Evening star., 1914-12-10
Many of Soldiers Have Clever
Means of Making Them
selves Comfortable.
LARDERS ARE ENRICHED
BY RABBITS AND BIRDS
One Body of Infantry Has an I'm
derground Farm" in Which
Cows Are Kept.
zee of The star.

Foreign Corresponds of The star.
PARIS, November a7.-I.ife in the
trenches of the Aisne and the Lys is
not altogether cold dreariness and harl-
ship. Some of the soldiers are making
themselves comfortable in very clever
ways. and their spirits are high. A
French underlieutenant of artillery writes
home as follows from Il point. in Fan
dcrS:
We dig comfortable easements and
line them with straw, and remain there
for three. four or five days. firing at the
German lines now and then, and the rest
Of the time sleeping. eating. playing
cards, watching the enemy's shells fall
ing or the flight of an areoplane. Each
battery soon becomes a little village
Ours--I speak only of the firing party,
not the supply column-counts fifty-nine
inhabitants. living in eighteen huts. 1t
is SORT of perpetual July 14-rockets
by day and fireworks by night. At least
we don't hear the explosions. except by
deliberately listening.
such is the battle of Flanders we
artillerymen see it: now in the day, a
village of cave-dwellers behind a bank
night. sleep broken by occasional
alarms.
Birds Are Maddened.
During the last two or three weeks
our men have considerably enriched
their larder by adding to it hares. rab-
bits and pheasants. The poor BIRDS,
which are very plentiful here. maddened
by the sound of battle, are chased and
easily beaten down. Some days our bat
tery has had in stock 100 hares. htty
t,Ii Of
Another French soldier says that MS
countrymen have learned the lesson OF
trench welfare, and can now teach their
teachers something.
ON really up-to-date intrenchments
YOU may find kitchens, dining rooms,
bedrooms and even stables, he writes.
"One regiment has first-class cow
sheds. One day n whimsical piou-piou,
finding a COW wandering about in the
danger zone, had the bright idea OF
finding shelter for it in the trenches.
The example was quickly followed, ana
at this moment the infantry possesses
an underground farm, in which TAT
kline. well cared for, give such quan-
titles of milk that regular distributions
of butter are being made-and very
good butter. too.
There Mas been some severe hghtlng
near Souain, in the vague, fiat region
between Rheims and the Argonne for
est But it is not of the wild clash
OF arms that NJ Charles A1enier Seurcouf.
V,
writes to IL Breton paper. TO read has
gay notes you would suppose 1t was
"a light life they live down there IN
the trenches.
over the hill. From time to time an
angry fusillade breaks out; it grows
hotter, then sinks into silence. About
twice Il week there are more serious
attacks, very costly for those VINO
initiate them. 1t is, in fact, difficult.
almost TO the point of impossibility, to
cross the four or five hundred yards that
separate the two lines.
That Priced "Tabac."
Hence inertia and certain odd but
characteristic conventions:
a hare runs out between the trench
es 1t is greeted with rival volleys.
1t falls y F'renchman jumps to get
it. The Prussians wave Il white hand
kerchief and cry. 'Tabac, Tabac' which
means that if we give them some to-
bacco they will let us have the hare
SO our men club together and one of
them goes and gets the hare, leaving
n searceiS plsis Of fh he e's sot pa'N Back to the
trench than the 'Bosche' quietly goes
for the ransom. Then silence fails
upon the scene. and five minutes aft
erward. if a head is shown, there Is
a blaze of firing.
But NJ Piou-Piou must have his
little joke. When everybody is feeling
bored to death, he picks up an officers
cap, which has been left in a corner
of the trench. and rises it on stick
just above the level of the ground
Immediately it is the signal for the
German marksmen. each firing in turn,
not by volley. A ball strikes the cap
At once a spade is waved above the
trench, like a flag at rifle butts sig
nifying a hit, and everybody laughs
joyfully.
There are more useful games than
this, especially the game of 'Monley-
boxes This is the name the French
infantrymen have given to tins of meat
which the British Tommy calls bully
beef The empty tins are found to
make quite good alarm bells. Some
times they are slung on strings, some
| times they are simply scattered about,
under cover of darkness. between the
trenches, so that any body of men
rushing across will make a clatter.
They are put far forward as pos
sible, and, says NJ. Meunier- -Sercouf,
there are competitions who will carry
his boxes the farthest. There are
trenches which have as many 500
tins thrown about in front of them,
but the best is ever the foe of the
good or so think when a rab-
bit scuttles amid the tins and receives
q shower of bullets from either fear
f,,1