The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-08-02
FIRST NIGHT IN
THE TRENCHES IS
HELD In LIVELY
.ANTICIP Alto N
"Is Like a Mans First
Vote, is Description
of British Plough Boy !.

London. July neutrality-suspicious.
Of the Associated Press,3--What will
the first night in the trenches be. is a
question that thousands of American
soldiers fave faced. perhaps with
some n2isgivings, certainly with q
lively anticipation. The experience
of many of them must be like that Of
British pioughboy soldier, descrih-
ed by Lord Dunsany, Captain of the
Inniskilling Fusiiiers.
"a mans first night in the front
line is an epoch making experience"
he writes. 1T is like a mans Arst
vote, or his twenty-fir birthday
it is a milestone in his life. marking
the change from the mimic warfare
behind the lines to the grim realities
on actual conflict.
Perhaps can best explain how this
affects o soldier by telling you the
story Of a recruits first night in the
trenches. Dick Chester one of my
men, was a ploughboy just past 19
when he enlisted, and not yet 10
when he went on his first sentry
go" in the front line.
ut was a quiet night, and dawn
was only an hour or so distant when
Chester took his post. The corporal
told him where to stand, warned
him to keep good lookout, and left
him.
"Thsre was Dick Chester, alone in
the dark, with an army in front OF
him, eighty yards away, a resource
full, crafty and desperate enemy. The
stiffness awerd him. There had not
been. shell air night. Flo put his
head over the payapet gingerIy and
waited. Nobody flred at him. He
felt somehow that the night was
waiting for him, that something un-
canny and unexpected would happen
soon, He heard voices in g, commu-
nication trench somewhere behind
him; there were a few sentences Of
gruff, uninteiligent, conversation;
the voices died away. There was a
long silence. Chester fell to Won
dering whether the night was black
or grey: he stared hard at the night
to study its exact color; the night
stared back at him, and seemed to be
threatening him; it was gray. gray
and artful, life 9. cat or fox.
1T was uncanny, thought Chester.
If shells would come, Of Germans,
or anything at all. you would know
how to take 1t, but this deadly quiet,
like g. mist over huge valleys! Any
thing might happen, Chester waited
and waited, and the night waited too.
He felt that they we're watching
each other. the night and he. both
crouching, both ready to spring.
His mind grew so active that his
head throbhed with the physical ex-
ertion of thinking. He was watch
ing with eyes and ears and inRgi-
nation, hoping to anticipate by a
second or two the dread Something
that he felt was sure to happen soon
in the ominous mist Of No-Man's
Land. He thought OF throwing a
stone out into the blaclSness, just TO
see what would happen. Then he be-
gan to wish for his boyhood's sling
shot, so that he could catapult nice
round stone right across tho black
ness into the German line.
"a little wind blew in the night,
too cold for the time Of year, It
made for n moment lane in the
mist over No Mans land. Chester
peered into it, but the mist closed
round again. No. Night seemed
to say, you can't guess my secret
And the awesorne hush intensified,
What are they up to now2 thought :
the sentry. What are those crafty
enemies planning in all those miles
or GtlenGeI
Even the very lights were few
and far between. When one went up,
far hills of shadow seemed to sit !
and brood over the valley; black
shapes grew UP and vanished In the
shadow. The rocket faded and the
hills went back into mystery again,
and Chester still peered level over
the oninous valley.
"All the dangers and sinister
shapes and evil destinies that the
sentry faced that night cannot be
pictured or described in mere words.
It was only two hours that he stood
there, and not shell fell in all that
time, not a German stirred.
sit Is q weird and awful expert
ence, that first night In the trenches.
The next time It is an easy matter"