Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-09-30
COWBOY SOLDIERS VOYAGE:
HAD HUMOROUS INCIDENTS
Western Man Wanted to Walk All
Way From Liverpool
to Rome.
SEA MYSTERY or MYSTERIES
Plainsmen From Texas Would Not
Believe Ocean Was Very Deep, and
Had Not Remotest Idea OF How.
Ships Position Was Calculated.
! International News Bureau. |
u" "MIDDLIS WATCH ..

i'S'e. "aIDDLh EeS Wk e1p5ssu1
America can send no better fighters
10 France than the Texas COWBOYS
mat was certainly the opinion on my
whosc .o Ssbin across on troopship.
Texas 'o''
It was not so much their pbvs;ous
though that was splendid, that i'm :
pressed us. but the grim. hard cast
or their faces and the unninching look
IN 'heir eyes. Men OF Drawn and mus
doing practical things quickly. You
SAM round up cattle that have gone
a ai W, II you are day dreaming about
decisions and swift actions arc neccs-
sarS to ths rough riders down Texas
any others: they have some OF the
Qualities OF soldiers before they put
Killed to this open--air readiness to
do things We found among the cow
boys simplicity and disinsenuous-
ness which was ,puzzlinE at first. but
bered that the bulk of Tcxas-amd
Texas is bigger than Austria Hungary
lis lis hundreds Of miles from the sea,
further away from home than Okla
homa.
Ranches. cattle horses,-no one
But the sea was for them n mystery
Of mysteries They had heard tina,
the Atlantic Ocean. They had no idea
OF the size or shape of the sea. Some
of them confessed that they. were inst
as strange to the geography of Eu-
Education amt up. to much in
Texas" one Of them said to me-, ITS
either. II a man goes along, on the
square he's all right. II he doesn't
Ms nu Tse us ye m the s"a pa
freest State in the world" he declared.
Was he. giving, point to his remark:
hand slipped round to the revolver i'll
II had no opportunity TO- to, judge Of
sorry for that: but he was not far
wrong about the education, ,u,u,
certain American rort We called at
another port-still or ti,at side of the
Atlantie-stili in America-I3nd from
write home. the letters. of course. be-
ing censored. One began his letter
with this startling statement: Dear
we have at last arrived safely in Eng.
land" The at last conjures up visions
of weary weeks on the. water when the
journey had not really started, But
was that ignorance any worse than
that of a lady in Warwickshire. Eng
land. who once asked me If the snip
sailed on was as big as her dining
room. Inland people are apt TO be the
same the world over.
We are all aware that America is
Interested in Ireland. and no doubt most
Americans have good notion OF the
whereabouts of John Bulls other
island. Not all Of them. however what
who after he had been informed that
the big city was Liverpool. looked at
the other side of the MerSey and WIN
his finger pointing TO Birkenhead, said,
IT suppose that will be lreland? WHAT
could you say?
WANTED TO WALK FROM
LIVERPOOL TO ROME
Weakness in geography was made
even more apparent by swarthy-look-
ing man not in the uniform OF private
One OF his ancestors had wandered from
the West Il would like to see Rome"
he said How long w"n5d i W. take nsn, 10
and politely told him that BY shahks
Like other landsmen, the soldiers h;td
not the remoiest idea how the ship,s
two were surprised that We did no.
anchor in the dark. When l said mat
tn. sea bottom wa; three or TOUT miles
beneath they went away laughing. IN
CT edulous!y. ,hinKing l was trying, 10
be humorous. Nor could they under.
stand why the clocks should he altoEed
had to explain, in reply 10 sugges.
ton, that II all the clocks were put
TO the same time, morning and even
ing and noon and midnight would be
awfully mixed.
They had the laugh on us when we
questioned them about ranches. our
ignorance about life in Texas was as
great as theirs about the sea and f.u-
rope. We could not tell whether one
of them was spinning yarn when nc
said that he rounded UP cattle i'll Texas
not with the help Of 4 horse. but on
a motor-bike. We did know that Il
certain privatc-hc was ranch owner
had on his last leave bought an cT-
penisye motor car merely 10 give his
girl a two-days run round tho coun-
Try. selling the ear afterwards for
next TO nothing.
II hey beat us in knowledge OF
ranches AM in treats TO sweethearts
We were ahead Of thcm in literature.
was talking 10 an officer. g graduate
Of one Of their universities, about
American writers. and made some com
ment on Winston Churchill. the Amer
lean novelist. TO my astonishmcnt
land there was no leg pulling" about
his ignorancc) ne had never heard of
him. Our Winston ne knew, but not
his own
Nevertheless. knowledge OF books and
o. distances "A, sea are OF no practical
use 10 soldiers in France. The COW
hoys arc not learned. They do not pro
fcss 70 he. What matters Is their
lighting capacity. We were assured,
and wc believed IL, that they are devils
20 fight The Germans xiii fin! that
out before very long