The Carlisle independent., 1918-08-08

CTS in the bunch. Pat sure thought he was rolling in wealth.
 After we were rested m we were issued rifles, shrapnel helmets and belts. and then started down the com munication trench. These trenches are entrances to the fighting trenches and run at varying angles and vary ing distances apart. They are sell dom wide enough to hold more than one man. so you have to march single file in them. They wind in and out according to the lay of tine iand, some parts of them being more dangerous than others. When you come to a dangerous spot you have to crawl sometimes.
 1heFe are so many cross trenches and blind alleys that you have to have guide for long time, because with. out one you are apt to walk through an embrasure in a fire trench and right out into the open, between the German front line and your own. Which is hardly worth while!
 If any part of the line is under fire, the guide at the head of the line is on the lookout for shells, and when he hears one coming he gives the signal and you drop to the ground and wait until it bursts. You never get all the time you want, but at that you have plenty of time to think about things while you are lying there with your face in the mud, waiting to hear the sound of the explosion. When you hear it, you know you have got at least one more to dodge. If you do not hear it-well, most likely you are worrying more about tuning your thousand string harp than anything else.
 In the communication trench you have to keep your distance from the man ahead of you. This is done so that you will have plenty of room to fall down in, and because if a shell should find the trench, there would be fewer casualties in an open formation than in closed. The German artil- lery is keen on communication trenches. and whenever they spot one they stay with it long time. Most of them are camoufiaged along the top and sides, so that enemy aviators can1 not see anything but the earth or bushes, when they throw an eye down on our lines.
 We took over our section of the front line trenches from French line regiment that had been on the job for 24 days. That was the longest time I have heard of any troops remaining on the firing line.
 Conditions at the front and ways of fighting are changing all the time. as each side inventS new methods of butchering, so when I try to describe ize that it is probably just history by now. If they are still using trenches there they probably look entirely diff ferent.
 But when l was at Dixmude they were something like this:
 Behind the series of front-line trenches are the reserve trenches: in this case five to seven miles away, and still farther back are the billets. These may be houses or barns or ruined churches-any place that can possibly be used for quartering troops when of duty.
 Troops were usually in the front line trenches six to eight days, and fourteen to sixteen days in the reserve trenches. Then back to the billets for six or eight days.
 We were not allowed to change our clothing in the front-line trenches not even to remove socks, unless for inspection Nor would they let you as much as unbutton your shirt, unless there was an inspection of identifica- wrist and another around the neck. You know the gag about the disks, of course: If your arm is blown off they can tell who you are by the neck disk {; if your head is blown of, they do not care who you are.
 In the reserve trenches you can make yourself more comfortable, but you cannot go to such extreme lengths of luxury as changing your clothes en- tireIy. That is for billets, where you spend most of your time bathing, changing clothes. sleeping and eating. Believe me, billet is great stuff; it is like sort of temporary heaven.
 Of course you know what the word "cooties" means. Let us hope you will never know what the cooties themselves mean. When you get in or near The trenches, you take course in the natural history of bugs, lice, rats and every kind of pest that has ever been invented
 It is funny to see some of the new. corners when they first discover a cootie on them. Some of them cry. If they really knew what it was going to be like they would do worse than that. maybe.
 Then they start hunting all over each other, just like monkeys. They team up for this purpose, and many times 1t is in this way that couple ef -nAn rot