. Vive la France! . spent in thetrenches, though every third day the men aregiven a breathing spell. Three weeks in thetrenches! I wonder if you of the shelteredlife have any but the haziest notion of whatthat means. I wonder if yow, Mr. Lawyer;yoUy Mr. Doctor; you^ Mr. Business Man, canconceive of spending your summer vacation ina ditch 4 feet wide and 8 feet deep, sometimeswith mud and water to your knees, sometimesfaint from heat and lack of air, in your nostrilsthe stench of bodies long months dead, rottingamid the wire entanglements a few yards infront of you, and over your head steel dea
. Vive la France! . spent in thetrenches, though every third day the men aregiven a breathing spell. Three weeks in thetrenches! I wonder if you of the shelteredlife have any but the haziest notion of whatthat means. I wonder if yow, Mr. Lawyer;yoUy Mr. Doctor; you^ Mr. Business Man, canconceive of spending your summer vacation ina ditch 4 feet wide and 8 feet deep, sometimeswith mud and water to your knees, sometimesfaint from heat and lack of air, in your nostrilsthe stench of bodies long months dead, rottingamid the wire entanglements a few yards infront of you, and over your head steel deathwhining angrily, ceaselessly. I wonder if youcan imagine what it must be like to sleep—when the roar of the guns dies down sufficientlyto make sleep possible—on foul straw in a holehollowed in the earth, into which you have tocrawl on all fours, like an animal into its wonder if you can picture yourself as wearinga uniform so stiff with sweat and dirt that itwould stand alone, and underclothes so rotten. * Bodies, long months dead, rotting amid the wireentanglements.
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
