Show BRAVERY OF forefathers LIVES AGAIN IN DEEDS OF AMERICANS yankee troops in france laugh at shell fire jest at ahra shrapnel anel spraying and take whatever comes with bold courageous spirit that makes them invincible sergeant braves death to save his horses with wilh the lie american army in frante france plunged from their world of sham battles training camps and dreams to it maelstrom of fierce realities tile the american soldiers tire are proving they are made of the same stutt stuff which carried their forefathers through the tests of the trying periods of american history writes don martin in the new york Ife herald raid I 1 have seen them in fri action I 1 have seen them under shell bixell fire which literally sprayed them with lying flying earth and shrapnel and their relatives and friends back in new york california maine florida montana or wherever you please may take the word of an eyewitness that they have already taken their places among the roost most valorous and sturdy fighters of this gigantic world war very recently I 1 visited them in a little billage as close to tile the enemy lines as units can be quartered I 1 had gone to see the artillerymen artilleryman artillery men at their task and instead of anticipated tranquillity ran into the fiercest kind of excitement the first these particular yankees had known it all burst suddenly and unexpectedly just as most war developments s break shells break 1200 yards away from the rear window of headquarters in charge of an american captain and a french officer shells could be seen breaking on oil a sloping hillside the nearest one while I 1 was observing fell perhaps 1200 feet feel away they were aimed at atan american battery its nothing said the captain a stalwart handsome man who only a few years ago was a renowned football player in a michigan university they throw over a few shells every day but they never lilt the town with the musical hissin hissing of the shells for an accompaniment we ve conversed about news in america and had luncheon a good luncheon too there was no talk ot of war ar beside the table at which we ate was a sagging gagging cot with wrinkled blankets the captain sleeps sleep there sometimes tit at night he sald bald the shelling Is pretty heavy and its hard to sleep but im getting used to it clerk indifferent to shelling just beside the open window in the rear the window was more like a barn door than a window and had no glass a clerk was pegging away at a typewriter the dropping otie shells made no impression upon him at home I 1 learned he Is a clerk in an express office a lithe well groomed youth who has dreams of future commercial greatness these shells come a little too close tor for comfort dont they I 1 observed they wont get any nearer to a war amateur the spectacle of shells striking so near yet coming no nearer when it would have been so easy to blow the town to bits was a matter of wonder yes yen they could hit tho the town of course 11 was the captains comment but they never have shelled it sort of rn unwritten understanding I 1 ima glnn ginn they have toms similarly altu atea which we nye could shell but they hey dont want vant them shelled other understandings were that the germans spare some towns because their own people have property in thew whatever may be the reason tor for sparing certain towns all reasoning was wrong with respect to this particular village where I 1 was having luncheon we had just finished when a noncommissioned officer entered the upstairs room considerably out of breath but in no way excited and after sa saluting lutin said battery connections broken our battery Is id being shelled with gas and telephone connections have been broken hurried orders were issued it was all done quickly and quietly the football player now a captain acted as it ho he were coaching an old team at school presently men were seen scurrying oil off through tile the fields toward the shiell shell swept zone wherein the batteries lay they dropped flat two or three times but all crossed the danger belt safely and disappeared in the more thickly spattered region this action had just been put into effect when another soldier appeared belore before the captain and saluting and standing erect said 1 I have to report sir that tile the shell fire Is becoming more severe shells are arc now falling failing in the Nil village lage the nearby chizz of tile the flying things and the boom and crash at tile end of the street gave emphasis pha Is to the sharp cut words of tile the soldier no one was so vexing as to ask about the unwritten understanding not to bomb the town ton siire wh cre sli eliell ell had been fall tailing lilg at the rate of iwo wo every three minutes they were mere now dropping tit at the rate of four or five a minute TICY T ICY were str lUrg in many parts of the village there being nothing to do in the tonn ton 11 boril was given to evacuate in ft moment french and americans were streaming slowly ott off into the fields and along the roadways and in five min inin aites only a few american and french officer t and ambulances were vere to be aniell in lite streets which were fre filled with clouds of brick dust and lying flying bits of masonry and steel just then the great french guns be gan to add their boom tg tc tile the din of the hie enemy artillery one two three I 1 four five and on up to twenty came the ripping tearing detonations deto nations first a flash then a whine then a spongy roar from somewhere over there in tit alie midst of the fanfare and scurry a berge sergeant int and it Is permissible to state that lie came from Alls missouri stepped up to the captain who was directing ills men to places of safety or to neighboring sections and said there are 50 horses in a very dangerous berous position what shall be done with them it li Is too dangerous to risk ask a trip leave them refuses to desert horses the sergeant paused a moment A look of disappointment came into his eyes I 1 learned later that he has always loved horses 1 I can get them out ont lie he said looking the captain straight in the eye there was no further conversation the sergeant trotted off up the street into N what nihat might well have been the pit of death lie he disappeared around a slight curve A few minutes later he came into view again behind a galloping string of horses which shot off into a field to join a pack of mules which slowly and with traditional perversity had been moving nearer the spot where shells were falling with greatest frequency and oner oer in the batteries around which shells hid had been falling for several hours tile the artilleryman artillerymen artillery men had taken to their dugouts dug outs where they were sitting about like gnomes with their gas masks in position gas shells had been dropping all about them but fortunately the wind was such as to whiff it away from them with others I 1 moved down the road a few hundred feet and entered a grazing field where I 1 stood with about 30 boys from various parts of the united states we could see the german shells falling not tar far away and could see the flash and hear the boom of the allied guns gazing at the people moving across across the fields a soldier from chicago in every regiment there are men from practically every state and every big city back home said sententiously it if the people at home could see this and then realize that their own fathers mothers and Children 11 ll get the same thing if the germans aint licked I 1 guess wed have an army of twenty million nil llon huh shortly there was a lull la in the fighting in the period of quiet which came there was a release of the tension blitch had been quite successfully camouflaged everyone broke out in comment much as does a person who has just bome come through a painful dental operation the news from back home one of the privates asked me what do you want to hear about I 1 asked ilas has grover alexander gone in the army Wh cred they bury bob fitzsi in mons did teddy roosevelt get over that operation TI Is it true cut down the salaries of baseball players just news from home wanted these four questions came quickly from four different soldiers and when they were answered the boys seemed satisfied that everything at home Is all right unimportant subjects were dropped instantly when a shell shelf spattered up tip the earth a few hundred feet away musing everyone to move to a new region in a minute the bombardment was fiercer than before down doin iu in tile the narrow valley immediately in the path of the shells flight five frenchmen vegetables th bomi were planting bar dment made no alteration in their movements at the end of three hours when the firing was be bc dusk was gathering both sides ides but ing maintained from the explosives were ere no longer dropping ing in the village and th the e soldiers moved back into their billets and their places ot of occupation one wha mas privileged to go to the next village and thence to return to a region ol of complete security ity could not help realizing how different was his lot from that of the hundreds of young americans courageous courage oui all a 11 too ton who lins has no alternative alter natIVO nut but to return to the alln c which na as I 1 have said could be completely blown olt off the face of france if such were the determination of tile the huns flung who were bellowing with their guns only two KO K O I 1 miles away |