The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-20

Only one uniform was issued at that time and enlisted men were not per
 mitted to buy extra equipment for cash. A new coat would have to be issued and
 the price of the old one taken off his ! next months pay. The price of a coat ] cuts heavily into a private soldiers pay
 envelope. Not only that but a black
 mark would go against Charlie for los | ing government property. His pals felt all broken up about it.
 1 Say, Charlie," the Italian and Irish ! man said to him the next day after the ! officer had been around inspecting, we fellers have got together and are going
 to give you lift" He didn't say it ex- ] actly that way, but it is impossible to put
 that mixed dialect on an English type writer.
 Just what's the idea?' inquired the puzzled Charlie.
 ''Listen,'' said the Irishman. "we ain't goin to stand for you gettin' stuck for
 all that coat especially as you was giy- ing Tony divVy on the show. I've also fixed 1t so the lieutenant won't make no report of lost property. He's a pretty good skate. Officers is allowed to buy clothes for cash cause the army don t issue them nothin'. So, we seen the lieutenant. and the gang in the squad here clipped in to help feller out and | the ieutenant will take it and buy one your size Get the idea?'
 Charlie did get it In fact he got 1t so hard. says Gowdy, that he almost cried. He didn't want to refuse, outright, so he didn't say anything for awhile. The ! next day, though. he told his good pals not to bother about the money they'd clipped in but to save it wor big feed at the end of the month-a party. T saw the lieutenant and he's fixed 1 it up all right" he explained. | At Charities request the officer never told his pals in the squad, but the lieu tenant laughed and said 1t was 'all right" when Charlie gave him a check. | He knew that Charlie was a millionaire,
 but helped him to keep his secret from the other soldiers.
 You know said Charlie, Tt would spoil the greatest joy I've ever had in I life if those pals of mine-the best pals I ever had-knew that I had any more | money than my thirty-three dollars a | month. Sometimes I wish I didn't have" That's the idea, exactly" said Hank Gowdy. That's one illustration of what mean by saying there's something in the world besides money"
 ARMY WAS A LEVELLER There was many a Charlie and many a Tony who trudged along with Gowdy in those early days of hiking through
 the snow and, as Hank says, there was many a one of them who not only never
 
 ton Braves, but who did not know what a big league ball player was They didn't know who the rich men were and they didn't care.
 ''All the money in the world wouldn't have made any difference up there around the front line in the Champagne or in the Argonne," says Hank. "There was no way of using it except for crap shooting purposes and then when fel- low got most of the money he didn't know what to do with it until he got back into a rest camp. It was simply a question of man getting his chow and his rest-of doing his share and talk l ing his share. There was no difference between the Charities and the Tonies. A I man was man and nothing else Mo- body could hide behind a bankroll and nobody sought a mans acquaintance be- cause they thought he had bankroll. | German shells played no favorites be- | tween the rich and the poor and they d just as soon kill the educated as the l ignorant. One man had to help the oth-
 CT and, by garsh-(Hank's favorite cuss word)-they did it."
 1 In Hanks opinion the greatest feeling l in the world Is to be able to look in the | face of a man next to you in she'll i hole-the face being lighted by a Ger
 man flare-and know by the expression | il, his eyes that he is with you in any | thing you want to start.
 | "One night in the Argonne," he says. they were sheling the tar waduing | out of us and we knew it was time to shift. Some distance to our right was a little rise in the ground and we fig ured that if we could dig in behind this we'd have a better chance. I remarked that I didn't have a shovel. As I did
 so I saw the face of the man near me.
 didn't wnow him personally, but I
 knew what was inside of him when he
 looked around and caught the words.
 Wait a minute.' he says, roll up
 these things and beat it over there and
 I'll join you In a second he was gone gone further toward the front. My
 bunkie and I took little time about getting our little junk together and then
 started sneaking along in the dark.
 When we got to the new place that fel- low was there digging like the devil.
 He had slipped out 30 yards in front of
 the line where he had seen an engineers
 shovel in the afternoon and grabbed it.
 Without waiting he hurried back of the
 mound and was digging already-doing
 that to help us well as himself. That's
 unselfish for you. eh?"
 When Hank insisted on an answer as
 to why that fellow did that, we could not give it. It was in response to that feel
 ing that comes. as Hank previously ex-
 pressed it, when one looks a real man
 in the eye.
 And do you suppose anybody ever
 stopped to wonder whether that fellow
 made a lot of money back home, whether
 ho was millionaire or some poor rib bon counter clerk?" asked Hank. You suppose he ever bothered his mind about
 whether I was ball player or not?'
 Natural instincts and common sense
 developed very strongly after the men got in the fighting lines and the great est problems that upset the scientists
 were often knocked into a cooked hat
 by the simple. natural act of some sol
 dier,
 During the runaway fight in the St.
 Mihiel sector the 166th infantry, Hanks regiment, had great time raiding cap tured German dugouts. They were not after prisoners so much as food, and for indulging the natural love soldier has for foraging. The Germans in that sec tion were of the Lai.uwehr-kindly old German gentlemen, as the doughboys often referred to them sarcastically. They had been in there for nearly three years. had raised gardens. grown cab bage and all such things. The soldiers were eagerly looking for different stuff to eat. but the medical officers were watching them as closely as possible
 A squad of men from Hanks outfit and Hank was member of it-ran across a barrel of dill pickles. Before they coudl get it open three or four med ical officers had gathered and were at tempting to make a lot of serious tests for poison, acting very important and mysterious They would shake their aeads in perplexity as they stood around the barrel and some of the soldiers were N@h