Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1917 — PUSHED HARD TASK [ARTICLE]

PUSHED HARD TASK

TURKS’ DEBPERATE EFFORT TO . ' 4 ' 0(1088 THE DEBERY. (tally Wonderful Work Accomplished in the Face of Almost Incredible Difficulties, Though Buccesa Was Not to Be. . In writing of a recent trtp through the Suez canal, in Harper’s Magazine, William AshYey Anderson tells the story of hdw The Turfcs lirdtight pontoon boats across • the desert in effort to force a crossing of the canal, as an English officer told him. “ ‘Well be at Kantarah soon,’ said) a young gray-eyed officer of the Indian marine. “I looked forward. The canal wound . gracefully away to the southward, fringed on the Egyptian side by a refreshing growth of green palms and cirab at lttag intervals by-tiny bungalows, where employees of the canal company kept eternal watch over the company’s Interests, much as the armed ’sentries across the way stood gufcrd for the empire. On the Arabian side was nothing but the billowing sand, crowding itself to the very water’s edge, and seeping into the channel, despite the revetments of stone brought In ballast from far countries to hold the tiny particles In check, despite the great dredges that prowl up and down, sucking at the invading streams like monstrous anteaters facing a migratory tide of insects. “.’Kantarah?* "" ; ‘“Yes. There It is now.’ His face became animated. Leaning far forward, he fixed his gaze on the approaching spot, and there, sure enough, was Kantarah, tho point nearest. Port Said,,- - where the Turks had attempted to* cross. “ ‘Not He grinned. ‘I was In: charge of a “couple of" armed tugs. We kept running up and down from; here to Ismailfa, banging away In the 1 dark.” “‘But they reached the canal?* “‘Oh, yes. They launched some pontoons —two. There’s one now. The other’s down at Ismailia;’ “There,, just swinging into the Kantarah bank at the end of a cable, for all the world like a Chinese ferry on* the Grand canal, loaded with Indian •. troops, horses and fodder, was a barge-, like iron pontoon. I recognized its Ger- ; man origin; for I had seen such before. But this was the first vessel I had ever known to cross a desert that ! tries the stamina of Bedouins and th©i endurance of dromedaries. It was not i the last. There was another at Ismoin« And at Pork Tewflk there, was a long row of them, punctured by shrapnel and bullets, filled with sand 1 and used as a causeway. “It was in myAeart to feel sympathy for the wasted efforts of these surprising Turks. It will be a long while before we understand the organlza-*' tion of the army that crossed the desert, dragging pontoons and heavy gnns, effecting simultaneous attacks £t three main points on a front extending a* hundred miles along a barren shore with a salt desert as a base; and persisting in the attacks to the point of launching several pontoons —six of' which, probably, could have support-, ed a bridge and afforded sufficient accommodation for a strong advance guard. There was one thing, however, : that aroused equal admiration; it was the appalling neatness with which the attack was smashed. It was as though threeserpents.tiavtng- crawled across—the desert, reared their heads simultaneously only to have them completely crushed by several very large and very determined hobnailed boots. “It was all explained to me In detail, but I cannot explain It to yon. “Nevertheless, I should like to have* picked Kantarah camp up bodily and deposited it somewhere near Plattsburg.”