Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1918-03-27
Correspondent Gives Thrilling
Description of First Ex-
perience at Front.
LIGHTED BY STARRY BALLOON
Night Watchers Trust Nobody But
Themselves-5oth Sides Watching
the Fiaring Bombing and Ma
chine Cunning at Intervals. r

With the French Armies In the Field.
Might life in first-line trench has
its little bag of thrills for the begin
ner.
Poilus say night trenches are monot-
onous. but all Poilus have seen livelier
things than trench life.
To an American correspondent,
spending a first night on the fringe
of No Mans Land precisely as no
doubt hundreds Of thousands of Ameri-
cans will before the end of the war, a
nocturnal trench has all the melodra-
matte elements to keep up interest and
drive monotony away.
Darkness seems to settle down
quickly over the frowsy. weedy. gray
strip in front. which nobody owns and
nobody treads In daylight.
A battery of French guns bark
sharply in the rear. Firefiy flashes
wink mile behind the enemy's wire.
The French gunners are saying Good
night TO a Boche battery, and the dull
BOOM" "boom," ''boom"-then the
squeal Of enemy steel above tells you
the Boche is answering. Unless IN
foreseen things happen tonight, the
gunners will "rest on their arms" IN
til daybreak. On quiet" sectors like
this 1t often happens.
With darkness down, the night shift
is eating supper in their dugouts and
rigging out in sheepskin jackets to
begin the silent night watch over the
parapets. The dugouts-corrugated
steel and sand-bag construction at in
tervals few yards back of the first
line-are smelly and dark, but filled
with life. Its human life and insect
life, the latter making little difference
so long as steel and sandbags shed va
grant shells. Men say they can get
accustomed 10 insects, but the bite of
a shell is different.
Signs Of America.
The correspondent found the inevi-
table American sign In these. fpgouts
tonight. Penciled names on the wood
en- hunks suggested New Ynniziss East
! side, st. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee
and other purer American HANGS ,sug-
gested early settlers onatha Iprafries
of the middle West. In fact IT was In
the trench just outsids that small
body of American aSammies" on No
vember fought desperately against
overwhelming German odds In tAmeri-
cas- first battle Of the big European
war. vaEog.+ pe
places a few yards apart along the
parapet. The day Poilas have filed
into the dugouts for food andIrest.
A machine gun is "rat-tat-tat-ing" Its
evening tryout All machine guns are
frequently tested at night. A fainter
''rat-tat-tat-tat" shows that the Boche
is doing it, too. A bright, fiery streak
roars up nearby and a small white
parachute floats gently down with an
incandescent flare lighting up No
Mans Land for a hundred yards
around Somebody saw a suspicious
move beyond the wire, an officer ex-
planned. The officer orders few rifle
: grenades fired as a warning to prowl'
ing Boches, perhaps trying to learr
something or to cut the wire. The
Poilu heads, silhouetting over the para
pet at intervals against the blackness
!, beyond, duck down" for an instant
: while the grenades explode with cav
ernous roars. These missiles fly int
a hundred pieces each and wipe on
: life for rods around.
More machine guns are tapping thei
warnings or having their "tryouts'
here and there along the line. TIL
Boche again, as If nervous. is doing II
. too.
: Nobody is Trusted.
A ha!f-hour follows without singh
spark of fireworks. But II breaks on