Evening star., 1918-04-16
Finds Out About His Pants.

one Of the men came up to me and
said, You speak French. don't your !
Then he said. I wish you'd help me out.
There's a Frenchwoman over there
that's got my pants. and can't seem to
make her understand that I've got 70
have 'em for inspection this afternoon:
I asked. What's she doing with your
pants? and found that shed Just been
washing them for him. went over
with him, and got on q hesttating Ou
est ses pantalonT There ensued a per-
feet torrent Of words. none OF which
meant anything to me. So tried out
my idea of When will he get them? in
French. She evidently had caught on
to the idea that her French didn't con-
vey anything to us, SO she went through
vigorous motions illustrating washing
and then pointed to the sky. Thereupon
the soldier said. oh. get her now. She
means she's washed them, and can't
get them dry till the sun comes out.
asked what he'd do about inspection.
and he said he guessed he'd try to bor-
row a pair.
"A good deal of this sort Of thing re-
minded me of the drawing of Capt.
Bairnsfather, the British officer. who
has done such great work drawing car
toons. l find. along the British front
He has one picture of a placid Tommy
the customary long smock. The Tom
my-called Alf-has asked a simple
question, to which the porter has re-
piled with hve-minute GRAFTON in
French. And the Tommy says, That's
all right. Now how does the chorus
go?
Talk French Enough to Get Eats.
IT had a room in the village with
some people who sold cakes and fruit
young enlisted man in the hall He
had bag of plums under mis- arm, and
some money in his hand, and stopped,
thinking might have to help out with
my pigeon French oh. can get along
to get something to eat
Then he turned to the girl. and said
In regular Broadway English, Say. got
any gingerbreadr to which she an
swsred. All. oui.' Well. trot some out.
kitchen for the gingerbread, went on
upstairs. lost in admiration of his mod
ern French.
There is a story going the rounds Of
American walters who can speak
French Some one asked the proprie-
tor why he didn't get French walters II
he wanted French spoken. He replied,
Oh. don't mean that. I mean Amer
lean French
Il ate at an officers mess in the house
OF a Frenchwoman about fifty years old.
One OF the troops was detailed as her
assistant. He was a young Southerner
from Tennessee, who had enlisted, as
soon as the war broke out, at seventeen
years old. would sit at breakfast and
hear the conversation going on in the
kitchen-madame with a perfect torrent
Of French, and Hudson in English. with
his slow southern drawl. We tried to
carry on a conversation with madame
ourselves, with much referring to die
tionaries. Hudson would stand by, and
when we just looked blank after one
right. She just wants to know whether
your friend is coming to supper to-
night
The men I worked with were regu-
lars, part of an infantry regiment that
had been included in PershinR's column
in Mexico. However, the increase in the
size of the companies to war strength
and other factors had brought In many
new men, SO that about 70 per cent Of
the battalion were recruits. A great
number of them were southerners, and
1t would come out in various ways. One
of them from a feud section told one
of the officers that he'd been in a good
many wars in his lifetime, but that
this was the first public war he'd ever
been in. Another, a moonshiner was
much pleased with the steel helmets,
and remarked that when he got out in
the hills at home he could lie out on
the ground. and no sheriff peppering
at him with a shotgun could hurt him."
Teaching the men how to speak
French SO that their struggles when
| they get overseas may be easy as pos
sible has been an important part Of the
educational work of the Y. NJ. c. A. in