Evening star., 1918-02-28
GOT TYPHOID. "SH0T," BIG
SHOES; SENT TO FRANCE
Takes Slow Ships, Misses U-Boats,
Thrills at Sight of American
Destroyers-Next!
BY DANA BURNETT.
Copyright, 1881

1onged to the engineers.
History is not particularly thrilling.
I'm just an ordinary guy" he said.
Nevertheless. when one reflects that
this is a war of ordinary guys against
Teuton supermen then one perceives
the Importance of the ordinary guys
actions and reactions.
Waiter and Concrete Mixer.
II enlisted last June G91D.." said
the sergeant as he carefully measured |
out the tobacco for his cigarette cone
bacco in Franco; "I was out west
at the time and they sent me to one
of the old Army posts the other side
of the Mississippi. ] got my dose of
soldering without any sugar. some
body chucked me an old pair of pants,
a fit-or-miss bleached-out shirt that
had been in the Army since Bull Run
and a pair of shoes one whole size too
large. I was lucky. Some of the fel-
lows got shoes that were too small.
But the commisSary 'ftter-out was
pretty good guesser.
Then we all lined up and filed past
a table where an Army surgeon sat
with a hypodermic needle in his hand
AS we ambled by he shot each of US
in the arm-for typhoid, you know.
What the percentage of hits was l
can't say, but it was pretty fast shoot
ing. Another chap gave US scratch
or two. rubbed in some dope-and we
were vaccinated.
"An officer pointed his finger at me.
said I was waiter and told me 70
report for duty in the mess hall. So
for a while l was waiter. Then l
fell into the clutches of an old cor
poral who was building sidewalks. he
had been building them for years. |
was assigned to his squad. Every
morning we would go out behind the
barracks, sit down, light our pipes or
cigarettes and listen to the corporals
stories. Now and then somebody would
get up and crack stone II
was much better than the mess hall.
I'VE did some drilling, of course, but
most of it was just playing dog One
day, out of a clear sky, bunch of
us were told to get ready to move. In
another hour we were on the train
heading east. Our destination was a
certain large city on the Atlantic sea
board where the engineering regiment
to which I had been assigned was be-
ing formed.
Off to France.
"1 spent the next thirty-six hours in
a day coach. The first night tried to
sleep on the seat-or, rather, on half
of the seat. but I couldn't make it go.
After that slept in the aisle. 1t wasn't
odo- I've Siepl AZ ioeS "oiSS P
since.
after joining my regiment things
good bit. / received a mod
ern uniform and began to look some
thing like a soldier. The drill here was
stricter, too, and as I had had a little
previous training I finally got my SER
geant's stripes.
1--WE remained at this point for about
six weeks. Then we received our equip
is, as much equipment as
hand-2nd ordered
10 stand by. All leave was revoked. We
heard various rumors, but it was pretty
certain that we were going TO France.
'The word came We marched 10 the
railroad station without any fuss or
feathers, got aboard our train and |
started That was all there was to it.
A lot of the fellows had hoped TO De
able to say goodbye to their folks.
but they didn't get the chance. was
hard, of course, but you can't adFeftise
your moves in this war.
1--WE reached our port of departure
the same day. A transport was wait,
ing for us. She was a converted
British passenger liner and she swal-
lowed us like the whale swallowed
Jonah. The whole belly of her had /
been ripped out and refurnished with
wooden hunks, one tier above tne
other. Each bank was Just big enough
for a man to lie down in and was fit-
ted with sideboards SO he couldn't roll
out. One fellow looked at his bunk /.
and said: Huh! All you'd have to do /;
would be to put a cover on this DANCED
thing and you'd have first rate coffin.
THE officers were quartered above |
decks in the former frst-class cabins. /,
We had piece of the forecastle and |
used it as much as the law allowed. |
Otherwise we might have been pretty !,
uncomfortable.
"I can't tell you how long it took US
to cross. but it wasn't any five-day |
NLoA l,sv
was an ocean greyhound then three |
legged turtle is a jack-rabbit. We were !
in convoy, of course. and had to crawl
along with the others. There was one
old hooker in the fleet that we called
Boston, because she was so slow. She
used to wonder off nights and get lost
Then our flagship would have to send
some one to look for her, while the rest
of us sat around on the waves and
criticised her by wireless.
Wireless Satire.
1.-The submarines II get her sure
said one of the men in my life raft
crew
We'll. dunno bout that said an
other. She's a right deceivin old tub.
Sometimes when you think she's max
in two or three knots. dern If she
amt slippin' backward
las we got into the danger zone the
tension increased. You could feel
tnlHSS ISnlenlHG up AIl over the snip.
One night I went up on deck to in
spect my life raft. / was responsible,
in case we were torpedoed. for about
sixteen men. I found that some idiot
had moved my raft. While / was
about trying to locate it an
officer came by. He was smoking a
cigarette. which was strictly against
orders.
'The enlisted man who was patrol
ing that section of the deck saw the
cigarette and made a dive for the Of
fcer.
".Drop that snipe. you - fool, he
shouted.
It's all right. my mani! returned
the officer. I'm captain SO and So" !
II don't care q damn whether you're
the ghost of George Washington. You |
drop that snipe or I'll jam this here !
bay'net down your - throat" yelled |
the sentry.
THE oficer dropped the cigarette !
without further argument. !
'It was a beautiful moonlight night !
and the sea was covered with phos- |
phorus. Every ship in the convoy
could be seen In silhouette against the !
starlit sky. The whole fleet of course, |,
was running without lights. but with !
the phosphorus flashing all around us |,
and the moon overhead we were a fair !
target for anything within range.
why we weren't sunk dozen timesj
don't know. But the fact remains that |,
we weren't. Then. one morning about |
daybreak. we sighted smoke on the |
horizon thrill went through the