The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1918-06-14
keep CHIEF OF
ARMY POLICE BUSY
American Troops Not UnruIy, but
Full of Mischief.
FR0LIc LIKE COLLEGE BOYS

DC Iraceo One Oay-Escapades No
More Than Reaction From the
Heavy Strain Of Very Active Army
Maneuvers.
When the whole story of this war
shall have been written It will be in
complete without II chapter about how
the American boys behaved in France.
The historian should get the material
for that chapter from the provost mar
shal. He is the chief of police, so
far as the Americans are concerned.
am ut present living with regi-
ment stationed i'm little French viii
lage where from time to time we can
hear the booming of the guns on the
battle front. keeping the boys always
reminded Of the direction In which
they are headed. writes a correspond
ent of the New York Times. There
are few French folk in the place;
they moved to where 1t is safer And
so the Americans are pretty much in
control of the town, and incidentally,
there are about ten times as many
/ <hIItlltuu utIC us there ever
We're civilian Frenchmen and French
women. They are quartered in every
available house, and in some that
would not be available were 1t not that
they had to be.
In one that falls in the latter cate
| CORY l am living. Myself, this type.
writer, and some blankets are the only
furniture it has. To get out of my
room l have to go through the room
of the provost marshal. His room Is
better than mine; it has bed. He
didn't know 1t was d bed until the
owner of the house put in a charge for
billets. Under the army plan. room
with bed in 1t costs one franc day,
but If there Is no bed the charge is
only 80 centimes. And so the provost
marshal knows he has a bed to sleep
on and not box. 1t says so in the
official records of the war department
of the United States. We We're in
specting the room of the provost mar
shal the other day and noticed part
of the wall ut one end was corrugated
steel. We pushed 1t up, and 10, there
was fireplace. We Immediately call.
ed the owner of the house and
demanded fire. 1t was very diff
cult, he said, because he had no wood
and never used fire except for cook
ing.
Threat to Burn Bed.
When we convinced him that unless
we got wood quickly the provost mar.
shal's bed was going to be sacrificed
Guilty and said that perhaps for five
francs 1t might be that someone had
some wood tn sell. He got the five
francs and two hours later reappeared
with three bundles of fagOts, explain
Ing his delay by saying that on the
way he had stopped to milk three
cows. We got the fire started and
burned we We're soon going To be cold
again. We explained to the man of
the house that we must have big pieces
of wood. He II. Piled that only the
cure had such wood, and that 1t was
impossible to buy wood from the cure
and besides it was Sunday. The pro-
vost marshal gave him ten francs and
told him to bring the wood. And he
did. was sorry | didn't go along tC
see how he got the wood from the cure
on Sunday. but the main point was
that he got 1t. The provost marshal
has dominion only over the misbe
haviOr Of Americans, and so it was
none of our affair how the man got
the wood.
But when 1t comes to Americans
this provost marshal isa very differ
ent man. He Is young first lieuten
ant, and his home is I'm New York
city. He has told me that after the
war he is going to get out of the army
He hasn't said what he is going t.
do, but think he is training to he ;
rival Cf one William ]. Burns. He has
to do some very nice detective work
The American soldiers behave gen
orally like n lot of college boys II
flieir moments of relaxation, hut it /:
not to he supposed that they dom
break loose a bit mt times. And be
cause they do the provost marshal ha
up. AS college boys do, the soldiers
make 1t as difficult as possible for tn,
provost guard to obtain material fO
conviction of viOlatOrs of army rules
Ii was eight o'clock I'm the morn
ing. The provost marshal was sleep
Ing soundly, having got to bed at ON
o'clock after his last round of the vii
lage streets, which he found de
serted OF the regiments "comedians,
as the trouble makers are called. Their
was loud rapping at his doc
and the "Y" man entered to say thn
early in the morning the Y. NJ. c. A
hut had been entered and one box o
) cigars and one baseball taken, an,
. that the damage was 35 francs. ii
, asked that 1t would not happen again
The lieutenant thanked him for tn
information and sent for corporal o
the military police, and put him Ol
the case.