Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1919-03-20

We could actually see the guns and
horses Would we get a chance to fire
on them? Never did cannoneers work
faster or with more spirit. In no time
the guns were ready. 1t was but a few
seconds and we began to receive fir
DETECTION we were sure that the tar
get was the best that we hoped for.
The range came down to us and al
most Immediately a shell was showed
home. We were off. Another shell was
in the gun almost before the first one
had reached it's objective. We fired
several before we had a chance to see
the result.
In a second | learned more about the
horrors of war than a million volumes
could portray to me- We could see our
shells bursting in the column of the
retreating enemy.
This is the sport of war-if there is
any. We could see runaWays caissOns
and guns thrown into the ditch
pieces of wagons were flying through
ing
the air Wood and steel seemed to- be
defying the laws of gravity. Horses
and men were obscured from our view
by the flash of an exploding shell.
Then when the smoke was cleared
away that portion of the parade would
be lying in the ditch twenty or thirty
feet away. Even the we'll trained Hun
breaks his column when fire like
this one strikes him. Men were RUM
ing everywhere trying to get behind
the scenes of the stage which had so
suddenly changed it's heroes and lead
ing roles. We could see men, some
dead. some wounded, being trampled
under foot by the excited horses. HUI
man bodies seemed to have taken
wings. Death" was an officer in the
German army "He' had taken COM
mand of this Inflated retreating bat
terry. A graveyard lay along the road
We could see shells dropping into it.
Graves were being dug UP and re-
mains that had rested for over hun
dred years were being brought to light.
Tombstones hundreds of years old
were being blown to powder. Even
the occupants Of new graves with
their little wooden crosses a couple of
days old were being turned over. 1t
seemed that humanity had even called
the dead back into the ranks to take
part in the freeing Of the world from
Ioo1l ~, nth
No there wasn't any picture to be
found in this picture, but what was
that indefinable quality of satisfaction
that rushed through our veins and
cooled cur blood, which at another
time would be at the boiling point.
We may have seemed happy, but we
weren't
Anxiety and expectation had given
way to satisfaction, confidence and a
feeling that victory was at last ours.
These beasts were being driven out,
with the same punishment they had
had inflicted on these people whose
country they had intended to rule. We
hated it, but still we seemed to really
love it as we punished these cruel in
,vaders of 1914. Where could man
find a more terrible yet more wonder
full work?
1t was but moment that we spent
watching this picture cit didn't seem
reaD Our undivided attention was
needed almost two kilometers from
this scene, OH a little hill where four
little "liberators" were in one of the
most active actions that took place on
the battlefields of the world.
l stocked one shell after another into
the breech of that 75-even the steel
in that little machine -of-war seemed
to have confidence in us, the breech
seemed to almost open by itself; the
recoil seemed to hurry back and then
forward; the powder seemed to have
lost it's sharp, loud blast, yet it seemed
even more powerful. The projectile
seemed to anticipate it's mission of
death and the long black fuses seemed
to take more readily to the threads in
the end of that iron lberator. Never
did a machine respond more accurate
~ VI w AA1lAAS1y " IT'S 1uCCoCO4 AC11u CAoA1
did this destroyer of autocracy Shells
were bursting around us, but we never
heard them Our ears were deafened
even to the loud sharp reports Of our
own guns. Our physical energies were
almost at an end but we little realized
1.-THE mind Tor rather super-mind)
would be supreme until the body
dropped. Necessity knows no alter
natives"
But Fritz's retreating columns soon
brought us out of range-it was move
again. 1t was then, when the mind
was restored to it's normal standing,
that we realized the extent Of our ia
tigue. The first rs shell only weighs
IS pounds, but the last one weighs
1900 pounds.
The horses were brought forward,
the guns and cassions were restored to
march order; they were limbered up
and aga n we were on the muddy road.
1t was only with exertion that one
muddy foot moved slowly and reluc-
family ahead Of its mate. That little