The Wonder of War on Land

oqu

my boy,

r the moment ignoring the dogs by which he was surround

rm?" he

k shrugged o

as you see,

t h

hould give an arm to the Germans; so, since the military authorities would not

ned?" Horac

d. "A German bird dropped a shell out of his be

plinter

ver

dn't yo

he hunchback continued,

impatiently. "Don't stammer s

any brave girls working also, brave girls, for the work was dangerous. It was especially dangerous, because there was a church on one si

front, here, they shell the field hospitals

all a bomb. I feel sure it was meant for the hospital, but it hit us instead. I was working on the top floor. The bomb-it was quite a little one-came thro

stand, so I swept my left arm round, and the g

splinters collected in my hand and wrist. The hand was almost quite cut off. The doctors said it was a lovely amputation-they are droll fell

the g

back look

e said. "You see, I am rather strong a

saved h

he Frenchman, simply; "wh

ou the only

side, it would have been very good. But I had a sharp tool in my right hand and I did not think of

one man crippled, by a small a?roplane bomb, looks to me more like a cat

h, or, rather, she had been so before the war, though she had put on workmen'

ere all very kind, but she was the kindest. It was she who secured permission for me to have the 'captive Kaiser' on

black eagle with the yellow eyes, iron-caged, i

ho enabled me to come here to the front. I am a general, n

"But I didn't know that yo

with the circus? I am sure I have told you stories of that time. My master was the animal trainer

rly was rich, as I have said. Before the war, her father had owned magnificent kennels and he

o her, 'behold, I can train dogs

ght and ran away to her big house in the town, w

. It must needs be her grandfather who came. Her father was an officer in the Cuirassiers. The family had given a

f "La Gran

n Dog-Team

"Illustrated

abited By One W

lled out of solid rock as a pro

saving my daughter's life, you want to trai

ieur le Comte wis

of taking you to the country with

families who unders

over-nervous, but good dogs. Monsieur le Comte gave me the gardener's cottage to live in

ched you, then," said Horace. "I

ital," answered Croquier. "She fell ill soon afte

agreed. "But why didn't

to the Motorcycle Corps of the Fourth

cycle has been idle for several months. When I found that there wasn't any mor

a telepho

re a dog

rock-cut kennels with manifest pride. "They're so clever that I'

to do?" asked Horace, sm

on listening-posts and to assist on sentry duty, another group is trained to carry messages, and the th

ing-post?" Horace asked. "Does

ner than a man's. If the sentry is lying down, I teach the dog to pay no attention to him but to run to the sentry at the next listening-post. Then the second sentry knows that there is an alarm, and also that the man at the next post is either dead or wo

s, how do you work t

red. Then a message is attached to a dog's neck and he is told to go. He gallops back to the headquarters which is his home for the time being and the man in charge takes the message a

Red Cro

ecause the Red Cross is using a great many dogs from Mount St. Bernard, dogs w

natural instinct for fighting rats, and a number of Irish terriers which ha

ould think that dogs which didn't have to

etimes more than the snappy little fox-terriers can manage. Some of those rats have a body eight inches long from snout to root of tail and weigh over a pound. The hard wiry coat and tough skin of the Irish terrier is a good prot

"Illustrated

og Wearin

dogs of the liaison have to be tr

he trenches, just as they do to drive them o

ply so fast that they would kill off all the rats and then become a tenfold worse danger. A ferret is twice as long as a rat and is the most murderous creature tha

rise, "you're far enough in the r

fire trench. The dogs have to become accustomed to wearing gas-masks, just like soldiers. It's hard on the dogs, too, because a d

e gas-masks off with their paws. I've got some little puppies that I keep in gas-masks all the time. I

"and they haven't even got the satisfac

hem 'It's for France!' Because," he added, half-serio

ing to his telephone station, full of stories of the hunchback's wonderful dogs. With

we may expect gas at any time. It's a dirty, sneaking way of making war, I think! The Boches o

Hate of the head and hate of the hand, We love as one, we hate as one, We have one foe and one a

ace, thoughtfully, "that any na

etimes it does not. The tongue is swollen to nearly double its normal size, ulcerated and blotched with black patches. The lungs are attacked so badly that quite often the blood vessels burst and the man chokes to death with bubbling frothy blood. The arms and legs turn a mottled violet color. The pulse is no more than a fain

ermans any good?" the boy asked.

poison gas when they started it as they do now, they would have gobbled up the little piece of Bel

stoppe

bile. When the fiendish fumes were first directed against fighting troops, they were projected from fixed gasometers, and the pipes leading from them were p

s it fir

the line, there appeared vague jets of whitish mist. Like the vapors from a witch's caldron they gathered and swirled until they settled into a definite low-hanging cloud-bank, greenish-brown below and yellow above, where it reflected the rays of the sinkin

being, ensured them a temporary relief from the continuous bombardment, were observed suddenly to thr

madly out of the mephitic mist and made for the rear, overrunning the lines of trenches behind them. Some never ha

ned faces, contorted figures and lips fringed with blood and foam from their bursting lungs, showed the agonies in which they had died. S

of "The

Bugler's

nguished appeal to his comrades in the rear, and

r the first time in their history-driven into panic. They were willing to charge against men, no matter what the odds, but not against magic, and our officers had great difficulty in rallying t

re them, but for lack of personal dash, their best opportunity passed away forever. 'They sold their souls as soldiers,' as one of the English writers, Sir Conan Doyle, expressed

Devil's price was a poor one.' That's a good

y had not broken through-save for advance cavalry-at Charleroi. They had not broken through on the British left in the retreat from Mons, though it was a near shave. They had not broken through at F

t seemed a supreme opportunity to adopt flanking tactics. The Canadians-whom the Germans hated equally with the Australians and twice as much as the English, if that were po

hey had clutched a spin

s came up to dare and die. Again the Germans, having recharged their reservoirs, opened their poison gas valves. But the direction of the attack was different and the wind blew the fumes away. The Germans, though in gas-masks (worn for the

ghteous cause, they were compelled to fall back. Yet, even so, the Teutons did not break the line. On every side, the German forces poured in. They threw army

, they had no masks, for the gas was a surprise only of the night before-artillery, nor overwhelming odds could break the line. The officers ran to the foremost places in the trenches and died, fighting, wi

itish re?nforcing brigades had come

r, a fight which has given Canada a glory equal to the splendor of Belgium at Liége, of France at the

s closed and the German opportunity was gone. Every advance was dammed back by rifle-fire, even though the fingers t

d lost, for the charge failed, and halted. For a moment it

The Bowmen o

archers, such as had fought upon the field of Europe exactly five hundred years before. Their short armor gleamed agains

right wing of the English, the left wing had seen the bowmen, when they drov

g in the shout which reverbera

The Bowmen o

trenches when once more the ominous yellow-green mist rolled on. In a moment the Indians were encircled by the dead fumes. Many of the men died where they stood. The mephitic cloud passed slowly o

t like a rock by the advancing tide. Out of the green death, finally, came two men. There appeared staggering towards the dug-out of the commanding officer of the Duke's regiment, two figures, an officer and an orderly. The of

man to leave the hill. The men are all up there dead. Th

d that

hat now," said Horace, "ev

eteran replied. "You've heard the sto

the boy,

sergeant-major began, "when our front trench was exposed to an extraordinar

ithout hope other than that of selling their lives as dearly as they could and sendin

rs would be in danger. Yet, though re?nforcements were imperative, any communication with the second line seemed impos

bugle. This meant certain death to the bugler, who would have to lower

er, he tore off his protecting mask, sent his anguished appeal to his comrades in the rear and then

"Illustrated

Demons take

the two style of bombs and the Germans surrendering a ma

d Horace, his

ould depend not on his courage, not on his skill, not on his power, but on a

sks are

angulation, mainly carbonic acid and nitrogen; the poisonous gases, in which men are killed by reason of the poison of the fumes, such as carbon monoxide and cyanogen; and the spasm gases, in whi

at Ypres, where the poiso

icity through sea-water by some process he explained but which I couldn't understand; and the bromine is a by-product that they make

that the masks really preven

effect is lost. French, English and German masks are different in shape, but the idea is the same. The Germans have a mask which fits over the nose and mouth, filled with absorben

outward. The valve cannot open inward at all. So, when poison gas is seen coming, you can put on your mask and take the tube in your teeth. You can't breathe through your

around with a gas mask in my pocket, but every time I put it

an shook

and suddenly find yourself in the middle of a gas cloud, you won't be able to stand it more than five minutes. You'll feel that

tested the boy, "a cloud of gas

gasometers now; they have tanks which a man can carry on his back and from which the gas is jetted by compressed air. Infantry, with gas-masks

any way of

n start a bonfire every few yards along the line, the poison gas will be sucked into this up-draught and dispersed by the heat. That has been done, several times, and it was the only defense of the British at Ypres, before the gas masks were hastily improvised. But that means hauling a lot of fuel to the front,

now what the

slowly. After a storm of these shells has fallen, the air is unbreathable for an hour or sometimes two, according to the dampne

' shells makes a gas-filled zone. Charging troops have to wear gas masks, for they must pass through it. Defendi

oplane. No one knows when the German artillery has received orders to change from high explosive or shrapnel to gas shells, when, suddenly, all along the line, there drops a concerted hail of gas s

t we use

he Boches will be sorry that they began, for their own atrocious cruelty will return on their own hea

an the

es

," said Horace, eagerly. "But I s

of "L'Ill

roach o

eptember 15, 1916) which drove the German

es. That's a wicked thing, too. From what I hear, it is a mixture of gasoline, paraffine and tar, forced out by compressed nitrogen and ignited at the

anks don't

nothing," wa

orace learned what

front gave place for machine guns of the heavier patterns, and sponsons on either side mounted three machine guns operating through small openings. There were thus eight machine guns to each tank. When it is remembered that the fire of a protected mach

of the tank like hail striking on a window pane. Machine guns peppered its steel skin with no more effect than if the bullets had been pointed peas. Liquid fire found no entrance, even if a projector coul

y needed none. With a grotesque, crawling gait, they waddled down

t ferocious prehistoric beasts, secure in the massive protection of their shelly backs. A hurricane of shot

into a hole, climbing askew nose upwards, they sid

i

o more than as though pieces of pack-thread had been stretched along the ground. Such

and

led the German f

ey had bee

incarnation in metal of grotesque terror. They seemed as an evil d

they

were swept clean of men by that con

. One of the giants lifted an eyelid, as a forward window opened to let through a

nks heaved their pr

were willing enough to invent new distortions of war, such as poison gas and liquid fire, b

l crawled onward, growling,

driven the Germans back, captured a thousand prisoners, taken several score machine guns and frightened an entire German army corps i

r and carried so deep underground as to be safe from anything but mining. There were dug-outs entered through a steel door, two stories in depth, with spacious rooms closely boarded. In one such dug-ou

sewer, reaching the surface at high points. These were well timbered, with iron ladders. The trenches were lined with concrete, warm and dry. T

without delay, engineering companies had put up new wire entanglements, and though, for a week without cessation, the Germans charged again and again, they were pushed back with heavy losses. And when, ten d

ace, the end

constructed for the telephone, the boy heard a thin, high whistle and a small shell crashed

p sky high, Horace realized that this could not

k, his fingers fumbling in his haste as he put it on, wondering

Offici

the Firing Line Throu

"Illustrated

aces Flinging Bombs i

. Cautiously the boy lifted a corner of the mask a

a false

some accident of manufacture, it had escaped being filled. Evidently, he was born lucky, he thought. Had it been a high-explosive shell,

inutes

ouched the edge of the chair, a curious prickling sensation, as though he ha

f his hand had been, the prickling

ague discomfort spread over

e clearly the holes in which to put his telephone plugs and, when h

g was ha

collar touched it, and where his skin had to

s blinding him, heavy finge

ed to find the wir

n a thick voice he could not rec

ce on the floor, his clothing half-torn from his body

took him to the near

ough for the ex

h anything. Burn the canvas of that stretcher. Get the 'phone instruments out of that shelter and burn the shelter. Tell

hat is it?" the

it, don't know it's there, but ten minutes after you've been near it, the vile stuff raises a thousand blisters o

s it f

hell burst right in the shelter and he soaked it in. He'll be unconscious for quite a while and in about three days all those blisters wi

ed state which left him dulled and yet conscio

cute torment, he came to himself, to fi

looked u

g with a still raw throat, "I've

orward to listen to th

s over here, in American

fter France and Britain's heroism, that they may show

in his hand the cage wi

k leaned low

e said. "That, my boy, was

E

TNO

1915. No poisonous gases or bombs had be

elopment of poisonous gases. Some of t

membered that new devices are constantly being

ating gases for several months, but by 1918,

sed in the s

velopment of 1918; it

riber'

tent hyphenation (e.g.

ts to "Würtemberg"

ged "in not"

tration" and "Le Monde Illustré" to "Le Monde

"Liège" to "Liége

d unnecessary qu

ged "Evidenly"

ed "in second"

near-by" to "near b

"he" from "he decl

"French speak" t

issing close quot

ed "is orders"

comma to period af

nnecessary comma fr

eroplane" to "a?ropl

eroplane" to "a?ropl

ged "writters"

period to colon af