Tombstone epitaph., 1915-01-03
FRENCH FINISH q DAY H|GHT
 IN TRENCHES
Soldiers Welcome Brief Rest and First Chance to Change
 Clothes.
JOKE OVER THEIR PLIGHT
Mudeoated infantrymen Tell of Their Life at Front-only ii Left of 25o in Original Company - Kill
 Germans to Get Clothes.
By GABRIEL pELAeARpE.


 Correspondent of the Chicago Daily News. AmieDs, France.-I have just passed two days in a tiny hamlet near the front between Arras and Albert. sleep ing on straw and living on bread and sardines. French batteries few hun dred yards away thundered intermit. tently. My companions were lsO French infantrymen, who were quar. tered there for four days to rest after 47 consecutive days in the trenches. By this time they must have resumed their old positions on the tirirg line.
 The first man with whom talked when the grim. dirty columns broke ranks and scattered about the thirty. odd farms which compose the hamlet, said:
 Yes, monsieur. We have been iI days in the trenches without once re- moving our clothes or even our shoes. Except forrwo old peasants We passed back along the road. you are the first civilian we have seen in all this time. But. you see, We do not look too miser' able. We even stood it very well, be cause we are Bretons. who are tough and stubborn race. But we are rather dirty, are we not?"
 Joke Over Life in Trenches.
 I replied frankly that I had never seen dirtier men in all my life. Their clothes were torn and covered with layers of yellow clay and their shoes looked like Jumps of mud which had hardened around their feet. Yet the men were laughing and joking happily enough. We entered the village inn, a picturesque tavern blackened with smoke with strings of onions hanging from the rafters. while in the corner tbe aged grandfather was weaving on a hand loom. Over their coffee and brandy the soldiers renewed their Jokes at the expense of the "boches (Germans), their own dirtiness and va rious features of life in the trenches.
 To the accompaniment of distant cannonade they told the history of their company since the beginning of the war. They had participated in many battles and the company had been entirely reorganized three times Of the original contingent of 250 men only one oficer and ten men were left.
 puo Holes With Their Hands.
 When they first took position at the ulsce they still hold. they had to fight Tn an open field. for neither side had ,t,,o in prepare trenches. The men zo,gh, to protect themselves the best ,boyy couId. Those without pickaxes s,,- in fhe earth with their hands, try i,g to make holes big enough to lie h.
 cr,duaIlv. however, trenches were ,ornnleted and a subterranean village
 ~an,zed Before the trenches barbed ,.i,a vas strung on which bells were -r,g which would ring when the wire
 ats,urbed. Their monotonous ss- vss interrupted only by shells that
 ., ,oo near and occasional surprise attacks
 o,ai,ariIy the men sleep in the day -, a, restrooms. the straw in which = cbanged every two weeks Little
 ,;,,le the soul and body became os-dened until now they can look on .na rsin of deadly shells with indiffer' spce- e,...
 protection against the cold was rot .n,l, WooIen garments had been .H,,shu,.d liberally and in case these ns,s lacking one could always find a
 ,o ~suipe" some German, steal