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About The Coquille Valley sentinel and the Coquille herald. (Coquille, Coos County, Or.) 1917-1921 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1918)
and the worms. Several o f the sec tion stayed and decorated the grave with white atones. - That sight. In the light o f a lonely candle la the machine gunner's dugout o f the front-Une trench I wrote two letters. One to Mete’s mother, the tther to his sweetheart While doing -We I cursed the Prussian war god with all my heart and I think that 8t. Peter noted some. The machine gunners in the dugout were laughing and Joking. To them Pete was unknown. Pretty/sooa. In the warmth of their merriment, my blues Usoppcared. One soon forgets on the western fron t and tbo pintoon non. always wipe out ■quarter" got his Job r Just u It bsgin* to get dark the word “stand to“ la pasosd from trnv. o n e to traverse, aad the maa gat boar. The drat roUof, consisting o t two maa to a traverse, mount the O n a t«», one man looking ever the tog, while the other rite at Ida teat,* ready to carry aiamagm or to Inform the platoon offl- ear o f any report made by the aentry aa to Uo observations in Mo Man’s Land. The oaatry la not allowed to relax his watch for a second. I f be la questioned from the trench or aaked his orders, be replies without turning around or taking bis ayaa from the *x- > panae o f dirt In front of him. The re The Little Wooden Cross. mainder o f tbo occupants of bis trav A fter remaining In rest billets for erse either alt on the flro step, with eight days, wa recalved the unwelcome bayonets fixed, reedy for any emer tidings that the next morning wo would gency, or If lacky, and a dugout hap "go In" to "take over." At six In the pens to be In the near vicinity o f tbo morning our march started and, after traverse, and If the night la quiet, they are permitted to go to same and try again arrived at reserve billets. aad snatch a few wiaks o f sleep. Little I was Mo. l in the loading set of sleeping la done; generally the men alt four*. The man on my left was named around, smoking fags and seeing who "Pete W alling," a cheery sort of fel low. Ho laughed and Joked all the aronnd curiously. Over the door of can tell the biggest Ua. Home of them, way on the march, buoying up my ««m e was a little sign reading "Sn!: perhaps with their feet la water, would drooping spirits. I could not figure out ride Annex." One of the boys told write home ay- oathUlpg with the anything attractive In again occupying me that this particular front trench "governor” bee; ,e he was laid up the front lloe, but Pete did not seem to wos called "Buiride Ditch.” Later on with a cold, contracted by getting his mind, mid It was all In a lifetime. My I - learned that machine gunners and feet wet on bis way to work la Wool* left bed was blistered from the rub bomiiera are known aa the "Suicide wlch araonal. I f a man should manage to dose off. likely aa not he would wake bing o f my heavy marching boot. Pete Club.” notice1 that I waa limping and offered That dugout waa muddy. Tha men with a start aa the clammy, cold feet to enrry my rifle, but by this tftne I had slept In mud, washed In mud, ate mud, of a rat passed over his face, or the learned ¿he ethics of the march In the and dreamed mud. I had never before next relief stepped on his stomach British army and courteously refused realised that so much discomfort and while stumbling on their way to relievo misery could be contained In those the sentries In the trench. his offer. Just try to sleep with a halt full of We had gotten balf-way through the three little letters, M C D. The floor communication trench, Pete in my Im o f the dugout was an inch deep In ammunition around you, your rifle bolt mediate rear. He had his hand on my wat?r. Outside It was raining cats and biting into your riba, Intrenching tool shoulder, as men In a communication dogs, and thin rivulets were trickling handle sticking Into the small o f your trench have to do to keep In touch with down the steps. From the air shaft back, with a tin hat for a pillow and feeling very damp and oold, with With his borrowed Jackknife, the each other. We had Just cHmbed over "cooties” boring for oil la your arm «•»petal opened the tin o f biscuits, and a bashed-ln part o f the trench when . told everyone to help themselves—no in our rear a man tripped over a loose ; eight feet wide, ten feet long and six pits, the air foul from tha stench of grimy human bodies aad mi oka from a body responded to this Invitation. Juicy pipe being whiffed Into your nos Tommy Is “fed op” with biscuit*. trils, then you will not wonder why “Butter, tins, two." Tommy occasionally takes a turn In "N ias in one, ten In the other." the trench for a root While In a front-line trench orders ‘ Tickles, mustard, bottfss. one.” forbid Tommy from removing his Nineteen names were put la a steel boots, puttees, clothing or equipment helmet, the last one eat winning the pickles. On the next Issue there were The "cooties" take advantage of this only 18 names, as the wtaaer Is elimi order and mobilise their forces, aad nated until every man In the section has won a bottle. mutters to himself, “Just watt until I hit rest billets and am able to get my The raflte Is closely watched, because own back." Tommy Is suspicious when It comae to gambling with his rations. Just before daylight the man “turn to” and tumble out of the dugout*, man the lira step until it gats ligh t or the kneel down to get his words. Then he 1 jn n reflector made from an aramunl- welcome order “stand down" Is given. gavs me a message to write home to tlon tin. My teeth were chattering Sometimes before “stand down” la or his mother and his sweetheart and L from the cold, and the drip from the dered, the command “ five rounds rap like a great Mg boob, cried like a baby, alrshnft did not help matters much. id” is passed along the trench. This I w a a losing my Aral friend of the While I was sitting bemoaning my trra(* eA fate and wishing for the fireside at rifle on foe top and fire as rapidly as tsw u A m in - —- Word was passed to the rear for a home, the fellow next to me, who was possible five shots aimed toward tbo stretcher. He died before It arrived, writing a letter, looked up and Inno- German trenches, and then dock (with My thoughts generally ran In tMa Two a f us put foe body on foe cently asked, “ Say, Tank, bow de you the emphasis on the “duck” ). There Is chanosl: stretcher and carried It to the nearest iprii ‘conflagration’ r a great rivalry between foe opposing1 W ill I emerge safely from tha neat first-aid post where the doctor took j looked at him In contempt and an- forces to get foolr rapid Are all off attack 1 I f I do w ill I skin through tbo an official record o f Pete’s name, tram- twered that I did not know, first, because the early bird, in this in j following one, and so onT While your her, rank and regiment from his Wen- From the darkness tat one of the cor- stance, catches foe worm—sort o f goto mind la wandering Into the future It foe Jump on the other fellow, catching la likely to be rudely brought to earth him unawares. ' by a Tommy Interrupting with, "What** When bo goes into the flro trench We had a sergeant In our battalion good fo r rheumatism!” (front line), Tomm y* mean take* n named Warren. He waa on duty with Then you have something also to tumble. He Carrie« in his haversack hU platoon In the lira trsnob one after- think of. W ill JW u ~ cuum out o f this what the government calls emergency — ■ war crippled and tied Into knots with nr Iron rations, f f t y are not supposed rheumatism, ceased J>y foe wet and boys of onr section, myself Included, to be opened until Tommy die«-of star mud of trenches and dugouta! Too went to the little ruined village In foe vation. They consist o f One tin of gtva It up as a bad Job aad generally rear and from the deeerted gardens of bully beef; four biscuits, a little tin saunter near to the nearest eetamlnet which contains ten, sugar and Oxo the French chateaux gathered grass to drown your moody forebodings In n cubes (concentrated beef tablets). and flowers. From these wo made a gins« of sickening French beer or to wreath. Them are only to bo used when foe »■, try your lurk at tha always present While foe hoys were making this enemy establishes s curtain o f shell |j game of "house.” You enn heiir the wreath, I sat under a shot-scarred flro on the communication trenches, sing-song voice of a Tommy droning thus preventing foe "carrying In” of apple tree and carved out the follow out the numbers ns he extracts the ra tio «, or when In an attack n body ing verses on n little wooden shield mfeml ll,,|p s<l'isre* of rardbonrd from the which we nailed on Pete’s cross. 3 True to bis Ood: tone to Britain. Rest, yon soldier, met* so true; Never forgotten by ua below; Know that we are thinking of you. Next morning the whole section went over to say good-by to Pete, and laid him sway to rest After each one had a look at foe fore of foe deed, a corporal o f the R. A. M. C. sewed op the remains In a blan ket Then pis ring two heavy ropes across the stretcher Jt# be used In low ering the body Into the grave), we lift ed Pete onto the stretcher, snd rev erently covered him with s large union Jack, the flag be hud died for. The chaplain led the way. then came the officers o f the section, followed by two of the men carrying a wreath, im mediately after came poor Pet* on the flag-draped stretcher, carried by four soldiers. I eras one o f the four. Be hind the stretcher. In column of fours, came the remainder of the section. To get to the cemetery, we had to pass through the little shell-destroyed village, where troops was« hurrytef to and fro. . A* foe funeral procession passed these troops came to the “ attention” and smartly sainted the dead. Poor Pets wss receiving the only sa lute a private la entitled to “ some where In France." would stop to cough, cough, cough, but It waa a gaud Illustration of Tommy’s cheerfulness nn<l«-r such conditions. A machine-gun officer entered the dugout and guv* me a hard look. I sneaked past him, sliding and dipping, and reached my section o f the front- Una trench, where I waa greeted by foe serges who asked me, “Where In -----’ave you been?” * hng between his feet.