The north Mississippi herald., 1919-02-07

taking OF one slice of white bread
ana one cup of coffee for breakfast
would leave camp before davliohi
walk five miles in the pourino. rain
work all day and return after night
ian 70 sieep IN sea of mud with wet
pisnkets about them. Why the men
didn't die of cold and exposure. God
N Heaven only knows. But, hy
orge we didn't, we pulled through
bSaruso spsr s1s ,ran 40 dags a0r NE sbaeok the
ARRIVE AT MESSAGE
After an all nights ride in those
dumpy little French cattle cars-we
were packed 40 to the carve ar
rived in the village Of Messac, a small
French town OF about Is hundred in
habitants. Here we We're met by
what is termed Billeting Officer.
His duty is to go about to the differ
ent houses in the town and secure
sleeping quarters for the men, which
most Of the time means either an at
tic or barn. From 6 to 25 men oc-
cupy billet-it depends of course
on the size of the place. It's far
more comfortable, however, than liv-
ing in puppy tent. The men are
provided with clean sweet hay, which
by stuffing into ones bed sack, forms
a sort Of mattress. They have plenty
Of good warm blankets, the floors to
the barns are mostly Of concrete and
there are plenty of windows and doors
for the air and sunlight. Taken as
whole the billet accommodations are
not half so bad. There's q pump in
the back yard and basin in which
to wash. We had installed our
kitchen under a large tree on the
edge of a small stream and every
thing was lovely. Messac is rather a
pretty little village; the streets are
clean, the houses we'll built and at
tractive and the natural scenery very
picturesque. The town boasts of sew
eral hotels Of which I've seen worse,
and the restaurants, tho small, serve
a pretty good meal even if they do
charge three times what it's worth.
We all liked Messac; the people were
polite and courteous, and very kind
always. When several of the boys
had touch Of the 'Flu," those ladies
simply couldn't do enough for them.
They brought them steaming tea and
hot punches and quinine, etc. and
dosed our men like they belonged to
them. Very warm, lasting friend
ships were formed in Messac, and ii
was not rare sight of an evening,
after supper, when the days drill was
ended, to see the boys of Battery "a"
| promenading about the village or
walking beside the little brook whi n
flowed by the edge Of the town, with
a French Mademoiselle hanging shy
ly to his arm. None of US were for
tunate enough to be billeted where
we could, "as the kiss Of day made
blush the western sky at eventide,
and the quiet shades of twilight crept
on, walk with Madam in her French
| garden and listen to her sad plight"
as did young Captain whose letter
we recently read in one of the local
papers. No, it wasn't like that with
us. But ! remember one Belgium
family in particular with whom Doc
/ Tyler stayed, and whose story might
OF interest TO you ALL She told it to
Doc and me one night as we sat by
her little kitchen stove drinking tea
with her. The family was composed
of the old mother, a crippled. son OF
about 80 years, married daughter
whose husband was at the front and
a little grandchild of six, girl Of the
married daughter. During the Ger
man raid thru Belgium q troop Of
Tnfantrymen had come to their little
town, burning, numbering, devastat
ing everything in sight and commit
ting the usual atrocities of which wt
have read so often. Her husband
an old man Of 72, had piteously beg