{ title: 'The Stanford World (Stanford, Mont.) 1909-1920, September 12, 1918, Page 7, Image 7', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about Chronicling America - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053199/1918-09-12/ed-1/seq-7.png', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053199/1918-09-12/ed-1/seq-7.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053199/1918-09-12/ed-1/seq-7/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/sn85053199/1918-09-12/ed-1/seq-7/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
About The Stanford World (Stanford, Mont.) 1909-1920 | View This Issue
The Stanford World (Stanford, Mont.), 12 Sept. 1918, located at <http://montananewspapers.org/lccn/sn85053199/1918-09-12/ed-1/seq-7/>, image provided by MONTANA NEWSPAPERS, Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
DU Albert A.Depe , EX -GUNNER AND CHIEF PETT OFF CE rSz—NAV, MEMBER OF THE FOREIGN LEGION OF FRANCE CAPTAIN GUN TURRET, FRENCH BATTLESHIP ASSARD • WINNER OF THE CROIX DE GUERRE Copsight 1911, by Rely and WadeCo Throah Spacial Areaormara With the Gans f•iambew MOM $1114C• DEPEW GETS HIS FIRST EXPERIENCE IN THE FRONT LINE TRENCHES AT DIXMUDE. Synopsis.—Albert N. Depew, author of the story, tells of his service in the United States navy, during which he attained the rank of chief petty officer, first-class gunner. The world war starts soon after he receives his honorable discharge from the navy, and he leaves for France with a determination to enlist. He joins the Foreign Legion and is assigned to the dreadnaught Cassard, where his marksmanship wins him high honors. Later he is transferred to the land forces and sent to the Flanders front. CHAPTER IV—Continued. —3— In the communication trench you have to keep your distance from the man ahead of you. This is done so that you will have plenty of room to fail down in, and because if a shell shoIld find the trench, there would be fewer casualties in an open•formation than in a closed. The German artil- lery is keen on communication trenches, and whenever they spot one they stay with it a long time. Most of them are camouflaged a1oft-11m top and sides, so that enemy aviators can- not see anything but the earth or tiishes, when they throw an eye down or our lines. We took over our section of the ft..nt line trenches from a French line ,reglinent that had been on the job for 24 - days. That was the longest time I have heard of any troops remaining on the firing line. Conditions at the front and ways of fighting are changing all the time, as each side invents new methods of butchering, so when I try to describe the Dixinude trenches, you must real- ize that it is probably just history by now. If they are still using trenches there they probably look entirely dif- ferent. But when I was at Dizmude they were something like this: Behind the series of front-line trenches are the reserve trenches; in this case five to seven miles away, and still farther hack are the billets. These may be houses or barns or ruined churches—any place that can possibly be used for quartering troops when off duty. Troops were woolly in the front- line ,trenches six to eight days, and fourteen to sixteen days In the reserve trenches. Then back to the billets for six or eight data. Wewere not allowed to change our clothing in the front-line trenches— not even to remove socks, unless for Inspection. Nor would they let you as much as unbutton your shirt, unless there was an inspection of identifica- tion disks. We wore a disk at the wrist and another around the neck. Yon know the gag about the disks, of course: If your arm is blown off they can tell who you are by the neck disk; If your head is blown off, they do not care who you are. In the reserve trenches you can make yourself more comfortable, but you cannot go to such extreme lengths of luxury as changing your clothes en- tirely. That is for billets, where you spend most of your time bathing, changing clothes, sleeping and eating. 'Believe mg, a billet is great stuff; it is like a sort of temporary heaven. Of course you know what the word 'cooties\ means. Let us hope you will never know what the cooties themselves mean. When you get in or near the trenches, you take a course In the natural - history of bugs, lice, rata and every kind of pest that has ever been invented. It is funny to see some of the new- comers when they first discover a cootie on them. Some of them cry. If they really knew what it was going to be like they would do Worse than that, maybe. Then they shirt hunting all over each other, just like monkeys. They team •cip for this purpose, and many times it Is In this way that a couple of men get to be trench partners and come to be pals for life—which may not be a long time at that. In the front-line trenches it is more comfortable to fall asleep on the para- pet fire -step than in the dugouts, be- cause the cooties are thicker down pelow, and they simply,will not give you a minute's rest. Fhey certainly are active little pests. We used to make hack scratchers out of certain weapons that had flexible handles, but never had time to Use them when we beetled them most. We were given bettlett of a liquid which smelled like lysol and were sup- posed to soak our clothes in it. It was thought that the cooties would object to the smell and quit work. Well, a cootie that could stand our clothes twithont the dope on them would not ,re bothered by a little thing like this stuff. Also, our clothes got so sour VW horrible stnellina that they hurt our noses worse than the cooties. They certainly were game little devils, and came right back at us. So most of the Delius threw the dope at Fritz and fought the cooties hand to hand. There was plenty of food in the trenches most of the time, though once in a while, during a heavy bombard- ment, the fatigue—usually a corporal's guard—wonkze_t killed in the com- munication t ches and we would not have time to get tiatltee..tte fatigue and rescue the grub they we bringing. Sometimes you could not find either the fatigue or the grub when you got to the point where they had been hit. But, as I say, we were well fed most of the time, and got second and third helpings until we had to open our belts. But as tise Limeys say: \(law bilmey, the chuck was rough.\ They served a thick soup of meat and vege- tables in bowls the size of wash ba- sins, black coffee with, or without sugar—mostly without !and plenty of bread; Also, we had preserves in tins, just like the Limeys. If you send any par- cels over, do not put any apple and plum jam in them or the man who gets it will let Fritz shoot him. Ask any Limey soldier and he will tell you the same. I never thought there was so much jam in the world. No Man's Land looked like a city dump. Most of us took it, after a while, just to get the bread. Early in the war they used th* tins to make bombs of, but that was before Mills came along with his hand grenade. Later on they flat- tened out the tins and lined the dug- outs with them. Each man carried an emergency ra- tion in his hag. This consisted of bully beef, biscuits, etc. This ration was never used except in a real emergency, because no one could tell when it might mean the difference between life and death to him. When daylight catches a man in a shell hole or at a listening post out in No Man's Land he does not dare to crawl back to his trench before nightfall, and then is the time that his emergency ration comes in handy. Also, the stores failed to reach us sometimes, as I have said, and we had' to use the emergency rations. Sometimes we received raw meat and fried it in our dugouts. We built ---- :'!\ ------ • : -.7:\'\•74.1,,,-..,,,,„ ...-„-:•_..-,-_-- --. _ — 1W \ -- xs:- - .. -- 4-- 4 .... - -\'\•- -- - - -- T- •,i .. _ `•,.., 1U---..Aii- • .-.-.- Noi.. attt! - -..„ - :;s• • - - l 'Alb' ' , .. a, • e, .- i•-• lsz.. : ,- -i- -- •-.. They Potted Huns by Guess Work. regular clay ovens in the dugouts, with iron tops for broiling. This, of course, was in the front-line trenches only. We worked two hours on the fire - step and knocked off for four hours, in which time we cooked and ate and slept. This routine was kept up night and day, seven days a week. Some- times the program was changed; for instance, when there was to be an at- tack or when Fritz Ailed to come over and visit, but othefwise nothing dis- turbed our routine unless it was a gas attack. The ambition of most privates is to become a sniper, as the official sharp- shooters are called. After a private has been in the trenches for six months or a year and has shown his marksmanship, he becomes the great man he has dreamed about. We bad T.I1E,BTANFORD WORLD two snipers to each company and be• cause they took More chances • with ( their lives than the ordinary privates they were allowed more privileges. When it was at all possible our snipers were allowed dry quarters, the best of food, -and they did not have to follow the usual routine, but came and went as they pleased. Our snipers, as a rule, went over the parapet about dusk, just before Fritz got his star shells going. They would crawl out to shell craters or tree stumps or holes that they had spotted during tho day—in other words, places where they could see the enemy parapets but could not be seen themselves. Once in position, they would make themselves comfort- able, smear their tin hats .with dirt, get a good rest for their rifles and snipe every German they saw. They wore extra bandoleers of cartridges, since there was no telling how many rounds they might fire during the night. Sometimes they had direct and visible targets and othrr times they potted Duns by guesswork. Usually they crawled 14pck just before day- light, but sometimes they were out 24 hours at u stretch. They took great pride in the number of Germans they knocked over, and if our men did not get eight or ten they thought they had not done a good night's work. Of course it was not wholesale killing, like machine gunning, but it was very useful, because our snipers were al- ways laying for the German snipers, and when they got Sniper Fritz they saved just so many of our lives. The Limeys have a great little ex- pression that means a lot: \Carry on.\ They say it is a cockney expression. When a captain falls in action, his words are not a message to the girl he left behind him or any dope about his gray-haired mother, but \Carry on, Lieutenant Whosis.\ If the lieutenant gets his it is \Carry on, Sergeant Jacks,\ and so on as far as it goes. So the words used to mean, \Take over the command and do the job right.\ But now they mean not only that but \Keep up your courage, and go to it.\ One man will say it to another sometimes when he thinks the drat man is getting downhearted, but more often, if he is a Limey, he will start kidding him. our men, of course, did not say \Carry on,\ and in fact they did not have any expression in French that meant exactly the same thing. But they used to cheer each other along, all right, and they passed along the command when it was necessary, too. I wonder what expression the Ameri- can troops will use. (You notice I do not call them Sommies!) I took my turn at listening post with . the rest of them, of course. A listen- ing post is any good position out in No Man's Land, and is always held by two men. Their job is to keep a live ear on Fritz and in case they hear any- thing that sounds very much like an attack one man runs back to his lines and the other stays to hold back the Boches as long as he can. You can figure for yourself which is the most healthful job. As many times as I went on listen- ing -post duty I never did get to feel- ing homelike there exactly. You have to lie very still, 'of course, as Fritz is listening, too, and a move may mean a bullet in the ribs. So, lying on the ground with hardly a change of posi- tion, the whole lower part of my body would go to sleep before I had been at the post very long. I used to brag a lot about how fast I could run, so I had my turn as the runner, which suited me all right. But every time I got to a listening post and started to think about what I would do if Fritz should come over and wondered how good a runner he was, I took a long breath and said, \Feet do your duty.\ And I was strong on duty. After I had done my stunt in the front-line and reserve trenches I went back with my company to billets, but had only been there for a day or two before I was detached and detailed to the artillery position to the right of us, where both the British and French had mounted naval suns. There were guns of all calibers there, both naval and field pieces, and I got a good look at the famous \75's which are the best guns in the world, in my estima- tion, and the one thing that saved Verdun. The \75's\ fired 80 shots a minute, where the best the German guns could do - was six. The American three-inch field piece lets go six times a minute, too. The French government owns the secret of the mechanism that made this rapid fire possible. When the first !-\75's\ began to roar, the Girmans knew the French had found a new weapon, so they were very anxious to get one of the guns and .learn the secret. Shortly afterward they captured eight guns by a maiss attack in which;' the allies claim, there were 4,000 Ger- man troops killed. The Boches studied the guns and tried to turn out Metes like them at the Krupp factory. But somehow they could not get it. Their Imitation \75's\ would only fire five shots very rapidly and then \cough\— puff, puff, puff, with nothing coming out. The destructive power of the '75's\ is enormous. These guns have saved the lives of thousands of pollus and Tommie s and it is largely due to them that the French are now able to beat Fritz at his own game and give back shell for shell—and then some. CHAPTER V. With the '15's.\ My pal Brown, of whom I spoke be- fore, had been put in the infantry When he enlisted In the Legion, be- cause he had served In the United States infantry. He soon became a tiergeant, which had been his rating In the American service. I never saw • -- bun in the trenches, because our out. fits were where near each other, bet Whenev we were in billets at the same time, we were together as much as B pe ro s w a n ibi :: : as a funny card and I never saw anYtao. else much like him. A big, tall, red-headed, dopey -looking fel- low, never saying much and slow in everything he did or said—you would never thir.k he amounted to much or was worli his salt. The boys Inked to call him \ilitiger\ Brown, both on ac- count of his red hair and his slow movement , . But he would pull a sur- prise on you every once in a while, like this one that he fooled me with. ,One no•riting about dawn we started out for a' walk through what used to be Diximsle—plies of stone anti brick and mortar. There were no civvies to be seen; only mules and horses bring- ing up casks of water, bags of beans, chloride of lime, barbed wire, ammu- nition. etc. It was a good thing we were not superstitious. At that, the shadows along the , walls made me feel shaky sometimes. Finally Brown said: .\Come on down; let's see the '75's.'\ At this time I had not seen a '15,\ except on a train going to the front, so I took him up right away, but was surprised that he should know where they were. After going half way around Dix- mude Brown said, \Here we are,\ and started right into what was left of a big house. I kept wondering how he would know so much about it, but fol. We Started Right into What Was Left of a Big House. Jewel him. Inside the house was a passligeway under the ruins. It Was about seven feet wide and fifty feet long, I should judge. At the other end was the great old \75 poking Its nose out of a hole in the wall. The gun captain and the crew were sitting around waiting the word for action, and they seemed to know Brown well. I was surprised at that, but still more so when ho told me I could examine the gun if wanted to, just as if he owned it. So I sat in the seat and trained the cross wires on an object, opened and closed the breech and examined the recoil. Then Brown said: \Well Chink, you'll see some real gunnery now,\ and they passed the word and took sta. Bons. My eyes bulged out when I saw Brown take his station with them I \Silence!\ is about the first com. mond a gun crew gets when it is going Into action, hut I forgot all about it, and shouted out and asked Brown how he got to be a gunner. But he only grinned and looked dopey, as usual. Then I came to and expected to get a call down from the officer, but he only grinned and so did the crew. II seems they had it all framed to spring on me, and they expected I would be surprised. So we put cotton in our ears pod the captain called the observation tower a short distance away and they gave him the range. Then the captain \called 4128 meters\ to Brown. They placed the nose of a shell in a fuse adjuster and turned the handle until it reached scale 4128. This set the fuse to explode at the range given. Then they *dammed the shell into the breech, locked it shut and Brown sent his best to Fritz. The barrel slipped back, threw out the shell case at our feet and returned over a cushion of grease. Then we received the results by telephone from the observation tower. After he had fired twelve shots the captain said tc Brown, \You should never waste your. .elf in infantry, en.\ And old dopey Brown just stood there and grinned That was Brown every time. ID knew about more things than you could. think of. . He had read about gunnery and fooled around at Dixmude untt they let him play with the \75's ant finally here he was, giving his kindest to old Fritz with the rest of them. Members of •the Foreign Le- gion, all soldiers of fortune, swear vengeance when they see the Germans place Belgian wom- en and children in front of them as shields against the enemy's Ilre. Gunner Depew tells about this in the next installment. (TO BE CONTINUED.) She Won't Believe It. A man may he a hopeless idiot, but If he admires a woman you can't con- vince her that he Is crazy. Trinidad is Increasing its petroleum production, the output last year being ;amnia 511.000.000 \Clone. PRESERVATION OF GOOD SILAGE DEPENDS LARGELY UPON PACKING TO EXCLUDE AIR , Afr. 01 K . , < SAVING ALL OF CORN (Prepared by the United States Depart- me nt of agriculture.) Cut corn for silage when the kernels have - passed the milk stage and tiro be- tiltuting to dent. At this period the greatest amount of food inuterial can be obtained and the best quality of silage made. The cutter should be adjusted to cut the corn In short lengths, with three - fourths of nn Incit as the maximum length. him general the liner 1110 1 . 0111 - der is ('lit the more easily and more compactly It can be pocked nod in consequence the better the quality of the silage. Thorough Packing Necessary. Too tench stress C111111ilt 1111 laid upon the nect•ssity of thoroughlY in t'k I rig Iii,' fodder iii the silo so us to exclude 1114. 2111' as tomeh rig possible. It is upon Ilds ) thing tint( the keeping Of silage largely depends. A deviee ennsisting of 11 JOIlli011 Ilipr. ii- collie rarilltiO11 Of it, IlttlICIIP11 to 1110 top of the blower pipe is itt present In its,. for dintributing the cut corn fod- der 111 the silo. By Um use of this distributor it Is possible for yaw mon to scatter the cut corn evenly and tit the same Mae to tramp it. Without the use of this device it is necessary to have at least one extra man In tho silo to fork the ninterlal over so that It is evenly packed. Besides the NOV- Ing of one man's labor, the distributor ivaYNOITS Milk and inl`k products are tho best human foods known. • • • COWS 111U8t 11/1VO shade during the heat of the tiny in mummer. • • • A good dairyman does not keep COWS; he makes his cows keep Min. • • • Diarrhea is the moat common form of calf troubles met with in hand -raised calves. ' • • • All good dairy cows should be given A name and every cow should know her name. • • • The palls used In feeding calves must he kept strictly clean and used for no other purpose. • • • The nerd of this country is not so Much more cows as it IS better cows, more properly fed and cared for. • • • Milk and milk products should he more widely used on all our farms during this period of our nation's food shortage. • • • Cream spoils when it gets warm. Market or ship cream three timed a week In hot weather and twice a week In winter. • • Much skim milk which formerly went to the feeding of calves, pigs and chickens must now be utilized for hu- man food. • • • Constant vigilance Di the price of healthy calves, and tho feeder must al- ways be on the lt,okout for conditions of scouring. • • • Where one has a number of cows and considerable dairy products to market some kind of refrigeration siii be indispensable. • • • . It is not renaonablo to expect profit- able returns from cows in warm weath- er when they must stitnd in the hot sun and fight flies nil day. • • • Great care should be taken in wash- ing the milk palls. These should be thoroughty scalded with boiling water, or sterilized with steam if possible. •-• • • One of the easiest ways in which to improve the egg production in most flocks is by breeding to strong, vigor- ous males from winter -laying strains. • • • Nearly all calf disorders are caused either directly or indirectly by lack of cleanliness, and clean condition* con - BMW(' the best preventive of disease in the calf herd. • The most critical periods in the life of the young calf are at the age of four to six weeks, when the feed Is changed from whole to skim milk, and six to ten weeks, when the calf is be- ginning to eat grain and hay. CROP BY SILO METHOD. does nway with the imisunce of having the loose material flying around, thus annoying the 111/111 Ii, till` silo, and OHO lessens danger of being struck by SISIIO foreign object that may havo passed through the hlower. Add Water at Cutting Time. Oftentimes the corn fodder is so dry 11110111 is (Alt 11111t it is necessary Ii, add water to make up for the de- tiviency itt 11111istore and provide for the proper pocking 1.1' the silo. This %voter is most 1A1s11S' 1111111.11 to the blower when the corn is being cut, sued it Is Iasi) 11101A. ilioro111;illy 111114,11 With tilt' 111111/.11711 in this wity. Por Ilte top Inyer of the silo it Is goad pritetive to use heavy green stalks from wind' the unrs lerte been re- mo‘tal. This forms ii litat‘y layer that packs well and lit the saute Dine tain- t 111S 11 St1111110'1111 1 / 1 1111t Or food mate- t•ital SO I ilat Iii'' 1111011111111 IOSS Is MIS - 111111441 if it spoils. N'ttrittos methods mid materials have I .teen ir-•••tl for city - snug iii,' (111. 1.1 prevent Its spollillg. No:11. his go xlc.,111111,1•• sat kftietimi, bat the olo' 111 , 1111/SINI /11s/VO IOIS given its good results 1114 1111y, 1•SIII4'elaily W111.11 1110 top Myer Blot -mighty wet down and !tucked firmly by tramping. The twat prac- tice is to- e0111111011114-fevtling OS SO011 115 1111. silo is tilled, In which case there will be no loss of sling,. through decay. GUARD STOCK FROM POISONS In Many instances Loss of Cattle and SIKep Could Have Been Pre- vented by Precaution. (Prepared by the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture.) Many sheep and cattle are lost from eating poisonous plunk mid ether ma- teriel. In mummy instances it little fore- sight on the part of the owner would have prevented losses. To cite one specific plant. mind stockmen in the eastern part of the country know that laurel is poisonous, and yet they will posture their animals in a woodland pasture in spite of the fact that laurel abounds. Sometimes a few, fit other times many, anininla are poisoned. • Other poisonous plants abound In both the enatern pastures and the western grazing lands, ninny of which aro definitely known,end easily recog- nized. A little precaution through fent , ing and selecting pnatures would ma- terially reduce the deaths due to plant poisoning. Larkepur, lupine, water hemlock, darnel grass, wild cherry, loco, white snitke root, wilted sorghulti and oak brush (Mimicry oak) are the more common plania which exact a heavy toll. Inorganic poisoning of farm stock Iii also far from being of mitre occurrence. Common salt is definitely known to be very poisonous to hogs and chickens in comparatively snminll quantities. Soup powder in swill line been the cause of death of swine. Antiseptic tablets and rat poisons also have caused deaths among farm anlinnis. Patent rat pastes, anti even fireworks, have been eaten by fowls, which died later from the effects of phosphorus poisoning. •••• • ..... • • ••• OOOOO ••••••• • SUPPLY OF SEED CORN • • • • • • • • • • • • • (Prepared by the United States De- partment of Agriculture.) When corn ripens drop all ()fli- er business nnil Select nun nburel- ant supply of seed corn from the standing stalks. The proc- ess is too important to be con- ducted Incidentally while husk- ing. When selecting seed corn give the process your entire at- tention. Get the very best that is to be had and preserve It • • well, nnd your increased yields • will return yott niore profit than • • filly other work you can do out • your farm. • • • • .....................•s... • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Weeds In Wheat Field. Two of the most prevalent annual weeds in spring -wheat fields are the, wild mustard and the wild oats. Thefirj Weeds are enabled to exist bectittiC they mature seeds which scatter and reinfest the land before the wheat is ready to harvest. it Block Floors for ,Barns.si- li Creosoted wood block floor44*,ii among the effective modern improve- ments in sanitary feed and dairy barns, stables and hog houses.
