The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-01-02
FRENCH FINISH
At DAY FIGHT
IN TRENCHES
Soldiers Welcome Brief Rest and
First Chance to Change
Clothes.
JOKE OVER THEIR PLIGHT
INDICATED In%fantrymen Tell of Their
Life at Front-onIy II Left of $50
In Original Company = Kill
Germans to Get Clothes.
BY GABRIEL

Correspondent of the Chicago Daily News.
Amiens, France 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 a few hun
bred yards away Numbered intermit-
tently. My companions were 100
French infantrymen, who were quar-
tered there for four days to rest after
At consecutive days in the trenches.
BY this time they must have resumed
their old positions on the firirg line.
The first man with whom l talked
when the grim, dirty columns broke
ranks and scattered about the thirty
odd farms which compose the hamlet,
said:
Eyes, monsieur, we have been At
days in the trenches without once re-
moving our clothes or even our shoes.
Except for two 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 a tough
and stubborn race. But we are rather
dirty, are we not?"
Joke Over Life in Trenches.
/ replied frankly that | 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
the 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 a 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 $50 men
only one officer and ten men were
left.
Dug Holes With Their Hands.
When they first took position at the
place they still hold, they had to fight
in an open field, for neither side had
time to prepare trenches. The men
sought to protect themselves the best
they could. Those without pickaxes
dug in the earth with their hands, try
ing to make holes big enough to lie
IN.
Gradually, however, trenches were
completed and a subterranean village
organized. Before the trenches barbed
wire was strung on which bells were
hung which would ring when the wire
was disturbed. Their monotonous
life was interrupted only by shells that
burst too near and occasional surprise
attacks.
Ordinarily the men sleep in the day
time in restrooms, the straw in which
by little the soul and body became
hardened until 10Y they can look on
the rain of deadly shells with indiffer-
ence.
Kill Germans to Get Clothes.
Protection against the cold was not
difficult. Wooden garments had been
distributed literally and in case these
were lacking n could always find a
chance to "snipe" some German, steal