The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-05-30

10 an e. Ia MINIS small
insect armed with a bayonet, who is
won't to jab 1t into you and then hop
skip and jump to the next place to be
attacked. There is an advantage In
Having fieas on you instead of Coolies
lin that in one of his extended jumps
said flea is liable to land on the fell
low next to you: he has the typical
energy and push of the American,
while the "cootie" has the bulldog
itenacity of the Englishman; he holds
on and consolidates or digs in until
his meal is finished.
There is no way to get rid of them
permanently. No matter how often
you battle, and that is not very often,
or how many times you change your
underwear, your friends the "eooties"
are always in evidence. The billets are
infested with them, especially so If
there is straw on the floor.
have taken a bath and put Oh
brand-new underwear; In fact, COM
plete change of uniform, and then
turned in for the night. The next morn
ing my shirt would be full Of them. It
is common sight TO see eight or ten
soldiers sitting under tree with their
shirts over their knees engaging In a
rshirt hunt"
At night about half an hour before
Sights out" you can see the Tommies
grouped around a candle, trying, in its
dim light, to rid their underwear of
the vermin. A popular and very quick
method is to take your shirt and draw
ers, and run the seams back and for
ward In the flame from a candle and
burn them out. This practice is dan
gerous, because you are liable to burn
holes in the garments IL you are not
careful.
Recruits generally sent to Blighty
for a brand of insect powder adver-
tised as "Good for body lice" The ad-
Fertisement is quite right: the powder
is good for "cooties;" they simply
thrive on it.
The older men Of our battalion were
wiser and made scratchers out of
wood. These were rubbed smooth with
q bit Of stone or sand to prevent splin-
tiers. They were about eighteen inches
long, and Tommy guarantees that a
scratcher Of this length will reach
any part Of the body which may be at
tackled. Some Of the fellows were lazy
and only made their scratchers twelve
inches, but many a night when on
guard, looking yer the top from the
fire step of the -ront-line trench. they
would have given a thousand "Quid"
for the other six inches.
Once while we were IN rest biI1ets an
Irish Hussar regiment camped in an
open field opposite our billet. After
they had picketed and fed their horses,
a general shirt hunt took place. The
troopers ignored the call Dinner up"
and kept on with their search for big
game. They had a curious method of
procedure. They hung their shirts over
a hedge and beat them with their en-
trenching tool handles.
7 asked one Of them why they didn't
pick them or by hand, and he an
swered, "We haven't had q bath for
nine weeks or change Of clabber. II
tried to pick the coolies Off my shirt,
would be here for duration Of war"
After taking a close look at his shirt,
agreed with him; 1t was alive.
The greatest shock a recruit gets
when he arrives at his battalion In
France is to see the men engaging in a
"cootie" hunt. With an air of con-
tempt and disgust he avoids the COM
pany of the older men, until couple
of days later, In torment of itching,
he also has to resort to a shirt hunt,
or spend many a sleepless night of
misery. During these hunts there are
lots of pertinent remarks banded back
and forth among the explorers, such
as, "Say, Bill, I'll swap you two little
ones for big one" or, I've got a
black one here that looks like Kaiser
BILL"