Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1916 — PAINTS WAR HORROR [ARTICLE]

PAINTS WAR HORROR

"Death Stalks Everywhere,* Writes Bernhard Kellermann. - —T. , t « Men Only Parts... In Great Machine— All the Time Their Thought Are X of Home, but They Do Not — Butyr-"" - Berlin. —Bernhard Kellennann, well known German novelist and correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt who became seriously ill while in the trenches in France in December, now has recovered and is back on the western front His first contribution since his Illness is i graphic word, picture of war conditions now existing on the western front: "Along the whole front of hundreds of kilometers extending rrom the* North sea to Switzerlandthetalthful are in their trenches,” he writes. "They are there day and night and at this very moment. “Up in Flanders the water reaches to the knees. The pumps are working, but the water does not subside. Despite concrete, beams and sandbags., tlje trenches dally collapse and the sandbags have to be replaced again and again with much labor. If they' leave the trenches the soldiers have to wade in water. In the Champagne region the mad is ankle deep, also in' the Argonne. Here, too, the pumps are working to free the country off the water. “In mud and water, behind the sand ! bags, thesoldier stands with his gua 1 in the ndfrow labyrinth of trenches. Thousands of men are doing this, fron?> the coast where the wintry sea rolls* on the beach to Switzerland, where! Alps rise to the sky. Day andj night they stand, a few feet apart, aadt da/ and night the machine gunsspout and rend out their deadly fire. In damp inclosures are .the reserves, ready at a moment’s notice to spring, to thqjr guns and charge If need be.. The water keeps trickling from the walls of the trenches. There is deep silence among the men; they are thinking of home. As long as they stand at their guns, in muddy uniforms and boots, they do not think, but as soon as a few hours’ rest comes then they think of home and family. "Remnants of burst shells, rain wa» ter, barbed wire and bodies that have lain out there for weeks, and over there the enemy’s trenches, that is all the men tee.- That is their entire world. It is always the same—a monotony to drive men mad. Thousands of fine, healthy men who could be doing good work are thus engaged, "Death is doing a fine business here. The rats, too, fron -wrecked French villages hear by, are adding tc the troubles of the men n the trenches. Added to this is the horrifying shrieks and cry of the ravens. The war is without mercy. “And here death stalks everywhere. The rifle bullets, the shells and the hand grenades—all do their deadly work. Officers and men all feel the hand of death upon them. Even in tte tired soldier- seek a rest, in the woods, in the air or under the earth, everywhere is death. There is no safe place here. “This girdle of death extends throrgh France, Belgium and Alsace, and there are particular spots where hell breaks loose. Now 't is at Ypres, then at Souchez and Vimy, then in the Champagne reg’on or the Argonne. Often for days there is a bombardon shlng into our lines with the regular movements of a sledgehammer. It is then h.. -he trenches are smashed to dust We are driven from our trenches, but the reserves are ordered forward; they charge in the deadly fire, and the trenches areagain ours. “This is not a war of man against man. The telephone, the automobile, the railway, the big guns—all have changed the method of warfare. It Is now a war of science and chemistry, of brains against brains. The soldier of today is t skilled, mechanic] who simply aids in operating the gigantic machine of modern .warfare. “A trench is captured, lost and won a s aln. That is all that happens here, and the siege continues. - "The roaring of the shells is constant Even when lying on his bed of straw the soldier bears them, and then the picture of his home, his wife and family quickly fade away. "The siege and the soldier Is at his post keen, alert faithful and true.”