The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-02
NO need TO WORRY TAKE YOUR RAZOR
Of Care Topekan Being Shaved
of Washburn s. A. 7. C. by English Barber.
Pond Mothers Have Been Con- Agony Yank Going Thru
Over Welfare. Turn Chair.
OFFICERS EAT SAME MESS PERCY c. POWELL WRITES
Food Is Plentiful in Quantity State Journal Reporter
and Quality. Lands in France.
Barracks Are Warm and Quar- Injury and Bravery Of
tiers Are Comfortable. Clad Hamilton.
Topekan Tells of Being Shaved
by English Barber.
Agony of a Yank Going Thru
His Turn on Chair.
PERCY C. POWELL WRITES
Former State Journal Reporter
Lands in France.
Hears of Injury and Bravery Of
Clad Hamilton.


Percy c. Powell, popular Topeka
newspaper man, formerly with the
State Journal, has arrived in France.
and has written to some Of his friends
of the story of his trip and incidents
of the arrival in France. Powell is
with a tank corps that trained in
Gettysburg, Pa. The letter is dated
October II, ana says, in part:
I'VE are celebrating the opening of
my minds eye I can see E. H. Crosby,
S. E. Cobb, Bill Webb, Bill Carswell.
Henry Auerbach, c. S. Elliott, and
others of the faithful gang beating it
up and down Kansas avenue, pain
lessly extracting the dollars for the
boys over here from the Topeka mer-
chants. I'd like to be sitting up at
the office writing story about it,
and I hope that I may be back in
Topeka in short time writing stuff
at the court house again; for it doesn' t
look as tho the war will last much
longer.
80 many things have taken place
since wrote you from landing dock
in England that hardly know where
to begin. English country looks like
a picture drawn by a landscape gar
dener. Everything Is laid out so SYM
metrically. every inch of ground so
well cultivated, and every home in
the hundreds of villages built of red
brick and built on the same architec-
tural scheme. Fresh flowers were
seen in all the cemeteries and girls
and gray haired women were strolling
up and .wn the pathways which led
thru the home of the dead English
heroes.
From Brewery Windows.
''In the cities girls waved at us from
factory and brewery windows
After a long trip thru England we
stopped at a. city to spend couple
that night when we finally had
marched to the camp four or five
miles from the city. nursing one of
those heavy overseas packs on our
backs all the way. We slept that night
on the floor of tents, twelve men TO a
tent, and between smelly English blan-
kets which we finally succeeded in
getting about IL o'clock that night
1t rained all during our stay at the
camp.
There we met hundreds of English
Tommies. 1 like to talk to them, and
they, like the women in England, are
gifted with the finest compilations I
have ever seen.
Thousands OF Prisoners.
FINALLY they packed US up in an
old side wheeled steamer one after
noon, and the next morning we woke
up in a French port. The French city
looked centuries old. owe saw train
load after trainload of wounded SOL
diers there, and it made us whistle
about as cheerfully as the small boy
did in the graveyard at midnight.
There were thousands and thousands
of German prisoners there, too. They
l.
from their work on the roads and
rock piles as we passed.
Il ran afoul of an English barber
for the first time at our next stop. He
makes you sit up straight in a chair
while he works on you. No lather is
used in shaving the neck, and I firm
ly believe he shaved my neck with a
dull bread knife. An American army
officer who was attacked in the same
savage manner offered to whip that
barber and all others who butchered
him up that way. 1t was SO much fun
that 1 spent an hour watching one
Yank after another jump and cuss as
he went thru the torture.
II was in my customary financial
condition upon my arrival. The Amer
leans are not permitted to leave the
camp. However. l found a way to get
to the city and found where the good
times and eats were available. But
dl lIldI time my CreQlC was at the
breaking point. and I couldn't do any
thing but rest and swear at the pay
master for his failure to pay us in two
months and grieve over the distance
between father and his only son,
After two more days of simulated
rest. they loaded us in some bumpy
French box cars, suitable for carrying
thirty-eight men or eight horses. We
slept in relays the first night on the
road. The next day I found a honch
of grafters who had a car in Which
only eighteen were riding. I finai,v
induced them to let me in with them
We rode on those cars ,ur days
spending most of the time on side
tracks. The men who loaded the pro.
visions cars at the quartermaster's de-
partment had a cracked sense of hu-
NOR, putting all the jam in one car, all
the beans in another, etc.
Waiting for Coffee.
Rain poured in torrents, and we
struck no large cities where we could
set coffee. In England provisions are
issued by the government for a GER
tain population, and soldiers cannot
purchase food in the restaurants. In
France there are only certain hours
when the restaurants are open. Early
the third morning we got coffee at an
American rest camp. With mess cups
in hand we stood for two hours in the
rain waiting for coffee. Finally we
reached the door of the American Red