The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-08-29
DEAD ALIVE

DEAD ALIVE
DURING of wounds, passed through
good many hospitals Breteu and at Charres and at
Courv inside of Plombieres Hospital
enough add after brief stay for did not
odour Of sancy with the black rbed nuns with the super
vsors blue Their uniforms blue
rudy with health for and ALL from the
highest the lowest Wears in ordinary life
wish speak of another maer-of evening we
SPENT wounded side by sde round the stove which bed
November, in the large ward upstairs.
of misery wrongs and crimes Every survivor
floating there had his story to tell During
evenings collected the stories Of eyenesses which
in books. And those have sometimes
reader they woke life vibration of
living TRUTH like those violns which, old fables stirred the
listeners because artist had made Them but
because somebody's soul imprisoned within them.
ONE of the speakers-I shall call him Peer-said this
"There alive once-ived after he shot And
to prove it, I'll give his name-Waterlot Francis
"They all right-t against haystack But
his execution, he fit as a fiddle"
Peter told story; began with picture of exhaustion
and despair
Round Meau soldiers of a27h line regiment
the 2h which held the front lines On the night of
September and 6h 1914 they the lookout the outskirts
o a wood.
These were Peters words:
"They down the ground the edge Of
this snoozng beside their haversaksjus like em
that night to Sleep fully equipped You
they sept broke these chaps from the North
the Belgian retreat had had rough time of it.
What with trampng this and that and them
the long march backwards they Always their
tied their haveracks like walking packs Of troubles
always goaded the watch always damned And they
already played when three days before this the great often
began and piled on the
they sleeping in the dark dead beat and dead
STILL and truce hung for moment this OF soldiers
"RUT the firing ne there dirty work The
had managed get on top of the French
trenches pouring lead into them Taken by surprise and
completely staggered the 27oth chaps os ahead ground
back They reached the wood and the
who
feet these wandering through the night with the enem fire
then binked stood shook them
selves into life They saw eyes could dark these
ghosts huyns had thought fit with the
they
with the flowing tide
Bu this panic las you know panic something mechanical
like railway engine and it can't be stopped all at once when
it's for running off the lnesthe panic didn't last
long, The nightmare vanished with the first reaks of light The
men belonging up Lachies village and
good three hundred beginning look around for
their regiment and yawning-
them, who should trottng that
General Bouteguord.
General Bougourd command of the 51st Division And
he the brute Of brutes
"youIL understand Peter him that when
commanding is there pretty good
had the heaviest hand and sharp tongue Of all leaders,
a he a sap out Soldiers you he
wouldn't nearly such good chance with the German sdiers)
that that stopped fellows in Guign-
drinking the water which the had put out in
temptation down shoulders whak came the Of
this little god almighty who didn't feel thirsty else was frightened
still quicken And other things he's done
of shall hear
$50 this the general complete staff
lads of the 327th in Lachies Street
brassy brass hat fury already.
"He questioned
"Whats that say? Looking for regiment? You don't
catch with story Pick
a corporal, and shoot them the spot
"sed the general staff saying Amen to all the utter
stiff with gold braid officers
pulled long face and took themselves to
"'Excuse sir, but that can't be DONE.
BRIEF pointed out that things weren't quite simple
that these had not abandoned their posts they hadn't been
They resting the and had been swept back in
control them the panic Besides
shooting they must sentence th and before
fencing the and that exactly what mars
Colonel Vat and Major Richard Vtry
(which proves that generaze and talk about the
bloc submitted these which did
then begged mpored this Grand Mogu who
held life and death in his hands. In ....l
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