The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1918-12-26

THE SAUK CENTRE HERA
Tuscania came across with us safely
that time. The trip across was UNI
eventful. 1t was colder than blazes
Tor rather than icicles;) we had lots
of calesthenics and boat drill and had
to stay on deck a good deal of the
time in the morning-namely from
900 to 1880 a. m. 1t was wet and
raw 1.-THE weather mean) and con-
tracted peach of cold, along with
many others. Mine was SO severe
that could not talk above whisper
and that was hard work. / answered
sick call twice and had my throat
"swabbed." Then was the first time
I had answered sick call since coming
into the service seven months before.
AS for being sea-sick-I wasn't.
Twice "lost my LUNCH" the first day
out of Halifax, but / didn't feel bad
either before or after. The first time
had eaten an apple and lost it short
ly afterwards. The second time ] had
eaten some chocolate and drank some
ginger ale (fine English slop it was
too.) After that used little judg-
ment and ate the regular grub and
did not repeat the aforementioned per-
formances. We were on an English
boat and the grub was steam-cooked
We didn't particularly relish it, but
some of us managed to keep it down.
neyed phrase) things one hears about
Some of the fellows did all the thack-
and 1 certainly felt sorry for them. A
fellow by the name of Jimmy Webb
and myself constituted ourselves as a
special detail to escort the wrecks"
below, and did rushing business in
more ways than one. If we could get
fellow from the deck to his bunk and
lay him out on it in time we could
save him lot of discomfort and 'per-
sonal loss"
We saw no subs. Our convoy of
torpedo boat destroyers met US about
two days off the Irish coast-where
the sea was the toughest it had been,
and that was some rough-although
I think the sailors stretched it little
when they said it was the toughest
they had seen in long time.
We pulled into the harbor at Liver
pool, Eng, about TOO o'clock Christ
mas morning. The 10th was on guard.
I was a corporal then, but walking
a post. We unloaded about $3.50 that
evening and loaded onto a troop train
passenger cars, however-and the
next morning arrived at South Hamp-
ton, Eng. We laid around there all
day and came across the channel to
LaHavre pronounced LaHavr) on the
marguerite, an old side wheeler
which was "loaded to the scuppers" il
she had any. AS the channel was
rough we had some ride. We stayed
at La Havre three days ana two
nights in an English crest camp" on
top of high hill where the wind got
a good sweep" at you. We had two
blankets and our overcoats and slept
on the floor in Sibley, or round square
tents, IL men to each tent. They say
the English carry no blankets and 18
or 20 men sleep in those tents maybe
SO. .-... ..r,. ...... ......a
We left LaHavre in French box cars
marked "Hommes 40; Cheacaux 8"
meaning that capacity of those cars
was supposed to be 40 men or eight
horses. There is an old pun among
the Americans over here to the effect
that the standard was figured QUO by
some lucky Frenchman who managed
to squeeze in 40 dwarfs or eight Shet-
land ponies. Well, anyway we journey
ed to Saint Maxient in that manner,
arriving early New Years morning.
terry which is said to have been the
We were quartered in an old Mones-
place where Napoleon's first troops
were modified. On large shield in
one of the corridors was mementos to
the three officers in charge of the
Army Corps. One name was of par
ticular interest to me- General Du-
Bots, as I had an idea he might be
one of the doctors, Ben and Julian's
ancestors.