The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-15
TOPEKANS IN 18th
Lieut.. E. w. Wingart Visits Men
In TOuI-St. Mihiel Sector.
Tells of Newspaper Issued by
Jayhawker Troops.

Lieut.. INK WlnSdTI has WAlllCh
a friend about seeing some of the
boys of the 35th division in the st.
Mihiel and Toul sectors. when
inquired at division headquarters
about various officers and men |
knew in the division" he writes, 81
was directed to the finance depart
ment of the quartermasters corps
and there 1 had an interesting talk
with Major Carl r. White, who used
to be in the adjutant generals office
in Topeka. 1 also saw Sergeant
Fritz and Sergeant Welty, both of To-
peka, who were looking and feeling
fine. Pete He'll is stationed at Com
mercy but was up in Luxembourg with
the 35th football team, so L didn't
get to see him. Major James Going
also is stationed in Commercy. The
division is expecting to leave for home
soon
THE Topeka boys in the finance
office made a record for payment of
payrolls in January, getting the money
to all the men by the 9Th of the
month Major White received a com
mandatory letter from the command
ing general for the good work of his
office, and everyone 1 saw was ex-
tremely happy over the letter.
1.-The 137th infantry is -tationed at
Sampigny, a little shell torn town not
far from Commercy. L was unlucky
in not being able to see either w. Y.
Morgan or Fred Voiland. who have
| division. Voiland, who has been sick,
was on leave in Nice, and Morgan had
taken a trip up thru the Argonne to
| look over the battle ground which the
| 55th had fought over.
Kansans Have a Paper.
81 found evidence of Kansas enter
prise in a copy of The Jayhawkerin-
| france a little newspaper published
| by members of the regiment. 1t is
| two page, four column affair printed
on pale pink paper. The men found
an old printing press in the town and
| rugged it up so they could get out the
local news of the regiment. Sergt. w.
| j. Studer is the editor and publisher,
and the printers are Corp. George F.
Martin, Pvt. Frank r. Ekstrom and
Pvt. C. ]. Waugh. Only one advertise
ment appeared in the issue I saw, and
was welcome to the K of c. club.
| Among the various bits of news in the
paper, 1 found this one:
Doyle L. Buckles, managing edi-
| tor of the Sanitary Swab,' and Charles
| B. Hoyt, assistant editor. Official or
gan of the 10th sanitary train). were
| in to see The Observation-Disclosures
plant Saturday. Buckles comes from
| the school of Journalism of K. U. and
Hoyt was formerly a Topeka newspa-
per man.
"A large part of the trip took US
thru territory formerly held by the
Germans, and everywhere their de-
lenses were evident-piles of barbed
wire, chevaux de frie, dugouts sand
bags and piles of dirt. Shell holes
were still evident in No Mans Land,
| but the roads over which We travelled
had been repaired and were fairly
| smooth.
Towns in Ruins.
'At st. Mihiel 1 saw a sight which
typifies more clearly than anything
know the suffering of the French
people caused by the war 1t was
| Sunday afternoon, and many people
come to the town on that day to look
up their old homes. One woman and
her two daughters were standing be-
fore pile of stone. just staring, tears
| in their eyes. This had been their
home before the war-now it was no
| more than a mere pile of debris
| Most of the town of st. Mihiel is in
ruins altho there are a few buildings
| that are not completely destroyed. The
| troops that are stationed there told me
| that there were only four women in
| the town, except on Sundays, when
people came back for a day, and that
| those tour had been there all thru
the war. The sign board at the side
OF tn" road is the only evidence that
the town Of Agreement once existed
From the appearance of the place one
| would think it a stone yard
From st. MihieI we went thru the
Toul sector, the first sector to be held
by American troops. and then on tc
| Nancy, lively French town which is
calle1 little Paris After dinner at
Nancy, we travelled ia kilometers
| back to ChaumCnt