The chronicle=news. (Trinidad, Colo.) 1898-current, 1914-12-26

rifle bullets jumping about over our
heads and flicking leaves off the
stunted willow trees in our ditch.
One was quite safe and rather bored,
as it poured with rain. / played a
game of picquet with the man next
me and won two francs, then the
rain stuck the cards together.
THE night before last we left at
about ). 1t was quite pitch black
and intensely cold, and snow lay
heavily everywhere on fields. roofs
and trees as We marched silently
through the village and out into a
long. long road with a wonderful ave
nue. of trees like iobbema's famous
picture at the National Gallery. On,
we go, hardly able to keep our foot
ing on the frozen and uneven ground.
and always, like tremendous surf
beating on an iron shore, comes the
booming guns. Rockets shoot uD.
leaving a long stream of stars. and
showing up the silent country, snow
bound and very peaceful-looking. UNI
i'll one comes to village totally de-
serted, ruined walls, heaps of debris
and great shell holes in road and roof
I telling their dreadful story. And as
/ If a miracle had happened. there
stands the church untouched.
We halt silently and move on
again. and as if to remind us that
the world is not so peaceful after all,
shells come bursting through the air.
One bursts quite close, setting ru-
ined house in tremendous blaze and
lighting up the whole scene quite
one for painter. We are just out
of it. five minutes earlier would have
shown us all up, and we should prob
ably have been effectively shelled.
We climbed down little slippery
slopes and W others very warily.
One is carrying everything, and the
nails in ones boots on the hard |
ground make bad goingD Over
fields, and then we reach reserve
trenches at about 7:36. | hate re-
serve trenches. One of my great fears |
is suffoCation, and to stagger into a |
hole in the ground and find ones self |
under the earth, head touching knees |
and roof above, in black darkness, |
not knowing where one is, and feel |
ing caught in on every side. is dread
ful to me. We do guards. each sec
ton till about 4 80 in the morning, |
with slight snipinc to remind one of |
the Germans. then we form up and |
off again. and s.agger, ii seems. for |
miles across fields and broken coun- |
try. Here we are at last at the first
line of trenches. Black. silent fig |
rres suddenly appear. a few whis-
pered orders. and we find ourselves
in the trenches
There are five of us in ourtrench. |
The dawn comes up slowly and we
can see what is in front of us. We |
are evidently on top of slope, or
rather not quite Oh top. There has to
be one observer in every trench for
half an hour all through the day and
at night an hour. The cold Is still
intense, hut we open tin of jam
and start having breakfast. Sudden
~ my slice of bread and jam is COW
cred with clas, knocked off the top
of the Darapet. The snipers are at
work, and wonderful shots they are,
TOO. Over hundred bullets We're put
just in the top of our trench. and
whenever an Observers head went up
to look through small Enclosure,
they were at it again. Suddenly
their batteries opened fire on us, and
getting the range with marvellous
celebrity they proceed in the next
hour to put close on one hundred
shells on about half dozen trench
es, including Gus. We are all
erouched down. The noise is appal-
ling, ones eardrums feel splitting as
each shell bursts. Clouds of black.
evil-smelling smoke, showers of earth
and stones, mangelwurzels. and piec-
es of shell come flying into the
trenches. One man finds large
piece of shell in his overcoat pocket.
No one was hurt of our lot. On our,
left the regiment had four killed and
several wounded. This is being un-
der fire properly, and we are glad
they have stopped and given us a.
rest Not so the snipcrs, who keep 1t
up all day.
Might observation is very nerve
racking. Trees move about, showing
black against the snow, and the sky
is very clouded, all shapes look hu-
man, menacins and advancing
There is IL tremendous artillery duel
going on on our left. like a million
stage carpenters knocking together
scene of herculean proportions.
some regulars come UP to reinforce
our trench: an attack is expected.
can hear the tremendous movement
of supply wagons going on Just over
the hill crest in the enemys line.
Small red sparks show fitfully in the
trenches, rockets are going up, and
the sky ever and anon is split with
great flames of light. a farm behind
our lines is one great blaze and they
send up rocket signals on our side,
but nothing happens We are relieved