The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1919-10-23
transforming At THE FRONT.
Bring an Interesting First Hsnd Ae-
count Of kow err Boys Lived on the
Front Lines In France.
u, Iranxv. ana Grace Hoyt

by branSvs and trace hoyt
tConiinued from last Week.
Troops Of the goth Division marched
oui @, seven.thiriy in the morning, the
band sounding now near, now far as 1T
wound is way over the hills. Later
on. ~e aa, ut the foo, Of one of the
steep hills 10 get our breath, and were
glad we had, for whole regiment,
kitchens. mules and all went by. The
mules went not because they wanted
90. bo, with 'nany persuasive argu-
ments, from both the men and the
officers. The heat was dreadful. the
sun almost binding, the dust was suf-
focnting and the men were carrying
such enormous packs that Il made our
hearts ache TO see them. When they
found two real American women sit
ting on the wall IL was too much for
them, and they dropped out" as fast
~ they could, and vowed they were
going TO stay, for they'd found "hon-
es, to God women" They were all
Texas and Oklahoma boys. We stay
ed until the last tired, dusty back had
disappeared from sight and made our
way to the shade beside the river.
We zig-zagged up stony path
shove the stream and came upon a
lone farm house. A very old woman
had been cleaning the fields, and she
literally fell down the bank out Of the
meadow when she saw us. Her hat
was tied under her chin by wide
black ribbon, her arms were full Of
wheat, and she had even the pointed
chin to make look as IL she had just
stepped out Of fairy book.
We opened rusty wicket gate and
came upon deserted garden, over
grown with lovely flowers. The
morning bride" grows wild in this
part of France, here IL was all blue,
like the soldiers uniforms, and cover
ed with myriads of butterflies, quite
as blue as the blossoms.
On the road TO ltoUvres that night,
we were shot at twice, one shot strik-
ing the automobile just behind our
heads. No one is allowed to travel by
motor now except upon government
service and probably the snipers
thought they were going to be so for
tunate as TO bag general at least
little expecting any one so obscure as
a party of harmless "Y. NJ. c. Aers.'
or course. we were all unarmed, the
Boches always especially enjoy that.
There was some doubt as to where
we were to sing, and while we were
waiting TO be taken to the place, we
examined quite the largest tree we
had ever seen. A very, very dirty and
mussy old Frenchman, speaking Eng
list, told us that it was linden, and
five hundred years old. How any one,
80 wonderfully well educated could
have been so unclean is a mystery. He
told us that the best way in which toI
study any language was TO study the
classics, and to memorize ten words
each day; by the time he left us we
were both quite ashamed that we
hadn't Ph.D. at least.
We and the piano were placed on
top Of some kitchen tables and the
performance began. Our foreground
was the open square, two streets lead
ing up to it, diagonally, and just back
OF us was the town hall. The Colonel
came flying down from room just
above US, he said he couldn't get there
fast enough when he "heard two girls
singing in English" He insisted on
being the one to hold the electric
torch so that we could see the music
on the piano and he and the Chaplain
led the men in the singing Of the Choir
uses. At our right was an imposing
fountain which really founted, and in
the middle Of our one really serious
number a soldier fell into it up to his
waist one can imagine how il added 10
the general informality of the even
ing.
We took most Of our meals here
with the officers. for whom we had
sung or who had heard Of US from the
men--in fact Of there being two
American women in that part of
France was considered as news worth
repeating. 1t was almost pathetic TO
see how anxious everyone was just to
talk: They told us that the trouble
with the women there was that they
@couIdat talk any language at all
They would tell us about their people
at home and one showed us snap !
shot Of two Of the boys who had been
killed the day before in burning
aeroplane.
Our "Y" man, in whose charge we I
were during our work In this section
Of the country, was one Of the most
interesting We met We learned that |