In bright
and early to begin his strafe. The
lieutenant was walking up and down
the trench to see that the sentries
were properly posted and were on the
| job. A shell whizzed over his head
and landed just behind the parados
and the dirt spouted up like imagine
q Yellowstone geyser looks.
Another officer came up to the lieu
tenant-a new one who had only
Joined the company about week be-
fore. They had walked about ten
yards when another shell whizzed over
them. They laid to and third one
came. There were three in less than
FIVE minutes, directly over their heads.
Then a shell landed on the left side
of the trench and poilu yelled that
four men had got 1t. They were all
wounded and three died later. The
lieutenant went over to them and Just
after he passed me lad got 1t square
not far from me and was knocked
over to where was lying.
The lieutenant came back and
helped me with the first-aid roll and
then the Germans began using shrap-
mel. The lieutenant was swearing
hard about the shrapnel and the Ger
mans and everything else.
Farther to the right a shell had Just
struck near the parados and made a
big crater and across from 1t, against
the parapet, was young chap with
a deep cash in his head, sitting on
the fire step and next to him fellow
nursing the place where his arm had
been blown off. Our bread ration lay
all about the trench and some Of the
poilus were fishing 1t out of the mud
and water and wiping the biscuits off
on their sleeves or eating as fast as
they could. Only some Of the biscuits
had fallen in bloody water and they
did not eat these.
A young fellow. hardly more than a
boy, stumbled over the parados and
fell into the trench right near the
lieutenant and the lieutenant dressed
his wounds himself. I think he was
some relation Of the boy.
The lieutenant asked him how he
felt, but the boy only asked for water
and smiled. But you could see he was
, In great pain. Then the boy said
"Oh, the pain is awful. 1 am going
to die"
"You are all right, old man." the
: lieutenant said. "You will be home
soon. The stretcher bearers are com
ing" So we passed the word for the
stretcher bearers.
Then he took the water bottle from
the boys side and sat him up and gave
him some water. He left the watel
bottle with the chap and went Il
hurry the stretcher bearers along
When he got around the corner of the
trench the boy was slipping back ant
the water bottle had fallen down. 81
/ went over to him and propped hin
. up again and gave him some mor'
water.