[Illustration: THE IMPRESSIONS OF AN AMERICAN BOY WHO DID NOT WAIT Laban Hill, No. 1,054,147, Fourteenth Canadian Battery, on "Going Over the Top" in August, 1917. Written to a Friend on a Postcard Taken From a Dead German Soldier] [Transcribed text from the postcard:] Over The Top 1 "Did you ever go over the top?" he said, "Did you ever go over the top? Did you sweep along an unbroken line, With bayonets gleaming, and eyes ashine And a feeling that went to your head like wine, The time you went over the top?" 2 "Did you ever go over the top?" he said, "Did you ever go over the top? Did the flarelights shine on a glorious sight As they pierced the dawn in the changing light; Did you thrill with a feeling of savage delight, The time you went over the top?" 3 "Did you ever go over the top?" he said, "Did you ever go over the top? Oh, tell me" he said "how you held up your head Of the things that you thought and the things that you said, Of your glorious pride as with the men you sped Far away over the top." 4 "Oh yes, I've been over the top," I said, "You bet I've been over the top. But I felt alone in the flare-lights glare. And Mauser bullets were singeing my hair, And my knees were knocking together for fair, The night I went over the top." 5 "Oh yes, I've been over the top," I said, "You bet I've been over the top. But it's lonesome out there in no man's land And you miss the crowd and you miss the band And your feet take root in the place you stand, The night you go over the top." 6 "Oh yes, I've been over the top There was yards of wire got attached to my clothes And how I got out of it God only knows A secret I fear he will never disclose Till I'm finally "over the top." 7 "Oh yes, I've been over the top," I said, "You bet I've been over the top. The artillery raised a continuous roar-- They'd been at it, it seemed for a week or more-- And old man I was sweating at every pore The night I went over the top." 8 "Oh yes, I've been over the top," I said, "You bet I've been over the top. The noise and confusion, the shouts and the groans Had paralysed action and frozen my bones When a fellow went past me,--I think it was Jones, He was headed back over the top." 9 "Oh yes, I've been over the top," I said, You bet I've been over the top And since Jones has a blighty and wasn't napoo, If they're handing them out "I thought" me for one too. And blest if I didn't--in fact I got two, The night I went over the top. New York isn't the only place people hustle THE SINKING OF THE "PROVENCE II" _Told by M. Bokanowski, Deputy of the Department of the Seine_ The French auxiliary cruiser _La Provence II_, formerly a passenger liner, was sunk by a submarine in the eastern end of the Mediterranean while serving as a troop transport. Nearly 4,000 men are said to have been on board, of whom only 870 were saved. One of the survivors, M. Bokanowski, wrote this thrilling description to President Poincaré of France: