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r m i r? % ; SYNOPSIS. i i CHAPTER I?Fired by the news of the Winking of the Lusitania by a German i submarine, Arthur Guy Empey, an Ameri*can, leaves his office in Jersey City and [goes to England where he enlists in the {British army, [ CHAPTER II?After a period of trainting, Empey volunteers for immediate serv[|ce and soon finds himself in rest billets somewhere in France," where he first [makes the acquaintance of the ever-presfent "cooties." CHAPTER III?Empey attends his first [church services at the front while a GerSnan Fokker circles over the congregation, i CHAPTER IV?Empey's command goes [Into the front-line trenches and is under fire for the first time. I CHAPTER V?Empey learns to adopt [the motto of the Brtish Tommy, "It you [are going to get it, you'll get it, so never iworgr.z - - - | CHAPTER VI. MBack of the Line." Our tour in the front-line trench lasted four days, and then we were . relieved by the ?? brigade. Going down the communication trench we were in a merry mood, although we were cold and wet, and every bone in our bodies ached. It [makes a lot of difference whether you j are "going in" or "going out." i Afh*? or?r? nf r?nmrrmnieiition I ? ? ? ? ? (trench, limbers were waiting on the road for us. I thought we were going to ride back to rest billets, but soon found out that the only time an infantryman rides is when fie is 'wounded and is bound for the base or foighty. These limbers carried our Reserve ammunition and rations. Our march to rest billets was thoroughly enjoyed by me. It seemed as if I were on furlough, and was leaving behind everything that was disagree- j J able and horrible. Every recruit feels this way after being relieved from the [trenches. We marched eight kilos and then [halted, in front of a French estaminet. [The captain gave the order to turn ^[but on each side of the road and wait . his return. Pretty soon he came back land told B company to occupy billets >117, 118 and 119. Billet 117 was an bid atable which had previously been Occupied by cows. About four feet in front of the entrance was a huge manure pile, and the odor from it was 4 anything but pleasant. Using my j flashlight I stumbled through the door. Just before entering I observed a [white sign reading: "Sitting 50, lying j |20," but, at" the . time, its significance irHd not strike me. Next morning I i :asked the sergeant major what It meant. He nonchalantly answered: "That's sod&<5of the work of the R. 1A.M. Cj>C^fal Army Medical corps). lit means that in case of an atthis billet will accommodate pfty wonnded who are able to sit up [and .take notice, or twenty stretcher [cases." ' 1 < It was not long after this that I was Hone of the "20 lying." I soon hit the hay and was fast [asleep, even my friends the "cooties" failed to disturb me. ; The next morning at about six ib'clock I was awakened by the lance corporal of our section, informing me (that I had been detailed as mess orderly, and to report to the cook and give him a hand. I helped him make the fire, carry water from an old well, and fry the bacon. Lids of dixies are ,used to cook the bacon in. After breakfast was cooked, I carried a dixie k>f hot tea and the lid full of bacon to jour section, and told the corporal that [breakfast was ready. He looked at me iln contempt, and then shouted, "Breakfast up, come and get it!" I immediately got wise to the trench parlance, and never again informed that "Breakfast was served." ; It didn't take long for the Tommies fto answer this call. Half dressed, ' ithey lined up with their canteens and jl dished out the tea. Each Tommy [carried in his hand a thick slice of ^>read which had been issued with the Rations the night before. Then I had jthe pleasure of seeing them dig into [the bacon with their dirty fingers. The Allowance was one slice per man. The jlate ones received very small slices.; |As each Tommy got his share he immediately disappeared into the billet. [Pretty soon about fifteen of them made a rush to the cookhouse, each carrying j !*? VinoA fttnn /vP KroaH ThpSP Sllf?PS i 0CL JLOUV.C VJ. ?- , fchey dipped into the bacon grease which was stewing over the fire. The i last man invariably lost out. I was the last man. _. After breakfast our section carried jtheir equipment into a Weld adjoining :the billet and got busy removing the trench mud therefrom, because at 8:45 i ' i a. m., they had to fall in for inspection I and parade, and woe betide the man j who was unshaven, or had mud on his j [uniform. Cleanliness is next to godli- j toess in the British army, and Old Pepper must have been personally ac- j ;<}uainted with St. Peter. Our drill consisted of close-order j formation, which lasted until noon. ! paring this time we had two ten-rcin- j iqte breaks for rest, and no snaner the j II III Tf mum SOLDER 0 WENT * * lHfflYDIPtT C GUNMER^ERVING IN fRANCE" ?1917 BY ARTHUR tt/y EflPCY word' "Fall out for ten minutes/' was given than each Tommy got out a fag and lighted It. Fags are issued every Sunday morning, and you generally get between twenty and forty. The brand generally issued is the "Woodbine." Sometimes we are lucky and get "Goldflakes," "Players" or "Red Hussars." Occasionally an issue of "Life Rays" comes along. Then the older Tommies immediately get busy on the recruits and trade these for "Woodbines" or "Goldflakes." A recruit only has to be stuck once in this manner, and then he ceases to be a recruit. There is a reasoh. Tommy is a great cigarette smoker. He smokes under all conditions, except when unconscious or when he is reconnoitering in No Man's Land at night. Then, for obvious reasons, he does not care to have a lighted cigarette in his mouth. Stretcher bearers carry fags for wounded Tommies. When a stretcher bearer arrives alongside of a Tommy who has been hit the following conversation usually takes place: Stretcher bearer?"Want a fag? Where are you hit?" Toamy looks up and answers, "Yes. In the leg." After dismissal from parade, we returned to our billets and I had to get busy immediately with the dinner issue. .Dinner consisted of stew made from fresh beef, a couple ^of spuds, bully beef, Maconochie rations and water?plenty of water. There is great competition among the men to spear with their forks the two lonely potatoes. After dinner I tried to wash out the dixie with cold water and a rag, and learned another maxim of the trenches?"It can't be done." I slyly watched one of the older men from another section, and was horrified to see him throw into his dixie four or five double handfuls of mud. Then he poured in some water, and with his hands scoured the dixie inside and out. I thought he was taking an awfnl risk. Supposing the cook should have seen nim! Alter nan an nour or unsuccessful efforts I returned my dixie to the cook shack, be^ng careful to put on the cover, and returned to the billet I - I J. 1 [ \ Resting Back of the Lines. I Pretty soon the cook poked his head in the door and shouted: "Hey, Yank, i come out here and clean your dixie!" ( I protested that I had wasted a halfhour on it already, and had used up my only remaining shirt in the attempt. With a look of disdain he exclaimed: "Blow me, your shirt! Why in didn't you use mud?" Without a word in reply I got busy with the mud, and soon my dixie was bright and shining. Most of the afternoon was spent by the men writing letters home. I used my spare time to chop wood for the cook and go with the quartermaster to draw coal. I got back just in time to issue our third meal, which consisted of hot tea. I rinsed out my dixie and returned it to the cookhouse, and went back to the billet with an exhilarated feeling that my day's labor was done. I had fallen asleep on the straw when once again the cook appeared in the door of the billet with: "Blime me, you Yanks are lazy. Who in a-goin' to draw the water for the mornin' tea? Do you think I'm a-goin' to? Well, I'm not," and he left. I filled the dixie with water from an old squeaking well, and once again lay down in the straw. CHAPTER VII. Rations. Just dozing off; Mr. Lance Corporal butted in. In Tommy's eyes a lance corporal is one degree below a private. In the corporal's eyes he is one degree above a general. He ordered me to go with him and help him draw the next. dax.'s_rations. \ also told me to take my waterproof. Every evening, from each platoon or machine-gun section, a lance corporal and private go to the quartermaster sergeant at the company stores and draw rations for the following day. The "quarter," as the quartermaster sergeant is called, receives daily from the orderly room (captain's office) a slip showing the number of men entitled to rations, so there is no chance of putting anything over on him. Many arguments take place between the 11 A ~ J "quarter anu uie piuiuuu uunwiu, uui | the former always wins out. Tommy says the "quarter" got his job because he was a burglar in civil life. Then I spread the waterproof sheet on the ground, while the quartermaster's batman dumped the rations on it. The corporal was smoking a fag. I carried the rations back to the billet. The corporal was still smoking a fag. How I envied him. But when the issue commenced my envy died, and I realized that the first requisite of a noncommissioned officer on active service is diplomacy. There were 10 men in our section, and they soon formed a semicircle around us after the corporal had called out, "Rations up." The quartermaster sergeant had given a slip to the corporal on which was written a list of the rations. Sitting on the floor, using a wooden box as a table, the issue commenced. Oh the left of the corporal the rations were piled. They consisted of the following: fii-e Innvps nf fresh hrend. each loaf of a different size, perhaps one out of the six being as flat as a pancake, the result nZ an army service corps man placing a box of bully beef on it during transportation. I? COMMUNICATION"" TRENCH Diagram Showing Typical Front-L Three tins of jam, one apple and the ! other two plum. *. T>?_ oil ,?#_ oevei'.ieeu Deiiuuua umuuo, ??* ferent sizes. A piece of cheese in the shape of a wedge. . Two one-pound tins of butter. A handful of raisins. , A tin of biscuits, or as Tommy calls them "jaw breakers." 1 A bottle of mustard pickles. The "bully beef," spuds, condensed milk, fresh meat, bacon and "Macono-: chie rations" (a can filled with meat, vegetables and greasy water), had been turned over to the company cook to 1 make a stew for next day's dinner. He also received the tea,' sugar, salt, pep- _ per and flour. Scratching his head, the corporal studied the slip issued to him by the quarter. Then in a slow, mystified voice he read out, "No. 1 section, 19 men. Bread, loaves, six." He lpoked puzzled and soliloquized in a musing voice: i "Six loaves, nineteen men. Let's see, that's three in a loaf for fifteen men? well, to make it even, four of you'll have to muck in on one loaf." The four that got stuck made a howl, but to no avail. The bread was dished : out. Pretty soon from a far corner of , the billet, three indignant Tommies accosted the corporal with: "What do you call this, a loaf of | bread? Looks more like a sniping plate." The corporal answered: ! "Well, don't blame me, I didn't bake i it; somebody's got to get it, so shut : i up until I dish out these blinkin' rations." i ( Then the corporal started on the : 3am., , j "Jam, three tins?apple one, plum j two. Nineteen men, three tins. Six 1 j in a tin makes twelve men for two tins, ! seven in the remaining tin." He passed around the jam, and ;1 I there was another riot. Some didn't i like apple, while others who received | plum were partial to apple. After a j while differences were adjusted and ! the issue went on. "Bermuda onions, seventeen." The corporal avoided a row by say: ; ing that he did not want an onion, and ( i I said they make your breath smell, so : I guessed I would do without one too. j The corporal looked his gratitude. ! "Cheese, pounds, two." 1 ; The corporal borrowed a jackknife , i (corporals are always borrowing), and j sliced the cheese?each slicing bring- j ing forth a pert remark from the on- j' lookers as to the corporal's eyesight. '' "Raisins, ounces, eight." By this time the corporal's nerves had gone west, and in despair he said I : that the raisins were to be turned over j i i to the cook for "duff" (pluin pudding). !: j This decision elicited a little "grous, ing," but quiet was finally restored. "Biscuits, tins, one." With his borrowed jackknife, the ; corporal opened the tin of biscuits, and . j _tQld everyone-to help themselves?no body responded to" this invitation. Tommy is "fed up" with biscuits. "Butter, tins, two." "Nine in one, ten in the other." Another rumpus. "Pickles, mustard, bottles, one." Nineteen names were put in a steel helmet, the last one out winning the pickles. On the next issue there were only 18 names, as the winner is eliminated until every man in the section has won a bottle. The raffle is closely watched, because Tommy is suspicious when it comes to gambling with his rations. When the issue is finished the corporal sits down and writes a letter home, asking them if they cannot get some M. P. (member of parliament) to have him transferred to the Royal Flyins: corns where he won't have to issue rations. At the different French estamlnets in the village and at the canteens Tommy buys fresh eggs, milk, bread and pastry. Occasionally when he is flush, he invests f.n a tin of pears or apricots. His pay is only a shilling a day, 24 cents, or a cent an hour. Just imagine, a ceiit an hour for being under fire?not much chance of getting rich out there. When he goes into the fire trench (front line), Tommy's menu takes a tumble. He carries in his haversack what the government calls emergency or iron rations. JTliey are not supposed to be opened until Tommy dies of starvation. They consist of one tin of bully beef, four biscuits, a little tin which contains tea, sugar and Oxo cubes (concentrated beef tablets). These are only to be used when the . enemy establishes a curtain of shell fire on the communication trenches, thus preventing the "carrying in" of ine and Communication Trenches* rations, or wlien in an attach a body of troops has been cut off from its base of supplies. * The rations are brought up at night by the company transport. This is a section of the company in charge of the quartermaster sergeant, composed of men, mules and limbers (two wheeled wagons), which supplies Tommy's wants while in the front line. They are constantly under shell fire. The rations are unloaded at the entrance to the communication trenches and are "carried in" by men detailed for that purpose. The quartermaster sergeant never goes into the front-line trench. He doesn't have to, and I have never heard of one volunteering to do so. The company sergeant major sorts the rations and sends them in. Tommy's trench rations consist of all the bully beef he can eat, biscuits, cheese, tinned butter (sometimes 17 men to a tin), jam or marmalade, and occasionally fresh bread (ten to a loaf). When it is possible he gets tea and stew. When tnings are quiet, and Fritz is behaving like a gentleman, which seldom happens, Tommy has the opportunity of making dessert This Is "trench pudding." It is made irom broken biscuits, condensed milk, jam? a little water added, slightiy flavored with mud?put into a canteen and cooked over a little spirit stove known as "Tommy's cooker." (A firm in Blighty widely advertises these cookers as a necessity for the men In the trenches. Gullible people, buy them?ship them to the Tommies, who, immediately upon receipt of same throw them over the parapet. Sometimes a Tommy falls for the ad, and uses the cooker In a dugout to the disgust and discomfort of the other occupants.) This mess is stirred up in a tin and allowed to simmer over the flames from the cooker until Tommy decidesthat It has reached sufficient (gluelike) consistency. He takes his bayonet and by means of the handle carries the; mess up in the front trench to cool.' After it has cooled off he tries to eat it. Generally one or two Tommies in a section have cast-iron stomachs ana the tin is soon emptied. Once I tasted trench pudding, but only once. In addition to the regular ration issue Tommy uses another channel to enlarge his menu. In the English papers a "Lonely Soldier" column is run. This is for the soldiers at the front who are -supposed to be without friends or relatives. They write to the papers and their names are published. Girls and women in England answer them, and] send out parcels of foodstuffs, cigarettes, candy, etc. I have known a "lonely" soldier to receive as many as five parcels and eleven letters in one week. (To be continued next week.) Read The Herald, $1.50 a year. 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