ches five days and then get
five days' rest. In talking to the men one feels the influence on them
of a curious sort of fatalism--they have been lucky so far and will come
through all right. One sees and feels everywhere the spirit of a great
game. The strain of football a thousand times magnified. The joy of
winning and boyish pleasure in getting ahead of the other fellows side
by side with the stronger passions of hatred and anger and the sight of
agony and death.

We talked to some of the little groups of men along the road who were
going back to their five days in the trenches. Of course all large units
are split up so as not to attract attention. They were all the same, all
sure of winning, and all bearded, muddy, and determined. I could not
help thinking of American football players at the end of the first half.
These men seemed all the same. I have no recollection of a single
individual. The "system" and its work has made a type not only of
clothes but of face. Their answers to the usual questions were all the
same, and one felt in talking to them that their opinions were
machine-made. Three points stood out--Germany is right and will win;
England is wrong and will knuckle under; we hate England because we are
alike in religion, custom, and opinion, and it is the war of kindred
races. Everywhere one met the arguments and stories of unfairness and
cruelty in fighting that have appeared in the English papers, but with
the names reversed. English soldiers had surrendered and then fired; had
shot from beneath a Red Cross flag or had killed prisoners. The stories
were simple and as hackneyed as most of those current in England.

The concrete rest houses were interesting. Most of them have furniture
made from trees "to amuse us and pass the time." Both officers and men
use the same type of house, though discipline forbids that the same
house be used by both officers and men. The light in these houses is bad
and the ventilation not all that it should be, but they are extremely
careful about sanitation, and everywhere one smells disinfectants and
sees evidence of scrupulous guarding against disease. Oil and candles
are scarce and the "pocket electric" that all the men and officers carry
does not last long enough for much reading. There are always telephone
connections, but in most cases visits are impossible save by way of the
underground passages and the trenches.

One officer described the life as entirely normal; an