The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-28

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 Behind the Front October n.-tSpecia CorrespondenceJ-ft is not the brave.A } ot the soldiers. the presence of death or the noise of the guns that impresses one at the front, but it is the limitless size which passes anything one has evel thought of before. It is easy to take in what a figure like l,000.G0a represents but to conceive LOCO 000,00000O staggars the imagination The front is like that.
 Most people do not realize perha5 e. that seeing the front consists principal " of motoring. That first day straight off we motored miles and miles. We came to a city battered to bits by Ger
 lA.l artillery. We saw what was left of houses and churches. hotels, shops aud -he"ues. There was very little.
 Then we started off again and after more miles came to another town as thoroughly destroyed as the first one, this time not by shellfire, but by the deliberate. detailed, painstaking work ot the retreating Hun. Every house had had it's roof smashed in. it's front pulled off and the beams of each story broken like a flat letter ''v." The furniture had all tumbled down into the cellar or into the crotch Of the tv.'' Somehow shellfire seems to give a more picturesque and less desolate effect than deliberate de- struction. It. has, if you will, the charm of irregularity. Each shelled house had been smashed in a different place ana damage to a greater or less degree. while houses methodically destroyed are all grmly alike, as if each had been hit by the same hammer in the same place.
 Eventually we crept over some of the few really bad roads there seems to be in France toward a ruined village. The trenches were now only a few hundred yards away, and there was no particu- lar reason why German shells shouldn't [ arrive Already everyone had seen sev- eral burst somewhat nearer than the horizon and once some shrapnel exploded high in the air with it's own peculiar bang, followed by the siu>ing of the bull lets. We entered a communication trench and proceeded to zigzag in the direction of. the front line. It had rained recently and the bottom of the trench was distinctly wet.
 Soon the offcer-guide halted and sug- gested that we climb out of the trench and go ahead for a little on dry land Everyone acquiesced quickly though there flashed through each mind the thought that wet legs were preferable to ignominious death in the open! The bangs had been getting stead fly louder. whether of British or German origin no one knew. Nevertheless we were hrave lot and would follow our leader to the bitter end. We felt re- paid for cur courage when passing Tommy remarked that he wouldn't be in the open if he didn't have to- This made us all feel proud of our An glo-Saxon stock, but we were careful to see that the comrnunicat ton trench was handy.
 IN THE TRENCHES
 In few minutes we arrived in the trenches and filed ahead by sleeping sol Giers in dug-outs like shelves. A few soldiers were sitting about. No one seemed to have anything to do. Every one was resting and patiently waiting After a little we came to some steps leading into the depths. We stumbled down step after step and went along on the level little way, with glimpses of dim lights and pillars and sleeping sol- diers on each side. Then we went up again, and were informed on reaching the surface that he had been through one of the best dugouts in the line, orig inally built, needless to say, by the Ger mans themselves.
 Before us was an open space with kitchens where we stopped and talked with the men gathered about. They had had a show that morning. First Ger man aeroplanes flying low and then shortly afterward many shells Yes, two men had been killed just where we were standing not an hour back. Poor fellows, With only one more day to go before they were relieved. A gun hidden nearby xrynr fNff sharp bang, and we all tried to conceal by quick shift of position the fact that We had started.
 In spite of this it was so peaceful with the sun shining on the loafing men and the smoke from the cooking rising in the air that it was hard to believe that we were actually in the trenches with the Hun not 300 yards away. Most of the guns even sounded mellow, like the far