CAMPAIGNING IN COMFORT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 230, 8 March 1915, Page 6

CAMPAIGNING IN COMFORT.

rowx pla>;n!>:<; ox thu hattlkFJ KM). Mr Franz von .lessen. a Danish jourhas had the -privilege, in eomon with tlic other war correspondents, •oin t Im* neutral State-;. of touring . hrongh the Verdun district, and he hawritten an illuminating account of what In* lias seen. lie succeeded in penetrating to tlu; busy world just behind I'm- lighting lin::ii;l through the fore : t he saw from afar a, vision recalling the pictures of '! - mil 1 and Stanley's I lino. V.nt when lu 4 came nearer, 110 discovered llrfc the dweHing?plaees of the Trench :irr:#»ro guards were something move .•n-,y and elaborate than the mud and tree huts put up earlier in the war.

Ir was a compact colony of 'pavilions and of nrtdstically-deshrned fdmnt'os erected By soldiers. a number of whom were architects and skilled artisans in

"The Fi'eneh soldiers behind the fighting line," lie writes, "are living in comfortable pavilion? divided by roads and avenues. The skeleton frameworks are made with slender trunks hewn from the woods in the neighborhood. Tubiir bat lis have been installed. and the sanitation arrangements are (in the words of Ih-' e-date agent) all that could V desired. The majority of houses have windows <of celluloid, stray pieces of ;/lass, or strip--, of white linen, possibly ::n oh! shiri.

'luvdde, the earth is kept dry and herd pressed, and wooden planks lead from one room to another. There a.r<> i a ides with benches and neat, cosy earth bunkers for the men to sleep in. 'he bedrooms are dug out in layers, aie above the other, lined with straw nd sometimes warm blanket* and coats. Firenlaces and chimneys are ande of brick-;-:." Artistic vanes nn-T ingeniously ontructed we itheveoeks above these lorest barracks. fvuhe of the hou-e- ---■ ave bay windows and even vestibule* and front gardens. The soldiers haw in fart, produced liitle garden village-' with the rawest of material, and a sve.dal study has been made of street ami home nomenclature. One humorist chosen "Villa oela-me-siillit." Another has chalked his door with "The lnvu'* of the fnnoeents." The dry ; ant eon U named "Felix "Potln." after the famoin Parisian purveyor of d(dicatossen. ''After Hark." says -Tessen, " "the are illuminated, and the cntlrt, colony resounds with merry song and laughter. The officers join in the fun, and this is probably one of the reasons why the spirit of the French -troops remains unconquerable."