Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-07-07
SENTRY DESCRIBES
NIGHT IN TRENCHES
Lord Dunsany Says 1t Is Weird
and Awful Expe-
rience.
DICK CHEEsER LEFT IN DARK
Inexperienced Soldier Is Greatly
Impressed by Awesome Still
ness and Darkness.
tBy Associated rress.l

(By Associate prcss)
LONDON. July 6.-What will the first
night in the trenches he. is question
that thousands OF American soldiers
have faced perhaps Nth some misEiv-
ipEs, certainly with lively anticipation.
The experience OF many OF them must
be like that of n British plowboy-sol-
der described by Lord Dunsany. Cap
balm OF the InniskilinE Fusiliers
"a mans first night In the front line
b an epoch-making experience" he
writes. 1T Is like mans first vote,
or his twenty-frst birthday--it is
milestone in his life. marking the
change from the mimic warfare be-
hind the lines to the grim realities OF
lctual conflict.
Experience affects soldier by telling
you tho story of recruits first night
In the trenches. Dick cheeser. one OF
my men. was a pIowboy Just past
eighteen when he enlisted. and not yet
nineteen. when ne went on his first
Bentry go" In the front line.
1T was quiet night, and dawn was
4 emily an hour or distant when
f-heeser took his post. The corporal
told him where to stand. warned him to
keep good lookout, and left him.
There was Dick Chceser, alone in the
! dark. with an srmy in front OF him.
n eighty yards away, resourceful.
\ e:afty and desperate enemy. The still.
ness of the night only added to Checs-
srs feeling Of responsibility. The still
\ nest awed him. There had not been
D shell all night. lie put his head over
4 the parapet ginEerly and waited No
body fired at him. He felt somehow
| that the night was waiting for him.
I that something uncanny and unexpected
would happen soon. He heard voices
| In a communication trench somewhere
behind him. there were a few sentences
A OF Erun, uninteliig!ble conversation;
II the voices died away. There was
U long silence. Cheeser fell to wondering
whether the night was black or gray;
he stared hard at the night to study
\ Its exact color; tho night stared back
\ at him, and seemed to he threatening
/ him: II was gray. gray and artful. like
\ & cat a fox.
l DEADLY QUIET MAKES
MEN FEEL UNCASSY
1t was uncanny. thought Cheeser. II
shells would come. or Germans. or any
thing at ALL you would know how TO
lake il: but this dcathly quiet like a
l might happen Cheeser waited and
| waited and waited and the night
waited too. He felt that they were
watching each other. the night and
lie, both crouching, both ready TO
n spring.
His mind grew so active that his
head throbbed with the physical exer.
(. tion OF thinking. He was Watching
with eyes and ears and Imagination,
sioping to anticipate by second or
ftWo the dread something that he felt
was sure to happen soon in the omin-
pus mist OF mo mans land" He
thought OF throwing a stone out into
the blackness. Just to see what would
happen. Then he began to wish for
his boyhood's slingshot. SO that he
icould catapult a nice round strone
Fright across the blackness into the
German line
"A little wind blew in the night. too
cold for the time OF year. 1t made
for moment a lane in the midst over
Sno mans land" Cheeser peered into
nit but the mist closed round again
II No. Night seemed to say. you can,
n guess my secret And the awesome
flush intensified. What are they up
n to now? thought the sentry. What
are those crafty enemies planning in
Jail those miles of silence?
II Even the very lights were few and
0far between When one went IN. far
HILLS of shadow seemed to sit and brood
/ over the valley: black shapes grew
|Irp and vanished in the shadow. The
rocket faded and the hills went back
|iinto mystery again, the Cheeser sunl
|Ipeered level over the ominous valley.
"All the dangers and sinister shapes
land evil destinies that the sentry faced
Hfhat night cannot be pictured or de-
(Iscribed In mere words. 1t was only
1 two hours that he stood there. and
mot shell fell In all that time, not
hsierman stirred.
"It is weird and awful experience.
that first night in the trenches The
|inext time it is All easy matter"