Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1918-07-25


was baby whale that came up around
the boat each afternoon at abandon
ship" drill. At first I couldn't figure
why, but finally it dawned upon me
that he had set that hour for his mess
time Believe me, kind friends he
was never disappointed. l noticed
one old darkey that appeared very
sick. The last time | saw him he was
webbing up amidships when suddenly
he threw his mess kit out in the water
just as far as he could with the sad
remark:
"Goody, ole mess kit. done hain't
got no mo- use TO you atall."
I decided I should never eat again
myself, but managed to hang on to my
mess kit.
After eight days on the water we
finally landed somewhere in England.
1t was a sight to see the fellows get
off the boat and paw into the good
old earth again. England seemed
very queer to me at first. There are
no tall buildings and it seemed i'm
possible to get smile out of anyone.
I had not been on the dock ten min
utes before | saw something coming
my way that appeared to be string
of piano boxes drawn by a road trac-
tor. At it's arrival 1 learned that it
was one of England's modern railway
trains. 1t wouldn't have done for an
amusement park in the states. We
loaded it with baggage and just before
it pulled out it whistled. All! The
dream was over. Did you ever hear a
kid with a ten-cent flute? If you have
not, buy one, and you have an exact
imitation of an English locomotive
whistle. What we call elevated they
term Overhead, tramways," although
I insist that it should be cramway.
They are about as large as goOd-sized
bird cage. You enter at one end after
paying the lady in uniform the whole
sum of twopence (four cents in Ameri-
can money! and while inside the other
occupants of the car overhaul and re-
model you. That is, they scuff the
shine off four shoes, wrinkle your
coat, dirty your collar and numerous
other things.
To make it short, you enter the
front door, a gentleman, and fall out
the back one, bum. The following
morning we entered the coaches,
which are all partitioned off into COM
partments, eight men to a cOmpart-
ment. There are three types, first,
second and third class. We had the
last mentioned These coaches are
frail looking crafts and | began to
wonder just how fast they travelled.
There was an Englishman standing
near, so [ asked him how far it was
to x.
ooh, about two hundred miles," he
replied.
I then asked him how long it would
take us to get there.
ooh, about two hours"
Enough said I took a seat next
the window If that train was going
to make a hundred miles an hour, I
was going to be where | could jump
Thank the Lord he lied. 1t took about
seven hours.
The end Of this journey found us
in a modern English camp, which has
since been taken over by the United
States. While here we met all the
BarabOo boys who were on the Tus-
cania and spent nearly a week with
them Not one hundred yards from
where Oliver Cromwell held his cOun-
ellis Of war, centuries past, we sat and
talked over old times back in BarabOO.
One night, not being able to get
pass, few of us thought we would
run the guard and go down town any
way. We met an Englishman just
after we started and asked him if
there were many guards on the way
down. He replied:
"O'im a stranger here, the same as
yourself, but I think you'll find them
all along the road and the hedges"
He never made a more true state
ment in all his life. We found them
everywhere. It took us firty-five min
utes to walk down, but after we had
met bunch of guards, l made it back,
most of the way up hill, in twenty
fat. The rest didn't do much worse.
Our next adventure was crossing the
English channel. Empy's book, "Over
the Top" doesn't half describe that
trip. We made it on cattle boat.
The first two decks were mules, After
that we had our choice of the boat. I
picked a place right up next to the
smokestack, where it was warm.
If there is one thing that shall al
ways live in my memory, it was this
trip. We should have made it in six
hours, but owing to weather condi-
tons it took us three nights and two
days. I think l had forty-ive min
utes sleep during this time. Alas, it
had been finished and we were at the
entrance of our goal, France. That
night, or rather part of that night,
we climbed hill that would make
Cheeks look like an ant hill. It was
that high that instead of having a
road straight up it, they had made