The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-10-13

each side. In many dugouts sec
ond stircase, or two staircases, lead
to a lower floor sometimes thirty or
forty feet below the trench level.
All of these stair-cases, passages and
rooms are, in the best specimess,
completely lined with wood and as
fully strengthened as the entrance
staircase already described.
All the Comforts of Home.
In one typical dugout each section
of platoon had its allotted places
for messing and sleeping, its own
place for parade in a passage. and
its own emergency exit to the trench.
In another. used as a hospital for
dealing Immediately with the wound
ed, the first floor underground has a
large reception hail.. dressing room,
bath and large operating roOm.with
adequate heating apparatus. An
easy staircase leads down to seveH-
teen other rooms. accommodating
, thirty-two patients.
/ A most elaborate dugout was cap
tured near Mametz, designed to
house a whole company of 800 men.
II contained kitchens, provision and
munition storerooms, a we'll. forge.
engine room and dynamo. lighting
the whole place with electricity. Ev-
erything possible for the comfort of
the men and officers as well as the
expediences of war was provided for.
In the officers quarters OF the vari-
Gus captured dugOuts have, been
found full-length mirrors. comforta-
BILE bedsteads, cushioned armchairs,
book cases and pictures. In one
room glazed sanitary paper lined
the wall. and the present English oc-
cupant is convinced by circumstan-
tial evidence that his predecessor liv-
ed there with his wife and child.
Clearly there was no expectation of
an early move.
Lavish Use of Labor.
Other German trench works show
the same lavish use of labor as the
dugouts. In the old German front
trench south of La Boisselle an en-
trance like that of a dugout leads to
a fight of twenty-fOur stairs. all well
finished. At their foot a landing
three feet square opens on its fur
Their side upon a nearly vertical shaft.
Descending this by ladder of thir-
ty-two rungs, you find a second land
ing like the first, opening on con-
tinuation of the shaft. Down this
ladder of sixty rungs brings you to
the starting point of an almost
straight level funnel three feet wide
and about five feet high cut
through pure, hard chalk. 1t ends
in blank wall.
But Are They As Healthy?
1t is admitted that without doubt
the overhead strength OF German
dugouts keep down casualties during
bombardment, and sometimes enables
the Germans to bring up unsupported
forces to harass the allied troops in
the rear with machine gun and rife
fire when a charge has carried the
men past an uncleared enemy dug
out. On the other hand. it is con-
tended that if the advance is made
good, every German left in a dugout
will be either a dead man or a pris-
oner.
The German dugouts admittedly
give more protection to the men in
bad weather than do the French or
English ones. On the other hand,
there is nothing to show that the
half-buried German army gains more
by relative immunity from rheuma-
tism and bronchitis than it loses in
the way of general health and vital
ity through troglodytical life. In
England troops have better health in
tents than in huts, and better health
in huts than in billets, and it is con-
tended that the close underground
villages of the Germans yield higher
figures of general sickness than the
simpler, shallower, more airy trench
shelters of the allies.