QUEER BATTLE-ZONE HOMES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 241, 29 June 1918, Page 7

QUEER BATTLE-ZONE HOMES

(By James Hodson in tho "Daily Mail.") Of all the. pent-up forces that find expression in the doings of our soldiers! none is more provocative than the homemaking instinct. . That inbred love of a place of yoiii' own'that prompted you as a boy to mako a hutch wherein you would sit; cold,-uncomfortable, but supremely happy in your achievement ana your possession, that as a mail made you. 'long for' a house of yourown design and conception, is magnified tenfold in the hearts of soldiers in France. Set down a battalion in a veritablo wilderness and in a few hours there you shall find hundreds of temporary 'homes, the dwellings of tho men who have made tnem and are proud and conceited about 6uch things as the best use mado of a ground sheet Or whose home is the most waterproof. After all, men never grow up and soldiering brings boyhood back again. One of tho most luxurious homes 1 saw was mado of shell-boxes and old tarpaulins—a hut'eight feet high and sis yards square, with, windows, a table made of packing-cases, _ and excellent beds of wire-netting and wood. One eouid live in a hut like that until tho •end of the war in comfort. The makers were a sergeant and corporal at a prisoners' cage." Both were Manchester; wjirohousemenjieforc the war.

Tho motor transport men are. sponsible for erections that in originality or design and 'Workmanship would brcftk the heart of an/;'architect or Builder. The "M.T/V mail;' needs only a ■ bit of corrugated biscuit tin or two, some nuid riiid':sotis; y few sandbags, and one or two packing-cases, and lie will turn out a many-sided erection that is cosy and has a chimney—from side or roof is no matter —and givo it a name like "Wbizzbaiij Villa." But tho "M.T." man is lucky. Often •he is." able to make his wagon his home, and very inviting it looks at night, the light of a lamp shining on a tew pictures united up, .when on© is slogging past in the rain.. ..... Tho infantryman's chance to show hia skill comes on bivouacs and in tho trenche3. As a rule lie is forced to bo more primitive,, less pretentious. Ha •builds his house, sleeps in it, takes it down, and ma relies away, with part of it, at least, on his back. If lie is lucky and. shell boxes are available he can make a tolerably good shelter witli these and his waterproof sheet. Sticks at all events may usually be got, and two sheols laced with string and made tent-like with supports keep a good deal of wind and rain off. ■ ; ■ ■

Iti trenches corrugated iron and lvoed arc-priceless. Add to these sandbags and a - fow biscuit tins for making chimneys, and the result is one\my infantryman may value. The more disreputable the creation tho more high-sounding title it is likely to receive. Any piece of tin and a lew sandbags are liable W bo called tho "Hotel Cecil." lint however successful rr disappointing tho home .may. prove, it belongs to' its milker abso* lutely. Ruined villages close behind the trendies have been commonly used as homes, and are, as it were, n cross between Tommy's creations and regular billots. Here, sometimes on the ground floor, more rarely upstairs, more commonly in tho cellars, our men nave made themselves comfortable. A roof overhead, even if badly knocked about, is a comfort when Hie beauties of perfect starlit nights havo begun to mean nothing of joy to you, and when the dawn is watched not for its glories but for tho activities of tho enemy.