Putnam patriot., 1919-01-10

IioWihS tHe Aqueldnld across, was sifk by a U-boat.
 tsI take it you want my first i'm
 ? Iessions of America" announced the
 lutenant, as he deserted the man
 ith the pad and pencil.
 'u "It was a mighty pleasant voyage U Fross," he said, despite the fact lat we lived and moved and had our
 efing in life preservers-none of lhich was a perfect 36. We landed i't Liverpool, went to a rest camp at Il outhampton for 36 hours and then 'i iFossed the channel to La Havre. They planned all sorts of entertain
 hent. There were promised mine aihock, a torpedo scare and an air
 laid that didn't materialize and it be- Ean to look as if we had paid our money and couldn't see the show. "But at La Havre it was so differ lent. There it was I heard for the first and only time the sound of guns. And beat retreat. There were 1S0 casual officers on the boat-a casual lis an officer or enlisted man who is not attached to brigade or division and we went together until about thirty miles from Paris. I was just planning to say Anal So this is Paris and got as far as 'Ahap when the train was suddenly switched off and we were sent to Blois. There the casuals were scattered. Some went to the front, some went into nearby hospitals and some went to places in southern France. As for myself I saw the ammunition going by and soldiers moving out and the the war seemed almost as close as at La Havre, so I beat another retreat. I went to Bordeaux, and the last of June arrived at base hospital 6.
 "But still the war seemed close, so on Aug. II I retreated again aud moved to the 9fsTe sae9is ii g5atffairr France where there were peace and quiet and was in general medical work, taking the duties of assistant surgeon in the forestry division"
 Of course Lieut. Perry's reference to retreating was his quaint way of putting it. As casual officer he was bound to follow orders given him and his joking manner is great disappointment that he didn't really get up to the front line. It has been estimated by mathematical sharks that eight men are necessary behind the line for every man on the line, and it was one of the lieuten- ants greatest impressions as to the number of men, the amount of work and the support that is necessary for the combatants in the front lines. He knew, as Irwin Cobb wrote, that the war is fought just as carefully in the service of supply as in the zone of ad- 
 Even the men in the forestry divis- ion, according to Lieut.. Perry, want ed to get "up front" Detailed as they were to do that work they had no alternative in the matter except, when blue and Respondent, some of them tuned up a tractor and started in the general direction of the Ger man border to hunt up the war for themselves.
 q used to laugh at the way the great American privilege of kicking was used" said Lieut.. Perry. "The men in the forestry division wanted to go where the 'doin's' were and tugged at the bonds that held them to cutting trees. Then when the lads who had been gassed or wounded came down to the woods to recuper- ate, they in turn complained of the luck the woodsmen had fallen into. .You've got it soft-no gas, no shells, no mud and holes in the ground. And so it went-we all wanted to be where we were not"
 Yet out of a group of six officers who had formed a friendship, of Nbich Lieut.. Perry was one, one of them. Lieut.. Steen of Texas, reached he front lines and was killed in ac- lion. He was Lieut.. Perry's twin. s,bev looked alike, chummed together, Bad enlisted, trained and embarked fverseas at the same time and were iarted only when they reached Blois, to see each other again. A Noteworthy medical journal carried
 he obituary and picture of Lieut.. 2 teen soon after his death.
 2 Although away from the battle The. Lieut.. Perry's life in the for
 Istry division had it's busy times. A
 lrip epidemic set in and gave the
 hedical men overtime practice. Lum- Fer was needed for railway ties and lsSarehouses and the work had to be lept up. Forest fires of suspicious
 srigin made their appearance and but