The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-18


had lost his way and was well within
the German lines. Instead of deploy-
ing his men, and sending scouts ahead
and to the flanks. the officer marched
| his outfit as if he were on a hike in
a Georgia camp.
At II o'clock when the booming of
great guns could no longer be heard.
he halted his company. At that very
moment a German lieutenant ap-
peared from behind a ruined house
and saluted the American captain.
Captain" the Prussian is declared
| to have said, 81 command a machine
! gun Organization. My men have had
| their guns trained on you for the last
/ half hour. Had 1 given the word, you
and your entire company would have
been exterminated. But the war was
fast drawing to a close; it would have
been a useless waste of bloodshed.
am telling you this in order that you
may learn that not all Germans are
/ brutes."
The German saluted, about faced
| and left before the astonished cap
tain could murIpur. a word.
The Chaplain's Revelation.
! on Armistice Day Chaplain Black
man, who, the Sunday before, had
delivered a sermon under fire in the
woods to the gun crews of Battery +,
went to a forward observation post.
| The air was in a sort of haze, quite
! frequently seen in France. Below,
u
villages, RACED to the ground in the
Verdun struggle of 1916.
Only ruins marked what once were
prosperous towns in happy agricul-
turaI country, clustering around the
| city of Verdun. The French with
stood the most terrific attacks of the
! war and paid the penalty lin human
! lives. The heroiSm of the French
! poilu at Verdun cannot be described
| by even the most masterful penman.
| Before the war. one of the prettieSt
of these hamlets was Elk, with its
church, a miniature cathedral. and its
collection of peasant homes. The
fields at the outskirts of Elk were the
most fertile. The flowers doomed in
a. fascinating way, and womanhood
was fairest there, so the good folks of
! Elk thought. The war obliterated Elk,
altho in the hearts of its fugitives-
those of them still alive-scattered in
distant parts of the republic, hope was
| felt that some day they could return
| and build a new Elk upon the ruins of
the old.
I Chaplain Blackman peered with
glasses on this valley when the war
ended. The sun shone on the hilltops
to the south but tried in vain to pene-
trate the circlet of ravished towns
around Verdun. Finally there was a
rift in the clouds and the rays of a
sun that had shone upon France in the
days of its darkest despair. slanted
downward and finally rested on Elk in
the first flush of Frances victory.
To the chaplain, who removed his
| helmet in silent tribute to the scene,
this was a sign from heaven, symbolic
cal of an era of better things. not only
to Elk and war-torn France. but to
the entire world. The hearts that
were stilled in their not vain effort to
repel the invader from furnishing the
ruined village with his presence, might
well be pleased by this simple YET
mighty homage paid from above.
Chaplain Blackman, in his sermon
preac hed to men VIII wakes miles to
! hear him few days later, told TINS
story in the quiet, eloquent way Oh
| his, and his words left a burning i'm
preston not soon to be extinguished
/ in the very souls of these soldiers.
Regiment Becomes Motorized.
The Third battalion moved back
! few miles to SenegalaiS on November
Is, and two days later the other bat
teries were billeted in the half
wrecked village of sommedieue.
About December I the both was
matorized. grim irony of a humorous
war department. Trucks, nmousines.
Observation-Disclosures came in great
numbers after hostilities had ceased.
For the next two months the enlisted
and commissioned personnel devoted
it's time to learning the tntricacies of
motors.
After the war Colonel Brown per-
.sonally saw that furlos were given lib
orally, and the officers and large
part of the men obtained leaves to
visit such beautiful spots as Mont
dore. La Bourboule, Grenoble, Nice.
MontecarIo, Lyon, Cannes, st. Malo,
and, between trains, Paris.
Two young women, Miss Irene Day
ton and Miss Elizabeth Marshall,
members of the Wells college Y. NJ.
c. A, unit, were assigned to the 130th
on Christmas day, and remained with
the regiment thereafter. Miss Mar
shall came home with the organiZa-
ton. These young women were bright
rays of sunshine in the drab, slack,
monotonous days following the arnni-
stice.
! The regiment rejoined the division
on January %, 1919, moving to the
! leted in the towns of Lignieres,
| Ernecourt, Domremy and Loxeville.
The move was made by motor in the
/ dead of winter. 1t was in this area
that Brig. Gen. Patrick Duggan issued
| his famous order-if it can be called
| that-curtailing the wood supply to
/ his infantry, many units of which suf
| fered a great deal while the general
| toasted his shins in his comfortable
quarters in Commercy. General Dug
! gan may quite properly be indexed in
| the same category as Colonel Murphy
of the 140th infantry; Colonel Thurs
ton, of the both field artillery, and
some others.
Pershing Reviews the S5th Division.
The 35th division was reviewed
February II by General Pershing and
! the Prince of Wales in a soggy field
near Commercy. The organization
stood for several hours in mud and
water, awaiting the arrival of the
f. general and the rosy-cheeked prince.
The commander-in-chief compliment
ed the division in glowing terms for
| It's appearance at the review and the
fight made in the Argonne.
During this period, Regin entail Ser
geant Major Joseph o. Mauzey, Color
Sergeant Arthur v. johnson and Cor
poral Carl Johnson prepared a valua-
BILE roster and report of the regiments
| itinerary entitled The 130th Field
Artillery Record This booklet, later
published in the United States, is to-
day one of the best military posses