Pioneer press. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1882-19??, 1915-03-27
RECIPE FOR LIFE
IN THE TRENCHES
United Press Correspondent Tells
What's Expected Of a Soldier
There

l..
feel to live in the trenches?
Here's little recipe by which you
can nd out. Take cold, damp Gel
lar, flood it with some three to six
inches Of almost ice-cold mud. At a
height Of We feet from the floor
stretch tangle Of wires, turn on
electric current into the wires, and
let the voltage be SO heavy that every
wire will be as deadly as a third rail
Now blow out the light, crawl to the
middle Of the floor in the darkness
and stand erect, trusting to blind luck
that your head won't touch the wire.
These charged wires, in the dark
ness, represent the invisible deadly
trails Of the bullets that fly over your
head in the trenches. OF course, il
you want 20 be safe in the cellar, you
can keep your head down, but if you
did that in the trenches, you would
be negelcting your duty. 1t is our
duty, Tor instance, to fire eight bullets
an hour, If you are on guard. Watch
full eyes of officers will discover wheth-
er you are shooting into the air, or
whether you are ring with your aim
Xed on the enemys trenches, and q
good sentinel is supposed to raise his
mead aEoVe the trench every ten min
| uLes to see what is going on outside.
Victor Chapman, a Hrvard gradu-
ute. who was with me in the trenches,
vas something OF philoSOphe and
| lie used to say, the danger Of being
| sh D. Is very small. The trail of IL bull
! let Is very small; the space around
| YOU as compared with the trail Of {,
outlet is as one million to one, so
| the chances Of being hit are in that
same proportion.
But it didn't work with Chapman
at all. He was hit the very first day
| in the arm.
Inc trenches are an underground
city lied with unspeakable dirty cit
| lens. They are in tangle Of sunken
streets, the houses are holes in the
earth, and the { eets, ir my district
conyerged in one place, which Amer
| leans called "LOngacre Square" into
a very exclusive triangle, where all
the officers lived There are stree,
signs. too, telling how to reach this
or that officers hole in the ground,
and now and then ahere are danger
signs, warning the passer-by to keep
Ills head low. 1t was d two-mila Jour
ney through the trenches from our
front to the rear trench and on this
journey, one would meet and pass
| many men. The soldiers always
speak to each other at such meetings
just as two men pass the time of day
on country road The lieutenant is
practically the mayor Of this under
ground city; the sergeants might be
likened the policemen.
There is trading under way, too.
Tobacco is the money, and the store
Keeper IS the chau who, at any certain
time, has more Of some one thing
| pf
| than he needs, SO that every man is
village keeper at one time Or an
| other.
| DO you want to go to a music hall?
Ihere's sure to be certain dug-out
somewhere in the trenches, where
| musical men gather. IN our trench.
george Ullard, negro, from Calves
ton, Texas, played wonderfully on a
banjo with one string and in our mud
hut there was the music Of mouth
organs, an accordion, and U1larIs
banjo every night. The German
trench was only forty-five feet away
from US at this point, and they used
to listen to us every evening and
cheer US. There are many little
| tasks with which the citizens Of the
trench town busy themselves. You'u
see man cleaning his rife, another
"Hh oo lS~uOOIluS bis nut Win straw,
| smother will be rigging a bottle on
a stick for the Germans to shoot at.
| Two or three may be preparing a dunn
my figure for a German target. ar
| other may be marking his initials
In the side of the trench by sticking
| MS empty cartridge shells into the
earth. are artists, too, in this
strange colony. Almost every day
] there was q wooden tombstone or
| Two to prepare. 1t was ny duty 10
decorate the tombstone with some
| sor tor design and Belgian named
Durmine always did the lettering, You
might find us almost any forenoon,
working away with red hot poker,
burning names and decorations on
wooden cross which We had construct
ed out OF any pieces Of wood we could
[ find
| There were three Americans in nv
| machine gun squad of sixteen men
Eugene Jacobs, who still owns a but
| cher shop In Pawtucket, r. T.. Vic