The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1919-03-28

Dr. ~Pour h Assita" but Of The soa-
dieFs he never had Q thought.
They had not seen q bed for montAa
They were never given q chance to ~
move their clothing.
They received only shells and steel
and were almost eaten up by vermin.
They were covered with lice. There
was scarcely enough water for drink
ing purposes. to say nothing Of water
for washing their clothes.
Our hair and boards were long and
when we were given some hours Of
rest the lice would not let us sleep.
While we were In the trenches the bull
lets did not do much damage but daily
men were killed by indirect IRE. The
thousands which whizzed through the
air every minute few over our heads.
glanced OF. striking the men In the
trenches. Failing to pierce their OBJ
ject directly they tore terrible gaping
wounds ~ they entered the mems
bodies sideways. Whenever we heard
charges concerning dum-dum bullets.
we thought of these cross-shots. al
though we never doubted the existence
Of the dum-dums.
Whether or not dum-dum bullets
were made In the munitions factories
I cannot say. suspect they were. How.
ever. did sec many dum-dum bullets
made BY the soldiers themselves. The
points were filed on from German mus
ket shells so that the nickel covering
was perforated. barring the lead filling.
The bullet hattened when 1t struck
its object II. for instance, 1t entered
q mans arm. the explosive charge In II
would 70 shatter the arm a. to blow It
entirely OF and leave It hanging BY the
skin.
German soldiers were frequently
seen supplying themselves with dunn
dunn bullets in the trenches. preparing
to inllict terrible wounds.
On January 8. 1915. the Germans at
tackled on their entire front Of the Ar
gonne forest sector and several hum
dred prisoners were taken. The hand
to-hand tight continued until six o'clock
In the evening.
A fellow pioneer and myself found
ourselves In q bit Of trench held BY
eight Frenchmen. Il was impossible to
retire 70 we accepted the unequal fght
Fortunately we were well supplied
with hand grenades.
We cut the fuses short 70 that they
would explode a. quickly a. possible.
I threw one among the eight soldiers
Before the men could get ont Of the
way Of the flrst. the second one fol-
lowed, which exploded In their midst.
We took advantage Of the confusion
thus created to hurl i've more. Our
We opened IRE with our muskets, clos
ing in ON the four. Their bullets
whixsed around our heads. One man
was shot In the mouth. That left three.
They turned and tried to dee.
In such moments a. these one II in q
great rage and forgets danger entirely.
We were very close to our enemies
now. right on their heels when the last
man stumbled and fell.
sprang on top Of him. He defend
ed himself with his fists. My comrade
went after the other two. Bleeding at
the mouth, this man fought on. After
I had Knocked several Of his teeth out
he raised his hands and surrendered.
I released him from my grip and
looked him over carefully. He was
about thirty-five years old. He showed
me his wedding ring and talked to me.
I knew what he wanted, he wanted his
life.
He gave me his canteen that might
-
he thought Of his wife and children.
pressed his hand and he showed mo
his bleeding teeth. called him q fool
and told him he was lucky to have got
ten away with the loss Of only a few
molars. I was glad had not killed
him. took him back myself, in order
to protect him against being misused.
As I delivered him over to where the
prisoners were being assembled, he
npaaaad INV hand and smiled.