The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1918-02-28

"Does the straw bother you, mater
It's worked through my uniform and
can't sleep"
In sleepy voice he answered.
'srhat ain't straw, them's cootese
From that time on my friends the
"cooties" were constantly with me.
"Cootles.n or body lice. are the bane
of Tommy's existence.
The arlstocracy Of The trenches very
seldom call them "cooties, they speak
of them as fleas.
To an American flea means a small
insect armed with bayonet. who is
wont to iab II into you and then hop
skip and jump to The next place TO be
attacked. There Is an advantage In
having fieas on you instead of "cooties'
In that In one of his extended jumps
said flea is liabe to land on the fell
low next 10 you; he has the typical
energy and push of the American,
while the "cootie' has the bulldog
tenacity of the Englishman; he holds
on and consoidates or digs In until
his meal Is finished.
There is no way to get rid of them
permanently. No matter how often
you battle, and that is not very often.
or how many times you change your
underwear, your friends the Coolies
are always in evidence. The billets are
infested with them, especially so II
there is straw on the floor.
have taken q bath and put on
brand-new underwear; in fact, a com
plete change of uniform, and then
turned in for the night. The next morn
ing my shirt would be full of them II
Is common sight to see eight or ten
soldiers sitting under tree with their
shirts over their knees engaging in
"shirt hunt"
AT night about half an hour before
flights out you can see the Tommles
grouped around candle, trying, in It's
dim light, to rid their underwear of
the vermin. A popular and very quick
method is to take your shirt and draw
ers. and run the seams back and for
ward in the flame from candle and
burn them out. This practice is dan
gerous, because you are liable to burn
holes in the garments If you are not
careful.
Recruits generally sent to Blighty
for brand of insect powder adyer-
tised as Good for body lice" The ad-
vertisement Is quite right the powder
is good for "cooties;" they simply
thrive on it.
The older men Of our battalion were
wiser and made scratchers out of
wood. These We're rubbed smooth with
bit of stone or sand to prevent splin-
tiers. They were about eighteen inches
long, and Tommy guarantees that
scratcher of this length will reach
any part of the body which may be ut
tackled Some of the fellows We're lazy
and only made their seratchers twelve
inches, but many "A night when on
guard, looking over the top from the
fire step of the front-line trench. they
would have given thousand "quid'
for the other six inches.
Once while we were in rest billets an
Irish 1Inssar regiment camped in an
open field opposite our billet. After
they had picketed and fed their horses
general shirt hunt took place. The
troopers ignored the call "Dinner up"
and kept on with their search for big
game. They had a curious method of
procedure. They hung their shirts over
a hedge and beat them with their en-
trenchIng tool handles.
asked orc of them why they didn't
pick them off by hand, and he an
swered, I'VE haven't had bath for
nine weeks or Il change of clabber. II
| tried to pick the coolies off my shir
| would be here for duration Of war
After tnking n close look at his shirt,
agreed with him; 1t was alive.
The greatest shock n recruit gets
when he arrives ut his battalion In
France is to see the men engaging in
"cootie' hunt. With an air of con.
tempt and disgust he avoids the com
pany of the older men, until couple
of days later, In n torment of itching,
he also has to resort TO a shirt hunt,
or spend many n sleepless night of
misery. During these hunts there are
lots of pertinent remarks banded back
and forth among the explorers. such
as, "Say, Bill, III swap you two little
ones for a big one" or, 1--WE got a
black one here that looks like Kaiser
Bill"
One sunny day In the front-line
trench, / saw three officers sitting out
side of their dugout c"cooties" are no
respecters of rank ! have even noticed
a suspicious uneasiness about a certain
well-known generaD, one of them was
a major, two of them were exploring
their shirts, paying no attention to the
occasional shells which passed over
head. The major was writing n letter;
every now and then he would lay aside
his writing-pad. search his shirt for a
few minutes, get an inspiration, and
then resume writing. At last he fin
ished his letter and gave it to his run
ner." | was curious to see whether he
was writing to an insect firm, SO when
the runner passed me | engaged him
In conversation and got glimpse at
the address on the envelope. 1t was
addressed to Miss Alice Somebody, In
London. The runner" informed me
that Miss Somebody was the majors
sweetheart and TINT he wrote to her