The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-09-06

walk from here to the sea or TO Switz-
erland in that ditch and youll find
the same work going on everywhere" !"
| 1T isn't war, it's better than that" !"
said another. ITS the eating up Of
people. They come and they fll the
| trenches. and they die and they die,
ana they send more and these die. We
do the same. OF course, but look"
lie pointed to the large. deliberate
smoke heads renewing themselves
along the yellowed beach.
THAT is the frontier of civilization.
| They have all civilization against them
those brutes yonder. It's not the
local victories OF the old wars that
we're after: it's the barbarians. all
the barbarians. Now you've seen the
whole thing in little; come and look
ut our children"
We left that tall tree whose fruits
are death, ripened and distributed at
the tinkle of small bells. The observer
returned to his maps and calculations,
the telephone boy stiffened up beside
his exchange. As the amateurs went
out of his life some one called down
through the branches to ask who was
| L
could not catch the guns name. 1t
seemed to belong TO that terrific new
voice which had lifted itself for the
second or third time. 1t appeared
from The reply that IL Belial talked too
.onS he would be dealt with from an
other point miles away.
The troops we came down to see
were at rest in a chain of caves which
! had begun life as quarNes and had
been fitted up by the army for it's
| own uses. There were underground
| corridors, antechambers. rotundas and
ventilating shafts. with a bewildering
play OF cross lights, so that wherever
you looked you saw Goya's pictures
OF men at arms. Every soldier has
some of the old maid in him and re-
joices in all the little gadgets and
| devices Of his own invention. Death
and wounding come by nature, but to
lie dry. sleep soft and keep yourself
clean by forethought and contrivance
is art. and in all things the French
! man is glorlously an artist.
All welded In One Furnace.
! Moreover the French officers seem
as mothers. keen on their men, as
their men are brothers, fond of them.
Maybe the possessive form of address.
Mon general. mon capitaine," helps
the idea which our men cloak in other
and curter phrases, and those soldiers,
like ours, had been welded for months
in one furance. AS an officer said,
Half our orders now need not be
given. Experience makes us think
together"
/ believe. too, that II a French pri-
vate has an idea--and they are full of
idcas-it reaches his commanding Of
ficer quicker than 1t does with us.
The sentinel hounds. The over
whelmlng impression was the brilliant.
health and vitality OF these men and
the quality of their breeding. They
bore themselves with swing and ram
pant delight in life, while their voices,
as they talked in the side caverns
among the stands of arms, were the
controlled voices of civilization. Yet
as the lights pierced the gloom, they
looked like bandits dividing the spoil.
One picture, though far from war
stays with me. \ perfectly built,
dark skinned young giant had peeled
himself out OF his blue coat and had
brought it down with a swish upon
the shoulder of half stripped COM
rade who was kneeling at his feet,
busy with some footgear. They
stood against a background of semi
luminous blue haze, tlGough which
gimmered a pile of coppery straw.
half covered by red blanket. BY a
divine accident of light and pose 1t
was st. Martin giving his cloak to the
beggar. There were scores of pic
lures In these galleries. notably rocks
hewn chapel where the red of the
cross on the rough canvas altar cloth
glowed like ruby.
Further inside the caves We found
a row Of little rock cut kennels, each
Inhabited by one wise. silent dog,
Their duties begin at night with the
sentinels and listening posts. And
believe me-" said IA proud instructor.
my fellew here knows the differ
ence between the noise of our shells
and the boches' shells
When we came out into the open |
again there were good opportunities
for this study, Voices and wings met |
and passed In the air and perhaps one !
strong young tree had not been bend !
ing quite so far across the pictur- |
esaue park drive when we first went |
that way
"Oh. yes" said an officer. shells |
ave to fall somewhere, and" he added |
with fine federation, "it is, after all, |
against us that the boche directs them. |
But come, you, and look AT my dug
out. It's the most superior OF all pos
sible dugouts. No come and look at
our mess; it's the Ritz of these parts"
and they joyously told how they had
got or procured the various fittings
and the elegances, while hands
stretched out of the gloom to shake.
and men nodded welcome and greeting
III through that CHEEKY brotherhood
in the woods and In the>fields.
Evidence Of BclinI's work.
The voices and the wings were still
BUSY after lunch when the car slipped
EAST the teahouses in the drive and
came into n country where women and
'hildren worked among the crops.
There were large raw shell holes by
he wayside or in the midst OF fields
md often a cottage or a villa had been
smashed as n bonnet box Is smashed
)y an umbrella, That must be part
If Belials work, when he bellows 80