The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-03
IT TAXES SMALL. MEN TO OPERATE
 MONSTER TANKS
Tall or Fat Soldiers Take Up Too Much Space In These
 Mobile Forts.

British Headquarters in France. (By MaiD-I1nder the shelter of green ridge of shell-pocked farm land about fifteen miles behind the pres ent front-nne trenches, one may come upon the encampment of the tanks. The parade ground is like a distorted page from Gulliver's Travels-Ldll1- putfan men at play with Brobdlgna- gian toys.
 A dozen of the monsters are lying stretched out in the warm afternoon sun, being combed and oiled and secured by their industrious attend ants, who are like mere meddling pygmies by the side of the great steel steeds. Over at the edge of the par ade, where the level ground breaks up into ridges and hillocks. two or three of the big iron horses are being put through their paces.
 Grunting and puffing, creakipg and complaining, they move along, not with the easy strife of the storybook giants, but with the cumbersome gait of huge muscle-bound turtle, house on back. But nothing discomposes them in their ,grumbling advance. They mount a terrace 5 feet high with the same clumsy non-chalance that they negotiate mole hill, and the steady pace of their caterpfllars is unchanged whether climbing up a steep slope or clattering blunderingly along level ground.
 The job of tankman is no sine cure. The interior is not built for comfort. It is crowded with machin- cry and guns and armor, and in mo- ton the deck sways and bucks like that of a little torpedo boat in a storm. Nor is the roof high enough to prevent danger of receiving a sound humping if one is too tall. Men for tanks are picked for small stature and slender bulk. They must be tough as nails but occupy no un- necessary space. A fat man would stick in the manhole, which is alike entrance and exit; a tall man would have to spend his time in stopping posture which would interfere not only with his own efficiency but with that Of everybody else on board. If you would spend few minutes
 on board a tank, you must have your steel helmet with you and your gas mask carefully encased in its water
 proof bag, ready for emergency. Climbing through the nlanhole re- quires a little knack of it's own. Legs first is the approved technique, all l though to the novice there appear good ground for believing that the i reverse process might be just as sat 1 isfactory. Legs first, one is in danger of placing a foot or a leather-clad
 ankle against a. hot engine-case. with painful results. But with care this can be avoided, and a landing made I just inside the starboardr gun. l. Everything is spic andsaspan, shin. ling with abundance of oil, but no su- iperfluous luxuries soff brass CT nickle
 to take away the grimness of gray.
 back armor plate which obtrudes ev.
 erywhere.
 As in battleship, the preferential
 position from the point of view o1
 safety is given to the engines. They lie just above the floor, stretching 1T l a longitudinal position through the I center of the craft, while shafts and
 cranks run. under a special armol
 casing at the back to the cams whict operate the caterpillars and the big lpush-wheel at the rear.
 ] The painting of the tanks is a grea
 pastime in the tank .encampment
 Modern protective coloring of battle
 field weapons offers a wide field fol | the development of the cubist art
 and the decorative appearance of \:
 tank going into battle suggests tha some painter who all his life had spe cialized in barber poles had suddenl, gone amuck with his paint brush ant color pot.