The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1919-10-09
s.RssrogMING AT THE FRONT.
n.inr an Interesting First Hand Nc
count Of hos our isoys Lived on 'he
Front l.ines In France.
n. Frame. and Grace Hoyt

lIuui1n@tn from taht '1t'sf
The next morning We went barn
s,ormine. There had been some sort
sfn mistake as 10 Where We were TO
s,ny t,Le ~" man couldrt be foundl
"a We found the cantecn, Mrs. flem-
80 who was In charge there came
a1,ng with US. tSince writing
isis she has received the Croix DC
cuerrc.l We annexed an army cam
,on. the boys put piano on II, we
told all the soldicrs in sight that there
~as going 70 be show, and we
yave one. in the ~" hut II was
,oy 10 see those tired boys liven up,
tiere wnAn't TOO much fot them TO 90
for us. little thing like Juggling the
oiano about was nothing. They gave
ms pieces Of German money, and the
nau who had charge Of the carrier
pigeons gave US button when hau
been cut of the first prisoner captuf-
I'd in the battle Cf Chateau Therry'
the Boche was from the Crown
Princes regiment.
The next day our lieutenant tthat
sounds misleading, IL only means the
one in whose charge We were while
ye were To be- at the frontD took US
all the way into Paris by motor. fef-
hans everyone doesn't realise that
there are absolutely no motor cars
running in France except those IN the
Government service. There seems 10
be no speed limit, and we soon learned
that the only way to keep from Doll
ing in one Of the large French cars
which would take US twenty eight
miles in thirty five minutes, was 10 SIT
AS far away from the engine as pos
sibie.
Berthe" had been bombarding Par-
IA for two days before our arrival ana
ON our way to the "Y" we saw the
Hotel Calais wht sc three upper hoors
had been blown off the night before
our first experience with the long
range gun was when, the day aiter
we reached Paris, she started her IN
timidating" shelling at nine IN the
morning. The first shot seemed 10 Dc
a long distance away, but when the
second came, in exactly twenty MN
utes as they always do, we quite uh-
consciously put up our umbrellas she
had exploded just about hundred
Yards from US. near the Madelalne,
which seems to be her favourite tar
get: the noise is dreadful. but not as
bad as the "alerte
II takes at least twenty-four heurS
10 yet movement orders, but PARIS Is
w,;ll Paris. though somber ald SUD
dued one. and there was plenty TO 90.
The oaly light to be seen, from the
Rue de L'Eschclles as far as the flaee
yendome. was q dull blue one, ana
that carefully shaded from above. Two
briIlinnt stars appeared one night as
we were leaving the Park, which re-
solved themselves into the lights OF
an aeloplane, circling protectingly ov-
er the city.
Our railway tickets were the most
astonishing affairs, we had to sign
item four times ard as we were tray
Cling on officers permits the transpof-
tat;ou was free. II is so difficult 10
get 4 porter at the st; tions, thot one
doesn't know W. ether to carry ones
trunk up the miles Of platform ana
nut il into the baggage car ohesell,
or 10 sit down on the luggage and cry !
We discovered that the best thing to
do was TO hunt up an III. +. they
ar an rice boys who would DO any
thing m their power for us. Our COM
pa rtment was, rs usual, crowded with
officers, but among .&em was q French
civilian, a rare sight in t.-ese days.
He WIS an engineer, in the murltion
business, ard lie gave us some inter
esting technical information in regard
TO berthe" which he spoke of most
feellngly as he had just escaped beng
killed by one Of her pieces Of steel
he showed it TO us, II was about ten
BY four inches. and was ritlled like the
inside Of gun barrel, he mad dug It
out OF the city road while i was still
warm.
On our arrival at Chaumont we
were Immediately whiskcd off 10 get
movement orders TO Chatillon-sur-
Seine, 70 apply FOR permission to tray .
81 BY automobile. and TO register. II
was given 70 us by charming middle I
aged French Lieutenant, whose home
Is in Los Angeles. II took US a long
time because we all had 50 much 10
talk about. Our drive was through I
about fifty miles Of beautiful country
on roads which are still perfect de-
spite the endless streams OF artillery,
there seems to be no end TO il: piles
a. ,tm xsststs k4stteh /