Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-06-16

Poilus They are About
to Relieve.
Friendship Of a Lasting Ma
ture is Begur1-How the
Men Work.
somewhere IN France June 1e.-
We took that bit over from the
French in june I
YOU may hear this sort Of thing
sometimes from a British officer II you
are fortunate enough to find him In q
remtniscent mood; and you may in
some cases catch just the glimmer Of
q kindly twinkle in his eye as he says
seems to strike q note which awakens
pleasant recollections in the mind OF
the British officer. which wifi, I be-
lteve. continue to echo in the hearts
OF h soldiers, and perhaps deeper
yet in h hearts Of the two peoples,
long after time has silenced the echoes
OF the great guns.
Auu Wt!AI 10 ~ Tx Ah1u& OVOr
from the French?" l asked Of nj
oficer boy Che did not oven pretend
to be more than 1s). "oh. it's like
taking over from u own people, only
it's much more fun" he said.
I sighed. This did not help me in
the least. l should not have thought
that any Of It was fun. But I perse-
vered; and in time I got the story
from him. 1t was an extremely dis
tHfnfn6 of4wxy Nf<A~ So a taA-AA >.->k
most dimcult to- understand and ham.
pered by an exaspsrating fear on the
boys part that he might be boring
me. But as I did extract something
eventually. and as I know that what
I extracted IL true. I will give it here
much as he told 1t to me.
Some OF us went up first, in the
daytime, you know. to have a look
round before we brought the men up.
hsadquarters-sort Of Brigade H. G.,
suppose-and jolly comfortable
they'd made themselves and jolly
CHEEKY they were. I'm not much at
French myself. but some Of their Of
fcers could talk English pretty we'll.
You know. they're not little chaps, as
we always used to think. Well, there
their headquarters. and I wouldn't
have minded staying there q month,
but after . bit we pushed off and went
up to the front trench. The company
commander very meanly bagged the
French officer who could talk English,
and I went along with a chap who
knew about as much English as I
knew French.
FEY HE vas SO 80 CHEEKY h and fu,, Of chat
I caught. the general hang Of It. ! He
was great on the word 'dpgout.' I
should think he'd just learned it. He
pronounced 1t "duck-aout.' When
ever we came to one he would wave
his hand and say 'Duck-aout,' and I
would say Wee, duck-aout.' 1 thought
1t would be rude to pronounce. 1t the
right way as If I were trying to cor
rect him.
THE Germans were Smelling a bit
and a 'dud'-a bad 'un. you know
fell not very far from us. He laughed
at 1t like anything, and said 'Boche
souvenir 1t seemed to tickle him
no end. But they're all as gay as
birds. I put my head into one dug
out where there were about half q
dozen poilus sitting ebout. ! .aid
didn't understand. but I showed them
what I meant with my hand, a. .
Frenchman might, you know. only I
expect I didn't do It gracefully al they
DO, but more like an elephant waving
his 0 They all smiled and show
ed their teeth and said Bon Jour,
monsieur in a sort Of sing song
voice. Our Tommies wouldn't have
been q bit like that IL q French ON
Ger had looked in. I mean they'd
have behaved all right, Of course, but
they'd have been Just stolid.
II remember their officer was av.
fully amused at my khaki pocket
handkerchief. He said. All your gov
ernment supply these that the en-
envy ma not see when you must blow
your nose?' ! said. Wee not being
this n for myself. Also I wanted
Ito change the subject and get the
handkerchief out Of the way . It had
been on duty for . fortnight, including
q good many fatigues like cleaning
my pipe and my revolver, and was
badly in need Of a rest. I think French
officers have mostly white pocket
not that dark white which 10 worse
than dark khaki. They are mostly
pretty smartly turned out.
When we'd had q good look round
in front and Q . which Wa our bit
ana what it was like, we went back
to their headquarters and had lunch.
A jolly good lunch too. including On
omelet and red wine and coffee after.
ward. all top hole. Perhaps they'd
Gauss. they were coming out after =
sudush time. Anyhow, I didn't much
mind whose idea It was, but wired
IN TILL ] saw my skipper' fFowning 1t
Their commanding ofacer maAs us
z charming little speech when We left
them about leaving. thsir ground In
9 { hands-I couldn't repeat It ex-
actly for my life. but It was jolly well
put and I believe he meant II. Nv
skipper's q tough old nut NOT much
Wa-woh't let you down
Well. We took over, at 10 o'clock
that night. I led the men: IN. q rd
been up In the day. At . plAee which
W afterward called Nile Fad my
french pa met NJ suppose he
shouldn't ind the way We rot the
men in all right. and Of eousss TIL the
French withdrew their men and our
were all .jammed up IN the trench TO-
They wsrs funny. IN NO time
they were as thick a. thieves The
Frenchmen we're awfullY interested 50
made Of. and I heardtons Of our men
2 Here. Francois. you're tickling
lAnother seemed 70 know 1itfle
French, for I haardshim aGys Tine
faut pas TOUGHER a1x objsts Fart.
vent MP tosA ltGbening post AfDt
70 fsltev0 their sontF3o1 th6fA9I3wb
very close tosths 0sfman3 lines--onIy
about tan y4rds aNay-so the nen
could not exchangs any seompiiments,
but the Ffenchm14f a1ailod e souf
chaps and noddeAa I'M ~ haS6G