Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1918-09-27


One thing that opened my eyes a
bit was the trouble my mother had in
getting out of Hanover, where she
was when the war started, and back
to France. She always wore a little
American flag and this both saved and
endangered her. Without it, the Ger
mans would have interned her as
Frenchwoman, and with it, she was
sneered at and insulted time and
again before she finally managed to
get over the border. She died about
two months after she reached st. Ma
zaire.
Moreover, I heard the fate Of my
older brother, who had made his home
in France with my grandmother. He
had gone to the front at the outbreak
of the war with the infantry from st.
Nazaire and had been killed two or
three weeks afterwards. This made
1t sort Of personal matter.
But what put the finishing touches
to me were the stories a wounded
Canadian lieutenant told me some
months later in New York. He had
been there and he knew. You could
not help believing him; you can al
ways tell it when man has been
there and knows.
There was not much racket around
New York, SO made up my mind all
Of a sudden to go over and get some
for myself. Believe me, got enough
racket before I was through. Most
of the really important things / have
done have happened like that: did
them on the jump, you might say.
Many other Americans wanted look,
too; there were five thousand Amer
leans in the Canadian army at one
time they say.
I would not claim that went over
there to save democracy, or anything
like that. I never did like Germans.
and ] never met Frenchman who was
not kind to me, and what heard
about the way the Huns treated the
Belgians made me sick. used to get
out of bed to go to an all-night picture
show, I thought about it so much.
But there was not much excitement
about New York, and I figured the
q. S. would not get into 1t for while,
anyway, so I just wanted to go over
and see what it was like. That Is
why lots Of us went, I think.
There were five Of us who went to
Boston to ship for the other side:
Sam Murray, Ed Brown, Tim Flynn,
Mitchell and myself. Murray was an ex-
garby-two bitches (enlistments), gun
pointer rating, and about thirty-fve
years old. Brown was Pennsylvania
man about twenty-six years old, who
had served two enlistmentS in the u.
S. army and had quit with the rank
of sergeant. Flynn and Mitchell were
both ex-navy men. Mitchell was q
noted boxer. OF the five of us, am
the only one who went in, got
through and came out. Flynn and
Mitchell did not go in; Murray and
Brown never came back.
The five Of us shipped on the steam
ship Virginian of the American-Ha-
waiian line, under American flag and
registry, but chartered by the French
government. signed on as water
tender-an engine room job-but the
others were on deck-that is, seamen.
We left Boston for st. Nazaire with
cargo of ammunition, bully beef,
ETC., and made the first trip without
anything Of interest happening.
AS we were tying to the dock at st.
Nazaire, I saw a German prisoner sit
ting on a pile Of lumber. / thought
probably he would be hungry, so I
went down into the oilers mess and
got two slices Of bread with a thick
piece Of beefsteak between them and
handed it to Fritz. He would not take
it. At first I thought he was afraid
to, but by using several languages and
signs he managed to make me under
stand that he was not hungry-had
too much to eat, in fact.
I used to think of this fellow occa-
sionally when I was in German pris-
on camp, and piece of moldy bread
the size of safety-match box was
the generous portion Of food they
forced on me, with true German hos
pitality, once every forty-eight hours.
WOu1u AOt CAdSIAJ nave 4CLuSCo -
beefsteak sandwich, am afraid. But
then was not a heaven-born German.
I was only a common American garby.
He was full Of kultur and grub; /
was not full Of anything.
There was a large prison camp at
st. Nazaire, and at one time or an
other saw all Of it. Before the war
1t had been used as barracks by the
French army and consisted Of we'll
made, comfortable two-story stone
buildings. floored with concrete, with
auxiliary barracks of logs. The Ger
man I1Tssoners occupied the stone
buildings, while the French guards
were CHARTERED in the log houses. In
side, the houses were divided into long
rooms with whitewashed walls. There
was a gymnasium for the prisoners,
canteen where they might buy most
of the things you could buy anywhere
else in the country, and studio Tor
hn oyoopor Tho rar;cnunrS Of