French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1918-09-12
SCENE OF BOYS AS THEY
LAND IN FRANCE; GLIMPSE
OF $4,000 DISSEMINATING.

O'Clock at night, all lghtS
out ashore and af1oat, heavy rain
squalls sweeping out to sea, and this
great port dark and silent as the
latest feet of American transports
and convoys-13 monster ships, 10
destrOyers, Sc, 600 fighting men and
5000 crew-creeps in from the At
lantic.
With ar American army, escort VIC
had climbed to a high point on tn,
sea front to get a glimpse of this
first process in the gigantic military
migration from America to Europe,
the greatest the world has ever
known; and then to follow it, step by
step, as it's vast and intricate aetiv-
tiles unfolded up to the arrival of
the men on the fighting front.
No Dress Parade
The wireless station had received
a cipher message giving warning OF
the approach of the fleet. It had
been hoped the arrival would be in
daylight, with flags flying, bands
playing and the sun shining as the
American fighting men got their
first glimpse of Europe. But, this is
no dress parade, said the Admiral,
and there is no time for stage eff
fects.
And so at midnight in the rain and
darkness with signal lights showing
for the first time since they left the
other side, the huge fotilla moved in
a long line of lights to the sheltered
roadstead. There was the creak of
MINDLESS and chains as the anchors
gripped.
And yet this midnight arrival in
the darkness and rain is only one Of
the steady succession of great arm
adas coming every three and four
days, in the colossal American mill
tary influx, which Secretary Baker
gives at 275,00O men for a single
month. These $4,000 men just in
are the population of a good-sized
IN4GJs G"4SO 0O 4A4%4yuA1AO44 90 VIC oSAAC
20 Cuba for the Spanish-American
war; about half the force Napoleon
had at Waterloo when the destinie5
of Europe were in the scale.
And while this is one of the rec
ord debarkments, yet it is only &
mall part of that mighty stream
Looming in from the west. 1t is the
unprecedented magnitude of such a
military movement, across the ocean.
n the face Of submarines, that has
5hrillcd the allied world and broken
the spirit of the adversary.
Stirring Scenes Enacted
1t was a striking scene in the har-
5or the morning following as the
transports unloaded their $4,000
men. The sky had cleared and the
huge hulls of the transports doomed
out of the mist, their tunnels puff
ng black smoke, their sides painted
With fantastic camoufage, and their
1ecks rising like terraces crowded
with khaki-clad Americans in then
broad brimmed sombreros. The des.
rogers had drawn off and were II.
:ng punched ten across. They looked
dimunitive beside the big ships, but
their power showed in the CLINT OF
guns and the long, lean build like
greyhound stretched for action. Fur
her back were the French warships
All about were innumerable small
, craft, army and navy tugs, lighters
launches, and a fotilla of fishing
craft with their nets hanging to dry
ike huge sails of lace. Back of thi
water scene stretched the huge Am
erican warehouses, sprung up like
mushrooms, until the whole from
vas black with buildings and thu
2 skeletons of more buildings. Al
ready the lighters were alongsid,
and the soldiers came trampinl
down the gangways to go ashore.
A few of the smaller ships cal
come to the docks, but most of tn,
| unloading from the deep-draughr
ships must be by lighters. The Am
: erican commanders are planning t.
change all this, and soon the lon|
5rcakwater will be linked to the Ian,
5 oy bridges, thus creating at a strok
! huge docking system by which tn
American troops will march straigh
: ashore from the ships.
Like a Holiday Procession
, A lighter was now pushing off
. with 500 troops packed on it lik
the crowd at a holiday procession
The men were feeling gay, for the
l we're about to step On solid groun
? again, and to have their first loo.
lat France; and besides they had III
geginental band which was sendin
= the Star Spangled Banner echoin