M P I I TOP
AN AMERICAN SOLDIER
WHO WENT - *
MnilMJYfflPEY.
m a c h in e : gunner , jerying in eranœ -------
-
l*7 BY
R tmancmr
EMPEY
JOINS
PICK
AND
SHOVEL
SQUAD AND
DIGS
TRENCHES IN NO MAN’S LAND.
!
Synopsis.— Fired by the sinking o f the Lusitania, with the loss of
Aruericuu lives, Arthur Guy Ernpey, an Americun living In Jersey City,
goes to England und enlists ns a private in the British army. A fter a
short experience as a recruiting officer In London, he Is sent to train­
ing quarters in France, where he first hears the sound o f big guns and
makes the acquaintance of “ cooties." A fter a brief period of training
Empey’s company is sent luto the front-line trenches, where he takes
his first turn on the fire step while the bullets whiz overhead. Empey
learns, as comrade falls, that death lurks always in the trenches.
Chaplain distinguishes himself by rescuing wounded men under hot
fire. With pick nnd shovel Empey has experience as a trench digger
in No Man’s Land.
nnted wrist watch—It was eleven
o’clock.
Before entering this trench, word
was passed down the line, “ no talking
or smoking, lend off in single file, cov­
ering party first."
This covering purty consisted of SO
men. urmed with rifles, bayonets,
bomb*, nnd two Lewis mr *'lne guns.
They were to protect us ami guard
against a surprise attack while dig­
ging In No Man's Land.
The communication trench
was
about half a mile long, a zigzagging
ditch, eight feet deup and three feet
wide.
Now and again. German shrapnel
would whistle overhead and hurst In
our vicinity. W e would crouch against
the earthen walls while the shell frag­
ments "slapped" the ground above us.
Once Fritz turned loose with a ma­
chine gun. the bullets from which
“ cracked” through the air ami kicked
tip the dirt on the top, scattering sand
and lobbies, which, hitting our steel
helmets, sounded like hailstones.
Upon arrival In the lire trench an
officer o f the Royal Engineers gave us
our Instructions und acted as guide.
We were to dig an advanced trench
two hundred yards from the Germnns
(the trenches at this point were six
hundred yards apart).
Two winding lanes, five feet wide,
hnd been cut through our barbed wire.
hut, at the time, didn’t notice It; my
Journey was loo urgent.
When the roll was culled we found
that we hud gotten It In the nose for
casualties.
Our artillery put n barrage on Frits’
front line and communication trenches
and their inuchtue-guii and rifle lire
suddenly ceased.
Upon the cessation o f this Are,
stretcher bearers went out to look for
killed and wounded.
Next day we
learned that 21 of our men had been
killed und 117 wounded. Five men were
missing; lost In the darkness, they
must have wandered over Into the Ger­
man Hues, where they were either
killed or raptured.
Speaking o f stretcher benrers and
wounded. It Is very hard for the aver­
age civilian to comprehend the euor-
inotis cost of taking care o f wounded
and the war In general. He or she gets
so accustomed to seeing billions of dol­
lars In print thut the elgnlflrtinee of
the amount Is passed over without
thought.
From an official statement published
In one of the London papers. It Is
stated that It costs between six and
seven thnusund pounds ($.10,000 to $85,-
(MM)) to kill or wound ii soldier. This
result was attained by taking the cost
of the war to date and dividing It by
the killed mid wounded.
It may sound heartless und Inhuman,
hut It Is a fact, nevertheless, that from
a military standpoint It Is better for a
man to he killed than wounded.
Empey tells of many ways the
soldier« have of amusing them-
selves, In the next installment.
CHAPTER
X I I I — Continued.
The woolen underwear Issued was
itching like the mischief.
— 9—
We lined up in front of the baths,
A fter eating our dinner of stew,
soaked with perspiration, and piled which had been kept for us— it was
our rifles into stacks. A sergeant of now four o’clock— we went luto the
the R. A. M. C. with • yeliow band creek and had unotber bath.
around his left arm on which was
I f “ Holy Joe” could have henrd our
“ S. P.” (sanitary police) in black let­ remarks about the divisional baths
ters, took charge, ordering us to take and army red tape he would have
off our equipment, unroll our puttees fainted at our wickedness. But Tom­
and unlace boots. Then, starting from my is only human after all.
the right o f the line, he divided us I I Just mentioned “ Holy Joe” or the
into squads of fifteen. I happened to chuplaln in un irreverent sort o f way.
be in the first squad.
but no offense was meant, us there
We entered a small room, where we were some very brave men among
were given five minutes, to undress, them.
then filed into the bathroom. In here j
There are so many instances o f he­
there were fifteen tubs (barrels sawed roic deeds performed under fire in res­
in two) half full o f water. Each tub cuing the wounded thut it would tuke
contained a piece o f laundry soap. The several books to chronicle them, but 1
sergeant informed us that we had Just have to mention one Instance per­
twelve minutes in which to take our formed by a chaplain. Captain Hall by
baths. Soaping ourselves all over, we name, in the brigade on our left, be­
took turns in rubbing each other’s cause it particularly appealed to me.
bocks, then by means of a garden hose,
A chaplain is not u fighting m an; he
washed the soap off. The water was is recognized as a noncombatant and
ice cold, but felt fine.
carries no arms. In a charge or trench
Pretty soon a bell rang and the wa­ raid the soldier g its a feeling o f con­
ter was turned off. Some of the slower fidence from contact with his rifle, re­
ones were covered with soap, but this volver, or bomb he is carrying. He has
mnde no difference to the sergeant, something to protect himself with,
who chased us into another room, something with which he cun Inflict
where we lined up in front of a little harm on the enemy— in other words,
window, resembling the box office In a he is able to get his own back.
theater, and received clean underwear
But the chaplain is empty-handed,
and Is at the mercy o f the enemy if
he encounters them, so it is doubly
brave for him to go over the top, under
fire, and bring in wounded. Also a
chaplain is not required by the king’s
regulations to go over in u charge, but
this one did, made three trips under
the hottest kind of fire, each time re­
turning with a wounded man on his
back. On the third trip he received
a bullet through his left arm, but never
reported the matter to the doctor until
late that night— Just spent his time ad­
ministering to the wants of the wound­
ed lying on stretchers.
The chaplains o f the British army
are a fine, manly set of men, and are
greatly respected by Tommy.
C H APTE R XIV.
A Bathroom at the Front.
and towels. From here we went Into
the room where we had first undressed.
Ten minutes were allowed in which to
get into our “ clabber.”
My pair of drawers came up to my
chin and the shirt barely reached my
diaphragm, but they were clean— no
strangers on them, so I was satisfied.
A t the expiration o f the time allot­
ted we were turned out and finished
our dressing on the gruss.
When all of the company had bathed
It was a case o f march back to billets.
That march was the most uncongenial
one imagined. Just cussing and blind­
ing all the way. We were covered with
white dust and felt greasy from sweat.
Picks and Shovels.
I had not slept long before the sweet
voice of the sergeant informed that
"No. 1 section had clicked for another
blinking digging party.” I smiled to
myself with deep satisfaction. I had
been promoted from a mere digger to
a member of the Suicide club, and was
exempt from all fatigues. Then came
an awful shock. The sergeant looked
over In my »’ irection and said :
“ Don’t you bomb throwers think you
are wearing top hats out here. ’Cord­
in’ to orders you've been taken up on
the strength o f this section, and will
have to do your bit with the pick and
shovel, same ns the rest o f us.”
I put up a howl on my wuy to get
my shovel, but the only thing thnt re­
sulted was a loss o f good humor on
my part.
We fell in at eight o’clock, outside
o f our billets, a sort o f masquerade
party. I was disguised as a common
laborer, had a ftlek and shovel, and
about one hundred empty sandbags.
The rest, about two hundred In all,
were equipped likewise: picks, shovels,
sandbags, rifles and ammunition.
The party moved out in column of
fours, taking the road leading to the
trenches.
Several times we had to
string out in the ditch to let long col­
umns o f limbers, artillery and supplies
get past.
The marching, under these condi­
tions, was necessarily slow. Upon ar­
rival at the entrance to the communi­
cation trench, I looked at my illumi-
(TO UK C O N T I N U E D )
IRREPARABLE LOSS TO WORLD
Literary Treasures Destroyed by the
Huns at Louvain Can Never
Be Replaced.
No reparation can restore to the
world the galleries where Charles V.,
ruler of almost nil Europe, pored over
old learning, asserts the Toronto Mnll
nnd Empire. There Is no way to re­
place the 250,000 manuscripts which
went up In smoke and ashes on Aug.
27, 1014.
Mankind Is permanently
poorer by the destruction of complete
sets o f nil sixteenth century editions
o f Virgil, nineteen sixteenth-century
editions of Terrence, ten of Sallust,
complete sixteenth-century editions of
Tncltus. Seneca. Martial, Ovid. Horace,
Juvenal. Livy, Lucretius, Lucian, Cic­
ero nnd Caesar. Rare copies of Arte-
totle nnd the Imperishable Greeks nr#
lost forever; priceless early Bibles,
whole libraries of ecclesinstlcul history
nnd civil laws, texts Illuminated and
initialed nnd bordered by the imtlent
labor o f Spanish, fl-rmnn nml Lowland
monks. “ Here was the truth regard­
ing the Spanish Conquest and the grip
o f the Inquisition.” There were math­
ematical treasures also.
Trench Digging.
for the passage of the diggers. From
these lines white tape hud been laid
on the ground to the point where we
were to commence work. This In or­
der thut we would not get lost In the
darkness. The proposed trench wus
also laid out with tape.
The covering purty went out first.
A fter a short wait, two scouts came
back with information that the work­
ing party was to follow und “ carry on”
with their work.
In extended order, two yards apart,
we noiselessly cr-pt across No Mun’s
Land. It wus nervous w ork; every
minute we expected a machine gun to
open lire on us. Stray bullets "cracked”
around us, or a ricochet sang over­
head.
Arriving at the taped diagram of
the trench, rifles slung around our
shoulders, we lost no time in getting
to work. We dug as quietly us pos­
sible but every now and then the noise
of a pick or shovel striking a stone
would send the cold shivers down our
bucks. Under our breaths we heurtily
: cursed the offending Tommy.
At intervals a star shell would go up
!
from the German lines and we would
remain motionless until the glare of its
white light died out.
When the trench had reached a
depth of two feet we felt sufer, be­
cause It would afford us cover in case
we were discovered and fired on.
The digging had been in progress
about two hours, when suddenly hell
seemed to break loose In the form of
machine-gun and rifle fire.
W e dropped flown on our bellies In
the shallow trench, bullets knocking
up the ground and snapping In the air.
Then shrapnel hutted In. The music
was hot and Tommy danced.
The covering party was having a
rough time of it; they hnd no cover;
Just had to take their medicine.
Word was passed down the line to
beut It for our trenches. We needed no
urging; grubbing our tools nnd stoop­
ing low, we legged it across No Man’s
Land. The covering party got awny
to a poor stnrt but bent us in. They
must have had wings because we low­
ered the record.
Banting and out of breath, we tum­
bled Into our front-line trench. I tore
my bunds getting through our wire,
t
BUILDING
BUILDING OF GOOD HIGHWAYS
Federal Aid Road Act Exerts Impor­
tant Influence on Legislation
In Many 8tatee.
(Prepared by th» United Wat*» Drpart-
ment o f Agriculture.)
Federal-aid road projects, unques­
tionably, are ready for construction In
every stale this year. Under the fed­
eral-aid road act of 1916 every stale
« In the Union Is now In u position to
j Co-operate with the federal govern­
ment in the building of highways.
Results o f far-reaehtiig importance
and of even greater potential value
than the appropriation o f federal
funds have already been accomplished
by the federal act. Among the liiipres-
Hive results Is the establishment out­
right of state highway depart meats In
Dclnware, Mouth Carolina, Texas, In­
diana and Nevada and the strength­
ening o f other alate highway depart­
ments so us to remove all queMlon as
to the 1U states which were not quali­
fied to obtain federal co-operation at
the time o f the passage o f the federal
act.
In the past winter more const mo­
tive state highway legislation has been
placed
statute hooks than has
ever been enacted In any aimMtir
period since the American republic
was founded.
The conditions laid
down by the federal act as necessary
to participate In its benefits operated
powerfully to bring about the estab­
lishment and strengthening o f state
highway departments, the placing o f
a vast amount o f road construction
ander skilled supervision, the sys­
tematizing nnd correlation o f road
------•---------------
First Irish Coaching Company.
In 1815, on Italian, named Binncont,
started the first coaching company to
Ireland, running long cars over vurl- ‘
ous regular routes. Long cars soon
became the safest r.nd most reliable
means of traveling over Ireland, nnd Getting Road Levels Preparatory to
Blunconl turned rich nnd prosperous.
Improving Highways.
Writing In or about 1842, Mr. und Mrs.
Hall, who have written much o f Ire­ work eo as to provide the Improve­
land, tell us !l :-t “ persons of the Jilgh- ments most needed to meet trattle re­
est respectability" used the long cure quirements, the creation «if large funds
for traveling. At this time, although for construction nnd maintenance nnd
these cars passed through 128 towns, the establishment In many stntes of
they hnd rot made Uit!r way into the definite provisions insuring mainte­
north o f Ireland. The earn varied con­ nance of hlghwuys from the date of
siderably in size, requiring from one to their completion.
The working season o f 11)17 marked
tour horses. Tl.e fn v . even over the
rockiest roads In the West, was two­ the opening o f actual construction
pence farthing a mile. The ¡.’ alls cure-, work under the terms o f the post-road
fully explain that p-.ss- ngers were pro- provision of the federal act, ns neces­
vlded with "dry and torn (or; able horse­ sary legislative and administrative
hair cushions and apron«" und thut. in work made It Impracticable to get
wet weather, the long cars never Jour­ construction projects under way cur­
neyed more than two atuges without lier. On January 81, 11*18, the secre­
tary o f agriculture had approved 258
changing the cushions.
Individual projects, aggregating 2,840-
.48 miles nnd cnlllng for an expendi­
Eucalyptus Valuable Tree.
Eucalyptus will grow under mony ture from federal funds o f $7,824,-
adven e conditions, so long ns they are 721.72, nnd from state and local funds
protected from frost. The young tree» ' of $0,017,148.70, making a total of $17,-
cannot stand frost, nnd this fact lias 241,865.42. These projects represent­
restricted the growth o f the specie* ed applications from 4-1 stntes.
to certain favorable sections o f Call-1
fornln and the Southwest. On the CULVERT OF BEST MATERIAL
other hand, the trees will thrive on
very poor soil nnd they do not require Worse Than Folly to Uee Boards to
very much attention.
Some o f the
Take Care of Roads Th a t Have
largest commercial plantations, main­
Cost Much Money.
tained by railroad companies for fle-
mnklng purposes, are located along the
I f the culverts are not built o f good
shores o f the Pnclflc ocean near Snn material they will have to he rebuilt
Diego, where their principal moisture In a few years, whatever the quality
comes from the heavy fogs thnt roll In o f the ronds they are made to serve.
from the sea, and which are absorbed Defective culverts vitiate one o f the
by the leaves.
elementary principles of highway eco­
----------- ------
r
-------- —
Spoiled the Good Thing.
Bobby hnd n bad habit of wuklng up
In the middle o f the n’ ght nnd crying
dismally until one of his parents would
walk him to sleep ngnln. One night
Bobbie begnn to cry nnd his mother
snld to her husband: “ Dear, you'd
better walk the baby.” Father grum­
bled nnd baby howled and finally
spoke up sobblngly: “ Yes, dear; I fink
you hnd better wnlk the baby.” A fter
this bis hublt was no longer Indulged.
nomics, and the Interests o f the tax­
payers require thnt the nnnunl cost
o f every part o f the roads built for
their use be reduced to the lowest pos­
sible figure consistent with efficiency.
Manifestly, It would be worse than
folly to build culverts o f boards to
tnke care of roads thnt have cost hun­
dreds or thousands o f dollars the mile,
and It would he none the less foolish,
or worse, to wnste money In work of
tJUs sort with the use o f had material.