He has a very illusory view of life who knows only its sunny phases;
and his is worse than a deceptive impression of war—especially the
monstrous war of 1914-18—who has vision only of its valorous deeds and
heroisms, its thrilling tales of daring and achievement, of splendid
adventure and fearless sacrifices.
Here is a revelation of the side of war seldom more than glanced at by
those who tell of the moving exploits. It wears none of the trappings
of romance; it is without allure; but it is terribly true. _The New
York Times History of the War_ made certain of that before publishing
what it rightly described as one of the most thrilling human documents
produced during that awful four years. The grim record of the young
soldier’s experience is necessarily curtailed here, enough being given,
however, to picture the grisly reality of war as millions of youths
encountered it. It is not the stirring tale of a hero.
Roméo Houle, French parentage, was born in New Bedford, Mass., in 1893.
He was the son of a local barber, Zacharie Houle. In 1912 he removed
to Montreal, where he was employed as a barber, having followed his
father’s calling. He had a grammar school education. He enlisted in
the Sixty-first Regiment, First Canadian Division, Aug. 1, 1914, eager
to serve in the war. He went with the Division to France, and was
soon in the front trenches. During his service he made notes of his
experiences. With the assistance of the editor of a French paper in
New Haven, these notes were put into narrative form after young Houle,
through the efforts of his father, was discharged from the army in 1916.
The narrative begins: “The true story of the trenches has never been
told. I know, because for many months I lived in trenches. I have
slept daily in dread of bullet, shrapnel, mine and deadly gas; and
nightly in fear of mine and gas—and the man-eating rats. I am one of
the few soldiers living who entered the front trenches at the opening
of the war and lived to fight the Germans in the front trenches in
February, 1916. Of my original company (the Fourth of the Fourteenth
Battalion, Third Brigade, First Canadian Division) which so gayly
marched away to that hell at Laventie and Ypres—500 brave boys—I am
one of the sixteen who survived. And returning unexpectedly, snatched
by the American Government (as an American citizen who had enlisted
under age) out of the very jaws of death, with the mud of the trenches
still upon my clothing, I discovered how much American people have been
talking of the trenches and how little, after all, they know about
them.”