Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-08-24
BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Difficulties With Foreign Money With Those Seeking Yankee
Husbands Even Champagne Within Reach of All, Fail to
Disturb Harmony

| shell went over. What was it you
! said ?"
An interesting comment on our mil
itary establishment is to realize that
on our arrival in France there was no
| one with the command who had ever
| shot an automatic rifle, thrown a
| hand-grenade, shot a rifle-grenade,
| used a trench mortar or .37-millime-
| ter gun. These were all modern
methods of waging warfare, yet none
of our military had been trained to
the least degree in any of them. To
all of us they were absolutely new.
The closest any of us came to any
previous knowledge was occasional
pictures we had seen in the illustrated
reviews.
The major OF the French battalion
with whom We trained was named
Menacci. He was a Corscan by birth
and looked like stage pirate. He had
a long black beard. sparkling black
eyes and a great appearance of fe-
rocity, but was as gentle soul as
have ever known. The topic that in
terested him above all others was the
question of marriage. He was Just
like young girl or boy and loved to
be leased about it. A very fine fellow
called Beauclare assisted him. Beau
clare was from the north of France,
tall and lght-haired, and fun Of
energy. He would strip off his coat,
throw grenades with the men and loin
i'll the exercises with as much enjoy
ment as any one.
S,diers and Gentlemen.
One phase of the training which
fretted many of us was the good fell
lowship and parties with the Chas-
seurs. The French were as kind as
could be. and l never shall cease to
respect the men with whom we train
ed both as soldiers and gentlemen
We, however, were trying by incessant
work to overcome the handicap of
ignorance with which we had started,
while they were out of the line for a
rest and naturally wished to enjoy
themselves and relax.
At one time we tried attaching non
commissioned officers from the
French units to ours. We hoped we
could accomplish more this way. 1t
did not work well. however, except In
one instance where the American
company became so fond of their
French 'noncom." that they did their
level best to keep him with them for
the rest of the war.
Toward the end of the training Pc
riod, before the French left us. we
had sort of official party for both
our troops and the French troops. 1t
was held on our drill grounds and
every one had chow. The men and
officers really enjoyed the affair.
Later we gave another party for the
French officers. who came and lunch
ed with US. In the athletic sports that
afternoon we experienced some diff
city with the middleweight boxing be-
cause Sergeant Ross of B company
was so much the best boxer that we
could find no one to put up good
fight against him.
Among the other sports was a
salad race, in which all the COM
batants take off their shoes. piling
them in the center of a circle They
line up around the edges and at the
word "go" run forward, try to find
their own shoes. put them on and lace
them up. The man who first does this
wins. OF course. the contestants throw
each others shoes around. which adds
to the general mixup, with the usual
comic incidents. During the meet a
lieutenant rushed up to me, terribly
excited, before the tug-of-war was to
be staged, explaining that the best
men in his company's team for tug
of-war were Just going on guard,
hurried off to try to change this and
succeeded in mixing the guard UP to
such an extent that it took the better
part of a day to get it Strengthened
out again.
The French noneoms came over also
and dined with our men. and one day
all of us went over to the French viii
lage and saw their sports. mule races
pole vaulting, etc. Their officers
messes are very picturesque. Every
action is surrounded by custom. They
rise in their snappy blue uniforms and
sing songs of previous battles and
victories, and drink toasts to long
dead leaders,
Ito Be Continued Tomorrow