Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 277, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1914 — NOISIEST OF WARS [ARTICLE]

NOISIEST OF WARS

It Is Also the MOSt Nearly Invisi- " ble One. •% ■ Many Fall by Shells of Foe That 's Unseen —“Adieu, My Dear Wife; Vive la France,” Last Message of Dying Soldier. - Paris,. France. —A French officer who has been in the battle east of Amiens in France asserts that this is probably the noisiest war the world has ever known. It is also the most nearly invisible war. Many of the first line troops have fought in all the battles from Belgium to the Marne and back to the present position without actually seeing any Germans, save dead or wounded. The men have become so curious to see their enemies that lately, when the trenches are so close that the French soldiers can hear the Germans shouting orders, the French officers have had the greatest difficulty in forcing the men to keep their heads down. The same officer credits the mitrailleuse with being Germany’s deadliest weapon,. Speaking of ordinary artillery he relates how a few days ago a French Infantryman was wading through the mud back to the trench, and eating a pear. A shell burst near by, a piece of it striking the soldier’s haversack and felling him. He was Immediately on his feet again swearing furiously, “Les cochons! They made me lose my pear.” Writes Farewell to Family. Here are stofies of two heroic deaths: The first is simply a letter found in the hands of-a soldier who had just finished writing it when the end came. “I am awaiting help which does not come," the letter ran. “1 pray God to take me, for I suffer atrociously. Adieu, my wife and dear children. Adieu, all my family, whom 1 so loved. I request that whoever finds me will send this letter to Paris to my wife, with the pocketbook which Is in my coat pocket. Gathering my last strength I write this, lying prostrate under the shell fire. Both my legs are broken. My last thoughts are for my children and for thee, my cherished wife and companion of my life, my wife. Vive la France!" .Dies at Head of His Men. When a certain French colopel had walked a short distance ahead of his regiment to examine the German position 500 yards away, which he expected to attack, an orderly handed him a message. As he was reading it a German shell burst near by. The colonel staggered, with his thigh torn and agape and his boot filled with blood. • Officers ran to aid him, but he pushed them away. “Gentlemen,” he said, "I beg you to. stand back. No, not here! Don’t support me. No, no, not before my regiment!” Making a superhuman effort, the colonel, pale as death, staggered toward the awaiting regiment, to which he* managed to, read the text of the order which he had received. Suddenly a second shell burst, decapitating the colonel, who' thus died the death which a Frehch officer prefers above all others —at the head of his men. a.