The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-23
SammieS in Front Line Feted
on WashingtOn's Birthday.
But We're Busy Fighting fol
Principles He Represented.
GROWS QUIET DURING NIGHT
'.Life Saver" Passes Thru
Trenches Serving Hot Coffee.
Artillery and Machine Guns
! SpasmOdic During Holiday.
BY FRED S. FERGUSON.


With the American Army in France.
Feb % (delayed) standing on fire
steps. crouching in listening posts and
machine gun positions, or concealed
IN dugouts where telephones and other
war instruments are hidden. American
soldiers observed Washingtons birth
day.
1t was the first time the sons of the
Faith n of Democracy had spent that
day IN a European battle line, to save
the principles he represented.
. Every man in the front line trenches
had a turkey dinner in honor of the
o-casion.
Moon Eliminates No Mans Land.
.German shells were whistling by and
shrapnel was bursting overhead as the
anniversary was ushered in at mid
night. cold, brilliant moon lighted
up the trenches and No Mans Land
almost like day. the knifelike tempera-
ture cut thru the heavily bundled men
sanding rigidly in the trenches.
Watching for some boche moveme mt
The Sammies' tin hats" surmounted
wool helmets which were draw. up to
thei- eyes. They kicked their feet
softly against the side of the trench
IN an effort to warm them.
I Then came the life savers Men
from the rear brought up steaming
hot coffee. carrying the huge cans
taru the twisting communicating
trenches, every man getting a big cup.
II was not only hot but good coffee.
Meantime a boche or American ma
Chine gun or automatic rifle would
rattle: a grenade explode; and then
the German artillery would open up
with a brief Chorus. The shells would
swish and scream over the trenches,
bursting far in the rear.
Close Watch on Telephones.
German bullets would whine closer
overhead as the American sentries cut
loose with their rifles at suspicious
objects in No Mans Land. In the
artillery's telephone dugout were two
boys from Chicago, two from Boston
and one from Salt Lake City. Two
were constantly watching the tele-
phone which, connects the battery
with al: parts of the American sector.
The Sammies in the dugout wanted
all the news from home. They had
come over in December.
The dugout was tight curtained and
Invisible until, -clambering down
steps, one came abruptly into warm,
dry. era mped room, lighted by flicker
ing candles
The post commander, a captain, had
his dugout on the main floor. 1t was
filled with water by the recent rains
but was pumped out today.
In an automatic rifle emplacem emf
was a middle westerner, watching No
Mans Land thru a small porthole for
a suspicious movement.
just Listening, His Job.
In a listening post far out, a boy
was stationed, whose chief job was to
keep still with his ears open. 1t was
quiet out his way and all he had done
was to keep still.
As the night passed. the cold grew
more intense. The mud froze hard
the guns were quiet and the silence
was deathlike. No church was ever so
quiet; no silence so crushing.
The moon cast weird, lengthening
shadows of the men as they peered
toward the boche lines. Thus they
waited tensely thru the hours until
dawn.
The kitchen is located in a she'll
shattered house in the rear Turkeys
for today's feast hung from the raft
ers- Men worked night-long prepar-
ing ''slum" for breakfast
The men in the front line trenches
are given hot coffee at midnight every
night and are served with hot meals
during the day.
Wagon Trains to Front.
Approaching the front lines, one
passes thru many ruined villages,
WHOSE shattered walls and crumbling
spires assume the most fantastic
shapes in the moonlight.
Great lines of wagons, drawn by
husky American mules, take supplies
to within a few hundred yards of the
forward trenches.