Milford chronicle., 1918-03-01

were not nearly so large as our trains
nor nearly so comfortable. Instead OF
the car having one main aisle with
: seats on each side as in ours, the
: coach is divided into number of CON-
partments, which seat four or five
comfortably. We were supposed to
: have eight men in each.
Right here occurred one Of the fun
niest episodes of the whole trip. Six
Of us piled into the very first com
partment of the very first coach. 1t
was practically filled and we knew
that two more would sure crowd u.s.
Something had to be done so I whipped
off my overcOat, wrapped it around
my blanketroll, put my hat on top of
the coat collar and placed the whole
contraption on the seat beside me. MY
| "bunkie" Tommy" Thompson of New
York City,, did likewise We thought
in this way to have full section. And
| it worked far better than we ever
| thought it would. We thought the
whole train would never get started.
About every three minutes some of
our officers would run up, look in the
window, nod their heads and pass on
to the next. They visited every com
partment in this way. At last our
commanding officer rushed up to the !
door, opened it and said, For Gods
sake, how many men do you have in
here?" Well, all of US were scared |
speechless. No one said a word until /
the silence became unbearable and .
managed to blurt out, six men, sir, !
and two camouflages." It struck his ,
sense Of humor and he broke out into /
a laugh. The best part of it all, though, /
was the fact that he let us ride all !
the way through with only six of US
in there. "Camoufage" sure saved
the day for us. The reason for the
delay in starting was that, by counting
the two cams, there were two men
too many on the train. The COM
manding officer did not know where
we got them.
1t took about six hours to make the
run from Liverpool to Southampton.
Our watches showed 11.30 p. m. when
we stepped OFF the train, ready to en-
bark for France. We did not leave
England that night on account of
the presence of submarines in the
Channel. Instead we were march
ed to the rest camp in that city. The
distance is supposed to be three or
four miles. That night it seemed thir-
ty or forty miles. 1t was a. m. Sun ]
day, November 11th before we reach
ed the camp. And what a reception we
had.
Our commanding officer reported us
to the officer in charge as men. Our
Official rating was cadets. There is
not a whole lot of difference in the
words-but world of difference in
their application. AS men" we re-
ceived the treatment of ordinary pri-
Yates. AS cadets" we would have
received officers quarters and food.
For quarters (as "men") we were as >
signed to tents with board floors and y
given three blankets each. The mud
was so deep that we mad to kep on
he Slated walks or become hopeless 2
~ mired. To add to our discomforts
It was intensely cold. Somehow, we
managed to live the night through. In
he morning most of us had no break =
asst. | was fortunate enough to make
he acquaintance of a cook tan Amer
can from the Marine Corps) who kind o
y gave me a "hand-out'-cold rice.
'old peas and a piece of beef. At least "
| was called beef. Tasted and chewed
ike sole leather.
About IL a. m. we left that place.
oreVer hope, and started for France L
gain. This time we made a boat and Il
pulled out at 4.30 p. m. EVerytime I c'
hink of that trip across the Channel
get the cold shivers, always follow N
ID by a nightmare. NJ
the boat was crowded. Everybody
lad to go below decks as soon as il lii
vas dark on account Of no lights be-
ng allowed. We were so crowded cl
here was scarcely room to stand V
one at all to sleep. Finally, about m
go found a little recess back of a
ne smoke stack. There was a half 81
arrel OF scrap iron there and this I in
sed for cot. BY folding my extra W
vercoat, putting it over the iron so ds
would not seem too hard, bracing tn
~ head and shoulders in a corner NJ
I the wall and placing my feet on a an
Lep that happened to be there, l
lanaged to secure a few hours sleep.
ometime during the night reused
P, called Tommy" and let him finish at
Ut the night in little comfort. As tt
started to leave I tramped all over alc
ne OF the fellows who had gone TO tel
eep beside my barrel. It was none sci
her than Harry Holden, the cham
on mile runner Of the New York ce,
thletie Clubs. (We also have in the att
me bunch Windnagle, the crack ]
'rnell runner and the mile champion. the
lilbin, the famous Yale halfback Of are
'ed" Caps team; and various others vii