The Carlisle independent., 1918-08-08


 time at that.
 In the front-line trenches it Is more comfortable to fall asleep on the para. pet fre-step than in the dugouts, be- cause the cooties are thicker down beAw, and they simply will not give you a minutes rest. They certainly are active little pests. We used to make back scratchers out of certain weapons that had flexible handles, but never had time to use them when we needed them most.
 We were given bottles of a liquid posed to soak our clothes in it. It was thought that the cootieS would object to the smell and quit work. We'll, a cootie that could stand our clothes without the dope on them would not be bothered by little thing like this stuff. Also, our clothes got so sour and horrible smelling that they hurt our noses worse than the cooties. They certainly were game little devils, and came right back at us.
 So most of the poilus threw the dope at Fritz and fought the cooties hand to hand.
 There was plenty of food in the trenches most of the time, though once in a while, during a heavy lombard ment. the fatigue-usually corporai's guard-would get killed in the con- munication trenches and we would not bo, tan ta tho Co T rescue the grub they were bringing. Sometimes you could not find either the fatigue or the grub when you got to the point where they had been hit.
 But, as l say. we were well fed most of the time, and got second and third helpings until we had to open our belts. But as the Limeys say: "Gaw blimey, the chuck was rough.' They served thick soup of meat and vege- tables in bowls the size of wash ba- sins, black coffee with or without sugar-mostly without !-and plenty Of bread.
 Also, we had preserves in tins, just like the Limeys. If you send any par cells over, do not put any apple and plum jam in them or the man who gets it will let Fritz shoot him. Ask any. Limey soldier and he will tell you the same. never thought there was so much jam in the world No Mans Land looked like city dump. Most of us took it, after a while, just to get the bread. Early in the war they used the tins to make bombs of, but that was before Mills came along with his hand grenade Later on they fat tened out the tins and lined the dug outs with them
 Each man carried an emergency ra- tion in his bag. This consisted of bully beef, biscuits, etc. This ration was never used except in real emergency because no one could tell when it might mean the difference between life and death to him. When daylight catches a man in shell hole or at a listening post out in No Mans Land he does not dare to crawl back to his trench before nightfall. and then is the time that his emergency ration comes in handy. Also, the stores failed to reach us sometimes, as I have said, and we had to use the emergency rations.
 Sometimes we received raw meat and fried it in our dugouts. We built regular clay. ovens in the dugouts. with iron tops for broiling. This, of course, was in the front-line trenches only.
 We worked two hours on the fire step and knocked off for four hours, in which time we cooked and ate and slept. This routine was kept up night and day, seven days a week. Some times the program was changed; for instance, when there was to be an at- tack or when Fritz tried to come over and visit, but otherwise nothing dis turbed our routine unless it was a gas attack.
 The ambition of most privates is to become a sniper. as the official sharp shooters are called. After a private has been in the trenches for six months or a year and has shown his craftsmanship, he becomes the great man he has dreamed about. We had wv shApCiS tO cdtu GODpduN anu De- cause they took more chances with their lives than the ordinary privates they were allowed more privileges. When it was at all possible our snipers were allowed dry quarters, the best of food. and they did not have to follow the usual routine, but came and went as they pleased.
 Our snipers, as a rule, went over the parapet about dusk, just before Fritz got his star shells going. They would crawl out to shell craters or tree stumps or holes that they had spotted during the day-in other words, places where they could see the enemy parapets but could not be seen themselves. Once in position, they would make themselves comfort able. smear their tin hats with dirt, get good rest for their rifles and snipe every German they saw. They wore extra bandoleers of cartridges, since there was no telling how many In s1~N~