The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-03-26

holes In the garments If you are not
careful.
Recruits generally sent to Blighty
for brand Of insect powder adver-
tised as Good for body lice" The ad-
vertisement is quite right; the powder
Is good for "cooties;" they simply
thrive on 1t.
The older men Of our battalion were
wiser and made scratchers out Of
wood. These were rubbed smooth with
bit Of stone or sand to prevent splin-
ters. They were about eighteen inches
long, and Tommy guarantees that a
scratcher Of this length will reach
any part Of the body which may be at
tackled. Some Of the fellows were lazy
and only made their scratchers twelve
inches. but many night when on
guard, looking over the top from the
fire step Of the front-line trench, they
would have given n thousand "Quid"
for the other six inches.
Once while we were In rest billets an
Irish Hussar regiment camped in an
open field opposite our billet. After
they had picketed and fed their horses,
general shirt hunt took place. The
troopers ignored the call Dinner up"
and kept on with their search for big
game. They had a curious method of
procedure. They hung their shirts over
hedge and beat them with their en-
.trenching tool handles.
asked one of them why they didn't
pick them off by hand, and he an
swered, 1--WE haven't had bath for
nine weeks or a change of clabber. If
tried to pick the coolies off my shirt,
1 would be here for duration Of war"
After taking close look at his shirt,
agreed with him; 1t was alive.
The greatest shock recruit gets
when he arrives at his battalion in
France is to see the men engaging In a
"cootie" hunt. With an air Of con-
tempt and disgust he avoids the COM
pany Of the older men. until a couple
Of days later, in a torment of itching
he also has to resort to a shirt hunt,
or spend many sleepless night of
misery. During these hunts there are
lots Of pertinent remarks banded back
and forth among the explorers, such
as, "Say, Bill, I'll swap you two little
ones for big one," or, 1--WE got a
black one here that looks like Kaiser
Bill"
One sunny day in the front-line
trench, / saw three officers sitting out
side OF their dugout ("cooties" are no
,respecters OF rank have even noticed
suspicious uneasineSs about certain
well-known generaD, one of them was
tance we could see their flashes, which
lighted up the sky with red glare.
Against the horizon we could see
numerous observation balloons or "sau-
sages" as they are called.
On the afternoon Of the third DAVIS
march I witnessed my first airplane
being shelled. A thrill ran through me
and / gazed In awe. The airplane was
making wide circles In the air, while
little puffs Of white smoke were burst
Ing all around 1t. These puffs appeared
like tiny balls OF cotton while after
each burst could be heard q dull
"plop." The sergeant of nv platoon
Informed us that 1t was a German air
plane and wondered how he could tell
from such distance because the plane
seemed like little black speck in the
sky. l expressed my doubt as to
whether 1t was English, French or Ger
man. With look of contempt he fur
ther Informed us that the allied anti
aircraft shells when exploding emitted
white smoke while the German shells
gave forth black smoke, and, as he ex-
pressed IT, 1T must be an Allemand be-
cause our pom-poms are shelling, and
/ know our batteries are not Off their
baly nappers and are certainly not
strafeing our own planes, and another
piece OF advice-dont chuck your
weight about until you've been up the
line and learnt something"
l Immediately quit "chucking my
weight about" from that time on.
Just before reaching reserve billets
we were marching along, laughing, and
singing one of Tommy's trench ditties: