The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1918-06-12
keep Chief OF
ARMY POLICE BUSY
American Troops Not UnruIy, but
= Full Of Mischief.
FROLIC LIKE COLLEGE BOYS
Cigars, Eggs, Baseball and a Bottle
Of Wine Among Missing Articles to
Be Traced One Dsy-Escapades No
More Than Reaction From the
Heavy Strain Of Very Active Army
Maneuvers.


Heavy Strain Of Very Active Army
Maneuvers.
Wien 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.
j am at present living with regi-
ment stationed in little French viii
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
cnt of the New York Times. There
are few French folk i'm the place;
they moved 10 where it is safer. And
so 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 1t not that
they had to be.
In one that falls in the latter cate
CORY | am living. Myself, this type
writer, and some blankets are the only
furniture it has. To get out of my
I hax f,
nj tRsf 6raTSSt larshal. His room is
e it has bed. He
was bed until the
az of fhS'house put in charge for
llets. Under the army plan, a room
With bed in it 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 box. 1t says so in the
official records of the war department
of the United States. We We're i'm
specting the room of the provost mar
shal the other day and noticed part
Of the wall Mt one end was corrugated
steel. We pushed it up, and 10, there
was fireplace We Immediately call
ed the owner of the house and
demanded a fire. 1t was very diff
cult, he said, because he had no wood,
Il and never used fire except for cook
ling.
Threat to Burn Bed.
When we convinced him that unless
I'VE got wood quickly the provost mar
\shals bed was going to be sacrificed
q changed his mind about the diff
Enity and said that perhaps for five
FRI might be that someone had
some Mood f0>sell. He got the five
francs and two hours i,22ter reappeared
with three bundles of fagors, 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
2 burned we were soon going to be cola
again. We explained to the man or
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 it was Sunday. The pro-
vost marshal gave him ten francs ana
told him to bring the wood. And he
did. 1 was sorry l didn't go along TO
see how he got the wood from the cure
Non Sunday but the main point was
THAT he got it. The provost marshal
has dominion only over the mlsDe-
hayior Of Americans, and so 1t was
none of our affair how the man got
the wood.
but when It comes to Americans
49, proyost marshal Is very differ
k man. He Is a young first lieuten-
and his home Is in New YORK
He has told me that after the
he is going to get out OF the army.
hasn't said what he Is going to
but l think he Is training TO De
hl of one William J. Burns. he mas
do some very nice detective work.
o American soldiers behave gen.
nlly like a lot Of college boys In
cir moments of relaxation, but IL is
bt to be supposed that they don't
reak loose a bit at times. And be-
huse they do the provost marshai mas
Is hands full, and sometimes the ioch-
u. As college boys do, the soldiers
hake 1t as difficult as possible for the
provost guard to obtain materiai ior
conviction of violators of army rules.
1t was eight o'clock in the morn
ing. The provost marshal was sleep
soundly, having got to bed at one
TX after,his last round OF the VII
streets, which he fouhu ue
grted of the regiments comedians
the trouble makers are called. fnere
was loud rapping at his door
and the "Y" man entered to say that
carly in the morning the T. M, =. a:
"a. .m had been entered and one box or
cigars , and one baseball taken ana
that the damage was 80 francs. He
asked that 1t would not happen again
Ths lieutenant thanked him Tor the
= .asormation and sent for corporal OF
~ military police. and put MIN on