The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-06-21

quite realize the strange sensations
OF being back home-especially from
"over there" We were like gaping
strangers in a strange country as we
landed in the New York we knew so
well We had been for an approNi-
mate six months in France 1T SEEM
ed more like six years-and had be-
come so imbued with the tensity and
the enormousness OF the big tragedy
which engulfs Europe, that we could
not at once assimilate all this joy
GUS hurly-burly, all this hustle, all
this clang and clatter everywhere.
What throngs of people! Busy
people, animated people, laughing,
chatting people; people in regular"
clothes, and not the tremendous pre-
mourning and men in all the uni
forms of all the allies. A new game
among them. too; half the popula-
tion passionately begging for various
war funds and the other half cheer
gully trying to give as much as the
beggars.
Such a tangle of traffic! We were
no longer used to the endless
streams and currents and cross-cur-
rents of automobiles, for in France
gasoline is precious, and civilian
cars rare, and taXis prize only for
the extra agile; and when we drove
beautiful, long, wide, flag g-futtering
thorOughfare. with its double and
triple lines of automobiles filling
the space from curb to curb. we
laugh, out of the sheer delight of
H0xRtS Six cylinder cars, so long
and shiny and powerful! They're
mostly snub-nosed over there.
A newspaper! a real American
newspaper, 1S pages full of startling
information Athe front and comic
pictures in thts back! We bought a
cab full of them at the first traffic
stop. and fairly revelled in the news
of the war, something we never had
in France.
The newspapers there consist of
one small sheet folded into four
pages, which convey the war news
in 30 or 3O-word communiques, ut
terly dispassionate and non-descrip-
tive; the rest OF ii being indignant
6r otherwise letters from constant
hn
ions when President Wilson or
Lloyd-George or Clemenceau or
Poincare or somebody issues an Off
cial document
But here were whole square yard !
of eyewitness descriptions OF the
battle OF So-and-So, and some very
excellent murders and scandals, and
pages of frank and free criticism of
the official management Of the war.
and threats of Investigations, and
all the other political excitement
dear, dear to the heart OF the true
born American,
From the revel in this feast we
were abruptly awakened by a marvel
so unusual that it seemed like a
miracle.
Music! The blare of brass banc
Here they came, swinging down
the avenue with the drums poundinc
and the cornets and trombones and
tubas footing away, and everybody
packing to the curb and cheering
and it was ali so earnest and enthusr-
astic that no returning traveller
might question the increase of the
proper war spirit in America.
Then a big, good-natured traffic
policeman shooed us off the avenue.
which was another home-like touch.
into a street which was all eXcava-
tions on one side and bumps and ruts
on the other; an added home-like
touch
We awaited to watch the process
sion go by. There they went, the
strong sturdy boys in khaki. the in
intelligent. clean, dauntless fellows
who are to win the war, 1t isn't
bombast to say that, because the
French say it and the British say it,
The speculation with which our boys
were at first received by the veteran
: Warriors on the other side has given
way now to enthusiasm. since the
American soldier has been tried in
the baptism OF fire. and has come out