Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1918-05-28
LETTER FROM FRANCE

An Alexandria Boy Writes FTc7
Somewhere Over There" Concern
ing Humorous Experiences VIII
Colored Men.
The editor of The Gazette is in re,
ceipt Of the following letter which
arrived in this mornings mail from
France. It was written by an Alex
ardria boy, now in the service owe,
there, whose name we will call George
Washington Park because that isn't
it:
Uncle Sam has sent quite q numbe.
of jolly, husky, negroes over 20 France
to 30 manual labor of various kinds
around the ports Of Decentralization
and some o. the large supply depots
And, believe me, they are one inter-
esting bunch. The Annex men in
France who have not seen some of
these coons from back home" who
have parted" from the land Of cot
ton to become members Of the Annex
Stevedore's Union, have surely missed
a real treat. | remember how glad |
was to see my first coon on this sice
of the Atlantic. The one l saw was
as purely African in his disposition
and his look as any Ethiopian I had
ever seen. ard was mighty happy to
see a 100 per cent pure "shine" with
me on French soil. It reminded me Of
the days of the past when as little
boy I used to have such good times
with the "Charlie" or the "Sam" or
the atom" that used to work for my
dad. So, in real Virginia style. !
walked over tc the cheerful exponent
of the sunny field OF the South, and
said. "Hello, John, what unit do you
belong to?" "John" was little per-
plexed, for never had such question
been asked him before, and then with
an appearance of the greatest sin
ccrety, he eyed me up and responded:
"Well, sub, l jest don't 'xactly know,
some sez l belong to the Workin' Or
Ganization an dthe nsome sez I be-
long to the Quartermaster Corpse;
deed, sub, I don't know just what l
long to-"
So, there he was; he did not know
any moro about what he belonged to
ethan rabbit" l guess all that he
knew was that he wasn't back IN Mis-
sissippi, but that he hoped to be back
some of these days.
This "Samnie" (just think of it)
seemed to be taking life pretty easy
on this side Of the river, but told me
that he wasn't so much struck on his
trim across the ocean. He explained
himself by stating that he "was he'll
on land, but a mighty quiet niger or
water"
AS to the French which our colored
co-patriots are learning, much can be
said. In search Of little more hum
or, l approached one of the short
coal-black members of the "Workin
Organization" and after asking him
how he was getting along with the
French language, he replied: "Well
I done learned how to say "bor
swore," meaning "good ebening" anc
"bon Jaw" meaning good morning
and den I know several other more
words that l jest amt able to make
mention of jest now" Gee, won't hi:
b;e black nanny or his wife b.
proud OF their chocolate soldier
gets back home, able to speak al
those words in French.
And talk about classy marchers an
soldiers. You know most of the me-
Gro not soldiers in the real sense o
the word. but are merely members o
The working organizations, and thu
fac+ makes their attempts to do lit
flo drilling the more ludicrous.. Onl
this morning all the fellows at thl
nlace had big laugh watching tn
Shines" There were about thlrt
or thirtv-fve in the bunch, when on
bic, husky fellow wearing the chev
rons of sergeant hollered out: "G1
in dat line" and then Messrs. Coo
started to form. But. as most of the'
have failed to realize that they AZ
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