a 200-quart copper, double, or jacketed vat. Also a
70-quart coffee tank. Both receptacles have separate fireboxes and ash
pits. One section carries extra rations for the men, the daily quota of
provisions, extra rations for horses, folding canvas water pails and
utensils.

The actual food is cooked within the vat or caldron inside the water
jacket, so that the heat does not come in contact with the food direct,
thus preventing burning. The food will cook slowly for hours when once
the water is heated, and will remain hot for a long time. The men can
get water in an emergency and hot coffee is always ready for the
sentries and men on guard duty to carry with them at night. Of course a
bottle of the thermos type is used by these men so that they can have
hot coffee when on the line of duty. The kitchen outfits are complete
and so arranged that they can be rushed over rough ground without
spilling their contents.

Electric flash lights, batteries for setting off dynamite and other
explosives used for blowing out trenches and other fortifications,
searchlights, mirror signaling devices, illuminating bombs, which are
shot high in the air to explode and illuminate the field for hundreds of
yards, signal bombs, and many ingenious contraptions never dreamed of
are part of the army's equipment used on the battlefields of the
greatest war that the world has ever known.

CHAPTER XII.

THE WORLD'S ARMIES.

THE EFFICIENT GERMAN ORGANIZATION--THE LANDWEHR AND LANDSTURM--GENERAL
FORMS OF MILITARY ORGANIZATION--THE BRAVE FRENCH TROOPS--THE PICTURESQUE
ITALIAN SOLDIERY--THE PEACE AND WAR STRENGTH--AVAILABLE FIGHTING
MEN--FORTIFICATIONS.

No one scoffs at the military organization which Germany has developed
through the years--yes, almost centuries--of moulding and training, for
Germany has proved herself efficient, even if egotistical and
domineering. She built up what at the beginning of the war was
recognized as the most powerful, most efficient and well balanced
military organization the world has ever known. And it was not an army
in the sense that America has been taught to think of armies. It was a
trained nation for war--a nation armed--rather than a small, compact
fighting machine.

The strength of the German army on October 1, 1913, has been given in
fairly authentic reports as 790,788 men and 157,916 horses. Of the men
30,253 were officers and 2,483 sanitary officers. There were 104,377
non-commissioned offi