Denver labor bulletin. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-19??, 1918-07-20

Note-A copy OF Inc stars ana
Stripes, official newspaper of the
American expeditionary forces in
France, bearing date of June IA,
reached The Bulletin Office this week.
Its typographical appearance, head
ings, cartoons and news articles are
of a kind seen in most American met
ropolitan dailies, being published as
it is by American editors and printers
in France. The accompanying article
is taken from the front page of The
Stars and Stripes, giving realistic
war story at the fighting front.
When the Yanks jumped into the
second battle of the Marine they came
from far and near, came by train,
came by cannon, came afoot, came
they little cared how SO long as they
got there
1t was a great pell-mell rush of re-
Inducements to a point in the line
where reinforcements were needed. In
that rush, one regiment of infantry
piled into dusty motor trucks and
sped up hill and down dale at such
a rate that they left their mess and
supply personnel, their kitchens and
their provisions far behind-so far be-
hind that whole unforgettable week
went by without their catching up
somewhere northwest of Chateau
Thierry.
And the boys, with only the vaguest
notion Of what that week held in store
for them, thought gloomily of their
meager supply of iron rations, Won
dered how long the hard tack and
corned willy would last and hazarded
the guess that the mess sergeants
were asleep under some distant, peace
full hedge, while the cooks must be
rioting in some roadside buvette.
In the Regiments Wake.
But far in the rear, toiling along
under the scorching sun behind their
field kitchens and the wagons of sup
plies, the lords of the mess were COM
ing as fast as they could. They had
supposed they would come by train,
but if that had ever been the plan,
it went agley.
Veteran sergeants, who had not
been mixers over here, cooks who had
scorned the open road. started out
overland in the wake of the regimen
tai train. They walked 12s miles in
five days and one of them got up out
of sick bed to do it.
They walked as the most hardened
mixers seldom are called upon to walk.
They did the first twenty-eight hours
of that march with only a cold lunch
to stay their stomachs. with only one
hours rest except the regular ten
minutes breathing spell allowed in
every hour. And when they reached
the end Of the 12eth mile, it was not
to rest, but to start in and cook for
dear life.
The one thought that was in their
minds as they put mile after mile be-
hind them was the thought that the
poor lads must be hungry and that no
regiment can fight without its cooks
behind them.
Were in Wonderland.
But the poor lads, with whom the
cooks commiserated as they plodded
along the dusty highway, were living,
for the most part, on the fat Of Won
derful land.
1t was one of the loveliest and most
fertile countrysides in all the world
into which the Germans made their
southwark thrust the last week in
May. Fine farms, rich stocks of cat
tie and fowl, new yielding gardens
had been abandoned in the flight of
the civilians from the fringe of the
battle area. 1t was fair as the garden
of the Lord to the eyes of the fam
iShed ankee horde
They foraged. Not this regiment
alone, but many another, foraged for
several days. Chicken, goose, fresh
meat, pigs incredibly fat and tempt
ing, honey and cider and wine-of
such were the menus for several days
of many and many company.
There was no suggestion of pillage
about it. The farms and villages had
been deserted. In many places the
very pigs were hungry and all the
stock was clamoring for attention. In
the pens of one manor house, several
hundred rabbits had been without food
for days. The oncoming doughboys
killed n couple of dozen for the eve
ning's mess and let the others go free
to forage for themselves or find their
way back to the woods of their fore
fathers.
City Folks as Cow Chasers.
French officers and the accompany
ing interpreters babe the Yankees
make free of the food that was vast
ing there, and one ancient Frenchman,
and his wife, too old and stubborn to
desert the little village where they
had lived all their days, called down
to the passing Americans to eat every
thing up before the Boches could get
there.
1t was wonderful chow. Infantry
men who had been golderned city
chaps back home practiced the gentle
art of milking and could be seen rae
ing the reluctant she all over a twilit
meadow. One old sergeant was sus-
pected of being peculiarly bad gas
case until it was found that the fright
full swelling and inflammation of his
eyes and cheeks had been caused by