Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-10-22
AMERICAN BlllETS.
Soldiers From the States Easily Make
Themselves at Home.

Soldiers From the States Easily Mako
Themselves at Home.
How American troops are billeted in
French villages near the front Is de-
scribed by Herbert Corey in a commu-
nication to the National Geographical
society, u part Of which the society Is
sues as the following war geography
bulletin:
Il stumbled along a dark street in a
dark village in northern France.
say dark. but the word does not prop
erly set forth the conditions. There
was no moon and there were no stars.
It had been raining and in a few min
utes 1t would be raining again. The
sire cts had once been paved-about the
time of the Roman occupation, per-
haps-and a few rounded cobbles were
still imbedded in a soggy mud that
sucked at ones boot-soles as one walk
ed.
NO light came from the windows.
One knew that inside the houses
American soldiers were gathered about
the candles, reading or shooting craps:
or wondering why the Y. NJ. c. A. was
not performing total .mpossibilities In
getting its chocolate and cigarette lad
en- truck over roads that were gummed
and cuttered with the camions OF an
army in movement.
THE windows were curtained. 80
that not the slightest gleam escaped.
In this part Of France the peasants
favor solid wooden shutters outside the
windows. and inside the soldiers had
tackled up blankets. Hostile airplanes
are always on the hunt for villages In
which soldiers may be bombed. This
particular hamlet was within range OF
the Germans. big guns and no chances
might be taken.
only those who have been lost In
the midst OF a forest on rainy night
can properly appreciate the utter
blackness Of the street. I ran ahead
into a soldier.
Visibility low he remarked. In
grimly humorous quotations from the
report often made by the aerial OBJ
servers.
The laughter came from the one
room in which the officers Of the head
quarters company were bedded. !
knew that room. In 1t the beds were
laid so thickly on the brick floor that
o.tn lilo ChinQlQn
roof Only the man who slept next the
door could get to his bed without
walking over the beds Of the other
men. All others walked over the beds
In going and coming. They were dis
tinguished from each other by the
names Of the owners chalked on the
dingy wall.
when the American outfit" enters
a town in which 1t has been newly BILL
leted, II finds that the billeting offic-
ers have preceded 1t. Upon the doors
of houses or the gates OF courts such
legends as this are written:
Company I, one officer and IL
men,"
s.lDS1ne thn4M1&B1ss-oS'vzss@&-
that barn an officer and II men or
Company I are :ree to find srch &C
commodations as they may.
Sometimes the officers sleep be-
tween sheets and sometimes the men
roll in their blankets on clean. sweet
smelling hay. Sometimes the lodgings
are more primitive. Not long ago
visited a major whose bed was only d.
yided from the bed Of the household
pig by n board partition. ventilated by
huge cracks. Another officer shared
room with a sick cow. In another
house the chickens and men roasted
together. No one complained: for this
is war.
1T was in burlcsque Of these chalked
billeting orders that on the walls OF the
bedroom Of the headquarters company
had been written the names OF the bed
owners
IT know them well. They average
"a years old. for l took census OF
their ages. One owns rich mines In
Mexico. One says he will be elected
sheriff Of his county In central Ten
ncssce when the war Is over. Another
was an officer in the Philippine con-
stabulary and resigned his commission
to get into the great game. One Is a
six foot -four youngster from clean
home in Nebraska. does not speak OF
his home, but one can always tell. An
other was a Kansas City newspaper
man, and another had been in business
in Milwaukee when we declared war.
That is the sort Of men they are
lively energetic Americans"