The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-06-19
N0NCHALANCE0 OF TRENCH SOLDIER
 ON BATTLEEvE
Striking Description of A Scene in Dugouts Before
 Attack Command

The following story from some where in France was prepared under the direction of the British War Off, flee and therefore is a true picture of life at the front.
 It was the night before an expected German attack. and behind the Bri- tish firing line at the threatened point reserve positions were manned which had been prepared for just such an emergency, but not previous ly occupied. The result was that lit tie of the comfort existed which even in a trench the presence of inhabi- tants always insures; many of the dugouts were flooded and all were damp and disagreeable. But an hour after the sT1ipers of one of the battal- ions had taken over their quarters these men, the greatest individuaists of the British army had converted their dugout from a derelict four walled structure into well-arranged comfortable billet.
 At one end rack has been made out of two trench boards, and here the dealy sniping rifles are stacked On shelf above, also made out of a trench board spread with empty sandbags, the valuable, telescopic sights and other instruments of the craft are neatly laid out At regular intervals along the walls suspended from a bayonet driven in between two sandbags hangs the confused equip ment of each man.
 The few tallow dips which give a fHckering light to the place fret the walls with strange tremulous designs in shadow work cast by the multitu- dinousN equipment straps and pouches; and whenever a sniper moves across the floor great shadows swoop up from nothingness and disappear into the roof.
 The smoke from a score of pipes mounts upward and feeds a billowing cloud which almost hides the roof from view and comes down to the shoulders of a man standing by the doorway, making him appear some headless figure, a stranger entering from another world
 The rations have arrived. There is good evidence of the fact in the glow ing charcoal which fills the braziers. The bottom of the door curtain has been lifted up and the covering of the window partially removed, so that a gentle draught carries away the nox- ious fumes from the brazier, and with the exception of the smoke, cloud clinging to the roof the air of the dugout is pure.
 The preparations for a meal are well in hand. One brazier holds a large dixie of water, and the volume
 of fssteam> pouring from under it's lids shows that the boiling point is not far
 off. A sniper stands by with bag
 full of tea and sugar mixed together, I ready for the brewing, and another is prying off the end of milk tin. Sew eral tins of Maconacnie ration are heating on a grill laced above an- bother brazier, but it is on the third brazier that the piece de resistance | of the feast Is cooking.
 The battalion has just been hurried up from it's months rest in a village
 far behind the lines, and it's snipers
 including as they do many gamekeep- CTS, have brought with them three
 plump hares caught only the day be-
 fore.
 These are cooking in another dixie
 and burly figure is bending over it stirring the contents with a spoon
 while the greater proportion of the ] other men are grouped round him
 watching the proceedings.
 One man holds cantee of polished
 aluminium, rather a superior article for an ordinary soldier, but it is no I his property. It belongs to the snipel Lofficer to whom he acts as orderly and it will bear the first fruits of tht dixie as a goodwill offering from mer
 to officer, synnbolical of the fraterna feeling in the sniper brotherhood. There is a certain gravity about tn, proceedings, but this is a featur,
 which 1characterizes these fellows ir
 all their activities, and is not due. il the slightest degree to any thought O the grim work on the morrow. I One who had not met the section T before might almost have compared the gathering to the manikin crev
 whom Rip Van Wrinkle fell in witl in the Catslin Mountains but for tn, lack of any trace of boredom on tn faces of those assembled here.