Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1919-05-09
YANKEES BUILD
GREAT MILITARY
PORT AT BREST
It Has Become Largest and Most
Modern of Debarkation
Points. !
SANITATION ALMOST PERFECT
Every Facility 10 Provided for Gar.
Ing for Camp Of 10000 Men of
Whom Large Proportion Are
Wounded or Siek-Men
Will Be Fed and
~ Housed.

viii Be Fed and
| Housed.
/ Brest, France-Brest, the ancient
town of Finisterre that juts out into
the Atlantic ocean, is destined to live
long in the memory Of the American
soldiers that came to save the allied
nations from the iron heel of Ger
many. From its ancient ramparts the
| people of France will see the last of
the stalwart doughboys that traversed
the Atlantic ocean to aid them In
suppressing the expansion Of Teutonic
autocracy, writes Louis Seibold, New
York World correspondent. -
| During the next eight or nine
months more than 100000 of the
100000 fighting men that were sent
| by the United States to vindicate the
principles of democracy will find their
way through Brest back to their
homes. Consequently, the Brest that
knew the legions of Caesar and the
deeds Of the Phoenicians will always
figure prominently in the historic mar
ratives Of the soldiers who will en-
bark to recount their deeds on Eu-
ropean soil. =. ~.
City Not Much to Look At.
Brest is not very much to look at
The most striking thing about it is
its mud. It is sort of mud that
sticks to ones memory as we'll as to
ones clothes. .-
There is no other mud in the world
like that of Brest. 1t is always pres.
ent. for; with the exception of very
few days during the year, the low.
ering skies of bleak Finisterre are
momentarily freshening up, because it
always seems to rain in Finisterre
At first it is disagreeable, this mud
of Brest, but, like other things in life.
familiarity breeds contempt for 1t and
inures one to the disadvantages Of
always having 1t about ones person
One Of the bravest spectacles to b"
witnessed, with the mist that nearly
always conceals the sun and fertil
ICES the mud, is that provided by the
American girls. who now number sew.
eral thousand, that have come over
seas to administer to the wants OF
the American boys who have come to
fight for Americas principles. Some
Of these girls, gently reared and more
accustomed to luxuries than to pri.
walton, have become so accustomed to
the mud that it is difficult to dis.
sociate them from memory of it.
Recalls the Golden Gate.
Brest is natural port. This IL
the precise term employed by the
technical men of the army and navy
Coming in from the Atlantic, trans
ports eastern bound enter the grim.
rocked harbor, whose outside aspects
are not dissimilar to those of the
Golden Gate at San Francisco. 1t is
q valuable marine terminus, which
the French have used for many cen.
turtles in which to shelter from the
depredations of the hostile fleets that
preyed upon its commerce.
There Is deep water through the
gate and in the harbor itself, which
spreads fanlike in an almost com
plete oval, confined by ramparts that
rise from 100 to 300 feet along the
shore lines.
The United States engineers and
marine experts. after comparing the
advantages Of other harbors. decided
that Brest was best suited to the pur-
pose of the western democracy asked
to transport its fighting men to assist
In the crushing Of Germany. In all
the population of the venerable
Breton town is about $1,000. The ne
cessities Of war have doubled this.
and at intervals it becomes three
times as much. But the influx Of
population with the restless and Inn
patient Americans has exercised lit.
tie influence on the ancient burg.
The city's hotel accommodations are
Just a. primitive as they were cen
fury ago, with the exception that there
are now electric lights instead Of tai
low dips in one of the hostelries anC
an elevator which groans under the
weight Of two persons.
Other than that things are pretty
much as they were before. Ancient
forms and customs prevail generally
to the Inconvenience Of the energetic
American and provide excellent ma
terial for moving picture artists. The
water supply-the one paramount
problem to be solved by the American
engineers-is obtained by ancient
processes. There Is no sewerage sys
TEN. The suggestion Of making one fOl
Brest as they have provided ut Ha
vana and Manila nearly precipitated .
revolution.
Why Waste Useful MateriaIf
A new sewerage system was al
right In its way, declared the leadin,
citizens Of Brest, whose ancestors rur
back to the time Of the Roman wars
but what was the good of wastins
good fertilizer material through the
introduction Of modern sanitary de
vices3
Confronted with this problem which
they were not able to answer to the