Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-01-29

lore, Mdny Oh Tie OHlC0rSf thought
that they individually ought to have
a personal attendant to look after
their baggage Most of them were
pretty much demanding, but of course,
were only worried because of their
personal belongings, forgetting that
there were forty other officers to be
cared for. 1t was just my luck to
lose one bag of an officer who was the
very least demanding of the lot, and
who is one of those whom | like
most. | have put about seven hours
work in trying to locate this and other
pieces, but haven't succeeded as yet.
! lost a few pieces but consider N.Y.
self very lucky counting it all in all,
in not losing any more than l have
At the port of embarkation for
France | had charge of another de-
tail of men to pack luggage and check
it up on the cross-channel steamer.
got through this famously. Then
when we landed in France l had the
task of again checking it up, with
number of men under me, and a job
it was raining: to separate a COM
paratively few trunks out of thous-
ands that came from the ship.
worked as have never worked before,
on that detail. My men overlooked
several pieces at that But good Lord
if work could ever accomplish any
thing, then certainly l ought to have
been able to check up all of that lug
gage. After | had finished that de-
tail, | was put in charge of eight
picked men to guard the stuff Dur
ing all these various Jobs or "re-
sponsibilities," Jim Alexander was
usually in charge of some men work
ing at the other end of the job Major
Straight had given me his sword be-
fore leaving our Atlantic ocean steam
er, so / had, in addition to my other
things to think about, the task of car
ing for the Majors sword-a sort of
guardian of the sword" | kept the
thing with me continually, sleeping on
it, and living with it, literally. Well
on the day we landed in France, 1
was, as previously stated one busy
fellow. Still l kept the sword with
me. During this d when | was in
charge of various details, the sword
was repeatedly taken from me, while
| was extremely busy. | recovered it
again and again, but it left me many
times.
| placed my guards and we waited
until six o'clock in the evening when
trucks came for the baggage to take
it to the station for transportation
to the next place here. | was then put
in charge of detail to see that the
luggage reached the station in the
various trucks, safely. Well, saw
to that, in fact, we loaded the stuff
into the railroad cars, ETC., but the
trucks after being unloaded left for
while, and during this time / lost
some of my personal belongings,
which is not so important by any
means, but above all-7-along went the
sword | was so dead tired after
shooting luggage" all day, and con-
tented that all of it had finally reached
the station, that l proceeded to forget
everything else and sleep. l remem-
bered the sword too late. l had man.
| aged the luggage alright, but the
sword was gone. l worried and did
| not sleep a wink, in spite of being
tired, for thinking about this. |
would rather have lost all my own lug
| gage than that precious sword. How
ever, when l tried to see Majm
Straight about it, he, like the straight
| white man that he is, told me not to
worry at ALL that it was a good rid
| dance. | shall keep on the job and
| locate it, which should be no difficult
ty as it had his name on it, rank, etc.
Certainly we boys have the best
| officers in the world. Major Straight
| is wonderful man as is also Major
| Lindsey. They are always on the
| job for us, always thinking of us, and
| always doing for us. Then we have
| Lieut.. Healy and I'd Lieuts Richards
and Owen, as our immediate officers
| These three men are the salt of the
earth. Lieut.. Healey is an old anG
tried veteran soldier. He knows; wha.
hardship is and takes it all with his
men. He would give the shirt on his
back for any one of them, and l speak
quite truthfully when | say that any
man in the organization would do the
same for him many times over.
One thing more l want to say. This
| Y. M. G. A. is the real stuff. Ever
| since we landed abroad the Y. M. C. A
has been constant source of warmth
and comfort. They are the only
place to go to get warm and get real
| food and warm chocolate. l think
the Y. M. G. A. is doing fine and l am
| heartily in favor of it.
| Who do you think | have met while
here? Dave Winton. He is staying
right in this hotel at present, and
had long talk with him this morning
| am to have dinner with him this
evening and go to a show. He is as
yet, indefinite as to his future service
and looking fine and fit.
| am feeling fine and fit, physi-
cally and mentally.