New-York tribune., 1919-03-03
The Coming 71ower
THE GAS SHELL ON THE GRAVE

THE GAS SHELL ON THE GRAVE
Written after a telephone conversation tho
Lorraine front. The Lieutenant Graham
referred killed in action
My message in code,
Because had excellent lstenng-:n system
On the Boche wires in that part of the line
And when used the signal telephone
We acted the hypothesis
That Jerry had equally good
Electrical eavesdropper what said
(Though. of course, he hadn't.
I had carefully c-nun-ci-at-ed
About half of the topsy-turvy letters
GA coded message looks like a youngsters
Say a Belgian youngsters neatly stacked alpha
betical blocks
After hand grenade has been tossed at them)-
had spilled about half this hasheesh of letters
To Graham, our artillery liason officer. at tha
other end of the wire,
When his voce-or it his ?-halted me-
That last letter-was it D D for Danger 7"
the voice asked.
mo. no. replied the mental qui vive, now
IT'S BIB for Beer you know, Munchner
beer !"
"Ach-Ah, yes !" came the answer "Munchner
beer, exactly
Pretty in the States now. eh? 2"
ut when l left" said and then hurried on
Say, Graham. wouldn't it be odd
If you were really Boche artillery officer
Instead Of being Graham?
Gee, it would be strange-and pertinent too
Because you'd be the very man I'd want to talk
with
If you were actually Bochc artillery officer
(rhough, OF course, you arenD.
Let tell you about it. -er Graham
While ! was up in the line behind Floodie's posi-
ton
You remember? The place where the Boche
Shooed over flock Of shell, before the raid
Well while was there to-day,
| came poilus grave
With a little blackboard fence around It,
And a wooden cross with the disc of Trcoors and
flowers
Oh, riot of coorfu flowers
They hadn't been trimmed lately or cared for
But. somehow they didn't seem 20 need attention,
For they were brave blossoms-as brave
AS the soil from which that pou once sprang
And in which he sleeps
But don't let me get gushy Graham.
The strange thing was that gas she'll one of
I mean. Boche gas shell had pumped itself
Right down on that grave. greedily buried in
the flowers
And tail resting the edge OF the little fence
1t was the most animated determined looking shell
I've ever it had real bee te-b -browed schreck-
lichkeit attitude
Resting at that angle; as IT, at any minute It
intended
To right through to China. and by competition
alone.
Put the Peking Gas & Electric Co. out Of business
But. like so much Teuton terror stuff Graham,
1t a dud-t didn't go off.
And what l wanted to tell the Roche artillery
officer was
That citber h;c rao;etor ,r,, ra++.,
1t had landed nowhere near a trench
Or that his kanonen Fritzes were pretty sorry
sportsmen-
Aiming gas shell at flower bed like that
You know how gas would have withcred thos.
flowers. Graham:
And the poilu being dead these many months
Why, in the name of all craftsmanship,
Kill the blossoms which dumb France
Had made into aromatic monument, her mute
tribute,
AS that sinking gas shell would have killed them
(Though, Of course. it didn't)
Striking case-very.' came the voice at the other
But so on with the message, please"
(And, of course. didntD
LIEUTENANT ARTHUR McKnoor
Proponents of the President dig up thing,
that the papers in lS61-l865 said about Lin
coin; and others look in tho files under
Benedict Arnold You don't have to be an
insurance solicitor to prove anything you
want to prove, with any data
For anybody who wants to attack the
President for having appointed Mr. William
Allen White, here is ammunition: Private
advices from Emporia are to the effect that
Bits daughter, Mary, aged H. has i,,st
read "Joan and Peter"