Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-12-13
Men on Fighting Line De- scribe Conditions Under
 Which They Exist.
NOT ALWAYS DREARY
By Ingenious Methods Soldiers Make Themselves Comfortable Despite Geld, Snow. Slpet and
 Rain.
(By La Raconteuse.)

of the Aisne and the Lys is not alto gether cold, dreariness and hardship Some of the soldiers are making themselves comfortable in very clever ways and their spirits are high. A French under lieutenant 0. artillery writes home as folio y.s from {. point in Flanders.
 We dig comfortable easements and line them with straw and remin t,cre 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, eat1ns. playing cards, watching the enemy g shells falling, or the fli.ht of sn aeroplane. Each battery soon be- comes little village. Ours speak only of the firing party, not tho sup Ply column-counts fifty inhabitants, living in eighteen huts. It is sort of perpetual July 14th rockets by day and fireworks by night. At leas. we don't hear the explosions, exceot by deliberately listening.
 "'Such is the battle of Flanders as We artillerymen see it; now in he day, a village of cave-dwellers Des ind a bank of willows, with intervals of firing; at night, sleep broken by oc- casional alarms.
 During last two or three weeks our men have considerably enriched their larder by adding to 1t nares rabbits. and pheasants. The pccl birds. which are very plentiful here maddencd by the sound of battle are chased and easily teaten down. Some days our battery has had in stock 1u0 hares. fifty rabbits, and score of pheasants."
 Another French soldier shows that his ceuntrymen have learned the Ies son of trench welfare, and can new teach their teartars something.
 Tn really up-to-date entrenoh- ments you may find kitchens. dnine rooms, bedrooms. and even stables One regiment has firstclass cowsh Als One day a whimsical piou-Diou. .inl- ing a COW wandering about n the danger zone. led the bripht idea Of finding shelter for it in the trenches The eyamnle was onicklv followed and at this moment the infantry nossess an underground farm, in which fat kine. well cared for @,v such quantities of milk that ress,)ar distributions of butter are he'na made-and very good butter to)'"
 There hae heen some severe fleht- ing near Sonain. i, the vague f'at region between Rheims and the Ar- p,,% iA sc oc Hc wild clash of arms that M. Charles Meiercurcouf deruty. and now lieu tenant of artillery. writes tc Hrctcn paper-to read his gay notes yol would suppose it was light life :hev i've "do,"n there" in the trenches. The enemy. he says, is uuita near over the hill From time to time an angry fusillade breaks ont; it grows hotter, then sinks into silence. About twice a week there are more serlo, s attacks, very costly for those who initiate them. It is in fact difficul. almost to the point of imDoss oil'ty to cross the four or five hundred yards that seperate the two lines
 Hence inertia and certain oil but characteristic conventions: "A bars runs out between the trenches. I, is greeted with rival volleys. It falls A Frenchman jumps up to get il. The Prussians wave a white handkerchief and cry Tabac Tabac, which means that if we give them some tohacco they will let us have the haze 5, oui men club together and one of them goes and gets the nsre. leavine in place of it big packet Of tohas-co Scarcely has he got back to inc trench than the 'Bosche qu'e.ly g.rs for the ransom. Then silence F1lls upon the scene. and five mis.a,cs afterwards, if a head is shown. ticre is blaze of firing
 But M. Piou-Piou must have his lit tie joke. When every one IS lcei,ns bored to death. he picks 70 an of- ficer's cap which has been left in i corner of the trench and raises it on stick just above the leve' of the ground. Immediately it is the si;.nal for the German snarksmen. each fir ing in turn, not by vclley. A 1all strings, sometimes they are simrly waved above the trench, like a flag si a rifle-butts signifying a hit. an' everybody laughs joyfully."
 "There are more useful games than this. especially the game of "N )nley- boxes" This is the name the French infantry men have given to tnc tins of meat which the British Tcmmy calls "bully beef. The empty tlrs are found to make quite good alarm bells. Sometimes they are sung On strings, sometimes they arc simpv scattered about, under cover of dsvk- ness. between the trenches. so rhat anybody of men rushing across %ill make a clattcr. They are nut as Tar forward as possible. and savs N. Meunier-S -Surconf. there are cc'hpe- titions for who will carry his boxes inc furtherest. There are trenches which have as many as five h''ndred fins thrown about in front ff them but the best is ever the foe of the eood'; or so we think when raoS'' scuttles amid the tins and rece'"As a shower of bullets from either fearsu' tranch" :"