Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1935-12-05

Does death on the front line
trenches come swiftly and merclful-
IL or does il linger agonizingly while
the body slumps over barbed-wire ell
tanglements? DO calling pains IN a
shattered pelvis come to n at the
Red Cross station, or must they be
endured in the veterans hospital! is
death by hurting shrapnel painless
and peaceful. or does it become a
living hell fire that RACES for many
wears after the believing soldier has
responded to its call.
Delusion and Reality
\ New York newspaper recently
reproduced allegedly ~uncensored
views of the World war. II was fol-
lowed BY the showing of a film
Forgotten Men-assumably depicting
what actually took place. But both
print and film drastically failed TO
portray the ghastliness of reality.
No amount of synchronized u
der could recapture the livid expe-
rience of the soldier. Neither print
nor film recorded the intimate de-
tails Of a 2ton shell bursting in the
path OF a thick column of moving
men: the faces that were l~acerated
yavagely or blown to bits by hand
grenade: the legs and arms THAI
were dashed in by the terrific I'M
pact of s%hrapnel; the lower jaw that
was neatly cleaved away-the upped
half remaining 10 stare mockingly in
the frozen grimace OF sdeath.
na+l A.:A nnl Gl~, nnn1nntnH tn
indicate the agony of the soldier with
groin pierced TO shreds by saw-edge
bayonet: the sudden squirt, and the
thick trickle Of blood oozing from a
wound the size of a melon; the
choking commissions of infantry, at
Ypres as gas swept down upon them.
They failed to show the young sol
der leaning on a broken wheel, in
the act of hilarious laughter, eyes
open-but unseeing in frigid death.
Gas had got him. and a thousand 9TH
er Canadians, in April 1915. No
sound film recorded the shrieks, the
means, prayers, and plantations
along a 20-mile front.
1t was within the province of film
and photograph to record the trim
effect of Jagged shrapnel slashing
away the entire head and leaving a
hideous stump topping to the mud
Of the Marine: the savage hand-to-
hand scramble as one sought to
plunge 20 inches of bayonet through
the stomach of another. No after
views We're shown of cremations by
LIQUID fire. no details of the v-notch
bullet as it ripped through the abdo-
men and emerged with a section OF
the intestines tagging on.
Neither photograph nor film lex-
tended itself because it has been
considered an indication of propri-
etv to clamp the lid tightly on the
black art of legalized b~utchery. The
average reader knows little more a.
bout actual tactics of modern war
fare than what he has read or heard
unless he has been through it.
Slaughter GIorified
Slaughter was heretofore glorifed
under such impassioned talk as was
delivered at a patriotic rally rally
hv William d. Guthrie. Boys of Glen
Cove" he invoked in April 1917, "do
not let the priceless and imperish-
able prestige. the eternal glory of
having served pass you by. All that
Is worth living for. and dying for.
all that the Star Spangled Banner
represents are at stake. Mothers of
Glen Cove IL. ~" he exhorted, "are
you going to hold your boys back?"
Perhaps mothers intuition was
right and she foresaw her son i'm.
bedded TO his waist in the muck of
oman land, his neck twisted and
lying motionless in the company OF
ten thousand other mothers ms
each mangled, bleeding, ingeniousl,
battered. Even she would never rec.
ognize him. amid the foulness of
death and gangrene. 1926, 900 sons
from America tasted death in all It's
assorted forms during 1918.
The following sample of the fight
ing at Belleau wood is by Josephu,
Daniels, former secretary of the ma
Wy, 5000 of whose marines tool
part.
"Belleau wood was a Jungle its CIV
cry rocky formation containing
German machine gun nest. The wa
10 wipe them out was by the bayor
eft. Pare chested, the marine
CHARGED into murderous fire.
Men fell like flies. Fighting day an
night without relief, often wiithou
water or hot rations. time after tim
the lines were cut to pieces; hearin
their wounded call for water, tn
marines plunged into whitening fire.
But no such picture was painte
by the Rev. w. IT. Herridge at s