The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-04-13

into shape" Then one mornl warned for duty overseas" and mia for Egypt. This boat has S route in the Mediterranean. Sh The morning on which we sailed from Davenport was bright and sun ny There were quite a lot of troops on board, and the decks were mass of khaki as we weighed anchor. Out lof every port-hole a head protruded. As we slipped along by Plymouth Hoe we saw that it was black with people who had come down to give us last goodbye. From every win dow of every building along the Hoe handkerchiefs were waving
 ., The Hoe got smaller and smaller, but not man left the deck until Merry England" had faded in the mist. Then, for time, we all seemed to lose our brightness and became Scrushed and limp, but by tea-time the whole troopship was happy again. We arrived at Glpraltar at night when searchlights were active all ,arcund. The Rock lowered up into tthe sky in front of us. A searchlight found us, its white light sweeping the decks and making everything look weird and ghostly.
 After Gibraltar the voyage became uneventful, though the sunsets were gorgeous. The sea in front was pale green; behind it was gold. The coast of Africa was in purple mist and the sky was all the colors of the rain bow. The sun, which was crimson and three times the size it appears in England, dropped from high up in the sky and disappeared out of sight in five minutes, looking as it touched the horizon, like a huge Japanese lan- tern floating on the sea.
 In due course we reached Malta, and after two days in the harbor, con- tinued our voyage to Alexandria. From there a railway journey brought us to Isrrailia, and we found the R. F. c. stationed on the desert. Only a fortnight ago we were quartered in England, and now our home was tC be on the dreary wastes of an Egyp- tlon desert.
 It soon became apparent, however that Egypt was only halfway mark 1.-the thin end of the wedge" Here Awe had to accustom ourselves tc working in unusual and unpleasal l conditions. Our dark rooms were erected on the sand, water had to bt brought two miles every morning, ant photography was started.
 I have had many uninteresting pho tographics stunts" to cover during pre-war days on the staff Of a dail. newspaper. But who can imagine anything more uninteresting ant monotonous than photography of tn Sinai Desert day in and day out Every picture appeared identical, ant when the time came for mapping them out and joining them together we were apt to groan aloud Imagine us closed in a small can vas darkroom on the desert in tn full blaze of the Egyptian sun. Gu water was always warm, and if plate was left in any solution nor than minute the film and the glas would part company with most az gravating, but determined slither.
 Printing was worse. Our eXposur metre was a song tune. The pape would be pinned up and the cap tax < en off. Then we started "If you wer the only girl in the world"-bang o the cap-first print exposed-' and were the only boy''-bang-pr number two. This continued for, pel haps, an hour. Then sometimes W staggered out into thes desert sur light, with eyes narrowed to slits, examine our work, only to find thel useless.
 Of course that meant starting a over again, and so we returned to tt stifling blackness, and exposed mol prints with the aid of Home, Swe Home"
 In December, 1915, a photograph was asked to volunteer for duty Mesopotamia. Having had enough the Egyptian Desert, and, not kno1 ing then of Mesopotamia's reputatio I volunteered.
 Arriving at Suez with other m chanics, we saw our second troo { ship, and were not elated by it's a pearance. It was crowded from ste to stern with Scottish troops. The was "standing room only" as the b men say. We slept anywhere could. The first night the mess tai was my bed, but that was so stiflir being low in the boat, that I tri a deck seat next. This was not
 bad, but about four o'clock in t morning I had rude awakening. T crew were on deck with a hosepi washing down." and doing it mu too thoroughly for my liking, for , got pretty wet, and it was still t hours to dawn.
 For the remainder of the voyage decided to sleep like a stork-star ing on one leg.
 To get a wash before breakfast V considered as practically impossih N~, There were four wash basins-and queue of two thousand troops evt day!
 Alden was our only port of c; and we arrived at Basra, on the Ri' Tigris, on Christmas Day, 1915.
 The Scottish troops were all trai ferred to river boats, and convey up the river immediately. We stay in Basra a day or two for necesss stores, and were not at all struck. "