Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-02

utes left and we continued on our course.
Going up the river in some places The
banks were only about twenty feet away
We could see the French women filling
their fields. AS we went by these worker.
stopped and waved their hands in the all
to US, and we waved back. 1t was my
first sight Of France and 1 was not il
any way disappointed. 1t lived up to my
expectations.
A little farther up the river we came
to large dock where ships were load
ing and unloading cargoes, and a thrill
passed through me as l saw my first
batch of German prisoners at work
These were immense fellows, nearly every
one being six feet or over. They were
guarded by little French soldiers, averag-
ing about five feet five inches, with q
comparison with the Frenchman. looked
like a telegraph pole. The soldiers had
on the old blue overcoats, the tails but
toned back, pattern of 1871.
AS we passed the German prisoners
they scowled at US. and we, feeling quite
safe on the deck. yelled back insults a,
them One big Irishman. right near me
took great glee in jumping up and down
across his throat. This seemed to en-
rage the prisoners and they yelled some
thing in German. The Irishman must
have understood it because he let out a
volley Of curses in return. The French
sentries seemed to enjoy this barrage oi
insults and did not in any way ATTEMPT
to curtail the prisoners remarks. This
at the time, struck me as depicting a re-
during my service on the western front.
I found out that the Frenchman in all his
dealings is fair and just
Pretty soon the prisoners faded out of
sight and we came alongside the dock at
Bordeaux. 1 was all eagerness and
strained my eyes so as not to miss the
least thing. The dock was full of French
cavalrymen, hurrying to and fro. Huge
Turcos. black as the ace of spades. with
white turbans on their heads, were ma
jestically striding about.
After we warped into the dock and
made fast our work was over. We had
nothing to do with the unloading of the
horses. The French cavalrymen came
aboard with a bunch of cavalry halters
hanging over their arms. 1t was a mar
vel to see with what ease and efficiency
that ship was unloaded The condition
of the horses was pitiful The could
hardly bend their legs from stiffness. They
would hobble down the gangplank and
stand trembling on the dock. In about a
minute or SO they would stretch their
necks way up into the air and seem to be
taking long breaths Of the pure air. Then
they started to whinny. They were call
ing backward and forward to one another.
Even though / did not understand horse
language, knew exactly what they were
saying. They were thanking their horse
Cor for their deliverance from that hell
ship, and were looking forward to green
pastures and good roll in the dirt. Pretty
soon you could see them bend their fore
legs and lie down on the dock; then try
to roll over 1t was pitiful: some of them
did not have the strength to turn over
and they feebly kicked. Pretty soon the
whole dock was a mass of rolling horses,
the Frenchmen jumping around. gesticu-
lating and jabbering.
After getting the horses up they were
divided into classes according to their
height and weight. Then each horse
was led into a ring chalked out on the
dock and the army inspectors examined