The Washington herald., 1918-02-20
CHAPTER XIII.
My First Official Bath.

Right behind our rest billet was a
large creek about ten feet deep and
twenty feet across, and it was q
habit Of the company to avail them
selves of an opportunity to take 4
swim and at the same time thoroughly
wash themselves and their underwear
when on their own. We were having
spell OF hot weather. and these
baths to us were luxury. The Tom
mics would splash around in the wa
ter and then come out and sit in the,
sun and have what they termed "a
shirt hunt" At first We tried to
drown the Coolies" but they also
seemed to enjoy the bath.
One Sunday morning the whole sec
ton was in the creek and we were
having gay time. when the SER
gent-major appeared on the scene.
He came to the edge of the creek
and ordered: Come out of it, Get
your equipment on. Drill order and
fall in for bath parade. Look lively.
my hearties. You have only got fit-
teen minutes" A howl of Indignation
from the creek greeted this order.
but out we came. Discipline is disci-
pline. We lined up in front of our
billets with rifles and bayonets Cwhy
you need rifles and bayonets to take a
bath gets mel, a full quota of ammu-
milton, and our tin hats. Each man
had piece of soap and a towel. Aft
er an eight-kilo march along a dusty
road, with an occasional shell whis-
tling overhead, we arrived at a little
squat building upon the bank of
creek. Nailed over the door of this
building was large sign which read
Divisional Baths In wooden.
shed in the rear, We could hear
wheezy old engine pumping water.
We lined up in front of the baths
soaked with perspiration, and piled
our rifles into stacks. A sergeant of
the r. A. NJ. c. with a yellow band
around his left arm on which was "S.
P" (Sanitary Police in black letters.
took charge, ordering US to take of
our equipment, unroll our puttees, and
unlace boots. Then. starting from the
right Of the line. he divided us into
squads of fifteen. 1 happened to be
in the first squad.
We entered a small room where we
were given five minutes to undress,
then filed into the bathroom In here
there were fifteen tubs (barrels sawed
in two) half full of water. Each tub
contained a piece of laundry soap.
The sergeant informed us that we
had Just Il minutes in which to take
our baths. Soaping ourselves all over
We took turn in rubbing each others
backs, then by means of a garden
hose, washed the soap off. The water
was ice cold, but felt fine.
Pretty soon a bell rang and the wa
ter was turned off. Some of the slow
er ones were covered with soap, but
this made no difference to the SER
geant, who chased US into another
room, where We lined up in front of
little window, resembling the box
office in a theater, and received clean
underwear and towels. From here
We went into the room where we had
first undressed. Ten minutes was al
lowed in which to get into our "clab-
ber."
My pair of drawers came up to nv
chin and the shirt barely reached INV
diaphragm, but they were clean-no
strangers on them. and so / was sat-
isfied.
At the expiration of the time allot-
ted we were turned out and finished
our dressing on the grass.
When all of the company had
bathed it was a case of march bacl;
to billets. That march was the most
uncongenial one imagined, just cuss-
ing and binding all the way. We
were covered with white dust and
felt greasy from sweat. The woolen
underwear issued was itching like the
mischief.
After eating our dinner of stew.
which had been kept for us-it was
now o'clock-we went into the creek
and had another bath.
If Holy Joe" could have heard our
marks about the divisional baths and
army red tape, he would have tainted
at our wickedness. But Tommy is
only human after all.
Just mentioned Holy Joe" or the
chaplain in an irreverent sort of way,
but no offense was meant, as there
were some very brave men among
them
There are so many instances of
heroic deeds performed under fire in
rescuing the wounded that it woulo
take several books to chronicle them.