The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-09
IF YOU ARE KILLED. WHY YOU'RE KILLED. AND so WHY WORRY?
 ASKS TOMMY ATKINS
tContinued from Page one)

nite object in the dark?' queried cor respondent.
 "Perhaps-perhaps not the officer
 replied. "The gun is laid for che top
 of their trench. We don't hold down
 the fire too much as we want the Ger
 mans to know we are on deck" Are we in bullet range yet?r was asked
 "Rather--50O yards. That's why we
 don't walk up In the daytime. The | flares you see are going up from the German trenches replied the officer. Flares Like Rockets These flares like Fourth of July l rockets threw glare over the sodden fields and revealed the faces of the correspondents and the officer and out lined their figures. 'In that way they keep watch to see that We are not creeping up for an attack" the officer i added.
 Another 300 yards of plunging in mud
 and the correspondents descended into
 the wet earth behind tiers of sand bags and were walking on a board walk at the bottom of great ditch. The commanding officer pulled aside a curtain and lieutenant came out of l hAS >Siioi ioOhihS HcdL SuOuSH TOT T parade. Neatness under any condition
 is point with the British officer and he keeps his meE up to 1t. It is aInaz- ing how Thomas Atkins in this sea of | mud keeps clear of 1t.
 If the men get careless of their ap- pearance and in their habits" say the officers. this means carelesseness in the trenches, which would be fatal Ihoroughness of detail Fand industry are of paramount importance in this kind of war;
 Behind curtains, in the same kind of cellars as the officers occupy were sol diers lying on board floors in their
 blankets above the water line. A subal- tern was up for questing when the com-
 manding officer found one of the pumps was not working Pumping alone keeps
 the trenches from being flooded. Tn that gianatic siz-zaging ditch in ! the darkness, slipping off the blanks at times, for mile the visitors proceeded With heads below the parapet Then the correspondents left the trench and wal
 lowed in the mud back to point in the
 road outside the bullet range, where a
 column of soldiers was waiting before go- ing up for their turn in the trenches. Re-
 hind them were supplies for the trenches
 and an ambulance to care for wounded Baths and Clothing lHe urea men who come out of the | trenches find baths and clean clothes awaiting them and have nothing to do but rest until they return to the watch, for the British army regards the care of
 each mans physical well being as the prime essential.
 The trenches to the observer who sees
 the British army for the first time do not supply the most interesting feature. If
 one seeks pcturesqueness it may be found on the road where the French flank and the British line join--where one sees the
 east Indians, trotting battery of French
 artillery, Belgian reservists at work on
 the road and the British in khaki. One
 finds Tommy Atkins trying to talk French with the inhabitants, driving a big trac-
 tor engine made in the United States l riding out to the front on a bus sitting oa the front of an ambulance seat be- i side the driver when he has only an arn,
 wound. or sticking his head out of a shell proof to see if there is any chance ot
 the rain stopping in Flanders
 l The extreme thoroughness with which al
 Is done makes more lasting impression 1 The fastidiOusness about sanitation and l the treatment of the wounded recall American methods.
 | There seems little unnecessary fighting to gain any minor advantage in the trenches Everything seems submissive to a burposs | when the time comes for the sbig push T which will see the deadliest fighting nj the war