men,
magnificent in their youth, physical force, good temper and dash, the
Germans fled 'with every leg' or surrendered without awaiting the order
to throw away their arms and take off their suspenders, which is the
first thing a prisoner is told to do, in order that he may be compelled
to keep his hands employed and out of mischief.

"The Germans hurried toward our lines gripping their trousers, haggard
and mad with terror.

"Would that every mother in France who has lost a son in the war could
have seen that epic sight. They would have seen themselves revenged, and
it would have been some consolation to them in their sorrow."

KEEPING THE GERMANS ON THE RUN

The trench deadlock in northern France and Belgium was broken by
Ludendorff's fatuous drive in March, 1918. After the allies had stopped
it and inaugurated their counter-offensive all Europe made a startling
discovery. The Germans were tenacious enough in trench warfare; in
open fighting, known as war of maneouvre, they could not stand before
American and the allied troops. Incessant attacks, rapidly delivered at
the same time at many points on the long line between the North Sea and
the Swiss border, were more than they could withstand. The mechanically
trained troops of the central empires were futile before armies of men
who did their own thinking and delighted in fighting an enemy they could
see from the feet up. German armies had twice been almost at the gates
of Paris. The first time they were driven back they dug themselves in.
That was in 1915. The second time, in the spring of 1918, they were
allowed no time for digging in. From the July days of 1918, when
American soldiers at Chateau Thierry beat the best troops that ever
were trained in Prussia, they were kept going. How industriously may be
inferred from the story of the young corporal who was sitting on the
roadside trying to tie the soles of his shoes to the uppers, in a hurry.
Somebody asked him what was the matter.

"O, nothing much," said he. "Only I came over here to kill Germans, but
they never told me I'd have to run 'em to death."

A STRANGER TO HIS OWN CHILD

There never was a war so prolific of personal incident in every shade of
experience possible to human life. The devastated provinces of France
offer perhaps more of these happenings than any other part of the
steel-swept, shell-wrecked fronts of all Europe. An Associated Press
correspondent tells one that is especially touching.