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Show HOT ftJHEAGE JOB AMERICAN ENQINEER8 8ENT TO FRANCE WILL WORK CLOSE TO THE FRONT. MAY BE OFTEN UNDER FIRE They Will B Trained Railroad Mtn and Arc to Build and Kop Open trw Lines of Communication Under Exacting Conditions. By EDWARD B. CLARK. (WnlDton. There will bo rapid recruiting re-cruiting of nine regiments of' nnny engineers en-gineers for Immediate service in France. The men composing the regl. ments will be trained railroad employees em-ployees under the command of a colonel colo-nel of the regular army. They will find their way clear to do high service In Europe. Recruits who volunteer for this engineering en-gineering work ncod not fear that their life Is to be a humdrum when they get into France. They may be doing work to which they nre nccus-tomed. nccus-tomed. but they will do It under new conditions and occasionally under those of fire. The railway men will see real service In France, and they will do their shell dodging on occasion 'With the men of the fighting line. Few Americans, perhaps, have a conception con-ception of the work which engineers have dono In France since the beginning begin-ning of the war, nor is there any present, pres-ent, conception, probably, of tho hard-driving hard-driving service which Is ahead of the Americans soon to sail the submarine tone and to enter on the army life In Belgium and France from Ostend to tho Vosges mountains. Urltlih railway men regularly enlisted enlist-ed In the army today have charge of a large part of tho mil lines of cumuiunt- I cation in northern France. As early as March, 1015, the lines from Boulogne Bou-logne running to Amiens and from there north were almost wholly under the control of the British. The traveler trav-eler In Franco heard Ungllsh spoken along the routes of way through mllo after mile of the embattled country. Will Relieve French Enalncers. Fnrther east nnd back of tho lines, and up to them from 1'nrls to the Mt sello river, the railroads, were under tho management of Frenchmen. It Is understood that the American engineers engi-neers will relieve the French of a large pnrt of their work and thereby will release re-lease some thousands of men for other service. When tho Oermans advanced to the Petit nnd the Grand Morl'n rivers southeast south-east to Burls, and there were struck by , the forces of tho British and French j and hurled backward in retreat, the j railway men of the Islands and of Franco Instantly began the work of road construction on tho routes leading lead-ing northward, following In tho Imtne-dnto Imtne-dnto rear of the advancing English nnd French. If the labor of thu railroad rail-road men had been lucking tho retreat of the Germnns would not have been so rapid nor would the Brltlhh and the French have been uble to continue their advance. Franco today back of tho fighting lines proves the point of the figure of speech which concerns itself with a "network of trncks." Bven tho French, accustomed to do things quickly quick-ly when necessity Imposes, did not believe be-lieve that rullrond construction could he carried on ns rapidly as It was In tho days Immediately following tho bnttlo of tho Mnruc. The Amerlcun engineers may hee tho Germans take up another retrent like thnt which followed fol-lowed the Marne fight nnd therefore may be able to prove that Uncle Sum's men can do work as rapidly and as well under spurring conditions us tho French did it in September, 101-1. The crown prince's army In Its ad-vnnco ad-vnnco In August of the first year of the war swept from Verdun, the Ar-gonne Ar-gonne forest, and St. Mlhtcl down to tho country ubout Har-le-Duc and Vltry-lo-Frnncols. There they were struck by the force of the French commander, com-mander, who now Is In Snlonlkl, and were driven back to the line they now hold. Lines Quickly Constructed. It took tho FreiKh railroad men only a night and a day to cou.striKt u nnr-row-gnugu road for which there wasi plenty of rolling stock, from the farther-1 most point of advance of tlu' Germans J to tlio furthermost point of their retreat re-treat on tho lines running 'mm Verdun Ver-dun eastward. Quickly otl. i railroad lines were laid, and with the . no wagon rou di of France, which net dcil bur small repair, the French armies hail ecry facility for fnrwniilliu 'iielr supplies sup-plies of food ana ui'iiiiunlil.'ii to tho. front. f Since that day the French ami tho British have entered the country In tliu Immediate rear of their lines with rail-ronil rail-ronil tracks. It takes thousands of men to keep them In repair and to keep the army traffic mining. This work along thnt part of the front l.ild by tho French probably will ho taken over In part by tho American engineer regiments. The Americans frequently will lie under shell fire. They will get pleuty of tho excitement of wnr, ami Intend ' lug volunteers need not. fear Unit they arc going over to Franco to lead a life ordinary In every way except that It will run through Its hours In a new environment. The American engineers not only will hear tho bound of the guns of battle, but they aro likely to feel some of their effects. It will bo a real army life for the American railway rail-way men, and there can bo no American Ameri-can to doubt that they will meet thu new conditions nud do their work and their fighting like. AmcrUuns. |