either side proceeded to secure what comfort they could by all
manner of clever and unique devices. Winter clothing was provided as far
as possible, but on both sides there was inevitable suffering for lack
of suitable supplies for the winter campaign, and individual initiative
had frequently to supply the deficiencies of official forethought.

Many unique features of trench life were developed during the first
month of winter warfare. Two-story trenches became common on both
sides of the firing line. Bombproof underground quarters for staff and
commanding officers were constructed, and these were fitted up so as to
provide all the comforts of the winter cantonments of old-time warfare.
The ever-necessary telephone was installed at frequent points in
trenches that stretched for scores of miles in practically unbroken
lines. Board roofs were built and provision made for heating the dugouts
in which thousands of men passed many days and nights before their
reliefs arrived. On the German side miles of trenches were provided with
stockade walls, leaving ample room inside for the rapid movement of
troops. The British built trenches with lateral individual dugouts
at right angles to the main trench, protecting the men against flank
fire--and these aroused the admiration even of their enemies. In the
French trenches the ingenuity of a French engineer provided a system
of hot shower baths on the firing line, and from all points along the
deadlocked battle front came stories of the remarkable manner in which
the troops of all the armies speedily accommodated themselves to
unprecedented conditions and maintained a spirit of cheerfulness truly
marvelous under the circumstances, especially as there was no cessation
of the constant endeavor to gain ground from the enemy and no end to the
daily slaughter.

IN THE GERMAN TRENCHES

A correspondent with the German army who visited the firing line in the
Argonne forest late in November, by special permission of the German
crown prince, described the conditions in the trenches as follows: "Here
in the now famous Argonne forest--the scene of some of the war's most
desperate fighting--the Germans are trenching and mining their way
forward, literally yard by yard. This afternoon I reached the foremost
trench, south of Grandpre. About 160 feet ahead of me is the French
trench. Picture to yourself a canebrake-like woods of fishpoles ranging
in size from half an inch to saplings of two and t