The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-06-29

suspected the Americans. The lieu
tenant thanked her and got up and
started shaving.
In a very few minutes the M. p.
corporal come in and reported that he
had found Private - of - bat
talon in the company barber shop
smoking a cigar that had a band like
those taken from the Y. M. c. A.
"Good," says the provost marshal.
"Go back and ask him where he got
It,"
The corporal departed and as ne
went out of the door a private entered
in a bedraggled state. He explained
and when he located himself he had
lost a hundred francs and that the seat
of his trousers had been cut out. He
didn't remember just what time it was
done. Noticing his insignia, the lieu
tenant said sharply go back to your
own regiment. Stay home and stay
sober and you can keep your money"
and turning to me he said, that was
good dope for me in New York; it
ought to work here"
Here the M. p. corporal returned.
"I came to report to the lieutenant"
he said, that l asked Private -
where he got his cigar, and he said it
was given him by a friend and he can't
remember Who"
"All right" said the provost marshal;
"stick on the case and you might
watch out for any baseball games"
Then came in the large French wom-
an to say that she had five witnesses
who saw an American take her bottle
of wine. The lieutenant thanked her.
Then the Y. NJ. c. A. man entered and
said he didn't want any one punished
for taking the cigars and baseball, and
that he was glad they had not taken
more. He had had his breakfast.
A moment later an M. p. sergeant
entered to say that he had arrested a
private on suspicion of having taken
the bottle of wine, and that he had
been identified by the large French
woman's five witnesses as the culprit.
On the other hand, the sergeant added,
the private had five other privates who
would swear five different sorts of
alibis for him.
Six Eggs Missing.
"Lock him up and We'll see about
it." said the lieutenant, and he finish
ed shaving in time to receive a French
shopkeeper, who reported that six eggs,
for which he had peer charging the
Americans II cents each, had disap-
peared, and that since he, Monsieur
Demtel, and his father before him, had
kept shop in that very place for gen
erations and had lever before missed
so much as six eggs, it must be the
Americans who took them.
The lieutenant thanked him. By
this time there was another caller who
had an empty cartridge that had once
been in the belt of an American sol
der. She had found it in front of her
house and was sure it was not right
for it to be there. The lieutenant
thanked her. He was about to start
to q belated breakfast when a French
farmer came in to say excitedly that
some Americans were linking it up"
with several German prisoners of war
who were being worked on a road a
short distance away.
"Well that damage, at least, won't
matter" said the lieutenant; "Tm 60
ing to breakfast" And he did.
1t is not to be supposed from these
incidents of an hour or two of the life
of a provost marshal that the Ameri-
can are an unruly lot. Far from it;
they are the best behaved of fighting
men. These incidents represented per-
haps the twelve hours devilment of
some $500 men, most of them under
twenty-seven years old, and their es-
capades were no more than the reac-
ton from the heavy strain of very &C.
tive maneuvers. When the bugle call
tells them at $50 o'clock at night to
get off the streets, he who refuses to
obey is the rarest exception, and gen.
orally a new man in the army.
And here m the provost marshal
from breakfast. He is followed by two
French civilians with some tale of woe,
but he is whistling, is the chief of the
provost guard, and I have heard the
same tune used for a certain verse
from Gilbert and Sullivan when De
Wolf Hopper tried to sing the "Pirates
of Penzance."