The copper era and Morenci leader., 1915-01-08


 trenches one would find it hard to believe that it is a stern war in which they are engaged
 A French sub-lieutenant, writes: We dig comfortable casemates and line them with straw, and remain there for three, four or five days, firing at the German lines now and then, and the rest of the time sleep ing, eating, playing cards, watching the enemy's shells falling or the flight of the aerop1anes Each battery soon becomes little village. Ours-I speak only of the firing party, not the sup ply column-counts 50 inhabitants, living in IS huts. It is sort of per petual July 14-rockets by day and fireworks by night. At last we don't hear the explosions, except by delib- erately listening.
 Such is the battle of Flanders as we artillerymen see it; in the day, a village of cave dwellers behind bank of willows, with intervals of firing; at night, sleep broken by occasional alarms.
 During the last two or three weeks our men have considerably enriched their larder by adding to it hares. rabbits and pheasants. The poor birds, which are very plentiful here, maddened by the sound of battle, are chased and easily beaten down. Some days our battery has had in stock 100 hares, 50 rabbits and score of pheas- ants.'
 Another French soldier shows that his countrymen have learned the les 1f teach their teachers something. He writes:
 All the Comforts.
 "In really up-to-date intrenchments you may find kitchens, dining rooms, bedrooms and even stables. One regi- 1nent has first-class COW sheds. One day whimsical piou-piou, finding a COW wandering about in the danger zone, had the bright idea of finding shelter for it in the trenches. The ex- ample was quickly followed. and at this moment the -- infantry possess an underground farm, in which fat kine, we'll cared for, give such Quanti- ties of milk that regular distributions of butter are being made-and very good butter, too%
 Another young officer tells how the enemy is quite near, just over hill. but between fights there occur "cer- tain odd but characteristic conven- tfons."
 "A hare runs out between the trenches" he says. 'It is greeted with rival volleys. It falls. A French man jumps up to get it. The, Prus- sians wave white handkerchief and cry 'Tabac! Tabac!' which means that if we give them some tobacco they will let us have the hare. So our men club together, and one of them goes and gets the hare, leaving in place of it a big packet of tobacco Scarcely has he got back to the trench ere a 'Bosche' quietly goes for the ransom five minutes afterward, if head is shown, there is blaze of firing"
 But the merry French soldier must have his little joke. When everybody is feeling bored to death, waiting, wait ing for something to happen, he picks up an officers cap which has been left in a corner of the trench and raises it on a stock just above the level of the ground Immediately 1t is the signal for the German marks men, each firing in turn, not by vol ley. A ball strikes the cap. At once a spade is waved above the trench, like flash at rife butts, signifying a hit, and everybody laughs joyfully.
 Games of "Money Boxes."
 There are more useful games than this. especially the game money boxes"
 This is the name the French infan- trymen have given to the tins of meat | which the British Tommy calls bully ! beef" The empty tins are found to make quite good alarm bells. Some times they are slung on strings, some | times they are simply scattered about, under cover of darkness, between the | trenches, SO that any body of men | rushing across will make a chatter. | They are put as far forward as pos sible, and, says MT. Meunier-Surcouf, | there are competitions for who will | carry his boxes the farthest There are trenches which have as many as | five hundred tins thrown about in front of them. But the best is ever the foe of the good; or so we think | when rabbit scuttles amid the tins and receives a shower of bullets from either fearful trench"
 Another amusing picture of life in the trenches is told by an officer in letter to a relative.
 "Yes," he writes. "wefare clean peo- pie here. Thanks to the ingenuity of -, we are able to take a warm douche every day from ten to twelve. We call this teasing the fBosches.' for this bathing establishment of the latest type is fitted up-would you be- lieve it-in the trenches!
 Picture to yourself 8 big hole, six yards in diameter, lined with glazed tiles picked up among the ruins of the