The Washington herald., 1917-11-17
BY c. c. LYON.

With the French Army.-suddenly
above the first line German trench the
crown of a helmet glistened under the
bright autumn sum-
Zing! Zing!
The German helmet disappeared.
L was watching the performance
from a lookout station in the French
front line.
BY Jove. believe we got him that
time" exclaimed the French guide
who was with me.
A derisive shout arose from the Ger
man trench.
NO" admitted the guide, disap-
pointed. Il guess l was mistaken.
They wouldn't be poking fun at us
that way. But well get that German
yet. Only last week one of our snip
ers nicked his helmet"
Trenches Ninety Feet Apart.
Only 30 feet separated the French
and German trenches at the point
where spent my first day -"in the
line"
Just the distance from the home
plate to first base on an American
baseball diamond.
l remarked to a French poilu the
neaTness of the enemy.
He shrugged his shoulders, reached
down. picked up a small stone and
tossed it across into the German
trench.
Presently, one of the Germans threw
it back into the French trench.
Later in the morning we were in
another section OF the French line.
You can get fine view from here"
he said.
was in the act Of Joining him when
the whistling Of a bullet over our
heads caused me to duck back. He,
however, calmly continued to survey
the German territory.
You won't be taking many chances
here" he said. reassuringly. THE
German snipers across the way are
very poor shots. They haven't hit any
or US for nearly a month"
Their luck Is likely to change any
time, isn't it?" l asked, as I crouchel
still lower IN the trench.
There is absolutely nothing romantic
about first line trench.
It's a far cry from the pleasan,
boulevards of Paris, where officers and
men on leave promenade in their
spick and span uniforms, with their
swagger sticks and their kid gloves,
to the rain and mud and stencil of
the battlefront, where the earth
shakes and where the hills have been
pulverized into dust and every tree
and other sign of vegetation has been
torn and blackened and charred.
Resemble Coal Mines.
In front Of both the French and
German first line trenches were barb
ed wire entanglements twenty-five
feet deep, leaving a mo Mans
Land" Of not to exceed forty feet.
Here and there in the entrangle-
ments were bits of clothing. And at
one place, in mo Mans Land Law
the helmet and the bayonet of a
German
Poor DEVIL" said my guide. "hs
never got any farther than our en-
tanglements. His body lay out there
all day. but was gone the next morn
ing"
II the trenches and the entangle-
ments and the machine gun place.
ments are marvelously contructed,
they do not match. from an engineer
ing standpoint the underground pas
sageways, approaches and living
quarters for the troops.
It's false notion that the men man.
ming the trenches are marched to
their stations from the rear and then
marched back again to comfortable
quarters after few hours duty.
AT many points in France there
are tens of thousands of soldiers
Germans as well as Frenchmen-liv-
ing like moles in the ground, often
several hundred feet below the sur
face.
A coal mine is the nearest approach
to these underground habitations.
OFTEN their living quarters are con-