Tonopah daily bonanza. [volume] (Tonopah, Nev.) 1906-1929, 1915-01-07
VIVID PORTRAITS
OF SCENES ON THE
FIGHTING LINES
DARE.DEviLTRY DISPLAYED BY
THE MEN IN THE
TRENCHES

ny Associated Press.D
LONDON, Jan 6.-The following
account of life at the front is from
correspondent who volunteered for
service at the beginning of the war,
and has since been promoted to the
rank of officer.
During the latter part of Novem-
Der the army in the trenches was
well-nigh perishing with cold; since
early December 1t has been the vic
tim OF persistent rain and food.
Night after night, whole companies
are flooded out of their trenches
while a Encouragement of the forces
has made 1t impossible to give the
men their former weekly three days
of rest in the villages behind the
lines. All the advanced forces will
remain in their trenches now for
eighteen days; then they hope to
have bg,ef relief 1t is difficult to
give an idea of what rain means In
the trenches The lines under frosty
conditions seem such an orderly, per-
manent and town.like series of cubby-
holes that when they all start to melt
away and cave in under the influence
of thaw and rain. II is as If one were
trying to travel through pitchdark
London in ruins. Officers who were
glorying in fine new dug-outs equip
ped with all the trench comforts, sud
denly found themselves buried in a
mass of collapsed earth of the con
sistency and quality OF thick paint.
The latest gossip here is that the
Indian division and the Germans
were so close to each other day
or two ago that they used the same
parapet for their trenches and took
turns at firing through their mutual
loop.holes. That OF course is a little
exaggerated, but serves to illustrate
the manner in which the two armies
keep continually getting closer anc
closer Hand-grenades and home
made bombs fashioned out of biscuit
tin cans can be used advantageousl>
at many points. Generally, however
the front trenches are about two hun
dred yards apart in this section, ina
gives the sharp-shooters plenty o
chance TO get in their fine work, an'
II is dangerous to push ones heat
above a trench even to sight a rine
Many of the sharp-shooters are usinI
periscopes much like those OF tn
submarine, and with these they cal
sight and shoot accurately withou
coming anywhere near the top OF tn
trench. The opposing sharpshooter'
of course, delight in efforts to h
the tube of the periscope, and FRI
quently succeed.
Since the rains and floods cam
the communication trenches nav
largely oozed away. Some OF thel
are like rivers; others are knee-dee
with pasty mud OF exactly the san
consistency as bakers dough. A res
ment which passed through one sue
trench day or two ago left thr'
men behind and had to send reli
party back to dig them out. una
such circumstances, the labor
bringing up ammunition and ratioI
from the rear is terrific, and the mi
assigned to this labor reach the
destination in state of utter fatiq'
nevertheless they have to take th'
turn at sentry duty later in the mig
1.-THE enemy is very businessh
and misses no chance to shoot a
man who exposes himself. Tod
for instance, an English soldier "
up in willow tree cutting with
A shot passed him, and he sportiv'
signalled "A miss; left A seco
shot came, and he signalled "A mil
right The enemy profited by
advice, and the third shot pass
straight through his head There
the strictest orders against men
posing themselves; but some OF
careless ones are surprisingly dii
gardfm Of their safety"