The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-10-09
ROMANCE OF THE SOUVENIR.
Often Stories of Daring Are Invented
to Add to the Interest.

..
to the saying myself, it is a fact that
the lads from the States were awfully
keen about laying their hands on al
kinds of souvenirs and mementoes OF
the Germans and French and doubt
if among couple of million Sammies
who were overseas from the beginning
to the end of the war, there were a
dozen who returned without some
German or French article.
French soldiers and French civil
ians were quick to learn of the weak
ness of Americans for souvenirs, and
they managed to secure them in great
abundance to sell to the boys at big
profit The tradesmen had German
guns and bullets and clothing and
shoes and in fact articles of every
description which they offered for
/ sale and the doughboys were eager to
buy anything made in Germany"
German money greatly deprecated
on the financial market long before
1 the end of the war; although the
American souvenir hunters boosted it
up all that they could and many
Frenchmen and even German prison
,ers made good thing out of selling
g German coins to the American lads
for several times their value.
German Buttons.
Absence of buttons from the uni
forms ofsGerman prisoners confined
in various sections of France in which
was stationed from time to time was
quite CONSPICUOUS. 1t happened this
way. Americans would capture big
bunch of German prisoners. Many
times before they fed them they
would cut the buttons off their uni
forms and send the buttons back to
: the States as souvenirs to relatives
and friends.
y The other day I was talking to a
certain York county young lady who
was wearing hatpin, the knob of
which was a button off a German
military uniform.
She told me that young friend Of
hers, lieutenant who lives in anoth-
er State had a hand to hand encount-
er with a German officer during the
fierce fighting on the Somme. The
battle lasted long and waged furious
I " until finally her 'looey" shot the
German officer dead and just for
greens cut few buttons off the dead
Huns coat, one of which he sent to
her and she had it made into hat
pin.
I took her story in all seriousness
and listened to her glowing account
Of her hero's adventure and his vic
tory with the utmost respect, al
/ though I didn't believe word of it,
since I had known friends Of mine
to buy German buttons for two francs
piece and cheaper and spend twelve
Z hours over the composition of a letter
which they sent some doll back here
& iii the State, and in which letter they
told how they had cut the buttons off
the coat of some German soldier
whom they had seen in mighty con-
fict.
@ SIS the friend who sent you the
button first lieutenant or second
1 politely inquired. .
.sWhy, think he is a second lieu
tenant" she replied. 81 am not real
sure. Is there a difference in lieu
tenants" she inquired.
teYes, ma am, there is difference
in lieutenants,' said.
And then she laughed happy little
laugh and said ''he is a very brave
lieutenant, don't you think. And he
is so thoughtful to send me the but
ton"
The conversation ended there; but
4 could not help wondering what non
com or buck private that lieut.. bought
the button from.
But all that is a DEPRESSION. Most
of the souvenirs expect buttons con-
sisted of articles of war captured
from Germans in their flight. You
see after the ferries started to run
ming towards home, they dropped
everything they could, including
guns, canteens, helmets, ammunition,
surplus clothes and all. Millions OF
dollars worth of this property was
discarded and thrown into rivers and
creeks along the roads, in the woods
just anywhere the necessity for less
weight and more speed appealed
sstronger to the fleeing soldiers. AL
! lied troops following, stopped to pick
up some of these articles, especially
the AmericanS-fOr souvenirs.