The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1919-02-21


the mess fund and where there is
every convenience for preparing the
food.
Then, there was the lack of room
in the compartment which troubled
us considerably. Four of the other
officers were as large as myself and
the fifth was much smaller, the fifth
was Sweet. The first day we got
along beautifully. We were travel
ling through a country which none of
Us had previously seen, and every
thing was so new and absorbing that
all any of us wanted TO do was look
out the windows and view the ever
changing scenes. Chauteaus, tiny
hamlets with red tiled rooves, great
forests, the Seine river, all held aur
interest and gave no place in our
minds for discomfort or dissension.
Every one was happy except one
chap who didn't smoke and complain
ed of the seemingly unnecessary
amount of smoke in the compartment
But he was playing a one to five bet,
so no one paid any attention. 3
But this was too good to be true.
The train finally stopped at a little
siding outside of Rouen. Whether
the engine was exhausted or prefer
red to wait for darkness because of
excess modesty, | don't know. How
ever, we stopped-and darkness be-
gan to fall. After eating a frugal
meal Of beans, jam and bread, we
started in disposing ourselves for the
night of discomfort. There were six
of us, two seats, and an aisle between
the seats. One of our number made
the illuminating remark that he
figured it would be best if two of us
slept on each seat and two on the
floor" There didn't seem to be much
of anything else to do but every one
was silent and reserved as to who
should sleep on the floor. There
We're no willing sacrifices and we
were forced to draw lots. Each man,
as he reached out to draw his slip of
paper from the hat would look with
longing at the cushioned seats and
then at the Bethlehem steel floor.
Sweet and didn't look quite so hard
as the other fellows and We drew the
floor. I'll pass lightly over the rest
of the occurrences of that night. The
only pleasant thing about it was an
afraid on Rouen. The other four
fellows went outside to watch the
search-lights as they sought the
planes with their rays, and to listen
to the bursting bombs from the al
craft and the shrapnel from the anti
aircraft batteries. While they were
gone, Sweet and / crawled up onto
the cushions and had fifteen minutoc
Of undisturbed repose.
| was awake before the rest of the
bunch the following morning. This
was in no way a peculiar occurrence
because | hadn't gone to sleep at all.
| opened one of the doors of the
wouldn't get mixed up with any of
the numerous tunnels through which
we were passing. ] sat down on the
step TO mediate on the hardness Of
life. We were passing through "a
strip Of country that had evidently
been fought over, and as far as the
eye could see, the landscape was dot
ted with wooden crosses. Some of
them were directly alongside the
track. / have no idea as to how
many there were, but the numbers
must have run into the thousands.
We were running at fairly high
rate of speed-ten or fifteen miles
an hour and it was half an hour
before we left the last of them.
There seemed to be no particular
system about placing the graves;
they would be in the middle of
plowed field, in an orchard. by q
hedge, any place at all, and Judging
/ by those that were close enough so
that | could see each one had the
name of the fallen soldier printed on
the cross. Each grave was decorated
with flowers and every one of them
/ had wreath hung on the cross. 1t
was just after daybreak, but there
were dozens of men and women work
-" in the fields and many of Z
stopped in their labors to kneel by
the graves in prayer.
Our stay in Chatillon was unevent-
full. We were there a little more
than four weeks attending the
Second Corps schools. The schools
consisted of branches for Trench