The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-06-14
keep CHIEF OF
army POLICE BUSY
American Troops Not Unru|y, but
Full Of Mischief.
FR0uc LIKE COLLEGE BOYS

Cl0ars, Egos, 4 Baseball and Bottle
Y of Wine Among Missing Articles to
Be Traced One Oay-Escapades No
More Than Reaction From the
Heavy Strain Of Very Active Army
Maneuvers.
When the whole story Of this war,
shall have been written It will be in.
complete without chapter about how
the American boys behaved in France.
The historian should get the material
for that chapter from the provost mar
shall. He is the chief Of police, so
far as the Americans are concerned.
I am at present living with regi.
ment stationed in a little French vii
lage where from time to time we can
hear the booming Of the guns on the
battle front. keeping the boys always
reminded OF the direction in which
they are headed, writes correspond
ent of the New York Times. There
are few French folk In the place;
they moved to where it is safer. And
90 the Americans are pretty much In
control Of the town, and incidentally,
there are about ten times as many
American soldiers here as there ever
were civilian Frenchmen and French
women. They are quartered in every
available house, and In some that
would not be available were it not that
they had to be.
In one that falls in the latter cate
CORY l am living. Myself, this type
writer, and some blankets are the only
furniture it has. To get out of my
room have to 60 through the room
Of the provost marshal. His room is
better than mine; 1t has a bed. He
didn't know it was bed until the
owner of the house put in a charge for
billets. Under the army plan, room
with a bed In 1t costs one franc day,
but If there Is no bed the charge is
only 30 centimes. And so the provost
marshal knows he has bed to sleep
on and not a box. It says so In the
Official records Of the war department
Of the United States. We were in
speeding the room Of the provost mar
shall the other day and noticed part
Of the wall at one end was corrugated
steel. We pushed 1t up, and 10, there
was a fireplace. We Immediately call.
ed the owner of the house and
demanded a fire. It was very diff
cult, he said, because ne had no wood,
and never used fire except for cook.
ing. a..
Threat to Burn Bed.
When we convinced him that unless
we got wood quickly the provost mar
shal's bed was going to be sacrificed
he changed his mind about the diff
Guilty and said that perhaps for five
francs 1t might be that someone had
some wood to sell. He got the five
francs and two hours later reappeared
with three bundles Of fagots, explain.
Ing his delay by saying that on the
way he had stopped to milk three
cows. We got the fire started and
quickly saw that at the rate the fagots
burned we were soon going to be cold
again. We explained to the man Of
the house that we must have big pieces
Of wood. He r. .,lied that only the
cure had such wood, and that 1t was
impossible to buy wood from the cure,
and besides 1t was Sunday. The pro-
vost marshal gave him ten francs and
told him to bring the wood. And he
did. was sorry didn't go along to
see how he got the wood from the cure
on Sunday, but the main point was
that he got it. The provost marshal
has dominion only over the misbe-
havior of Americans, and so 1t was
none of our affair how the man got
the wood. ....
But when It comes to Americans
this provost marshal is very differ
ent man. He Is a young first lleuten-
ant, and his home Is in New York
city. He has told me that after the
war he Is going to get out Of the army.
He hasn't said what he is going to
do, but I think he IS training to be
rival Of one William J. Burns. He has
to do some very nice detective work.
The American soldiers behave gen.
orally like a lot Of college boys in
their moments Of relaxation, but 1t Is
not to be supposed that they don't
break loose a bit at times. And be-
cause they do the provost marshal has
his hands full, and sometimes the lock-
up. AS college boys do, the soldiers
make 1t as difficult MS possible for the
provost guard to obtain material for
conviction Of violators Of army rules.
1t was eight o'clock in the morn
Ing. The provost marshal was Sleep
ing soundly, having got to bed at one
o'clock after his last round Of the VII
lage streets. which he found de-
serted Of the regiments Comedians
as the trouble makers are called. There
was loud rapping at his door
and the ~" man entered to say that
early in the morning the Y. NJ. G. A.
hut had been entered and one box Of
cigars and one baseball taken, and
that the damage was IS francs. He
asked that it would not happen again.
The lieutenant thanked him for the
Information and sent for q corporal Of