The Coconino sun., 1927-04-22
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD
Associate Editor of Golfers Weekly

| All / can tell man who is going
back to. see his part of the war grounds
is what found out when / did it my
self.
There are several different ways Of
doing it. tried them ALL In doing
this / learned that you can't get the
most out Of such visit If you're in a
crowd. I'll tell you why, in a minute.
! Do lot Of thinking right here at
home about where you want to go.
! Pick out the places where you found
| yourself in the tightest hole, where
| you and your friends were in the most
! trouble and where the chances of get
] ting out safely were the smallest. Get
the picture Of what happened there
| fixed in your brain. Get your mind
! prepared to visit this spot.
And when at last you do go to that
! spot in France next summer, not cas-
ually as tourist, but as man GO
| ing to a place that really has had an
| important part in his life you'll find
| that you won't want anyone around
you; you'll want to be alone there
almost entirely alone--to stand there
| by yourself and think for little
while.
That's how wents back to "Plug-
| street. forest, near Armentieres. And
this is why picked "Plugstreet: In
! the forest there, so near to the Brit
ish trenches that it was almost part
of them was the big grave of twelve
Germans. On the mound was board
on which some English soldier had
painted the words Here Lie Twelve
Very Brave Germans"
Within an hour after / had seen
that sign a German shell fell along
/! the trench about two city blocks away
and tore twelve British soldiers to
pieces. When sat down back in Ar
mentieres that night to write my dis
| patches | described the German grave
and the gruesomeness of the shell hit
and put down the words, "Some
quiet summer day, if this war is ever
over, I'm coming back to Plugstreet.
I'm going to sit down under what's
left of these trees and try to figure
out in my mind why men will kill 9TH
er men and then raise on their graves
tombstones Of regret and of remem-
brance."
So | went--almost alone-to plug
street" five months after the war was
over AS the little Belgian flivver
spot ] began to recognize the sur
roundings.
The driver stopped when ! told him
to. climbed out. Yes, sir, the trees
had been given an awful licking since
had last been there two years be-
fore. It was summertime but they
were leafless and dead, like masts Of
ships, like broken masts found the
~ h. Rx1l
through the tall grass. The same old
peoples were there. A turn or two OF
the trench took me down behind a
small knoll out of sight of the road. !
was all alone, in the sunshine. / knew
my place exactly. looked down into
the old trench onto certain spot, a
wide corner where the fellows used to
play cards. For minute could see
them all, the whole trenchfull. And
then suddenly the trench was just q
long deep ditch, filled with vines and
raspberry bushes and weeds, that no
man could walk in. / heard a noise,
soft but slow and big. It didn't stop.
It seemed to me, as / came to think
of it, that this noise, kind of sub
dued war, had been going on all the
time
I looked out over the great fields in
front Of the forest toward where the
enemy trenches had been and the en-
emy's land behind it. The grass was
waving in summer wind, as far away
as I could see. 1t was the wind in the
grass that | had been hearing; heads
Of grass and blades Of grass smash
ing and rubbing together and--well,
maybe talking. For all l could say,
even the poppies were whispering.
The loneliness Of the place, after so
many men had been there doing so
many odd deeds, almost flattened me
out. Even a German with a gun
across the way would have been well
come company.