Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-05-17
AMERICANS IN FRANCE SCORN GAS MASKS OFFICERS'f
THREATS COMPEL THEIR USE.
BY Herbert Corey.

WITH THE RAINBOWS IN FRANCE April
wv S.-There is one thing the American sol
dier is being taught to fear more than high
explosives or snpers' bullets.
That's gas.
He did not consider it at all at first. Gas was
bugaboo to brighten greenhOrns with the
thought He admitted that if there suf-
hclent quantity of gas it undoubtedly had bad
erect upon the human frame, but sufficient
quantity" meant to him an absolutely unbreath-
abie condition of the air. sniff two of gas
did not worry him. Three or four shifts did not
bother him. He would not put his mask.
So that the regimental gas officers have been
holding company schools. The qualifications of
reg1mental gas officer nowadays include in addi-
uon TO knowledge of gas, throat of brass and
lurid and fearsome vocabulary. He tells the
men what gas is and how it works and how to
them:
IN courtmartial the first of you I find
without your mask, who does not wear it in
gassed area" he says and he it.
Last night l visited the advance post of a
tain battalion in certain regiment About all
can say of the regiment is that under different
number it has had long and honorable history
and that is is filled up with fighting Irishmen. IN
the Civil war it fought in many engagements
that the staff of the regimental standard is COM
pletely covered by silver plates bearing their
names. Thirty-four thousand passed through
that regiment in the four years of the war, which
is something more than twice better than has yet
been reported of any European regiment in this
war. One of the proudeSt regimental traditions
relates the reply made by the colonel of this reg1-
ment, when he was ordered to hold bridge:
Keep the enemy back at all COSTS" he told.
you will lose heavily, but keep them back as long
you can.
Some time afterward the general in command
visited the bridgehead held by the fighting Irish
He asked how long they could hold on. The
colonel replied in the broadcast Irish brogue
Il dunno" said he, splitting into the stream. 81
dunno how long it will take thin to kill all OF
min
The line was under heavy fire that night. A
raid the German lines had been arranged, in
cooperation with the French, and the lombard
ment had opened at o'clock to the minute. There
had been two days of heavy but desultory firing on
both sides The night of the big show the French
and the Irishmen gave the enemy all they had, and
the enemy replied in kind. From the edge of the
wood through which the foremost trenches ran it
seemed though wide circle of living fire had
been drawn. The center No Mans Land. 1t
was wet, black night which alteTnated between
drizzle and mere drip.
The lightning flashes from the hidden guns were
reflected from the low clouds. The noise was hid
eous, for a battery position that
the blare of the guns broke into the long roll
of artillery around the circle. Now and then
fell in ours with that fiat crash peculiar to the
breed They were unpleasantly near at hand, but
no one minded. The major-he has a fine old Irish
name-went on talking of Red" Mclaughlin in
New York
I'm County Kerry mesilf," he said.
Forty machine guns the right burst into
excited cackling. The bullets passed directly over
our heads, indirect fire upon the German lines,
with a sound that seemed familiar and vet difficult
to put a name to. Finally identified it
cit has just the whine of wind in the rigging
during storm at sea-" said the man who had been
talking Tammany politics moment before.
Men were heard running through the sIoppv
night toward the advance post dugout They came
in laughing and breathless and commenting vividIv
the perils of a through woodland in the
dark. They pleasantly excited and only
pleasantly, although their dugout had inst been
blown in by a shell Each had his story TO tell of
where the she'll hit and how he, individually had