Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-10-16

a MEXICAN FIELD HEADQUARTERS, Sept. 1.
~ American soldiers in France under
- going every experience of actual war except
killing and being killed.
They almost ready to go forward to the
trenches
Their officers hope this will not be long delayed.
Rain fell last night. These limestone hills of
France were streaming with water. The main
roads leading up to the remote tableand which
one organization was at work were Shiny on the
surface and the underbody had been torn to pieces
by the heavy carts. The trials branching off from
these roads hardly distinguishable by day. Here
and there sticks have been erected Between each
pair of sticks tap of white cloth has been tied.
All day long the trenches on the top of these
rolling hills had been held by unit. The pre-
sumption that they were under continuous
fire. The trenches real trenches-identical in
every respect with those in which they will live
later on. There dugouts in them thirty feet
deep Sometimes these are connected by tunnels.
In front of the advanced line the wires and the
listening posts. In the trenches are the machine
gun emplacements and the ammunition magazines
and the telephone system. There is grtdiron OF
trenches, Just on the front.
When darkness came the men in the advanced
line were on the alert. Somewhere out in front
there a prowling and dangerous theoretical
enemy. The enemy took kindly to the job. If one
of the enemy men managed to crawl up to the
advanced line, under the wire, through the mud,
under the soaking rain past the listening posts. he
thereby "got horse on the unfortunates in that
line The enemy hoped 1.-THE officers would speak
as unkindly to them fatheads" they deserved.
He chuckled he ran down hill to try it over.
The enemy was aided by the vertable shell
holes scattered about. 1t is true these shell holes
had been excavated in the story ground by pick,
but they are perfect duplicates Of the real thing.
The one thing that missing those shape
less bundles of sodden cloth that men,
which one sees in No Mans Land at the front. The
star shells occasionally shed greenish light over
the scene Behind them the seventy-fves spoke oc-
casionaly. with blank Shells it is true, but the
noise aided the youngsters to imagine themselves
at real
At 2 o'clock in the morning men in the vii
Iage la-bas were turned out of their blankets
and sent forward to relieve the men in the front
trench. They shattered along the streaming roads.
They felt their way the hills, along the trails
that are dim in daylight, aided now and then by
the strips of white linen tied to sticks and which
gave them their directions The who became
the new enemy. in order to let the old enemy go
home and get dry and warm and rested up, were
the field and dug in at the word of command
and held there until a pale and sodden light ap-
reared upCn the hills.
This is hard and intensive training So far as
actual dscomforts go-barring those added lux
uries of war which crawl by nght-the Americans
are undergoing Just what the men are on the front
The one thing missing is death and dismember-
ment. AS yet the remarkably clipper
and bright. They take everything a game which
must be we'll played not only for the games sake,
but because the punishment for not playing the
game we'll will later on be something they prefer
not to think about
They are cheerful and jolly in their quarters.
As vet no Crouch worth the name has been heard
Of They play tag with huge of laughter tag
being one of the means the French use to compel
u.s. They have of amusement worth
speaking of, but they manage to keep themselves
amused after fashion.
The net result of this training is that their