of the German commandant. The sides of his underground cavern were all
solid concrete, with cement inner walls separating four rooms. Paper
and artistic burlaping covered the walls and ceilings, and rugs were
on the floors. The furniture was all that could be desired. There was
a good iron bed, an excellent mattress, a dresser with a pier glass,
and solid tables and chairs. The rooms consisted of an office, dining
room, bedroom, and a kitchen, with offshoots for wine, and sleeping
quarters for the orderlies and cook. Kultur demanded that the Kaiser's
office should have the best accommodation transportable to the firing
line, but the fare of the common soldier, I should judge, averaged
quite a third below that of the French--both privates and officers,
all of whom share the common lot, with straw for bedding and either
mud or stars for the roof.

Leaving this commandant's late magnificence, we soon found ourselves
in another wide, corduroy-lined trench, with straw dugouts. My Major,
without attempting any comparison, but merely to get my geography
right, said quite simply: "We are now in the parallel French trench to
that German one we just visited."

All this particular bit of trenches was where the Germans cleared out
precipitately after French night attacks, and without waiting for the
fearful "rideau de fer," or iron curtain, with which the French
usually devastate everything before advancing. Littered through them
were hundreds of unused cartridges, rifles, knapsacks, bayonets, and
clothing of every description. The dead had been taken away just
before our arrival. The prisoners--hundreds of them--we met going to
the rear.

The second great lesson I learned on this trip I already had a good
understanding of from my previous trip. It is that the "rideau de fer"
is the most terrible thing ever devised by man to devastate not only
men but every single object upon which it descends.

This time I saw the results of the "rideau de fer" on another long
stretch of what had lately been German trenches. The "rideau de fer"
is simply the French method of converging artillery fire upon a single
point where they intend to attack or where they are being attacked.
The fact that it is possible is due to the enormous number of guns and
the unlimited supply of high explosive shells.

Behind the entire infantry lines there seems to be an endless row of
batteries of "seventy-fives," close up to the trenches. These terrible
litt