The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-21
Miseries Of Existence Told by
an English Soldier.s
It's Always Too Cold to Wash
or Shave, He Says.
MAKE OWN EARTHLY CRIBS
Fireplaces of Tin From Their
Ammunition Boxes.
Guns Freeze and Break
Stocks Used for Fuel.

London. Dec. 21.-Miseries of life in
the trenches are wildly pictured in
story written by an English soldier
who is on the Belgian frontier. He
enlisted as a private but later vas
raised to an officer. Thus he has
had an opportunity to see the war
from different angles. His story fol-
lows:
1t isn't the danger that affects one
in the trenches but the hardships of
cold and damp. Bullets from snipers
the Germans have lots of these out
night and day-whizz about your ears
continually, and occasionally shrapnel
makes one duck ones head down, but
one gets so used to the firing that
although 1t may sound incredible-it
soon becomes far less noticeable than
city traffic, for instance.
At night sometimes an outburst of
artillery or a wild rattle Of musketry
at an imaginary night attack wakens
one stin, sore, frozen and full OF
strong language from fitful dreams.
which mainly concern themselves
at home.
Always Shivering.
The cold is really horrible. One
never ceases shivering. At night the
soles of ones boots freezes and one is
awakened by icy feet and forced to
get up and stamp till the blood con-
sents to circulate once more. Day
whole time one is forced to muffle
to the eyes. and such things as Bala
clava helmets, thick gloves, comfort
ers, cardigans and woody waistcoats
cannot be too numerous. I can scarce
ly button my coat over my numerous
raiment and still I perish.
Washing and shaving are practi-
calIy impossible. Officers and men
leave the trenches like miners COM
ing up from a pit, but somehow that
does not worry US. The idea of wash
ing in such cold Is too awful, for 1t
is impossible to restore the circula-
ton by exercise In d narrow crowded
trench and in the dug-onts there is
just room to lie down. They are now
beginning to serve ont coal and coke
just in time. There would have
been wholesale fr0stbites otherwise.
The water in the machine guns
freezes and they have to be nursed
get frost-bitten ana sometimes are
ruptured by the sudAen shock conse-
quent of beA8 firss. This is rather
welcome, h0sEever G. the wood from
a derelict. rifle burn beautifully.
The. water bottles freeze, too. and
have to be thaweds out. Water is a
nuisance. 1t has to be fetched by night
| lagos in the rear. process which takes
sometimes two or three hours.
1t is extraordinary how ingenious
the men are in contriving things for
their comfort. They cut little fire.
places in the side of the trench. line
and top them neatly. with chimneys
made of bully-beef tins. They build
| elaborate rifle racks and make them
selves snug cubbyholes to sleep in, roof
ing them with material from nearby
ruined farm houses, piled over with
earth.
treason to Waste Newspaper.
The food is plentiful and good. The
crying need is for milk and fruit. Plenty
of tobacco and cigarettes are to be had.
There is a dearth OF things to read, and
it is considered rank treason to light
fire with piece Of newspaper.
| The trenches stretch in a practically
unbrOken line from the sea to the east
frontier. not in groups or isolated rifle
pits, but In what are really series of
small towns linked together by mar
row communicating trenches, each bat
which may be anything from half
mile to two miles long, and a hundred
yards or SO deep.
From behind the firing trenches there
is wild labyrinth of intersecting com
municating trenches support trenches.
dug-outs for staff and officers. kitchens
and SO forth. though of course some are
more elaborate than others.
1t takes about an hour and half
to go from one end of our present bat
| talon position to the other. Last week
the trouble was mud wet, viscid mud,
| four or five inches deep, that squelched
round ones boot tops and got plastered
over everything up to ones hat. MY
boots weighed tons:1 This week the
| frost has laid the mud and the cold is
our enemy.
Relief Change at Night.
| We spend a few days in the trenches
and then few days in reserve in the
villages in the rear. The relieving. of
course. has to be done at night. 1t is
| an eerie job. You march along as
noiselessly as possible to within half
a mile of the rear, where you are met
by guide and taken in single file
through an intermfnable winding COM
munication trench. full Of roots and
mud never more than three feet wide
at the top and about eighteen inches
at the bottom Then at sort Of Pic
cadilly circus in the rear OF the fight
ing line, the companies branch to their
various posts and are shepherded in
until each man of the relieving force
stands behind another of that to be
relieved. The waiting is dreadful
business. It seldom takes less than
three to five hours to effect the COM
plete change. Everything is dead still
except for an occasional bang-bang to
show you the snipers are awake. No
one pays the slightest attention to
them.
Talk in whispers.
The men exchange pleasantries in
hoarse whispers and the officers ex-
change news and explain the special
points of the position. Finally. when
1 THE last man has been placed. the or
ders to change places il passed down.
The new men step up onto the little
firing platforms and the relieved men
step down into the trench and file out