On the Fringe of the Great Fight

S BEFOR

recognized us as having been with them at Valcartier and Salisbury Plain. Fit and rugged they looked as they swung along with the confident air which newly arrived troops often seem to possess. Their officers were pleased with them, and were satisfied that the d

y three of us called on my old friend General Mercer of the first brigade, and had tea with him and Majors Van Straubenzie and Ha

nches, while we all sat around and smoked. The room was lighted by a single stable lantern which also smoked and we sat on boxes; I have seldom passed a more pleasant evening in my life than that spent in the little peasant cottage with my soldier friends, Captains George Ryerson, Muntz, Wickens, Major Allan (all since dead), Major Kirkpatrick (now a prisoner in Germany), Captains Hutchison, B

ls came in and sang "Eet's a longa, longa wye t

hen the cold, long-drawn out spring became almost imperceptibly w

disappointed. While driving up to the Clearing Station to breakfast, we noticed a couple of Hun aeroplanes being sh

dows; another had fallen in the square about twenty yards in front of my billet and had failed to explode, while six ot

ng out of the top window at the time, swore that the bomb wh

f officer from headquarters, fortunately, came along before we returned and bore it off to his chief after promising to return it. Needless to relate it

orchard specified in the invitation a crowd of typical big western cowboys with their broad bri

etween Von Kluck and Joffre. Cock fighting is the native sport of the countryside in that region where nearly eve

walked about picking at the grass but gradually getting nearer to one another. When they got within a yard of each other they became more wary, though still feigning carelessness, until one seeing an o

Kluck and buried his spurs again and again into the prostrate body until he finally struck a vital spot and the combat was over. Then, st

expression passing over them was intensely interesting to me; you could almost tell what some of them were saying within their minds and it was pleasant to know that to the great maj

horseback. Four men on each side mounted on horses, without saddles or bridles, were drawn up at opposite sid

ng as his antagonist the one opposite him. In the first crash a couple were dismount

the thing and backed up, wheeled, side-stepp

o try to keep the two others on the same side so that they could not grasp him on both sides at once. It was exciting enough to see one man being pulled by one arm from one side, while another man was trying to throw his oppos

ried to brush them off on the apple trees. The contestants were all as hard as nails and

ht and put on a few of his favorite records, much to the annoyance of the rest of the staff billeted in the same house. Knowing this, one did not think it so strange as it might otherwise have seemed, that, during the course of a mov

the Colonel was still carrying forty dollars' worth of

one soldier sitting in front of a barn what village this was and received the not uncommon answer "I don't know." It was astonishing how frequently that answer was given. Apparently some men were qui

containing cigarettes, chocolates, taffy, gum, magazines and other things so greatly appreciated by the soldier in the field, and so liberally shared by them with less fortunate ones. Some men were very lucky in having wives who seemed to spe

ed "The Club"-an Estaminet in the village, operated by a French woman and recently

e period of one hundred years ago. In the common room were a number of officers playing cards

hought he was replying in the same language. Neither understood a word that the other said, though both

dden conclusion by the entrance of a Lieutenant, who announced that nine o'clock had struck;

in our area. Leaving our little town by motor we crossed the canal by the lift-bridge after waiting to allow three Dutch barges to pass through. These lift bridges are hinged about one third

d repair as this one was, and when you get used to the vibration of the car bouncing from one cobble stone to another; when, however, it

ship grey, slipped quietly along through the canal to

way it left the ground and passed over our heads climbing steadily in a great spiral into the sky. Another aeroplane, and another followed till there were five circling above us, getting smaller

e-wheeled carts, empty or loaded with manure, bumped along behind the broad-backed Flemish horses, guided solely by a frail looking piece of string. The driver, seated crosswise on a projecting tongue of wood, guides the horse by mysterious signals c

ields by ditches three or four feet wide, serving to drain both road and fields and ultimately emptying into some canal or creek. In this particular part of Flanders hedges were not in universal use for fences. In one place we exec

without waiting for orders from the boy, ran over his foot, and nearly upset the cart. One judged that they had had some previous and possibly not pleasant experiences with

ish shell crashed through the roof and made him move on the double quick. This town like our own was intersected by a canal which was used both as a sewer and source of water supply for was

of them. Canadians have never been over fond of saluting officers, and have never quite accepted the stat

tore trying to talk to a French girl when a couple of British officers passed. The man did not see them till they

salute?" queri

e you," repl

a kind of sloppy attention as

ou were almost past; but anyway

e officer, "are

proudly, and the British offi

shell-shattered town of Laventie-the first battered town we had seen. To us, at that time, it was

woodwork indicated that the town had been heavily shelled. Near the church the buildings were wrecked; roofs were lifted off, windows b

undation of the church were fractured by the force of the exploding shells into tiny fragments, still pressed together with the weight

inging from the floor, beams from the roof fallen over the iron bedstead, sheets of wall paper dangling from the walls, and every other imaginable combination of wreckage. And yet

d through a village one afternoon, I saw three women being dug out of the cellar of a house in which a shell had exploded a minute before. On another occasion in a village close by a mother with her babe at her breast, three children of various ages, the husband and