Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-07-05
EXISTENCE
ALONG BRITISH FRONT
Recently One Might Have Gone Miles
Without Hearing Sound
of Gun.
BOTH SIDES TAKING HOLIDAY
Soldiers Swim In Canals, Play Cricket
and Football and Tend Flower
Gardens About Their Quarters.
No Epidemic Sickness Reported,
BOTH SIDES TAKING HOLIDAY
~ FREDERICK PALMER.

AT BRITISH HEADQUARTERS IN
FRANCE. July (delayed).-one
might have gone miles along the Brit
ish front this week without hearing the
sound or a gun. 1t seemed as If both
sides were taking a holiday from tho
war out OF respect for the beautiful
summer weather. or else the silence was
significant OF preparation and accu-
mutation Of shells by one side or the
other for some great effort
Beyond the occasional explosion of a
mine and the routine shelling TO harass
the enemy's guns, destroy new fortif-
cation works and keep the enemy from
taking life too easily, there has been
no action. Soldiers in reserve were
swimming in the canals, resting under
shade trees, playing cricket and foot
ball, and tending the flower gardens
about their quarters. which made them
look like those one sees in front of
rows OF cottages in this season in Eng
land.
The fiat and gently rolling country
Of FLANDERS and Northern France.
which is a forbidding. gray. 1eafless
mire under the chilling winter mists.
has become pleasant land of rich
crops, dotted with groves. while long
lines of motor trucks of the transports
pass along stately avenues of poplars,
which line roads.
All fears of epidemic sickness in the
hot months for the immense army bill
leted in the thickly populated low
lands are groundless. Thanks to the
antityphoid incubation and the ha-
bitual personal cIea anliness of the Eng
lishman, as we'll as the strict enforce
ment of sanitary precautions by the
Royal Army Medical Corps in the
minutest details, the health of the
troops is as good as in barracks at
home.
minimum, and very few are found even
around the camps of the cavalry and
artillery horses.
AS CLEAR OF LITTER AS
FIRST-CLASS GOLF COURSE
The paths. roadsides and yards.
where the men are billeted. are kept as
clear of litter as n hrst-class golf
course or the lawn of a fastidious sub
urbanitc.
hand to the French peasants. all OF
whom. from boys and girls OF six or
seven to bent old men and women, are
engaged in harvesting And by the
way Tommy uses a scythe or fork.
one knows whether he is city or coun-
try bred.
I have walked through long COM
trenches safely In broad
daylight to the firing trenches. which,
II approached in winter. except over
open ground. stumbling through mud
under cover of darkness would have
been worth ones life. Siege warfare
has been made comfortable. Some OF
the trenches have even become sort
OF sylvan paradise, where meals and
tea are taken nj fresco, and flowers
even have been planted on the para
pets of the support trenches
Where. In winter. the men stock In
freezing water up to their knees, mud
oozed from the sandbags. and only
continual pumping and bailing kept
them from complete immersion, while
the walls were continually falling In.
now the only complaint of the house
keepers is the lack Of water for wash
ing. for the sponGy subsoil is as dry
as a bone and as hard as cement.
TOLL OF CASUALTIES
IS VERY MUCH REDUCED
The toll of casualties, where there
is only sniping and infrequent she'll
ing, has been much reduced. owing not
only to the increased adaptability of
the men to self-protection as the re-
suit of greater experience In trench
warfare, but also to the immense i'm
provements in the protective character
Continued on Third Page.)
s,kno Round T.;n 20 N,ooo,s Eou.