Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-10-28
MEN OF A. E. F
ARE OPTIMISTIC
Not One To Be Found Who Sees
Nothing In The Doughnut
But The Hole

Search through the American Elk
peditionary Force fails TO disclose any
man who sees nothing TO the dough-
nut bur the hole. Every fighter over
there might have been born in New
England. where they eat EN- for
breakfast, so profound is the reverence
for the Great American Doughnut. Its
popularity has been made unanimous
by the Salvation Army, the h OF G.,
and the Y. NJ c. A., the battlefield rep
resentatives OF fthe seven agencies
combined in the United War Work
Campaign for s170.500 600. To impart
a suggestion OF what doughnuts mean
as gastronomic delights TO American
lighting men, let the story of Jimmy
be told.
Jimmy hadn't eaten a doughnut
since he left America, or rather since
he had left the ancestral shades Of
Pike county for training camp. He
had dallied with a chunk of indiges-
tibility camoufiaged under that name
in a restaurant of the town near his
cantonment just before embarking for
France. 1t looked like a doughnut,
but il was a terrible thing, all weight
and no JOY.
But Jimmy was in France now, in
"a large base town that swarmed with
people strange to his alien eyes and
he was homesick for America, Pike
County and the folks who had known
him from the cradle up and who had
pampered his tastes in food with low
ing understanding. Even the restaur-
ant doughnuts wouldn't be so bad now
he thought, for the systematic exer-
else and healthful life he had lead
since joining the Army had trans
formed his usual vigorous appetite in
to a continual obsession for food
then more food. There was plenty of
chow" at mess, but he craved the
finer manifestation of the cheff's art
Doughnuts for instance.
AS he stood there, vagrant breeze
wandered into the kitchens of the Y.
NJ C.. A. cafe a few doors down the
street and out again. 1t enveloped
Jimmy in a fragrant cloud and his
senses reeled. Could it be? No, he
was simply delirious and soon an am
bulance would come and take him
away, but he would enjoy that deli
cious odor of doughnuts while the
fantasy lasted. But the fragrance did
not evaporate; il grew stronger, and
unable to stand the suspense any
longer Jimmy elevated his nose and
followed that aromatic trail as I'M
erringly as any pointer in pursuit of
fat flock of quail.
1t led him into the Red Triangle
hut down the street and there-0h!
unbelievable sight was a large platter
of delicately Drowned, plump dough-
nuts reposing with proud confidence
among other platters of comestibles
such as only Americans can concoct.
A real American girl stood behind the
counter and passed out cakes, pas
tries, cream puffs and doughnuts to
the hungry mob of doughboys who
lined the stand three deep.
Between bites of the luscious COM
pound Jimmy talked with the girl who
told him about the efforts of the Y. NJ.
c. A. to make life more enjoyable for
the boys in olive drab by running a
cafe, maintaining reading and writing
rooms, and staging a movie or
vaudeville performance every night.
OF course there are no records of
individual sales but that night there
was one we'll known representative of
Pike County who was willing to admit,
with the amiability born of satisfied
stomach that for once in his life he
had had enough doughnuts.