Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-08-10
OUR NEW SOLDIERS
AREDANDYFIGHTERS

A doughBey gave his version of how
he and his pals felt while out there
facing No Mans Land for the first
time. "We're not scared of tho Ger
mans, and when the time comes, wen
show them. We're going to do our
best, which is about all they ask of
US. Believe me, it S going to be
mighty good best. "
They Learn Quickly.
The new men in the fighting game
adapt themselves to the front quickly
as did the first Americans over. Ev-
cry night it is tover the top" for
patrols of them, and in few days
they are entirely familiar with No
Man s Land. The German front
trenches next fall in the line of in
vestigation and the Germans soon a
dopt the policy of falling back to avoid
fighting.
! Back of the lines ON the home side,
bank clerks, BARRIERS. and men of every
profession who have temporarily be-
come soldiers soon make themselves at
home among the ruins and in woods.
They eat army "grub" and relish it
more than the most delicate meal they
ever ate from white linen covered
i table and real dishes, especially if
there has been work to do. Soldier
ing agrees with them, you can see, by
the work they do, the meals they eat,
and the huskies they have become.
Discipline is fine, even if it is hard.
A major tells how his chaffeur became
little "fresh" one day Knowing
the doughboy was good chap, the
major took him aside and talked to
him instead of "bawling him outn be
fore the crowd. The doughbOy apollo
gized.
"I'm sorry, Major he said, "You
see L own a couple of businesses back
in New York, and have more than a
million dollars in my own name, and
t's little hard to remember my place
in the army now. But l II do it, some
noW.D
You think you are in an internation-
al army when you visit some of the
new American units now in the lines.
One company from New York boasts
that its members know seventeen Ian
guages, and if you wander in on them
about mess time, when talking is good
just after the aluminium mess pans and
cups full of "grub" have been empt-
led, you are convinced.
But all of these doughboys are ar
dent Americans, and they have won
the admiration of their comrades who
can speak the tongue without an ac-
cent. They are all snappy looking SOL
diers.
In Hilly Country
The new units have dragged their
clean and fresh looking equipment,
such as supply wagons, camp kitchens,
machine gun outfits, and all that is
needed up into the Alsace and Lorraine
hills. The line runs up and down steep
mountain sides and across pretty val
leys. It is beautiful country, and fine
place to be initiated to the front, for
the doughboy must be ON the alert all
the time. In this area there is no shell
swept, well wired No Mans Land
across which Germans cannot come
without being easily detected. Woods
and hills and wild country make the
place one in which only strict attention
to business will keep Germans out.
These doughboys in the line have no
hankering to "take things easy" Ev-
cry man in the line will tell you in
confidential tones that he has a per-
sonal grudge to settle with the Hun
for dragging the world into this nasty
business, and the sooner aggressive
action is taken, the sooner Germany is
going to be punished and war made a
thing of the past.
That is the job every doughboy fig
ures he has to do, and the confidence
with which he takes to the trenches
tells the world he will succeed.