The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-29
President Orders Them Home
To Help on Loan.
SIX HAVE FRENCH CROSSES
Put in Quiet Sector, They Soon
Made 1t Lively.
Americans Go Into BATH
Cheering and Waving Hats.

An Atlantic Port, April 29.-F'ifty
american soldiers, most of whom have
been wounded or gassed, have been
brought to this port from France by
order of President Wilson to take part
in the liberty loan campaign, accord
ing to an announcement here.
The party. comprising enlisted men
representing all branches of the army,
and commanded by Regimental Color
Sergt. John J. Heffernan, arrived here
on transport last night. Sixteen will
serve as loan speakers in the New York
federal reserve district and the others
will be sent to various parts of the
country.
crosses awarded for gallantry in action
and all wear the gold w. for foreign
service. Many show by insignia on
their right arms that they have been
wounded.
Business Picked Up.
Americans go into battle cheering
and waving their hats. said Heffernan.
! in describing conditions at the Franco
American front.
THE IDEA was to put US on a quiet
sector when we went over first he
said, but the sector didn't remain
quiet long with Americans in it, They
began fighting the first minute they
| could, and they have been fighting
ever since.
Il remember one detail that was
l.
came to a road where we were told
that we could not pass, as the Ger
mans were Smelling it,
Well. boys. do we want to go over
| that road?' i asked
81. Tufts Son Was There
"All the men driving the ammuni-
ton trucks began to cheer and wave
their hats as we dashed up the hill
and over the forbidden road. The
French people in the town below were
all in dugouts.
We've got a fine lot of boys over
| there" he Continued. Charley Taft.
President Taft's son, is one of them.
! have seen him under the hardest
conditions, acting like the real man
he is
| Heffernan said that the latest trick
to which the Germans had resorte
was landing spies behind the Franco
American lines by airplane- The Ger
mans. he said. would don French uni
! forms on alighting and would then
stroll about among the Americans.
| lone day an order was given that
| every man in our vicinity had to have
a pass he SAID, adding that the last
| German prisoners l saw in France
| were man who were captured from an
| airplane. 49, 49,.
1.-THE Americans had always said
that when they got the boches. they
! would give them bad treatment" he
| added, "hut as a matter of fact. wher-
ever we captured Germans. we treat
ed them with the greatest kindness.
! We even stole chow to feed them.
and gave them tobacco and the best
| of everything we had.
hun Officers Bullhcadcd.
The officers we captured were al
| avs bullhea,led and wouldn't give
| INFORM ltion, but the German privates
were sick of war and told us that they
wished they weren't in it, They look
for it to end in revolution in Ger
many. after America gets into the
war, but they don't believe we are in
| 1t yet.
Heffernan drew a gloomy picture
of what the agriculturist in France
will encounter after the war, assert
ing that there are many unexploded
shells in the fields and the farmer
who plows them won't find his life
worth anything"