uarters
with the enemy. There has been some shelling of the rear of our front
line south of the Lys, but this form of annoyance diminishes daily along
the whole front. Sniping, however, is carried on almost incessantly.
There seems to be little doubt that the Germans are employing civilians,
either willingly or unwillingly, to dig trenches; some civilians have
been seen and shot while engaged in this work.

While it is necessary to accept the evidence of all prisoners with
caution, there is a change in the views expressed by some officers
captured recently which appears to be genuine. They admit the failure of
the German strategy and profess to take a gloomy view of the future. At
the same time it must be confessed that as yet there is no sign that
their view is that generally held by the enemy, nor has there been any
definite indication of a lack of morale among the German troops.

The highways of Northern France are crowded with men responding to the
various mobilization orders issued by the French Government.

Thousands of such troops were encountered in the course of a short
automobile trip. The strange procession includes a curious mixture of
types. A considerable proportion of these new drafts are composed of
middle-aged men of good physique and likely young men from the
countryside.

The change within the last few days of what may be termed the atmosphere
of the battlefield has been marked. The noise of the cannonading has now
decreased to such an extent that for hours at a time nothing is heard
but the infrequent boom of one of the heavy guns of the Allies, the
occasional rattle of machine guns, and the intermittent fire of snipers
on either side. So far as the use of explosives is concerned, the
greatest activity is found in local attacks with hand grenades and
short-range howitzers. The enemy has practically ceased his efforts to
break through the line by assaults, and he is now devoting his energies
to the same type of siege operations which have been familiar to the
Allies since the beginning of the battle of the Aisne.

Subterranean life is the general rule in the neighborhood of the firing
line. Even those men not actually engaged in fighting live in
underground quarters. Some of these quarters, called "funk-holes" are
quite elaborate and comfortable and contain many conveniences not found
in the trenches on the firing line. They communicate with the firing
line by zigzag approach trenches which make