Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-02-07

looking solid, substantial and afflu-
emily modern. Numbers OF them
might make an artist writhe, put they
wee the mansions of a doughboy's
dream.
Children swarm streets.
Then | walked through the shop
ping district. with its broad streets,
still spick and span. its German po-
lioemen and American NJ p. direct
ing traffic in perfect concert, its neat
electric cars changing by, its shop win
dows all brilliantly lighted and full
of rather pathetic offerings to the
Christmas shoppers. one of these
windows was given over entirely to
leather goods, and in the center was
ono cynosure-a ssatchel ostentatious-
ly marked: This article is of genuine
leather"
Other windows were filled entirely
with Christmas tree decorations, im-
tation icicles and snow showers, little
Christmas angels and all manner of
tinse and gewgaws. Here and there
couple of children would cross the
street Juggling a Christmas tree home
between them The whole atmosphere
was saturated with kind of naive
sentiment not to be found in France,
whose appeal to the doughhoy far
from home / could well imagine.
And the children! They romped
along the street in perfectly amazing
multltudes, startling me at first with
he unexpected clatter of the wooden
soles attached to their imitation
leather uppers. Pink checked and
chubby, they gave no signs of mall
nutrition AS they swarmed by |
thought at first that the school of a
whole district had Just let them out
round the corner, but / soon found
that every block was the same. Many
of the civilians voluntarily stepped
off the sidewalk to make way for my
foreign looking and therefore vic
torious clothes.
Play Around Doughboys.
But the children fearlessy played
tag around the grinning doughboys
legs-the insidious little propagan-
dists!
After | had received the same re-
pliess to my question from dozen
soldiers, without hesitation or quali-
ftcation, it struck me that perhaps
the explanation for this unanimous
preference for Germany was the the
men We're unfairly comparing two ut
terly incompatible situations life in
a comfortable modern city untouched
ny war HttfI IIlt lleNlldDle IlltH ana
exposure and boredom of the trenches
or front billets in France, / put this
question to the next soldiers with
whom I spoke. They all answered
approximately to the same effect as
the first one, who said:
Not on your life!" I was quartered
in a French city 100 miles from the
front and I'm comparing this town
to that one, and there amt anything
to it, Their streets were dirty and
their houses were disgusting and their
habits were dirty, and they put me in
mind of greasers more than anything
else, and they soaked the life out of
us, And look at these people here,
how nice they run their town. They're
what | call self-respecting bunch!'
When | arrived at the station to
take the train from Treves to Coblenz
| found the German railway officials
still in full charge of the train opera
tion. The station master and train
dispatcher were stalking about in
their imposing looking uniforms with
military carriage which they made
no effort to conceal. | asked one Nj.
+. on duty there what time the train
left. He told me and added. "And
you'd better be on the train on time.
This isn't France and these birds send
their trains out on the dot"
Didn't Raise the Prices.'
When | reached Coblenz it was late
at night and a Y. NJ. c. A. man kind
ly volunteered to guide me to good
hotel.
thought ! might get different point
of view from the first American l
had met who was not solder. But
no, it was the oft repeated tale; the
boys were all crazy about it here.
they couldn't get over how clean and
new It was; and the Germans treated
them right: they didn't raise the
prices on them, they were orderly and
gave no trouble. they were good ma
tured and obliging, they seemed so
glad to be under us instead of the
French that they were glad to do any
thing they could for us: some peo-
pie thought it was propaganda but
It looked to him as though they were
perfectly sincere.
In Coblenz / quickly found that
there was no variation from the gem
eral attitude. The officers with whom
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