Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-07-06
SOLDIERS IN
TRENCHES / ARE
]. N. MARKING .R|:||''.||N|' TIME
Lack Of Action on Western Front
Gives Allies Time for
Recreation. ..
SEEMS BOTH SIDES
. ARE ON A HOLIDAY
Siege Warfare Has Been Made
Comfortable as Warm Wealth
er Arrives.
er Arrives.

July 5.-One might have gone miles
along the British front this week with
out hearing the sound of gun. 1t
seemed as if both sides were taking
a holiday from war out of respect for
the beautiful summer weather, or else
the silence was signi(canS Of prepara-
ton and accumulation Of shells by
one side or the other for some great
effort. s.....l '"
Beyond the occasional explosion of
a mine and routine shelling to harrass
the enemy's guns, to destroy new for
tification work, or 70 keep the enemy
from taking life too easily, there has
been no action The soldiers in re-
serve have been swimming in the ca
mel, resting under shade trees, play
ing cricket and football and tending
their flower gardens about their quar-
ters, which have been made to look
like those one sees in front of rows
of cottages at this season in England.
The fiat and gently rolling country
of Flanders and in northern France,
which was a forbidding, gray, leafless
mire under chilling winter mists, has
become a pleasant land of rich crops
dotted with groves, while long lines Of
motor trucks or the transport pass
along tvenues between poplars which
line the roads.
,..H Fears Grow Less.
All fears Of an epidemic of sickness
in the hot months for the immense
army billeted in the thickly populated
loWlands are sroundless. Thanks to
the anti-typhoid innoculation, the hab-
itual personal cleanliness OF The Eng.
lishmen and the strict enforcement OF
sanitary precautions by the Royal
Army Medical Corps in the minutest
details, the health Of the troops is
as that in the barracks at home. Flies
are being Kept down to minimum.
There are few even around the camps
Of the cavalry and artillery horses.
The paths, roadsides and yards where
the men arebilleted are kept as clear
of litter as a first class golf course or
the lawn Of fastidious suburban:te.
Tommy Atkins frequently lends a
hand to the French peasant, all Of
whom, from boys and girls of six or
seven to bent old men and women,
are engaged in the harvest, and by
the way Tommy uses his scythe or
fork one knows whether he is city or
country bred.
Siege Wargare Comfortable.
The correspondent has walked
through the long communication
trenches safely in broad daylight to
the firing trenches which, il approach
ed in winter except over open ground
and stumbling through mud under
cover of Gd"kn ess, would have been
worth ones life.
Siege warfare has been made COM
Portable. Some trenches even have
become sort of sylvan paradise
where meals and tea are taken al
fresco, and flowers even have been
planted on the parapets which sup
port the trenches. ,~a..' Il -.r
4 Where in winter men stood freez-
ing in water up to their knees, mud
ooxed from sandbags and only con-
tinual pumping and bailing kept them
from complete immersion and walls
continually falling in, now the only
complaint of the trench housekeepers
is the want of water for washing, for
the spongy subsoil is as dry as bone
and as hard as cement. ...
The toll of casualties where there
are only sniping and infreQuent shell
ing has been much reduced owing not
only to the increased adaptability Of
the men in selflprotection-th result
of experience in trench warfare, but
to an immense improvement in the
protective character of the work.
Though trench may be on eractly
the same line as it was in December,
shade work in the spring and sum-
mer has completely transformed it,
affording small chance for either
shrapnel she'll bullets fired by snipers
from trees or buildings to hit the de-
tenders.