The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1918-08-21

a long line or ngntS 10 uhe snetereu
roadstead. There was the creak of
windlass and chains as the anchors
griped
And yet this midnight arrival in the
darkness and rain is only one of the
steady succession Of great armadas
coming over three or four days apart
in the colossal American military in
Eflux which Secretary Baker gives at
275,O00 men for single month
These $4,000 men just in are the pop
ulation Of a good sized city, twice as
many men as we sent to Cuba for the
Spanish American war; about half
| The force Napoleon had at Waterloo
| when the dGstinies of Europe were
in the scale.
And while this is one of the recort
debarkments, yet it Is only a small
part of that mighty stream coming
in from the west. 1t is the unpre
cedented magnitude of such a mill
tary movement, across the ocean, in
the face of submarines, that has
thrilled the allied world and broken
the spirit of the adversary.
1t was a stirring scene in the har-
Dor the morning following as the
transports unloaded their $4,000 men
The. sky had cleared and the hu
hulls of the transports doomed out of
the mist, their tunnels putting black
smoke, their sides painted with fan
tastc camouflage, and their decks
rising like terraces crowded with
khaktclad Americans in their broad,
brimmed sombreros. The destroy
ers had drawn off and were lying in
a bunch ten across. They looked
diminutve beside the big ships, but
their power showed in the CLINT c
guns and the long, lean build like
greyhound stretched for action.
Further back were the French war
ships
All about were innumerable small
craft, army and navy tugs, lighters,
launches, and a flotila of fishing
craft with their nets hanging to dry
like huge sails of lace Back of this
water scene stretched the huge Amer
lean warehouses, sprung up like
huge mushrooms, until the whole of
the front was black with buildings
and the skeletons of more buildings.
Already the lighters were alongside
and the soldiers came tramping on
down the gang ways to go ashore
The Americans found this port to
be without any system of big docks.
A few of the smaller ships can come
to the docks, but most of the unload
ing from the deep-draught ships must
be by lighters. The American con
manders are planning to change all
this and soon the long breakwater
will be linked to the land by bridges
thus creating at a stroke a huge dock
ing system by which the American
troops will march straight ashore out
from the ships.
A lighter was now pushing off. and
on it 500 troops were packed like
the crowd of a holiday procession
The men We're feeling gay, for they
were about to step on solid ground
again, and to have their first look at
France; and besides they had their
regimental band which was sending
the Star Spangled Banner echoing
over the water. Every head was
barred as the strains of the anthem
went up. Over the men floated
huge dirigible balloon pointing out
to sea in quest of a submarine The
soldiers gazed at it as the first sign
of warfare After it rose two hy
droplanes like monster beetles and
joined in the search for submarines
Now the lighters were at the
uock, aud with the tide out the men
climed up 20 feet to the wharyes.
AS they fell in for the march to the
camp they had an earnest. quizzical
look, for this was the first sight the
men of the new world were taking
OF the old world ,,,Oct g III -