American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-05-14

On the tenth day we again met our
friends "Hommes 40, Cheveaux g."
Thirty-six hours more Of misery, and
we arrived at the town of r
After unloading our rations and
equipment. we lined up on the road In
columns of tours waiting for the order
to march.
A dun rumbllng could be heard. The
sun was shining. / turned to the man
on my left and asked, whats the
noise, Bill?' He did not know, but his
face was Of a pea-green color. Jim,
on my right, also did not know, but
suggested that l "awsk" the sergeant.
Coming towards US was an old griz-
zled sergeant. properly fed up with
the war, 50 l "awsked" him.
"Think it's going to rain, s%ergeantf'
He looked at me in contempt, and
grunted. "'Ow's it a-goin' ter rain with
the bloomin' sun a-shinin'g' l looked
guilty.
"Them's the guns up the line, me
lad. and you1l get enough of 'em be
fore you gets back to Blighty.'
Ny knees seemed to wilt, and !
squeaked out a weak 'Ohl'
Then we started oer march up to the
line in ten-kilo tricks. After the first
days march we arrived at our rest
billets. In France they call them rest
billets, because while in them Tommy
works eve days a week and on the
eighth day of the week he is given
twenty-four hours "on his own
Our billet was a spacious affair, a
large barn on the left side Of the road,
which had one hundred entrances,
ninety-nine for shells, rats, wind and
rain, and the hundredth one for Tom
my. l was tired out, and using my
shrapnel-proof helmet (shrapnel proof
until a piece Of shrapnel hits it), or
tin hat, for a pillow, lay down in the
straw, and was soon fast asleep. l
must have slept about two hours, when
l awOke with a prickling sensation all
over me. As I thought, the straw had
worked through my uniform. l woke
up the fellow lying on my left, who had
been up the line before, and asked
him:
docs the straw bother you, mate?
It's worked through my uniform and l
can't Sleep"
In a sleepy voice he answered,
THAT amt straw, them's Coolies"
From that time on my friends the
Coolies were constantly with me.
"Cooties." or body lice, are the bane
of Tommy's existence.
The %aristocracy of the trenches very
seldom call them Coolies" they speak
Of them as leas.
To an American flea means q small
insect armed with a bayonet, who is
wont to jab 1t into you and then hop
skip and jump to the next place to be
attacked. There is an advantage in
having 1eas on you instead of "cooties"
in that in one of his extended jumps
said flea is liable TO land on the fell
low next to you; he has the typical
energy and push of the American,
while the ''cootie" has the bulldog
%tenacity of the Englishman he holds
on and co~nsolidates or digs in until
his meal is finished.
There is no way TO get rid of them
permanently. No matter how often
you battle, and that is not very often.
or how many times you change your
underwear. your friends the "cooties"
are always in evidence. The billets are
infested with them, especially so If
there is straw on the floor.
! have taken a bath and put on
%brand-new underwear; in fact, a COM
plete change of uniform, and then
turned in for the night. The next morn
ing my shirt would be full Of them. It
is a common sight to see eight or ten
soldiers sitting under a tree with their
shirts over their knees engaging in a
"shirt hunt"
At night about half an hour before
lights OUT you can see the Tommies
grouped around a candle. trying. in its
dim light, to rid their underwear of
the vermin. A popular and very quick
method is to take your shirt and draw
ers, and run the seams back and for
ward in the flame from a candle and
burn them out. This practice is dan
gerous, because you are liable to burn
holes in the garments if you are not
careful.
Recruits generally sent to Blighty
for a brand of insect powder adver-
tised as Good for body lice" The ad-
vertisement is quite right the powder
is good for 'cooties - they simply
thrive on II.
The older men of our battalion were
wiser and made scratchers out of
wood. These were rubbed smooth with
a bit of stone or sand to prevent splin-
tiers. They were about eighteen inches
long. and Tommy guarantees that a
scratcher Of this length will reach
any part Of the body which may be at
tackled. Some Of the fellows we're lazy
and only made their scrstchers twelve
inches, but many a night when on
guard. looking over the ton from the