The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1915-03-12
Manchester Guardian)

mental picture of the trenches which
is at all like the real thing. have
seen photographs of men standing In
a trench behind covering line of
mangel wurZels, or was it beet-root?
are true enough, but hardly
characteristic. No doubt many peo- ,
pie imagine the trenches to be regu-
lar and formidable series of earth
works which turn whole valley, into /
sort of fortress. They have heard !,
all sorts of Celebrations which get /,
mentioned in letters, not because they |
are characteristic, but just because
they are peculiar. AS matter of fact,
the surprising thing about the trench
es is that, like everything else in this
war, they make so little difference to
the normal appearance of the land.
scape until you get quite close to
them. If an invisible wayfarer could
walk past them during the day he
might very easily get through without
noticing anything peculiar unless an
artillery bOmbardment happened to be
going out. Rifle fire and attacks are
nearly all at dawn or dusk or night
He would have to be invisible for any
visible wayfarer near the trenches
would, of course, be sniped. A few
do make their way to and fro-order-
lies with messages mostly, who creep
along bitches and dash across expos
ed intervals. Every evening a little
party of men and mules goes to
point as near as IL dare to the batal-
ion and takes shelter behind house
or wall, where it is met by one or
| two men of each company to take the
daily rations back to the trenches.
Every evening, too, the stretcher-
bearers make their way into the
trenches and remove the men who
have been wounded during the day
And every evening all these men are
"sniped" at by the enemy as they go
about their work. AS you approach
anything abnormal to the whole as
pect of things Is, of course, even more
deceptive than by day. And knowing
as one does that one is within a few
yards of two lines of men which ex.
tend from the sea coast to Switzer-
land, the blank appearance of every
thing is tinglingly suggestive. You are
walking along an ordinary country
road.
You have just passed the house
where the medical officer and his as
sistants have taken up their quarters
and whence they pass on the wound.
ed by motors to the field ambulance
A couple of days ago he had house
farther up the road, but he was shelled
out of it. You pass other houses
you are walking crouched in the ditch
by this time. BY day you would notice
that many of these houses have holes
In them and that there are patches oi
tiles wanting in the roof but by the
evening light they look quite normal
except that the windows are lit up in
none of them. Cattle and fowls wan
der about over the fields and across
the road. They look quite normal, too
though In daylight you would see tina
the COWS have not ben MIXED and tn,
fowls are starving. BY daylight, too
, you might notice here and there in
field COW that had been struck dowl
by a she'll and killed, or another
, poor beast that had been merel,
wounded. 1t was to put such one ou
: of its pain that an officer of ours crep
out of his trench the other mornin,
, and was killed as he crawled back. !
, little further still you may at las
come upon the trenches themselve
/ at point where they chance to toucl
? the road. The reserve trenches thes
Will probably be, and they have pei
haps just been lined by battalion
that has marched out to be in supper
during the night in expectation of al
attack, and will march back befor
sunrise in the morning. They are
maybe, an Indian cavalry regiment
which has never yet had chance O
fighting on horseback and can contr
butte only in this way to the defense.
I From your ditch by the roadside wi
probably be communicating trenc
to the first Of these reserve trenche.
and from here, If the entrenchment
have been in existence for some tim,
you will find yourself at the beginnin
:, of a whole rabbit warren. From her
d you will be able to get TO every poin
n not only in the reserve trenches, bu
/ the fire trenches, too, without eve
II putting your head above the grount
Q Walking in slush (here and ther
n modified by straw or bricks throw
down. rubbing clay onto your shou
s ders from either wall Of the narro'