Show Had Wrong idea life was rul ruined ned war wall inventor tasted height of success arlid and depth of failure toronto ont in an obscure backwoods village north of hero here there died the other day a man who within the short space of a few months traveled the long road from tho the height of success to the depth of condemnation all because an idea went wrong the man was murray compton farmer and inventor who had ills his one big chance while a captain of infantry in the canadian expedition force and went to a premature grave with the curses of hundreds of dying canadian soldiers ringing in ills his ears for murray compton was the originator of china wall that stupendous blunder which was designed to save the lives of soldiers but which became a trap in which many hundreds were killed dom Compton 8 battalion was doing duty in the ypres cypres sector in the spring of 1016 1916 from the ram ramparts in cypres ypres city to the front line the soldiers were exposed to a withering shell and machine gun fire while going to find and from the line the distance was waa somewhat more than a mile but ration and working parties as w well ell na as battalions going into or coming out of the line ain suffered terribly the troops had the choice of two routes the one up menan benlin road which was a veritable deathtrap and the other through Zil lebek village most of them chose chosa the latter route for it a accorded C slight protection chinese wall recalled while leading ills his company in and out of the line compton became horrified rifi ed at the number of casualties a and nd hla his inventive brain sought some method of if reducing the loss of life suddenly he was confronted with a mental picture of the great wall of china which for centuries had kept out enemies of the yellow me men compton was practical C al enough to realize that time prevented the erection tion of a i wall which would correspond with the original ile he submitted hla his rough idea to his colonel who approved it and sent it to brigade headquarters from there it went to division and then corps bead headquarters here it was turned over to the cOmIn commanding anding officer of the engi ers whose approval hastened construction st ruction fight after night for many weeks weary working parties tilled filled sandbags sandbars sand bags which were pounded into tho the form of huge bricks and laid end to end to form a great wall weeks of cense ceaseless activity saw the task completed without interruption from the enemy 11 casualties much reduced the wall stood for weeks tile the admiration mi nil ration of every soldier who found protection behind its friendly shadow casualties were reduced to a minimum and compton was showered with honors ile he was mentioned in dispatches and decorated with the military cross come the 2nd and of june that fateful day when the german high command concentrated everything on a terrific drive which was calculated to drive a wedge in the british lines and open up a route to the channel ports the bombardment was tile worst experienced by all any troops up tip to that period Tron trenches clies were obliterated men killed by hundreds while brave after wave of german infantry was thrown into the attack tit in nn endeavor to break tile the canadian line telegraph with tho rear was wag lin iiii possible and several runners urs were tiled killed before word could he be relayed bade back to cypres ypres to send re enforce llie indents lits germans Dorn bombard bard wall battalion after bilt hillon vas ibur ded up from rest camps lit in motor lor ries dumped oft off lit in cypres ypres and then started up tip tile the line As soon as german observation balloons and planes observed troops beang in the roar rear they signaled the german artillery arid tile barrage was turned on tho old china wall thousands of men had find congregated behind tills this wall n waiting darkness before being thrown into the brench breach in five minutes inI the bombardment ro deuced the wall to a mass of twisted and torn and practically every man behind it had been killed or wounded in spite of this great disaster di tile the front line troops held on grimly for two days and nights they withstood the incomparable inferno before fresh freh troops relieved them hem but the way to the sea had been blocked ironically compton wits was commend ing a company of reserves which had taken refuge behind his crent creation lon when the german bombardment began by another strange twist of fate he was one of the few men who were permitted to escape being killed or wounded escapes without wounds A merciful command relieved compton of ills his duties and ills name was posted on the cas casualty unity list na as wounded some of ills his own men who saw him film going out of tile the line for tile the last time said he did not show n scratch but his nerve was broken and his great plan had crashed lie ile was mustered out of the army and sent back to canada lie ire went back to his farm but his neighbors saw a mighty change ills eyes were wild and vacant and he kept mum bling to himself they know the reason till he died |