The Jasper news., 1918-08-08

you are pounding your ear In nice
warm hammock and 1t Is time to re-
lieve the watch on deck, like as not
you will be awakened gently by burly
garby armed with fairy wand about
the size Of bed slat, whereas in
French ships, when they call the
watch, you would think you were In
swell hotel and had left word at the
desk. 1t was hard to turn out at first,
without the aid of club. and harder
still to break ourselves of the habit
Of calling our relief in the gay and
festive American manner, but, as /
say, we got to like 1t after a while.
Then, too, they do not do any hazing
In the French navy, and this surprised
us. We had expected to 60 through
the mill just as we did when we Joined
the American service, but nobody slung
a hand at us. On the contrary, every
garby aboard was kind and decent and
extremely courteous, and the fact that
we were from the States counted lot
with them. They used to brag about
1t to the crews of other ships that were
not so hOnored.
But this kindness we might have ex-
pected. 1t is just like Frenchmen In
any walk of life. With hardly an ex-
ception, ] have never met one of this
nationality who was not anxious to
help you In every way he could; ex-
tremely generous, though not reckless
with small change, and almost always
CHEEKY and there with smile In any
weather. A fellow asked me once why
1t was that almost the whole world
loves the French, and told him 1t was
because the French love almost the
whole world, and show 1t. And think
that Is the reason, too.
About the only way you can describe
the Poilus, on land or sea, is that they
are gentle. That is, you always think
that word when you see one and talk
to him-unless you happen to see him
within bayonet distance of Fritz.
The French sailors sleep between
decks in hunks, instead of hammocks
and as had not slept in a bunk since
my Southerndown days, 1t was pretty
hard on me. So / got hold of some
heaving line, which Is one-quarter-inct
rope, and rigged up hammock. Ir
my spare time taught the others how
to make them, and pretty soon every
body was doing 1t.
When | taught the sailors to make
hammocks, l figured, of course, thai
they would use them as we dld-that
Is, sleep in them. They were greatly
pleased at first, but after they hat
tried the stunt of getting In and stay
ing In, 1t was another story. A ham
mock Is like some other thIngs-i
works while you sleep-and If you ar,
not on to 1t, you spend most of you
sleeping time hitting the floor. Ou
gun captain thought had put over
trick hammock on him, but I did no
hammock.
Also, taught them the way W,
make mats out of rope, to use Will,
sleeping on the steel gratings near tn,
entrance to stoke holes. In cold wealth
er this part of the ship is more com
Portable than the ordinary sleepin,
quarters, but without mat 1t gets to,
hot.
American soldiers and sailors ge
the best food in the world, but Will
the French navy chow was not fancy
It was clean and hearty. as they sa,
down East. For breakfast we ha,
bread and coffee and sardlnes; at nool
a boiled dinner, mostly beans, whicl
were old friends of mine, and of tn
well-named navy variety; at four Il
the afternoon, pint of vino. and a
six, a supper Of soup, coffee. bread an
beans.
Although the French "seventy-fiye
is the best gun In the world, their ma
val guns are not as good as ours, an
their gunners are mostly older mer
But they will give yOungster a gu
rating If he shows the stuff.
Shortly after went aboard the Cas-
sard, we received instructions to pre-
ceed to Spezia, Italy, the large Italia
naval base. The voyage was withou
incident, but when we dropped ancho
In Spezia, the Italian port official
quarantined us for fourteen days o
account of smallpox. During this perlo
our food was pretty bad; In fact. tn
meat became rotten. This could harC
ly have happened on an American sh!l
, because they are provisioned wit
canned stuff and preserved meats, bu