Tales from a Dugout

TALES FROM A DUGOUT
TALES FROM A DUGOUT
ARTHUR GUY EMPEY
Author of Over the Top, etc.
NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO.
1918
Copyright, 1918, by The Century Co.
Published, October, 1918
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO THE Army of the People Who Stay at Home : the overaged, the women, the physically unfit and the children. These are the ones to be pitied, the ones who suffer most, because their hearts are on the battlefields of France, although their bodies must stay at home .
FOREWORD
Picture a dugout in one of the front line trenches of France, damp and evil smelling, hardly deep enough to protect the inmates from a three-inch shell-burst. This hole in the ground will comfortably house four soldiers. Put seven of them with full equipment and a machine gun in it, and what results? I dare say in civilian life there would be only one outcome—TROUBLE. Well, in the army on the Western Front, this situation spells GOOD FELLOWSHIP.
If it were only possible for a giant dictograph to be invented, the transmitter being placed in any dugout of the American Army in France, while at the receiver, across the Atlantic, the American Public listened in, many a heartache would disappear, worry for the boys at the front would more or less vanish in mist. If the mothers, fathers, wives, sweethearts, sisters and friends, could only hear these conversations, their hearts would be filled with joy and pride for the fighting men of America. Of course, at times, few and far between, they would be slightly shocked, as most eavesdroppers are, but on the whole, they would listen to wonderful sentiment, clean and wholesome Americanism.