view raw text
POISON GAS SHELL SHELLSoldiers Soldiers and civilians on the western front drop the s from the idural of shell With the fighters it is never shells but always shell no matter how many When 1150000 gas shell to say nothing of shrapnel and II E come over in twenty four hours an extra s is too trifling to bother with withAccording According to the special variety of their con ¬ tents poison gas shell are marked by the Germans with colored crosses to distinguish them in loading They have become known by their marks The green cross shell contain diphosgene the yellow cross shell mustard gas the blue cross shell sneez ¬ ing gas gasEvery Every now and then a poison gas shell fails to explode These failures are known as duds Gas officers collect them even risking their lives to go out and get one that may have fallen short especially when the enemy is known to be using a new kind of poison gas The officer picks it up conveys it to a labratory behind the lines and pro ¬ tected by his gas mask carefully opens it and ex ¬ amines it Much valuable information has been obtained in this way wayThere There is however one poison gas used by the Germans which so far has defied analysis not ¬ withstanding its mephitic odor This is the poison gas of this German peace offensive Some experts have ventured the opinion that it is a kind of sneeze gas because whenever the Germans attempt to spray the Allies with it all the pacificists sneeze and say gcsuiidheit Although all poison gas shell of the peace offensive variety discharged at the western front since the Italian retreat last year have failed to explode the duds have dis ¬ closed nothing to those who have examined them because when opened in the political labratories of the entente powers they have been found to be empty Nor has their distinguishing mark given a clew to the kind of poison that should have been in them because instead of green yellow or blue they are painted with a double cross Perhaps one reason the s has been dropped from the plural of shell is because the poison of the German peace offensive always is in the same old shell manipulated by the same old artist in the same old shell game New York Herald
