Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1918-09-12
A. unr,e. F-anre.
August 20 1918.

W
,naa before we can be packing up and
,,n1;no for home. And II won't take
ne long 70 pack, either. | think most OF
rs have seen enough and would De salis-
fed 10 leave for the other SIDE tomorrow;
We are still working along the same oio
lines. and with the new drive on orlSe
IN our men are working over time TO g.t
the trucks and cars ready for the front.
We are sending out big bunch today
We had right funny incident yester-
dav the elimination Of a series OF rather
noor meals. When we drew our last
rations we had only few over hun
dred men. and after we had gotten the
food about twenty-five more men
dropped n on us, and as consequence
food ran rather short toward the last OF
the ration period of ten days. Sunday
evening supper was rank failure, due
n the fact that the cook got interested
in poker game and let most OF the stun
get bad. The men, while they ala mo-,
pet enough 10 eat, took the matter very
eood. naturedly. Then for breakfast
Monday morning, owing to the shortage
we had very little to start the men oGl
for the day, and there was consioeraoie
arrnbline. One of the men who is
1nn.al-worker did not like what they naa
.; all. so he went to work without any
breakfast and was as a result IN pretty
bad humor. When the men came down
from work at noon good dinner was
waiting for them, for we had gotten the
rations for the next ten days, ana tilele
was more than enough lot everybody
The metal worker, though, was sui sole'
and right after the meal, when the hleH
we're still in the mess hall, he called the
mess sergeant, who by the way is great
big Swede, and handed him little pack
ace The Door unsuspecting mess ser
peant unwrapped it in front OF every
BODY. and | wish you could have seen
his face when he found that he had oeen
given a great big iron cross, ribbon ana
all. Well, you never heard such shou,
as went up, and the fellow who gave II
RI him took one look ar the mess ser
peant's face and effaced himself. ne
did q wise thing, too, for the top COOK
was sure sore, and there would nave
been some scrap, perhaps-out II taxes
two to make fight and there was only
one there. We had lot OF Jun over II
and | finally Gained the mess sergeant
down, and he is now the proud possesSor
of a rather unique souvenir.
Sunday afternoon one OF the lieu
tenants asked me if would like to-
drive him about ten miles down the
the country to see another officer VINO
was stationed at small town, and since
the afternoon was warm and mad only
the regular amount of work to do SAID
yes before he was done asking me, and
so we started off. don't believe there
is a country in the world that has more
rural beauty than France. We drove
down along a small river for quite
ways and a more beautiful landscape
would be hard to find. The farms are
so we'll kept and everything is so orderly
that il is hard to realize that all the men
are not at home, and you sure have to
hand il to the women and old men for
doing the work we'll. We drove through
Several small towns on the way and
finally came to Selles and pulled up un-
der some big shade trees that lined the
public square, and how did enjoy that
nice cool shade. There are no Amer
lean soldiers stationed there, and
naturally | was curiosity to the small
bows and soon there was quite a crowd
around the car. | did my best to give
them all the information they wanted
and we were having a fine time-and !
don't think they enjoyed it more than !
dd-until one of them found the norm
button on the car, and after that II was
fight to keep their fingers OIL OF 1t:
had been there about half hour Wneh
| saw an old man come around inc
corner with a drum and he started 10
beating it and yelling in a loud voice,
"Feuer Feuerl Feuer" and started down
through the town. inquired where the
fire was, and found that about two kllo-
meters from town there was a big hre
in a forest and that the citizens were
being called out to help fight It. ABOUT
that time the lieutenantS came out OF the
hotel and we decided to 60 and see what
the fire amounted TO. We piled into the
car and shortly arrived OIL the scene
There was some fire in that woods and
the Frenchmen were working on 1t with
branches and brush, but didn't work
fast enough to do much good. Unoer
the back seat of our car there were sew
eral big sacks, so we each got one and
went into the woods to help put out the
fire. 1t was burning on about front OF
a hundred yards, and since there was
considerable under brush it looked like
pretty big job to get it out, but we
waded into it, though il was hot job.
One lieutenant went to the end OF the
line and the other took the middle and
went on the other end, and then we start
ed to beating that fire forty ways from
Sunday. We had some little help from
the French, but they seemed to like to
watch us work. 1t was not long before
we had gotten it nearly all out, except
one place of about hundred feet where
the brush was so thick that the fire was
almost too hot to get close enough &c
fight it. The Frenchmen had decided
to let it burn through hundred feet or
so to an open spot and then stop it.
but we Americans did not think much
of that idea, so we went right in afte.
the fire where it was and soon had it al
out but very small place. The natives
were still resting on their branches, and
noticed that in several places the fire
was catching up again and called their
attention to it, but they did not seem to
mind, so | decided that didn't either.
asked the lieutenants what was the
use of us doing all the work when the
French didn't seem to care whether the
fire was out or not, and since we were
all three wringing wet with perspiration
and pretty well tagged out we threw
down our sacks in disgust. There was
fine breeze stirring, and knew that if
those birds didn't soon wake up and fight
little fire themselves they would have
a bigger job than ever on their hands.
and | was not slow telling them about
it, but they didn't seem TO mind, so we
got in the car and came back to town.
About forty-fve minutes later the old
man came along with the drum again
and announced that the fire was worse
than it was before and ordered all the
natives out to help fight it again. Since
We were not natives and had put the fire
out once, we decided that we had done
our share and that they would have to
ID