Arizona republican., 1918-05-17
MARINE TELLS IF
 LIFE IN TRENCHES

Eugene Revelle, 511 North Second street, Phoenix, has received the fol- lowing letter from his friend, Sergeant Murl Corbett, of Edwardsville, 1ll., transferred from San Domingo to France in December, 1917, and now in the 18th company, 5th regiment, United States marine corps:
 Somewhere in France,
 Sometime in April. Dear Gene:
 I know this letter is overdue but am sure no explanations are necessary to you. It's out of the question to an- swer 19 letters on II sheets Of paper, ant it requires some time and elbow room.
 For time our fighting group had IT men in our dugout and the French only put 10 hunks in it, so it must have been designed to accommodate that many men,. and they believe in economizing in space as well as material. As a re- suit you had to wait your turn to flop" and there was no lounging room provided to while away the time you were waiting. Our home is fairly dry. By that 1 mean the water does not seep in from the roof as in those pro- vided with sprinkler system, though we have a spring in the bottom of it. We have few boards over it and bale it out regularly, It's an advantage in one way though. We have to wash and massage our feet for 15 minutes daily, and change socks. Imagine a room with a bath in the trenchesi Our in- terior decorations are rather unique. Old fashined hewn beams, smoke blackened and full of nails; walls boarded up with a dozen different kinds of lumber; shelves and hunks; wires and equipment stuck away in every conceivable place. An open fireplace with an umbrella chimney, smoke comes out of about a dozen rat holes a regular chimney is not warm enough in this locality. Our hunks are made of chicken wire netting and are quite comfortable except that one can never disrobe before entering. I sleep with my feet in gunny sack, not to keeI out the "cooties'' but to keep the mud off the blankets. We have quite a regiment of rats billeted with us and maintain fairly friendly relations We feed them even though we don't draw rations for them, and don't usually mo- lest them unless they are guilty of 8 breach of conduct. They seem to make regular patrols at night, just as we do and whenever your, face lies in theil path it's all the same to MT. Rat, duty is duty to him, and over he goes. We also object to them eating up our packs and soap tqueer, they never tackle grenades or rocketS.) Likewise I dont savvy why gas doesn't get them
 l cant tell you the exact location O. our home for two good reasons; first is it forbidden; and second. 1 don know where it is anyway. We don even know where we are, what we ar, doing or where we're going, which i. of course as it should be- The oniN thing is that I think that since we don know these things the Germans should not be told either, but I'm afraid the, are, sometimes. I think they do knov where our front is because we have t, give the countersign to enter it wheI returning from No Mans land.
 l spent about six rather eventfu hours parading around ont here las night. I could not find a German though they sert up enough flares t try to find us. It is not nearly as ex citing out there as one would imagine just disaSreeable. Mud and wire an, shell holes.
 Will put on a new record now. guess that's enough in this strain fo one edition.
 As ever,
 SERGEANT MURL CORBETT, 18th O., 5th Regiment, U. s. Marines
 American Expeditionary Forces.