The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1918-07-19

tue SoIuieIS we're IKE the SdllOrS. bt
! found out was wrong about both.
3 One thing that opened my eyes
! bit was the trouble my mother had I
getting out of Hanover, where sh
. was when the war started, and bac
, to France. She always wore littl
, American flag and this both saved an
endangered her. Without it, the Ger
. mans would have informed her as
Frenchwoman, and with it, she wa
sneered at and insulted time ant
again before she finally managed t.
get over the border. She died abou
two months after she reached st. Ma
zaire.
Moreover, I heard the fate of my
older brother, who had made his home
in France with my grandmother. He
had gone to the front at the outbreak
of the war with the infantry from St
Nazaire and had been killed two OF
three weeks afterwards. This made
it a sort of personal matter.
But what put the finishing touches
| to me were the stories a wounded
| Canadian lieutenant told me some
months later in New York. He had
| been there and he knew. You could
| not help believing him; you can al
ways tell it when a man has been
there and knows.
There was not much racket around
New York, so made up my mind all
of sudden to go over and get some
for myself. Believe me, 1 got enough
racket before / was through. Most
of the really important things I have
done have happened like that: !. did
them on the jump, you might say.
Many other Americans wanted look,
too; there were five thousand Amer
leans in the Canadian army at one
time they say.
I would not claim that I went over
there to save democracy, or anything
like that. 1 never did like Germans,
and I never met Frenchman who was
not kind to me, and what I heard
about the way the Huns treated the
Belgians made me sick. / used to get
out of bed to go to an all-night picture
show, / thought about it so much.
DdL thCAS was hOt hQSa CACllCuCat
about New York, and I figured the
U. S. would not get into it for while,
anyway, so just wanted to go over
and see what 1t was like. That is |
why lots of us went, I think.
There were five of us who went to
Boston to ship for the other side:
Sam Murray, Ed Brown, Tim Flynn,
and myself. Murray was an ex-
garby-two bitches (enlistments), gun
pointer rating, and about thirty-fve1
years old. Brown was Pennsylvania
man about twenty-six years old, who
had served two enlistments in the U.
S. army and had quit with the rank
Of sergeant. Flynn and Mitchell were
both ex-navy men. Mitchell was a
noted boxer. OF the five of us, I am
The only one who went in, got
through and came out. Flynn and
Mitchell did not go in; Murray and
Brown never came back.
The five of us shipped on the steam
hip Virginian of the American-Ha-
yaiian line, under American flag and I
egistry, but chartered by the French I
government. signed on as water
ender-an engine room job-but the I
theirs were on deck-that is, seamen.
We left Boston for st. Nazaire with !
cargo of ammunition, bully beef,
to-, and made the first trip without
nything of interest happening.
As we were tying to the dock at st.
Tazaire, saw German prisoner sit ]
ing on pile of lumber. I thought 8
robably he would be hungry, so I !. :,
rent down into the oilers mess and =
OF two slices of bread with a thick :
iece of beefsteak between them and :
anded it to Fritz. He would not take =
. At first 1 thought he was afraid
}, but by using several languages and
gins he managed to make me under
and that he was not hungry-had
10 much to eat, in fact. ~
/ used to think Of this fellow occa- q
onaLy when was in a German pris- %
/ camp, and piece of moldy bread y
e size Of safety-match box was -
e generous portion of food they "
reed on me, with true German hos al
tally, once every forty-eight hours. "
would not exactly have refused a ~
efsteak sandwich, I am afraid. But "
en- was not a heaven-born German.
was only common American garby.
2 was full of kultur and grub: II
is not full Of anything. lei
There was large prison camp at ne
Nazaire, and at one time or an su
her saw all Of 1t. Before the war ms
had been used as barracks by the e.
ench army and consisted Of we'll ne
de, comfortable two-story stone me
lldings, foored with concrete, with pc
Hillary barracks of logs. The Ger
n prisoners occupied the stone
lldings. while the French guards
re Quartered In the log houses. In-j
e, the houses were divided into long wi
ms with whitewashed walls There nes
8 gymnasium for the prisoners, q a
lteen where they might buy most stu
the things you could buy anywhere sta
} In the country, and a studio for hin
painters among the prisoners. OF he
rs were separated from privates- to
Ich was good thing for the pri-
eS-and were kept In houses sur
nded by stockades. Officers and 1
rates received the same treatment. hel