Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-12-09
IN WINTER QUARTERS
Life of Japanese Soldiers In
 Underground Dwellings.
WARM AND COMFORTABLY, HOUSED

Method of Constructing the DU@outss
 Which Keep Ont the Cold and Are
 Practically She'll PrOOf-H How the
 Cooking Is Done-GOOd Water Can
 Be Easily Obtained.
 A correspondent of the London Times writes as follows about the win ter quarters of the Japanese soldiers in Manchuria:
 With November the cold weather be gins in Manchuria and increases in fn- tensity as the winter advances. Around Mukden the thermometer does not usually fall below zero (F.) until the middle of December, when night after night it may sink to 5, 10 and even 20 degrees below zero and during January to 30. In the frequent northeasterly or northwesterly blizzards no human beings can live under canvas. Some may be quartsreds in native houses, but where even supposing that the owners should be rl1thlessly turned out will accommodation be found for half a million of men?
 The answer is simple. The Japanese are already making use of underground dwellings. such. asa the natives some times use and which were used by the Russians during the winter after the Boxers had destroyed their railway buildings. The soil of Manchuria, ex- cept1ng in certain places, Is dry at this season especially in the districts be- tween Mukden and Liaoyang, where 1t is largely loess and sand. The JA2a- nese, who hold the low hills with gen. tie slopes, are in the better position. :, The method is to dig trench about ten to twelve feet deep and varying in width; but generally about nine feet wide. A narrow stairway is cut lead ing down -to the south end. At the base 1t is wfdened and a door frame set up with q native door, turning on wooden pivots. The upper half of the door is open work, which, being GOV cred with the opaque native window paper, admits IigAt The sun shines at midday down the steps and when the door is opened fresheng and warns the room. Immediately within, on one side, is cooking stove, camp oven or boiler in a simple and primitive style, to which both Russians and Japanese are accustomed.
 klong the length of the trench is a. platform some two and one-half feet. high and six feet wide, made of ham, mered earth and rough unburned bricks Beneath this are several sim pie dues up and down which the smoke and heat from the cooking place finds ,, it's way, issuing at the end remote from the entrance by small chimney cut in the solid ground On this platform, which resembles the old style of green house aue and is called by the Chinese kang, many men can sleep in warmth and comfort on a rough mat or dried grass.
 This mode of heating is not only eco noInical, but the flues consume and carry off the earth damp or carbonIc acid gas which always generates in un derground dwellings. Across the top of the trench rough pieces of timber or poles are laid and on these kaoliang stalks or straw, upon which is heaped the earth excavated from the trench. This covering keeps out the cold and is practically shell proof No rain falls and but little snow, and the latter can if desired be swept off the roofs or. mounds over the dwelling.
 The Japanese have access to a large number of the native surface coal mines, where a coarse dust coal is read fly excavated and can be, when mixed with a little wet loose earth, burned in the rough cooking places referred to, in which grass, rubbish and almost anything can also be consumed as fuel. While the first twelve to twenty feet of the plain and low hills now occupied by the armies are dry in winter. good water can be found almost anywhere at twenty five to thirty feet bieow the surface