AND SCENES INSIDE THE FRENCH AND FLEMISH TRENCHES BY Ralph Pulitzer ILLUSTRATED HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON Over the Front in an Aeroplane Copyright, 1915, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America TO MY WIFE...

Paris , August 13th ( Friday ). I have just returned from a unique visit to the front. This afternoon I flew in an army aeroplane from Paris to the fighting lines, skirted these lines for a few kilometres, and flew back to Paris. We made the round trip without a break. I am indebted to the quite exceptional kindness of the French Foreign Office and of the French War Office for this flight. No other civilian has been allowed to ascend in a French army aeroplane at all, and as for visiting the fro

When the average newspaper-reader reads the average war correspondent's excellent stories from the firing-line, his ideas are probably vague indeed as to how the correspondent reached that very elastic zone known as "the front." He probably pictures the military authorities extending to the writer a magnificently sweeping invitation to witness and immortalize their armies in battle. In his mind's eye he sees the journalist equipping himself with automobile, shelter-tent, sleeping-bag, canned foo

With the 5th French Army , Aug. 3 ( via Paris ). On the anniversary of the last day of the world's peace, the 365th day of the war, I stood in the darkness of a very advanced front trench. A short section where I stood was roofed and bomb-proofed. Through a row of very narrow rifle-slits came little beams of daylight that rested in flecks on the white, chalky back of the trenches and were thrown up very faintly against the logs of the trench roof. Very dimly, I could gradually make out a narrow

The morning after our trip to the front at Rheims we got up at seven o'clock after a good night's sleep in the comfortable hotel, and by shortly after eight were ready to start. But here came a hitch in the smoothly running mechanism. The evening before, on our run back to Epernay, Eyre and I had noticed the exhilarating abandon with which our soldier chauffeur slung his car along. We supposed that was the traditional method in which military cars were run. We christened our driver "Barney Oldfi

With the 5th French Army , Aug. 9 . I have just returned from attending a soldiers' school of bomb-throwing. The military authorities permitted my presence as an exceptional favor, informing me that this is the first time such a privilege has been accorded a foreign civilian. This particular school holds its classes in a large green field in a peaceful little valley, within long artillery range of the firing lines. No German shells, however, have hitherto distracted the pupils from their rather

Headquarters of the Belgian Army , La Panne, Belgium , Aug. 30 . Yesterday I spent a day with the Belgian artillery. In the morning at ten o'clock Commandant L——, who had me in charge, called for me at the very comfortable seaside hotel where I am staying. In his military motor we threaded our way through the streets of the town. These were jammed with thousands of Belgian soldiers enjoying their six days of rest before returning for three days in the front trenches (followed by six days in rese

Headquarters of the Belgian Army , La Panne , Aug. 30 . To-day I was given the opportunity of comparing the trenches of Belgium with those I had visited in France. It was a very interesting contrast. Commandant L——, who still had me in charge, picked me up at my hotel at 10 o'clock in the morning. Proceedings were delayed while I insisted on taking a snap-shot of him in the nickel-steel skull-cap which he wore inside his khaki cap. Page 121 COMMANDANT L—— IN THE NICKEL-STEEL SKULL-CAP WHICH HE W

The great lesson that a visit to England, France and what remains of Belgium to-day will teach any one who is willing to be taught by hard facts and not by wistful visions is that peace in the near future is quite impossible. For the only peace, in the conviction of the Allies, that will end this war is a peace neither of conciliation nor of compromise, but a peace whose terms are arbitrarily imposed by one side and of necessity submitted to by the other. That is the end to which the Allies are