The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1918-11-15

had heard more or less about the Ger
man atrocities in Belgium, and while
l was greatly interested, / was doubt
| full at first as to the truth of the re-
ports, for knew how news gets
changed in passing from mouth to
mouth, and / never was much of q
hand to believe things until saw
them, anyway. Another thing that
caused me to be interested In the war
was the fact that my mother was born
in Alsace. Her maiden name, DER
yieux, is well known in Alsace l had
often visited my grandmother In st.
Nazaire, France. and knew the coun-
try. So with France at war, it was
not strange that should be even
more interested than many other
| garbies.
AS have said, did not take much
stock in the first reports of the Huns
exhibition of kultur, because Fritz is
known as clean sailor, and figured
that no real sailor would ever get
mixed up in such dirty work as they
said there was in Belgium. figured
the soldiers were like the sailors. But
I found out was wrong about both.
One thing that opened my eyes
bit was the trouble my mother had In
| getting out of Hanover, where she
was when the war started, and back
to France. She always wore little
American flag and this both saved and
endangered her. Without it, the Ger
mans would have interned her as a
Frenchwoman, and with 1t, she was
sneered at and insulted time and
again before she finally managed to
get over the border. She died about
two months after she reached st. Ma
zaire.
Moreover, 1 heard the fate of my
older brother, who had made his home
in France with my grandmother. He
had gone to the front at the outbreak
of the war with the infantry from st.
Nazaire and had been killed two or
three weeks afterwards. This made
1t a sort of personal matter.
But what put the finishing touches
to me were the stories wounded
Canadian lieutenant told me some
months later in New York He had
been there and he knew. You could
not help believing him; you can al
WAYS tell it when man has been
there and knows.
There was not much racket around
New York, so made up my mind all
of a sudden to go over and get some
for myself. Believe me, / got enough
racket before / was through. Most
of the really important things have
done have happened like that: / did
them on the jump, you might say.
Many other Americans wanted look,
too; there were five thousand Amer
leans in the Canadian army at one
time they say.
would not claim that went over
there to save democracy, or anything
like that. l never did like Germans,
and never met q Frenchman who was
not kind to me, and what l heard
about the way the Huns treated the
Belgians made me sick. l used to get
out of bed to go to an all-night picture
show, l thought about it so much.
But there was not much excitement
about New York, and figured the
q. S. would not get into it for while,
anyway, so l just wanted to go over
and see what it was like. That Is
why lots of us went, l think.
There were five of us who went to
Boston to ship for the other side:
Sam Murray, Ed Brown, Tim Flynn,
Mitchell and myself. Murray was an ex-
garby-twO bitches (enlistments), gun
pointer rating, and about thirty-hve
years old. Brown was a Pennsylvania
man about twenty-six years old, who
had served two enlistments in the o.
S. army and had quit with the rank
of sergeant. Flynn and Mitchell were
both ex-navy men. Mitchell was
noted boxer OF the five of us, | am
the only one who went In, got
through and came out. Flynn and
Mitchell did not go in; Murray and
Brown never came back.
The five of us shipped on the steam
ship Virginian of the American-Ha-
waiian line, under American flag and
registry, but chartered by the French
government. / signed on as water
tender-an engine room job-but the
others were on deck-that is, seamen.
We left Boston for st. Nazaire with
a cargo of ammunition, bully beef,
etc, and made the first trip without
anything of interest happening.
As we were tying to the dock at st.
Nazaire. saw a German prisoner sit
ting on a pile Of lumber. l thought
probably he would be hungry, so l
went down into the oilers mess and
got two slices Of bread with a thick
piece of beefsteal, between them and
handed IL to Fritz. He would not take
II. At first / thought he was afraid
70. but by using several languages and
- --.nn.oa "a ranEn M undar.