Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-12-20

The hun who had gathered US in was
a rough-looking chap with n close
shayen head. IIo wore his little round
hat well down OH his forehead. lie
was not n bhd sort OF chap. Hc spoke
English fairly we'll in fact, ho had
been waiter In an English hotel for
soino time. lie expressed great salts
faction at the thought Of going back
with US, as llc knew that this would
mean 80 many hours Of comparative
safety for him. lIe asked US IL wo had
any arms. We handed over our clasp
knives and told him that was all the
arms we had. lie said: You are Eng
lish officers. take your word" And
50 wo moved on, The other prisoners
had been taken back long before this.
and as we wero alone we escaped the
official examination and search.
AS VIC slowly picked our way across
what had once been our system of de-
fense We were horrned 20 note the
havoc that had been wrought by the
bombardment. Nowhere did We SEQ l,
piece Of trench that had not been COM
pletcly obitcrated There were dead
everywhere. In most cases they were
not lying on the top of the ground. but
wo could sec legs and arms protruding
here and there. Dugouts that we had
thought quite safe had been crushed In
like cardboard boxes. I was glad when
wo reached what had once been No
Mans Land and had left this horrible
scene behind.
IN a GERMAN TRENCH
About half way up the German front
line VIC entered a new communicating
trench, which was being dug fcverishly
10 Join UP their new trench with the
old. system I had never before been
In German trench, and ] gazed with
awe at the wonderful revetting work
which was to he seen everywhere. The
walls of tho front line were built of
logs laid one on top of the other. The
ilro bays, fire steps. traverses, etc, were
as carefully aud strongly built as
though they had been completed before
stho war began. Tho communication
trenches were remarkably deep and Just
AS well constructed. At short distances
they were covered over by logs forming
shelters under which men could take
cover in case of shell FIRE. Their COM
lnunication wires wcro. neatly fast
ened TO insulators screwed into tho log
walls and had evidently been put there
10 stay. In one or two places only did
Wo notice tho effect of our own artil-
lery fire. Even Il direct hit seemed TO
DO very little damage to these trenches,
Which were 50 strongly built.
The whole Of the German system of
defense at this point was constructed
III u wooded section of country which
slopcd gently down toward Mcnin.
SYSTEM Oh SIGN BOARDS
When we reached 1lIeir second ilnc of
uctensc we saw a large signboard
painted III II peculiar manner which va
learned later was TO DO found at every
junction of ~ communication trench with
the second line, and was "A guide in case
a man did not know exactly where lie
was i'll tho system. We found similar
signboards painted in different coors
when we reached the third line. AT these
Junction points We could see tho en-
frances To large dugOuts evidently fur
Of men and at the mouth of which there
was always ~ sentry posted. who acted
as "A traffic control. We werU going very
slowly OH account of our weak condition
but we soon overlook one of our own
men, who seemed to be making his way
along the trench alone. He had a hor-
rible wound In his thigh, part of the
flesh having been shot away, but no one
was there to carry him. lie was forced
to make his way along as best he could
Clutcling at the sides of the trench. We
wanted to stay with him and try to
help him, but our guard wOu'd not allow
this. He was evidently thinking of his
own skin and wanted to get out of the
range of our artillery. which was drop
ping shells along tho communication
trench. We met several parties of men
going toward the front line, evidently