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Show GVER THE TOP" I By An American Arthur Guy Empey Soldier Who Went Machine Gunner, Serving in France Copyright 1917, by Arthur Guy Empey EMPEY LEARNS HOW THE TOMMIES ARE FED IN THE FRONT-LINE TRENCH AND BACK OF IT. Synopsis. Fired by the sinking of the Lusitania, with the loss of American lives, Arthur Guy. Emppy, an American living in Jersey City, goes to England and enlists as a prifjle in the British army. After a short experience as a recruiting oflicer in London, he Is sent to training train-ing quarters In France, where he first hears the sound of big guns and makes the acquaintance of "cooties." After a brief period of training Empey's company Is sent Into the front-line trenches, where he takes his first turn on the fire step while the bullets whiz overhead. - . . CHAPTER VI. Continued. 5 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 be poured In some water, and with his hands scoured the dixie inside and out. I thought he was taking an awful risk. Supposing the cook should have seen him ! After half an hour of unsuccessful unsuc-cessful elTorts I returned my dixie to the cook shack, being careful to put on the cover, and returned to the billet. Pretty soon the cook poked his head In the door and shouted : "Hey, Yank, come out here nnd clean your dixie!" I protested that I had wasted a half-hour half-hour on it already, and had used up my only remaining shirt In the attempt. at-tempt. With a look of disdain he exclaimed: ex-claimed: "Blow me, your shirt! Why In didn't you use mud?" Without a word In reply I got busy wltjh the mud, and soon my dixie was bright and shilling. 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 : "Bllme me, you Yanks are lazy. Who In a-goln' 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 day'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 en-tllled en-tllled to rations, so there Is no chance of putting anything over on hlra. Many arguments take place between the "quarter" and the platoon noncom, but 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 quartermas-ter'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 real-ized that-the first requisite of a noncommissioned non-commissioned officer on active service is diplomacy. There were 19 men ln our section, and they soon formed a semicircle around us after the corporal hud called out, "Rations up." The quartermaster sergeant had given a slip to the corporal on which was written a list of the rations. Sit ting on the floor, using a wooden box as a table, the Issue commenced. On the left of the corporal the rations were piled. They consisted of the following fol-lowing : Six loaves of fresh bread, each loaf of a different size, perhaps one out of the six being as flat as a pancake, the result of an army service corps man placing a box of bully beef on It during dur-ing transportation. Three tins of jam, one apple and the other two plum. Seventeen Bermuda onions, all different dif-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." A bottle of mustard pickles. The "bully beef," spuds, condensed milk, fresh meat, bacon nnd "Macono-chle "Macono-chle rations" (a can filled with meat, vegetables and greasy water), had been turned over to the company cook to make a stew for next day's dinner. He also received the tea, sugar, salt, pepper 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 looked puzzled and soliloquized in a musing voice : "Six loaves, nineteen men. Let's see, that's three in a loaf for fifteen men-well, men-well, to make It even, four of you'll have to muck ln on one loaf." P rikiY 'v - V is j&i) Taking Provisions to the Front. J 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 ac-costed 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 It ; somebody's got to get It, so shut up until I dish out these bllnkln' rations." ra-tions." Then the corporal started on the jam. "Jam, three tins apple one, plum two. Nineteen men, three tins. Six ln a tin makes twelve men for two tins, seven In the remaining tin." He passed around the Jam, and there was another riot. Some didn't like apple, while others who received plum were partial to apple. After a while differences were adjusted and the issue went on. "Bermuda onions, seventeen." The corporal avoided a row by saying say-ing that he did not want an onion, and I said they make your breath smell, so I guessed I would do without one too. The corporal looked his gratitude. "Cheese, pounds, two." The corporal borrowed a Jackknlfe (corporals are always borrowing), and sliced the cheese each slicing bringing bring-ing forth a pert remark from the onlookers on-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 that the raisins were to he turned over to the cook for "duff" (plum pudding). This decision elicited a little "grous ing," but quiet was finally restored. "Biscuits, tins, one." With his borrowed jackknlfe, the corporal opened the tin of biscuits, and told everyone to help themselves nobody no-body responded to this invitation. Tommy Is "fed up" with biscuits. "Butter, tins, two." "Nine in one, ten ln 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 elimi-nated until every man ln 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 cor-poral 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 Flying Fly-ing corps where he won't have to Issue rations. At the different French estamlnets in the village and at the canteens Tommy Tom-my buys fresh eggs, milk, bread and pastry. Occasionally when he is flush, he invests In a tin of pears or apricots. apri-cots. His pay Is only a shilling a day, 24 cents, or a cent an hour. Just imagine, imag-ine, a cent an hour for being under fire not much chance of getting rich out there. When he goes Into the Are trench (front line), Tommy's menu takes a tumble. He carries In his haversack what the government calls emergency or iron rations. They are not supposed to be opened until Tommy dies of starvation. star-vation. 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 rations, or when in an attack 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 (two-wheeled wagous), which supplies Tommy's Tom-my's wants while ln the front Hue. They are constantly under shell fire. The rations are unloaded at the entrance en-trance to the communication trenches I 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 things are quiet, and Fritz Is behaving like a gentleman, which sel- y dom happens, Tommy has ft rrporta-nlty rrporta-nlty of making dessert Th! Is "trench pudding." It Is made fim broken biscuits, condensed milk, jam a little water added, slightly flavored with mud put into a careen 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 Some-times a Tommy falls for the ad, and uses the cooker in a dugout to the disgust dis-gust and discomfort of the other oc cupants.) This mess is stirred up In a tin and allowed to simmer over the flames from the cooker until Tommy decides that 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 oft he tries to eat it. Generally one or two Tommies in a section have cast-iron stomachs and the tin is soon emptied. Once I tasted trench pudding, but only once. In addition to the regular ration Issue Is-sue 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 sup-posed to be without friends or rela fives. They write to the papers and their names are published. Girls and women in England answer them, and send out parcels of foodstuffs, cigarettes, ciga-rettes, candy, etc. I have known a "lonely" soldier to receive as many as five parcels and eleven letters in one week. m m Empey realizes for the first time how. death lurks in the trenches when a comrade falls by his side. He tells about it In the next Installment. m m (TO BE CONTINUED.) |