How the Trench was Won.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7843, 8 June 1905, Page 2

How the Trench was Won.

"0," in The Yellow War, just published? has caught and compiled us to realise a new war impression, tho awful mechanical bleakness of a great scientific light—like a smoky foundryyard in the. grip of an earthquake. His revelations are in execution in a. high degree artistic, iKit in matter almost too >awful for art. Here is a a passage on one of the Port Arthur assaults : " Who shall say that the day of the bayoofe-t is past, tlmt bjVl;al grips of men in war are obsolete ? Could sceptics have hovered about tho trench-head and seen the shimiin-r of the steel as it gave back the white glaro of tho star-shell ; could they have heard the sickening thud of bayonet driven home, the grate of steel on backbone; the despairing sob of stricken men—they would never have preached their fallacies to a confiding world. Although there was not a breech that had not Its cartridge in the chamber, the men, roused to the limit of their animal fury, overlooked the mechanical appliances which make wur easy. They thirsted to Come to grips, and to grips they came ; hardly a shot was fired. Tho hand grasped firm pn the small of the butt, but when the mind means killing, forgots its cunning, and fails to operuto the trigger. But it hail to end. The old colonel had fought his way through his own men to the very point of the struggle. He stood on tho parapet, and his rich voice for a second curbd the fury of the wild creatures struggling beside him. ' Throw yourselves on their bayonets, honourable Comrades ! ' he shouted ; 'those who come Irehind will do the rest ! ' His men heard hi:m. his officers heard him. Eight stalwarts. dropped their rifles, held their hands above their heads, ind flung thomselves against the traverse. llefore the Russian defend, era could extricate the bayonets from their bodies, the whole pack of war dogs had Mtirged over them. Tho trench was won."