The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-08-05

signed for submarines About hal1 way
across we dropped g canvas target
astern and sailed around 1t for nttle
target practice. 1 regret to say that
we missed it so badly that no suDma-
rine attacking us would have been IN
any great danger. Then as we ueareo
Bordeaux our lifeboats were suspend
ed over the water ready for lowering
at a moments notice. We also mac
iifeboat drill, receiving Instructions
how to use the preservers in our cab
ms. and at what posts TO appear
should we have to take to the foats
Finally, Just outside OF bordeaux
squadron of swift French torpedo
boats came out to meet us ana escort
ed us in with flying colors.
Sad Trip in France.
made the trip from Bordeaux 70
Paris by train in the daytime IN ap e,O
nine hours time. It was at once the
most beautiful and yet sad trip I've
ever experfenced All France is per-
feet garden at this time of year, with
the wheat and oats just ripening, ana
hay making in full swing. BUT there
were only grandparents ana grand
children in the fields-never an able
bodied man. and never a reaper or a
binder. either-only scythes and hand
stckles for cutting the grain, and an
occasional mower. Hence, some OF
the crops were badly in need of labor
to save them from total loss.
And at all the railroad stations there
were women in black, soldiers de,
parting for the front, and wounded
and mutilated limping about-tears
and partings everywhere. and fresh
mounds in the graveyards along the
route. Practically all the women were
in mourning, but a white band on the
hat distinguished the widows from
those mourning father or Drotner.
Seats to Wounded.
AS we neared Paris. the passengers
from Bordeaux almost to man gave
their seats to wounded soldiers who
were being taken to Paris to be fitted
with artificial limbs. 1 talked with
a young fellow about 10 years old
who lacked a left hand With his
good hand he showed me the coun-
terpart of a dollar Ingersoil wrist
watch, smashed and denied by the
shrapnel that had taken off his hand
at Verdun last January He also car
ried an artificial leg for a fellow vic
tim, but seemed cheerful enough
when spoken to. But left alone he
looked mighty serious as he surveyed
the passing panorama of small farms
and well titled gardens. He was
gardener, he said, but when I asked
him how he was going to make It go
with one hand, he only shrugged his
these French.
Met Ottawa Boy.
The fret thing this morning I Wis.,
tied the American ambulance station.
located at Neuilly. on the western
limits of the city, the Vanderbilt gift
maintained principally by American
money. There 1 met a Kansas boy, a
classmate of mine of K. U. 1914. Al
fred Wadell of Ottawa, who was teach
ing English in Beirut, Syria, when the
war broke out. He has been with
the Paris volunteer ambulance Sec
ton since last August.
They Use Fords.
All his expenses are paid; but he
buys his uniform and is liable for duty
at all hours of the day, though he gen.
orally manages to get several after
Moons off every week. Last night he
was called out at a. m. owing to the
arrival of four trains of wounded from
the Somme front. The local corps
uses Buick tours almost exclusively,
manned now by two men, and capable
of carrying three helpless "blesses," OF
wounded, or four "sitters''-men able
to sit up.
At the front, however, Henry Ford
enjoys a monopoly, and the Ford has
made a great hit. Wadell has some
extremely interesting ana cosmopoli-
tan associ ties. While the majority of
the Paris section are Americans or