The Benson signal., 1919-12-06
Son of United States Senator
Found France No Place for
CLASSY" Clothes.
ESTABLISHED FIRST X. C. HUT
Served 1000 Cups Of Chocolate Every
Morning-Had Many Difficulties to
Surmount and Encountered
Many Exciting Experiences.

New York.-This is the story of
dawn in France; of 1000 cups of hot
chocolate; of the kitchen car that sup
piled the chocolate; of two Tuxedo
coats and two evening suits and of
"Uncle Joe," writes Owen Conner in
the New York Herald.
The dawn was not the pink sunrise
Of America-it was the CHASTITY, gray,
grim break of day of gas-befOuled and
Shell-tOrn battlefelds. The chocolate
was the morning heartener served to
men on their way to face death. The
kitchen car was one of the proud pos
sessions of Knights of Columbus war
workers. Uncle Joe" was and is Jo-
seph f. Herman of Utica, N. Y, and
the Argonne, a X. of c. secretary OF
personal distinction and of enviable
record for service.
There is a new dawn in France, pink
and rosy now. Hot chocolate figures
largely in high cost of living tables.
The kitchen car went down to its
doom on the glorious pathway opened
by the Americans to Sedan, but it
didn't fail until just at the very end,
after it had done ''its duty noble
"Uncle JOe'' is back in America. hale
and hearty, sixty years young, patrol
ling the BOwery looking for and find
ing soldiers he met on the Seething
rims of the cauldron of enemy hate
over there. Oh, yes. by the way, the
two Tuxedo coats and the two evening
suits are here also.
.Nicknamed "Uncie joe"
He wasn't "Uncle Joe'' until after he
had gone to France He loves the nick
name, for it was given him by Ameri
can sOldiers-in fact he likes it better
than any pet name ever bestowed up;
on him in the days he spanked the girls
at Old-time dances. However, prom
iseh not to tell about that.
Mr.. Herman is the son of Francis
Kernan, once United States senator
from New York. He was appointed an
overseas secretary by the Knights of
Columbus in March. 1918. To him fell
the honor of establishing the first X.
of {. hut in France, in May, 1918.
From the start the possibilities of serv-
ice of the kitchen car appealed to his
imagination and he couldn't be torn
away from the front where he had a
chance to work for the soldiers with
the kitchen car as. a base of opera
tinns. After he had opened several X.
of g. hutS, he went to Paris, took pos
session of a kitchen car and went up
t., Cherry with it. There the Seventy
seventh division was fighting and it
named him "Uncle joe" He insists
that full credit must be given to Fred
erick Bundschau of Louisville, KY,
and to Louis Lasage for the able and
devoted assistance given by them
Here is his story as he tells it him
self:
"When / started for France l was
told there would be considerable EN-
tertaining' to be done on the other
side. I realized very quickly, once
set foot in France, that the entertain
ing to be done was along entirely diff
ferent lines than those with which I
had left New York. For example, I
started out with several trunks. One
IF them held two Tuxedo coats and
two evening suits. On my arrival in
France 1 promptly forgot all about
that trunk. 1t didn't fit in with the
scheme of things as l saw it with my
own eyes. I'll tell you more about the
trunk later.
Immediately after landing went to