Weekly journal-miner., 1915-01-20

trenches and relieving them Witl fresh troops is dramatically discussec by a correspondent of the Berline Tageblatt, who prefaced the story with experiences of himself and col leagues in getting into and out O the firing line.
 "We could only reach the village Essen" he writes. Here we had tc leave the automobile in the mud be hind a church whose walls showed the marks of desperate struggle Everywhere on the ground, bandages arms and parts of uniforms-evcry thing covered with yellow mud. Be side the church were fresh graves
 From Essen to Dixmude the road for three kilometers runs parallel tc the French trenches. Every auto and every wagon seen on the road Is taken under fire from the trenches which are only about 400 yards away
 'So we left the automobile in cover and continued our journey on foot, to be as inconspicuous to the enemy as possible. But they had already seen us. A rolling fusillade began to sweep the road We jumped from tree to tree and made part of the dis tance by running in stopped position behind a hedge.
 "The mud was several feet deep in places, and our way lay past trenches and dead horses. Many of the ami mals were chestnuts, deeply imbed- ded in the mud, and their wide-opcn eyes stared into the leaden sky in most uncanny fashion.
 Of a sudden the man ahead of me shouted and jumped behind the wall of a building that had been laid low. He believed he had been hit, but as luck would nave it the bullet just missed him and had buried itself wit.h a thud in a nearby tree.
 His experience induced Us to pro gress a little more rapidly and with greater caution-from cover to cover.
 After a while we came to an ex- posed railroad crossing some 900 feet from the trenches of the enemy. First one man bolted across the open place, then the other, until we were all over. The bullets from the French helped every one to lose no time.
 But now we had the protection of the railroad embankment, and avail ing ourselves of this we soon reached the ruins of Dixmude. Several streets and especially the market place lie within the fire zone of the enemy.
 "In this uncanny town dwells un- speakable fear. Dixmude has been shot up as no other place in the the atre of war. In the shell-furrowed streets the mud is several feet deep, and there appears to be not single house which has not been hit by a shell. But of this I am not sure. Dodging from one street corner to another to avoid the bullets which seem to have sort of fountain head at the end of each street, you have no time to make many, or close, ob- servations. At any rate the ruins form little hills one has difficulty in getting over.
 "Wc finally came to the market place, which is constantly swept by a hail of bullets. In a rush WIG gained the shelter of the walls of the city hall on the other side To one side of this are the ruins of St. Nicholas, rec ognizable as church today only by two walls and a pillar which rear into the sky like naked giants.
 "The town is empty and deserted But you become aware of noiselcss uncanny sort of life in the houses It comes from the cellars where our soldiers arc in quarters.
 "We finally met the commandant of the place He had been decorated with the iron cross, first class, and showed that he was glad to see new faces in this place of desolation.
 "As he explained the situation tc us, bullets hit the walls to the lcft and right of us. We counted forty five in one minute on the walls of {; building close by. Zealously, by day and night, this waste of ammunition goes on.
 "The only living creatures our mcl found in Dixmude were d dog ant three cats. Three times-four time Dixmudc has been the center of battle. But now the large heap O ruins is in our possession, and witt it we have gained d point directly ol the Yser canal, which passes close t' the last houses Of the town on tn west.
 But we intended to get into tn trenches-the firing line.
 The road to this lay through