Evening star., 1918-09-27
SHRAPNEL
Sidtlights on tie War
-BY-.
OLIVER OWEN KUHN.


War correspondents at tho battle
front are not permitted to discuss Inn
mediate strategy or tactics. This
might be Of value to tho enemy.
The French peasant has remarkable
tenacity and bravery. This is tndt-
Gated by his persistence In following
the advancing. allied armies.
Within the sound Of the guns you
will find land being cultivated crops
being tended. herds being watered.
The lawns Of ruined houses are being
planted with vegetables, barns are be
ed in order that the land can be re-
claimed for feeding the. population.
Civilian life keeps surging up against
the black line Of war like fresh
water wave against the dark ooze Of a
peat bog.
The word blonde has disappeared
from the language Of the soldier. Now
1t is "camoudaged brunette"
When the war widow Of England is
undergoing training for skilled occu-
her a regular allowances for living ex-
penses and at the same time pays her
tuition
Since the communal kitchen has be-
come common in many sections OF
serve travels fast. If there is some
thing particularly good the whole
countryside or village knows Of it
quickly by word of mouth. If the
bread is. too brown or the beans
cooked overly well the patrons OF the
munal kitchen is becoming moro and
more a fixture.
Discussing the system. Of dumping
supplies behind the fighting lines in
France. one writer says: ..-.,- g..
varied, are the dumps on the outskirts
Of the trenches-the engineers dump.
with its miscellany Of drums Of
barbed wire. stakes. ropes, tools. etc i;
the ration dump, the ammunition
dump and maybe even a water dump,
where reserve supplies of water are
kept, From here the stores are con-
veyed to the trenches. sometimes
along the sunken road in limbers.
sometimes by ration parties. Never
are these dumps depleted, for deficien-
cies made by the evenings consign-
ment to the line are fully. repaired in
the morning on the arrival of the
army wagons and limbers.
-Four soldiers ration party
with empty sandbags rolled under
their arms trudge along through a
trench as the night cloud gathers, in
the east.
"They plod onward, swearing and
grumbling, till near the sunken road
they reach the quartermaster's stores
"a dump. Gracelessly they are hand
ed their tins, their bread. their cheese,
with which they fill their sandbags.
Then. with bulging sacks over their
shoulders, stumbling, sinking into
mud. and still grumbiing, they return
to the trenches"
" Though the war has brought many
changes in social conditions through
out England it is admitted that the
old-time class feeling persists. ITO be
in trade" still is considered a social
barrier. though many Of tho former
tradesmen- Of England today are con-
spicuous figures in the conduct o1 &he
empires part in the present war.
What becomes Of the thousands OF
tons Of rubbish removed from the~bat-
tlef1elds? This Is a question that often
Is asked.
In the rear all the repairable mate
rial, is cleaned and repaired, with the
exception of the larger guns, which
it is impossible to repair outside a
are sent to the towns. where they are
remade in factories which work night
and day increasingly. Some time after
ward these same guns are returned te
the front to do further deadly work
on the enemy. A slight idea of the i'm
mense value Of this work can be gain.
ed when it is stated that in one montt
two thousand tons of iron and steel
thirty-two tons Of copper. one millior
rife cartridges, two thousand trench
bombs, and one thousand and forty.
three rifles were strewn pell-mel
across. the torn-up battlefield Of one
army alone"
Bavariani officers serving with ths
German armies do not have great re.
spect for the majesty or dignity Of thu
Hohenzollerns.