The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-08-13
AMERICAN SOLDIERS
B|LLETED IN FRANCE
Story of How Americans I'm Franco
Graphically Described BY
Herbert Corey.

Especial to The Richmond Virginian)
Washington, d. c., Aug. 12.-How
American troops are billeted in
French villages near the front is de-
scribed by Herbert Corey in a coinnu
nication to the National Geographic
society, a part Of which the society is
sues as the following war ge ogra pny
bulletin:
1 stunt lcd alo.Ig a dark street in
a dark village in northern France. |
say dark, but the word does not prop
erly set forth the conditions. There
was no moon and there were no stars.
1t had been raining and in few min
utes 1t would be raining again. The
street had once been naved-abOut
the time of the Roman occupation,
perhaps-and a few rounded cobbles
were still imbedded in a soggy mud
that sucked at ones boot-soies as one
walked.
No light came from the windows.
One knew that inside the houses
American soldiers were gathered
about the candles, reading or shoot
ing craps or wondering why the s.
NJ. C. A. was not performing total I'M
possibilities in getting its chocolate
and cigarette laden trucks over roads
that were gummed and cluttered with
the camions OF an army in movement.
The windows were curtained. so
that not the slightest CLEAN escaped.
In this part of France the peasants
favor solid wooden shutters outside
the windows, and inside the soldiers
had tackled up blankets. Hostile air
planes are always on the hunt for viii
lagos in which soldiers may be
BON bed. This particular hamlet vas
within range of the Germans big
guns and no chances might be taken.
only those who have been lost in
the midst of a forest on rainy night
can properly appreciate the utter
blackness of thai -treet. l ran head
on into Il soldier.
Visibility low, he remarked. in
grimly humorous quotation from the
report often made by the aerial OBJ
servers.
The laughter came from the one
room in which the officers Of the
headquarters company were hedded.
l knew that room. In IL the beds
were laid so thickly on the brick fio1r
that they overlapped like shingles on
a roof Only the man VINO slept next
the door could get % his bed Without
walking over the beds OF the other
men. All others walked over his bed
in going and coming. They were dis
tlnguished from each other by the
Ild4baSS 1t ElAf W. AtNt = 'AA'HA4N-'+ ga FA'N
dingy wall
When an American 'outht' enters
town In which II has been newly
hilleted 1t finds that the b4lleting Of
icers have preceded IL Upon the
doors of houses or the gates OF courts
such legends as this are written.
Company j. one officer and
twelve men.
Inside that house or that count or
that barn an officer and twelve men
of company ! are free TO find su h
acc ON odations a they may.
Sometimes the officer sleeps be
tween sheets and sometimes the men
roll in their blankets on clean. sweet
smelling hay. Sometimes the lodE-
ings are more primitive Not long
ago ! visited a major whose bed waS
only divided from the bed Of the
household pig by board partition,
ventilatedaby huge cracks Another
officer shared n room with SICK
COW, In another house the chickens
and men roasted L~Gether. No one
complained. for this is war.
1T was in hurlesque OF these
chalked billeting orders that on >hc
walls Of the bedroom OF the headquar-
tiers company had been written the
names of the bed owners.
Clean. Energetic Officers.
Il know them we'll They average
twenty-four years old. for took a
census of their ages One owns rich
mines in Mexico One says he Will
be elected sheriff in his county in cer-
rral Tennessee when the war Is over
Another was an off1cec in the Philip
pine consta hulary ana re signed his
commission TO get into the greater
game. Ont is a six foot-fout Young
ster from a clean home in Nebraska
He does not speak of his home but
one IAN afwaxs tell Another was 4
Kansas City newspaper man, and an
other had been In business IN MIL
waukee when we declared war.
THAT is the sort OF men they are
clean. lively. energetic Americans