Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-07-08
ST. LOUIS TWINS
WERE TOGETHER
ON WEST FRONT
Some Strange Complications
Result When Two Soldiers
Look Exactly Alike
BY Fred S. Ferguson


With The American Forces in Picardy
June 17-(By Mail)-When you go to
war twice at the same time in the same
outfit, maybe you can consider you real.
ly are doing your part to whip the
Boche. At least Walter and Albert
Grierson are inclined to feel that way
about it. The only way it can be done,
however, is to be a twin.
Walter and Albert are twins. Their
father and mother live at 1912 Lucas
avenue, st. Louis. And if Mr.. and Mrs.
Grierson think they had o hard time
telling Walter and Albert apart when
they were little, they ought to see the
sergeant and company commander try
ing it. Otter you know how to identify
the twins, it's easy. Walter (or is it
Albertg) has a mole On one foot. But
the sergeant can 4 tell the twins to take
off their shoes every time he wants to
pick one of them for some particular
job. The result is that Walter and AL
bert are fighting the war both togeth-
er and separately, for themselves and
for each other, and in addition are
and also is-carrying on mail court
ship.
Do The Girls Know?
They are writing Glendine and Geral-
dine Smalley, who live in Sheldon, III.
Glendine and Geraldine are twins. Wal
ter or Albert is writing Glendine and
Albert or Walter is writing Geraldine. .
Walter, or Albert-anyhow one Of the
twins-first told the story as he sat in
the window of the United Press billet
one warm evening in Picardy. Wagons
guns and camions were rolling by.
The twins are with an engineering out
! fit and it was too early yet for them
to set out for their work of stringing
wire, and digging trenches and dugouts.
! AS Walter, or Albert, talked of DelmarJ
the bridge, the river and other things of
home, the other one came up. 1t was
like seeing double. Their tin hats were
even at the same angle.
Nobody Knows Difference
"You see, t's like this" said Albert
"When Walter that identified Al
bert" when Walter is working and is
tired and I IN fresh, I slip out and re-
lieve him, and nobody knows the diff
ference. Then, if ? get tired, he comes
out and relieves me. and so long as
one of us is where one or the other is
! supposed to be-well, there you are"
No one in the company knows one
from the other. On one occasion o new
sergeant was in charge of the detach-
ment working on dugout. Albert and
Walter were working from opposite
sides. Just as Weltar left the dugout
with a wheelbarrow filled with dirt,
Albert left the other end Of the runway
and came down another path with his
empty. The sergeant didn t know there
were two Of them. Everytime he look
ed up he saw a Grierson loading and
starting off with wheelbarrow. The
sergeant figured this man Grierson was
doing twice as much work as any other
man on the job, and went to the lieuten-
ant to tell him about it. Then he learn
ed there were two Of them.
They Worked in Banks.
Before enlisting in the army together
the Griersons worked in different banks
in st. Louis. 1t 50 happened that each
was at the pass-book window in his re-
spective bank. Depositors with accounts
in both banks began 90 cCg1..der taking
the pledge if they went from one bank
directly to the other, until they learned
how things stood.
The sergeant and the company com
mander have given 1t up. They assign
Albert and Walter to work, and so long
as Grierson is there, that is good
enough.
The twins are over here because they
want to help win the war. They are not
yet 21. Therefore, they would not have
war double.