DANGEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLII, Issue 11445, 26 January 1918, Page 6

DANGEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS.

LATEST.DODGES OF THE HUN DUG-OUTS. Something of the fiendish ingenuity of tho Bocho was revealed to the writer the other d ,y a by Tommy who was exhibiting some of the treasures he had gathered in cleaning out a recently-occupied German dug-out. One of" these, carefully preserved between the loaves of a magazine, was the photograph of what was evidently a Gorman girl, punctured with no fewer than a dozen bulletholes. “Did you take it from a German soldier?’’ I asked. “No, sir” was the repl.y, “only from the wall of a dug-out.’’ “But how did sue come to get so shot to pieces?’’ I asked, adding hantoringly “I -have never hoard that the British soldier makes war on women.’’ “ “But this lady was making war on us, sir,’’ he answered,. with a smile: “or leastways, one of ’er friends three or four' dug-outs down the lino tried to strafo us, and we had orders to strafo back. ” Then he wont on to explain that the Tommies had always vied with one another in collecting photograph from the walls of the captured dugouts as souvenirs—a circumstance which the Germans, who appear to have got wind of it in some way, endeavoured to take advantage of bv running a wire from the back of some of those mural decorations to mines conceded beneath the floor, Tho Tommies had already learned to avoid stepping on tho loose ends of hoards, and to refrain_ from rocking tortoises and pickiiig_ up inconsequential odds and ends from tli0floor: but tho “mined’’ photograph was something now, and before tho ruse was discovered several “cleaning-up” parties wore made to pay rather heavily for the desire of certain of their members to add another Frauloin to their picture galleries. Photo-collecting languished for some little time after the “designing” nature of some of those abandoned Gretchens and Hildas had been disclosed, and it is still tho custom to give any picture with a suspicious bulge behind it—if there .is room to do it in sifety—a few propitiatory shots before seeking closer acquaintance.