The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-02-02
HAY" TELLS
THURSDAY CLUB
OF TRENCH LIFE
Interesting Capt. Beth Capt.
Yates Audience With His
Narrative.

st never realized until the other
day when going through the stock
yards In Chicago where the real base
Of supplies Of the Allies is-Chicago,
for the food and Bridgeport for the
ammunition said Capt. John Hay
Beth, of the Argyll and Sutherland
! Highlanders while in conversation
yesterday afternoon following his fas-
cinating lecture on "The Human Side
Of Trench Warfare" given under the
auspices Of the Thursday Reading
/ club at the Brooklawn Country club.
1 Capt. Beth, who as Ian Hay, the
author of "The First Hundred Thou
sand, is widely known in this coun-
try, possesses a rare gift Of humor
which Eliminates his descriptions of
even the more narrowing details Of
war.
! Capt. Beth was one Of the first
hundred thousand Of recruits from
England who went to the war, the
army known Familiarity as XII, the
arm which, as he puts it, "practi-
cally does not exist now"
Miners, according to Capt Beth,
make the best trench fighters because
| they are. used to handling the pick
and shovel and they seem to prefer
i life underground to that above, any
way.
In the old days. said Capt Beth,
an army in the field subsisted on
the country in which it was stationed
This is no longer possible. Great
Britain has 100000 men in the field
and everything, even to the coal which
they burn in the trenches, comes
tco I, n tel, ,1,<x IT,.
land.
Back of the trenches at night there
lis continuous traffic of supply wagons
without even so much as the light Of
4 a cigarette because some of the road
lis always exposed to the enemy's fire.
During IL months Of continuous war
fare have never known the regi-
mental wagons to fail to reach the
larmy within 48 hours, even after an
i important engagement when great
distances have been covered in a. day
The speaker told Of the necessity of
crltivating friendly relations with<the
natives Of the country which they
! were occupying and how this became
a difficulty when Scotchmen, whose
English no Englishman could under
stand and peasants whose French no
| Frenchnan could understand at
tempted to be friendly. However, he
i said they got along very we'll indeed,
and have evolved sort of common
4 language, which seems to- consist in
each one talking as loud as he can
in his own tongue and throwing in
two or three words of the other fell
lows language as a sort of compli-
ment to him
An average day in the trenches
was described by Capt. Beth as be-
4 ginning at one half hour before dawn,
which is the most important hour Of
the day as it is the time when the
enemy begins his attack if there is
to be one. Everyone stands to arms
| at that hour. AS soon as it has be-
| come light, it is the time to clean
up the trench, then to clean the rifles
and lastly to clean themselves. Rifles
1 are always cleaned before men, how
ever. because, as Capt Beth puts it,
while a dirty man can fire a clean
rifle, no man.. no matter how clean,
can fire a dirty rifle
After the cleaning process, it is
time for breakfast, Breakfast, din
q ner and supper are very much alike
because each receives his rations only
once day. The food, which includes
beef, bread and butter, tea, potatoes,
other food stuffs,/ and always jam, is
| extraordinarily good and extraorxli-
narily plentiful 1t is usually cooked
by the men themselves in the trenches
although in some regiments it is cook
ed behind the lines and brought hot
to the men in the trenches. After
breakfast begins the principal work
!, of the day. spade work. Each trench
fills on an average 1000 bags a day
with sand and these are put into place
at night Across the strip Of 100 or
q less yards, of No Mans Land, one
hears the enemy at similar work Oc-
: casionally,. peeping across, one can
see the tops of their shovels but
, never themselves
All that can be seen is a strip OF
desolate land and white zig-zag Of
trenches. Sometimes, if too many
shovels are seen swinging up at one
place in the enemyss Line ones own
side begins to shell that spot and Their
{ the fun begins, because retaliation is
certain
After dinner a soldier may snatch a
few hours of sleep in his dugout, but
unruffled slumbers cannot be relied
3 upon as the afternoon is the time
when the big guns always begin their
} / work. After dark again. there is
: much to be done. It is the time wher
the wounded are removed and the
q dead buried. Patroling parties are
sent out Finally, about 2 o'clock in
the morning, soldier is permitted tc
lie down where he may lose himsel,
in pleasant dreams until stand to arms