The Carter Express. (Carter, Okla.), Vol. 9, No. 33, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 1918 Page: 3 of 8
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THE CARTER EXPRESS
“OVER THE TOP”
$
By An American Arthur Guy Empey
Soldier W Ibo Went Machine Gunner, Serving in France
Copyright 1917, bj Arthur Quy Empt/
EMPEY GOES "OVER THE TOP” FOR THE FIRST TIME AND
HAS DESPERATE HAND-TO-HAND FIGHT
Synopsis.—Fired by the sinking of the Lusitania, with the loss of
American lives, Arthur Guy Empey, an American living In Jersey City,
goes to England and enlists as a private In the British army. After a
short experience as a recruiting officer In London, he Is sent to train-
ing quarters In France, where he first hears the sound of big guns and
makes the acquaintance of “cooties." After a brief period of training
Empey’s company Is sent Into the front-line trenches, where he takes
his first turn on the fire step while the bullets whiz overhead. Empey
learns, as comrade falls, that denth lurks always In the trenches.
CHAPTER X—Continued.
We had a sergeant In our battalion
named Warren. He was on duty with
his platoon In the fire trench one after-
noon when orders came up from the
rear that he bad been granted seven
days' leave for Blighty, and would be
relieved at five o'clock to proceed to
England.
He was tickled to death at these
welcome tidings and regaled his more
or less envious mates beside him on
the fire step with the good times In
store for him. He figured it out that
In two days’ time he would arrive at
Waterloo station, London, and then-
seven days' bliss!
At about five minutes to five he
started to fidget with his rlfb, and
then suddenly springing up on the fire
step with a muttered, “I'll send over
« couple of souvenirs to Fritz so that
he’ll miss me when I lenve," he stuck
his rifle over the top and fired two shots
when "crack” went a bullet and he
ram Died off the step, fell Into the mud
at the bottom of the trench, and lay
still In a huddled heap with a bullet
hole In his forehead.
At about the time he expected to ar-
rive at Waterloo station he was laid
to rest In a little cemetery behind the
lines. He had gone to Blighty.
In the trenches o-e can never tell—
It Is not safe to plan very far ahead.
After "stand down” the men sit on
the fire step or repair to their respec-
tive dugouts and wait for the "rum Is-
sue” to materialize. Immediately fol-
lowing the rum comes breakfast,
brought up frflm the rear. Sleeping Is
then In order unless some special work
turns up.
Around 12:30 dinner shows up.
When this Is eaten the men try to
amuse themselves until "tea" appears
at about four o'clock, then “stand to"
and they carry on ns before.
While In rest billets Tommy gets up
about six In the morning, washes up,
answers roll call, Is Inspected by his
platoon officer, and has breakfast At
8:45 he parades (drills) with his com-
pany or goes on fatigue according to
the orders which have been read out
by the orderly Bergeant the night pre-
vious.
Between 11:80 and noon he Is dis-
missed, has his dinner and Is “on his
own" for the remainder of the day,
unless he has clicked for a digging or
working party, and so It goes on from
day to day, always "looping the loop"
and looking forward to peace and
Blighty.
Sometimes, while engaged In a
"cootie” hunt, yon think. Strange to
say, but it is a fact, while Tommy is
searching his shirt serious thoughts
come to him. Many a time, when per-
forming this operation, I have tried
to figure out the outcome of the war
and what will happen to me.
My thoughts generally ran In this
channel:
Will I emerge safely from the next
attack? If I do will I skin through the
following one, and so on? While your
jnlnd Is wandering Into the future It
Is likely to be rudely brought to earth
by a Tommy Interrupting with, "What’s
good for rheumatism?”
Then you 1">ve something else to
think of. Wlh you come out of this
war crippled and tied Into knots with
rheumatism, caused by the wet and
mud of trenches and dugouts? You
give It up as a bad Job and generally
saunter over to the nearest estaminet
to drown your moody forebodings In a
glass of sickening French beer or to
try yonr luck at the always present
game of “house." You can hear the
sing-song voice of a Tommy droning
out the numbers as he extracts the
little squares of cardboard from the
bag between his feet.
CHAPTER XI.
Over the Top.
On my second trip to the trenches
our officer was making his rounds of
Inspection, and we received the cheer
ful news that at four in the morning
we were to go over the top and take
the Germnn front-line trench. My heart
turned to lend. Then the officer car-
ried on with his Instructions. To the
besf of my memory. I recnll them ^s
follows: “At eleven a wiring party will
go out In front and cut lanes through
our barbed wire for the passage of
troops In the morning. At two o'clock
our artillery will open up with an In-
tense bombardment, which will last un-
til four. Upon the lifting of the bar-
rage the first of the three waves will
go over." Then he left. Some of the
Tommies, first getting permission from
the sergeant, went Into the machine
gunners' dugout and wrote letters
home, saying that In the morning they
were going over the top, and also that
If the letters reached their destination
II would mean that the writer had been
killed.
These letters were turned over to
the captain with Instructions to mall
same in the event of the writer’s being
killed. Some of the men made out
their wills In their pay books, under
the caption, "Will and Last Testa-
ment.”
Then the nerve-racking wait com-
menced. Every now and then I would
gMnee at the dial of my wrist watch
apd was surprised to see how fast the
minutes passed by. About five minutes
to two I got nervous waiting for our
guns to open up. I could not take my
eyes from my watch, I crouched
against the parapet and strained my
muscles In a deathlike grip upon my
rifle. As the hands on my watch
showed two o’clock a blinding red flare
lighted up the sky In our rear, then
thunder, Intermixed with a sharp, whis-
tling sound In the air over our heads.
The shells from our guns were speed-
ing on their way toward the German
lines. With one accord the men
sprang up on the fire step and looked
over the top In the direction of the
German trenches. A line of Bursting
shells lighted up No Man’s Land. The
din was terrific and the ground trem-
bled. Then, high above our heads we
could hear a sighing moan. Our big
boys behind the line had opened np
and 9.2’s and 15-lnch shells commenced
dropping Into the German lines. The
flash of the guns behind the lines, the
scream of the shells through the air,
and the flare of them, bursting, was a
spectacle that put Pain’s greatest dis-
play Into the shade. The constant
pup, pup, of German machine guns and
an occasional rattle of rifle firing gave
me the Impression of a huge audience
applauding the work of the batteries.
Our 18-pounders were destroying the
German barbed wire, while the heavier
stuff was demolishing their trenches
and bashing In dugouts or funk holes.
Then Fritz got busy.
Their shells went screaming over-
head, aimed In the direction of the
flares from our batteries. Trench mor-
tars started dropping “Minnies” In
our front line. We clicked several cas-
ualties. Then they suddenly ceased.
Our artillery had taped or silenced
them.
During the bombardment you could
almost read a newspaper In our trench.
Sometimes In the flare of a shell-burst
a man’s body would be silhouetted
against the parados of the trench and
It appeared like a huge monster. You
could hardly hear yourself think. When
an order was to be passed down the
trench you had to yell it, using your
hands as a funnel into the ear of the
man sitting next to you on the fire step.
In about twenty minutes a generous
rum Issue was doled out After drink-
ing the rum, which tasted like varnish
and sent a shudder through your
frame, you wondered why they made
you wait until the lifting of the bap
rage before going over. At ten min-
utes to four word was passed down,
"Ten minutes to go!" Ten minutes
to live 1 We were shivering all over.
My legs felt as If they were asleep.
Then word was passed down: “First
wave get on and near the scaling lad-
ders.”
These were small wooden ladders
which we had placed against the para-
pet to enable os to go over the top on
the lifting of the barrage. "Ladders of
death" we called them, and veritably
they were.
Before a charge. Tommy Is the po-
litest of men. There Is never any push-
ing or crowding to be first up theso
ladders. We crouched around the base
of the ladders waiting for the word
to go over. I was sick and faint, and
was puffing away at an unllghted fag.
Then came the word, “Three minutes
to go; upon the lifting of the barrage
and on the blast of the whistles, 'Over
the top with the best o' luck and give
them hell."’ The famous phrase of
the western front. The Jonah phrase
of the western front. To Tommy It
means If you are lucky enough to come
back you will be mlffus an arm or a
leg. Tommy hates to be wished the
best of luck; so, whin peace Is de-
clared, if It ever Is, and you meet a
Tommy on the street, Just wish him the
best of luck and duck the brick that
follows.
I glanced again at my wrist watch.
We all wore them and you could hardly
call us "sissies" for doing so. It was a
minute to four. I could see the hand
move to the twelve, then a dead si-
lence. It hurt. Everyone looked up
to see what had happened, but not for
long. Sharp whistle blasts rang out
along the trench, and with a cheer the
men scrambled up the ladders. The
bullets were cracking overhead, and
occasionally a machine gun would rip
and tear the top of the safidbag para-
pet. How I got up that ladder I will
never know. The first ten feet out In
front was agony. Then we passed
through lanes In our barbed wire. I
knew I was running, but could feel no
motion below the waist Patches on
the ground seemed to float to the rear
as If I were on a treadmill and scen-
ery was rushing past me. The Ger-
mans had put a barrage of shrapnel
across No Man’s Land, and you could
hear the pieces slap the ground about
you.
After 1 had passed our barbed wire
and gotten Into No Man’s Land a
Tommy about fifteen feet to my right
front turned around and looking In my
direction, put his hand to his mouth
and yelled something which I could not
make out on account of the noise from
the bursting shells. Then he coughed,
stumbled, pitched forward and lay still.
His body seemed to float to the rear
of me. I could hear qharp cracks In
the air about me. These were caused
by passing rifle bullets. Frequently,
to my right and left, little spurts of
dirt would rise Into the air and a rico-
chet bullet would whine on Its way.
If a Tommy should see one of these
little spurts In front of him, he would
tell the nurse about It later. The
crossing of No Man’s Land remains a
blank to me.
Men on my right and left would
stumble and fall. Some would try to
get up, while others remained huddled
and motionless. Then smashed-up
barbed wire came into view and
seemed carried on a tide to the rear.
Suddenly, In front of me loomed a
bashed-ln trench about four feet wide.
Queer-looking forms like mud turtles
were scrambling up Its wall. One of
these forms seemed to slip and then
rolled to the bottom of the trench. I
leaped across this intervening space.
The man to my left seemed to pause In
midair, then pitched head down Into
the German trench. I laughed out loud
In my delirium. Upon alighting on the
other side of the trench I came to with
a sudden Jolt. Right In front of me
loomed a giant form with a rifle which
looked about ten feet long, on the end
of which seemed seven bayonets. These
flashed in the air In front of me. Then
through my mind flashed the admoni-
tion of our bayonet Instructor back In
Blighty. He had said, “whenever you
get In a charge and run your bayonet
up to the hilt Into a German the Fritz
will fall. Perhaps your rifle will be
wrenched from your grasp. Do not
waste time, If the bayonet Is fouled
In his equipment, by putting your foot
on his stomach and tugging at the rifle
to extricate the bayonet. Simply
press the trigger and the bullet will
free It.” In my present situation this
was the logic, but for the life of me
I could not remember how he had told
me to get my bayonet Into the Ger-
man. To me this was the paramount
Issue. I closed my eyes and lunged
forward. My rifle was torn from my
hands. I must have gotten the Ger-
man because he had disappeared.
About twenty feet to my left front
was a huge Prussian nearly six feet
four inches In height, a fine specimen
of physical manhood. The bayonet
from his rifle was missing, but he
clutched the barrel in both hands and
was swinging the butt around his head.
I could almost hear the Bwlsh of the
butt passing through the air. Three
little Tommies were engaged with him.
They looked like pigmies alongside of
the Prussian. The Tommy on the left
was gradually circling to the rear of
his opponent. It was a funny sight to
see them duck the swinging butt and
try to Jab him at the same time. The
Tommy nearest me received the butt
of the German's rifle In a smashing
blow below the right temple. It
smashed his head like an eggshell. He
pitched forward on hla side and a con-
vulsive shudder ran through bis body,
Meanwhile the other Tommy had
gained the rear of the Prussian. Sud-
denly about four Inches of bayonet
protruded from the throat of the Prus-
sian soldier, who staggered forward
and fell. I will never forget the look
of blank astonishment that came over
his face. ..
Then something hit me in the left
shoulder and my left side went numb.
It felt as If a hot poker was being
driven through me. I felt no pain-
just a sort of nervous shock. A bay-
onet had pierced me from the rear. 1
fell backward on the ground, but was
not unconscious, because I could (M
dim objects moving around me. Then
a flash of light In front of my eyes arid
unconsciousness. Something had Alt
me on the head. I have never fgBhd
out what it was.
I dreamed I was being tossed about
In an open boat on a heaving sea and
opened my eyes. The moon was shin-
ing. I was on a stretcher being car-
ried down one of our communication
trenches. At the advanced first-aid
post my wounds were dressed, and
then I wns put Into an ambulance and
sent to one of the base hospitals. The
wounds In my shoulder and head were
not serious and In six weeks I had re-
joined my company for service In the
front line.
Empey Joins the “Suicide
club." The thrilling details are
told In the next installment
»-■ - ■ ...;=
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
DEADLY WEAPON OF WARFARE
German Albatross Is Probably the
Most Powerful Machine That Hae
Yet Been Developed.
The tendency In airplanes has been
to run to two extremes—for fighting,
as small and fast as possible; and
for bombing, as large and powerful
as possible. Iu a three-seated, one
passenger sits out In front mounted
In a machine-gun turret The pilot
comes next, Immediately behind the
motor, while the second passenger sits
behind him mounted In another ma-
chine-gun turret. This airplane Is
capable of carrying many bunded
pounds of explosives and, being very
fast and heavily armed, generally ac-
complishes Its mission.
The German albatross Is capable of
a horizontal speed of 300 kilometers
(about 187 miles) an hour. It Is a
single seater and carries three ma-
chine guns, which, being controlled by
the motor, shoot automatically and si-
multaneously through the propeller.
The sight of these weapons converges
at approximately 50 yards In front of
the airplane, making the chance of
hitting the opponent three times as
sure. The motor Is equipped with an
electric self-starter. It has also elec-
trical devices for keeping the water
warm In the radiator while flying at
great heights. The wing surface is
less than 20 square yards.—Scribner’s.
Silkworms of the Sea.
Plenty of worms live In the sea,
and some of them are very beautiful
creatures. Which latter fact ought to
be consoling to ourselves, Inasmuch as
there are naturalists who contend that
the earliest ancestor of the human race
was a marine worm. But the so-called
"silkworm of the sea"—the designation
being purely figurative and poetical—
Is a bivalve mollusk properly known
as the "pinna” and native to the Medi-
terranean. It spins a silk so beautiful
that In ancient days the fiber was re-
served exclusively for the weaving of
royal garments. This silk Is spun by
the mollusk to furnish an anchor line
by which It fastens Itself to a con-
venient rock. It Is extremely fine and
very strong. Cleaned, dried and passed
through combs, It Is reduced to deli-
cate threads of a lustrous brownish-
yellow hue, which are woven Into
gloves, stockings and other articles. A
pair of stockings of this material today
costs $6.—Philadelphia Ledger.
Pretty Bright Mule.
The farmer alleged a freight train
of the defendant company had hit ons
of his males.
“Now, Mr. Jones,” said the attorney
for the corporation to the aggrieved
party, who occupied the witness stand,
"will you kindly tell the court whether
or not your mule was on the track, the
property of the defendant, when hit
by the train?”
“Well, sir,” replied Mr. Jones, “I
didn’t witness the occurrence, but I
suppose things must have been about
as you say. This was a pretty bright
mule and I reckon It that train had
took out after him In the woods which
fringe the track there where he was
killed he would have got behind •
tree."
YOUR SICK CHILD
IS CONSTIPATED!
LOOK AT TONGOE
HURRY, MOTHERI REMOVE POI-
SONS FROM LITTLE STOMACH,
LIVER, BOWEL8.
GIVE "CALIFORNIA SYRUP OF
FIGS” IF CROS8, BILIOU8
OR FEVERISH.
gentle, thorough laxative should al-
ways be the first treatment given.
If y<)ur little one is out of sorts,
half-sick, isn’t resting, eating and act-
ing naturally—look, Mother! see If
tongue Is coated. This is a sure sign
that the little stomach, liver and bow-
els are clogged with waste. When
cross, Irritable, feverish, stomach sour,
breath bad or has stomach-ache, diar-
rhea, sore throat, full of cold, give n
tenspoonful of "California Syrup of
Figs," and In n few hours all the con-
stipated poison, undigested food nnd
sour bile gently moves out of the lit-
tle bowels without griping, and you
have a well, playful child again.
Mothers can rest easy after giving
this harmless “fruit laxative," because
It never falls to cleanse the little one’s
liver and bowels and sweeten the stom-
ach and they dearly love Its pleasant
taste. Full directions for babies, chil-
dren of nil ages nnd for grown-ups
printed on each pottle.
Beware of counterfeit flg syrups.
Ask your druggist for a bottle of "Cal-
ifornia Syrup of Figs;" then see thnt
it Is made by the “California Fig Syrup
Company."—Adv.
Many a man’s nose blushes for the
acts of his elbow.
California dehydrated vegetable
plants are increasing.
HOW TO FIGHT
By DR. L. W. BOWERS.
Avoid crowds, coughs and cowards,
but fear neither germs nor Germans I
Keep the system In good order, take
plenty of exercise In the fresh air and
practice cleanliness. Remember a clean
mouth, a clean skin, and clean bowels
are a protecting armour against disease.
To keep the liver nnd bowels regular
and to carry away the poisons within,
It is best to take a vegetable pill every
other day, made up of May-apple, aloes,
jalap, and sugar-coated, to be had at
most drug stores, known as Dr. Pierce’s
Pleasant Pellets. If there Is a sudden
onset of what appears like a hard cold,
one should go to bed, wrap warm, take
a hot mustard foot-bath and drink copi-
ously of hot lemonade. If pain develops
in head or back, ask the druggist for
Anuric (anti-uric) tablets. These will
flush the bladder and kidneys and carry
off poisonous germs. To control the
pains and aches take one Anuric tablet
every two hours, with frequent drinks
of lemonade. The pneumonia appears
In a most treacherous way, when the
Influenza victim is apparently recover-
ing and anxious to leave his bed. In re-
covering from a had attack of influenza
or pneumonia the system should be
built up with a good herbal tonic, such
as Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discov-
er made without alcohol from the
roots and barks of American forest
trees, or his Irontic (Iron tonic) tablets,
which can be obtained at most drug
stores, or send 10c. to Dr. Pierce’s Inva-
lids’ Hotel, Buffalo, N. Y., for trial
package.
5? ~ Cuticura Heals
wf Itching Burning
Jgfl Skin Troubles
All druggists: Soap 25, Ointment 25 and 50, TaleomSS.
Sample «ch free of “Oatlms, Dspt. I, Bortw."
Persistent Coughs
are dangerous. Get prompt relief from
Piso’a. Stops Irritation; soothing. Effective
and safe for young and old. No opiates in
PISO’S
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Cain, George W. The Carter Express. (Carter, Okla.), Vol. 9, No. 33, Ed. 1 Friday, November 22, 1918, newspaper, November 22, 1918; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc957133/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.