The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1918-01-01
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NIGHT IN france
Californian Describes American
Military Base in Making.
MEN WORKING AGAINST TIME

Job Contains Quintessence of Haste,
MethodicaI, Intense, Intelligent, Ef-
ficient--Troops Are Coming, Sup
plies are Coming and Provisions for
Their Housing Must Be Made In
Time to Receive Them.
A Californian with the United States
troops writes from Somewhere in
France
Dear --: It is two weeks 81 ce
I wrote you. I have been delaying
the last few days, expecting to hear
from YOU by the "next mail The
bulk Of the "neXt maii'' arrived two
or three days ago, but driblets have
been coming through daily since.
There's another due tonight and
here's hoping. All told I've sent you
FIVE letters since arriving here-don't
know how many arrived.
Also | have been rather busy OF
late. I have been assisting in the pro-
motion of an epochal event-the hrst
American boxing tournament held IN
France 1t took place Saturday night
in a strange little theater on crooked
rue in a nearby city before an audi
ence of 500 AmericaRs-sOldlerS, sail
ors. marines and civilian employees OF
the A. e. F.-and 200 French, mostly
women. The feminine sex are great
fight fans over here.
All the American sports have been
tried out over here already. Baseball
created interest, but football was
sensation.
1t was while I was on ticket-sell-
ing tour for the fights that I got my
sreatest insight into what is going on
over here.
Base in the Making.
I have seen New York skyscraper
climb toward the infinite, a story
day; I saw square rods of concrete
poured into forms that nodded dam
which impounded a lake and reclaim
ed the fifth of q state; I have seen
new railroads fell their way across
deserts and mountains and rivers. l
saw the Panama Canal "before they
turned the wafer in the cut" More
spectacular these, possibly, but no
more impressive than an American
military base" in the making. And GER
tainly no buster.
On a certain day a few-a very few
months ago an American general
stood on a certain spot and, shifting
pointing finger said:
'"There will be railroad yards, and
there docks, and there rest camp
and that building over there will be a
base hospital"
And from that certain spot today
one looks and sees what very soon
will be yards and docks and camps
and a hospital.
In one direction q string Of low
wooden buildings stretch as far as
vision. They are ten abreast. -Four
hundred and forty Of these buildings.
each capable of housing sixty men.
Twenty-six thousand troops they will
accommodate. And within an hours
march are FIVE other such camps.
a highway parallels the waterfront
and it was ON this that the American
general stood the day he swept his
finger in the circle and conceived the
improvements that are becoming real
tiles so rapidly. A town was within
the sweep Of his arm. It is being re-
moved. Houses century old are be-
ing razed. The space is needed for
trackage.
On the other side of the road the
docks are going in. Dikes are being
built a quarter Of a from shore
and dredges and hyG Al . pumps are
banking silt behind them.
Work Against Time.
The work must be done by stated
date. It is labor against time. Troops
are coming. Material is coming. Am
munition is coming. And this must be
ready for them. The job contains the
quintessence OF haste-methodical IT,
tense. intelligent, efficient. Here are
working thousands - Americans,
French and white-clad German pris-
oners, unsmilng, slothful, stolid each
gang with its poilu guard. invariably
small in comparison both to his
charges and the long rifle he carries,
supermounted with its 24-inch bayo-
net.
A construction locomotive passes
with a trainload Of rails. American
steel! The engineer is in khaki and
he wears the red and white maitland
Of the engineers.
Further along is a big, four-story
stone building that was schoolhouse
when Washington was inaugurated. It
stands with all the dignity of its age
in twenty acres of groomed forest and
lawn. But now it radiates wooden eX-
tensions, extending anonymously be-
meath the limbs of the chestnuts. Open
spaces hold barracks. A famous cha
teau on an adjoining estate is being