Evening star., 1919-02-22
PASSING THE MILL
AT ST. AGONY.
Town in France Crowded
With HomeWard-Bound =,
Yankee Soldiers.
MISSING RECORDS DELAY
BY f. PERCY NOEL.

uated on the south bank of the river
Cher. was the first occupied by the
Americans in March, 1917. when the
43d Division established a divisional
replacement camp in the neighbor-
! hood near the railway station a mile
| north of the river, from which the
| first replacement depot grew. This rs
now used principally as a camp for
! the formation of casual companies of
troops of the and C classes destined,
to return to the United States.
This is not the ST Afghan, which is
! picturesquely built on a hillside on
| the other bank, with a thirteenth CEN
! tury church, renaissance chateau ands
ancient houses with overhanging ga
| bles and carved stone doorways and
narrow streets, but what Is popularly
called 'St. Agony"
A Soldiers Town.
| 1t is a soldiers town of wood. cor
rugated iron and canvas. all set down
in what after many days Of rain
abounds in mud of all consistencies. of
bled streets and tagged sidewalks or
the steep ancient hill town.
"St Agony's" inhabitants are stop
ped by sturdy, red-banded military
police If they attempt to cross the y
bridge without a special pass and at
present the swollen river is bad for
| swimming.
"St Agony's" main street, called
Montana avenue" like the other
avenues Of mud and slime that wind
through it, resounds with a brutal '
! open exhaust of the big motor trucks
! shooting jets of mud in all directions
| as they rush to and fro. Oficers ana
men plod hopefully through. tine
for the rare duckboards and lattioed ,
plank walks such as were used in the
trenches. They would have been re-
joiced to find some bottom to most OF
the mud, with no duties and no COM
pany Inspections and with opportu-
! nifty for amusement day and evening
in public and in private. For class y
and men. discharged from the hos
utes' walk from the railway station
to "the mill" the place holds no
charm. =
But They Are ION Their Way"
But, after all. they are on their way
home and that is something to neu-
| tralize the difference between the
comforts of the hospitals they have
just Quilted and those cherries
kaunts of resting units Of combatants
and others between the Atlantic and
| the Rhine.
From what some of them told me
the large majority feel that tho .
only thing to do is to insist on per
feet freedom and grumble about the
weather, mud and delays. Two men
who were the first I spoke to. and
who were waiting to march to the
train had had different experiences.
One had been four days In the camp
and the other two weeks. On asking
why" found that the frst factor IN
America is his record, not meaning
the quality of the record, but certain
information which the war office re-
ouires to be obtained about him be
fore he is returned to America.
| Records Often Missing.
Frequently company records are lost
at the front. and some of the indi-
viduaI records are misplaced some
where before the former unit ana
the hospital These records must be
found, il possible. If they are com
| nIete there is no delay, but IL they
are incomplete, the soldier must walt.
| Some of the delay comes in making
up the companies, but these are not
/ very serious.
| The companies are formed for con-
venience in rehabilitation. As soon
as a mans record Is in oroer. MS
paybook settled and all other mat
| teTS
nIaced in an envelope and put in the
| filing tray AS soon as this contains
| $50 names or so from the same sIase'
a casual company is formed. an ON.
Ger is placed in command ana th[ee
or four days later it departs from
$4,000 "Agonized" Men.
There are nearly $4,000 men here
today hut one wonders where they
keen themselves, for while / nave
been all through the camp ! nave not
been impressed by the visible numoer.
However, about 1000 are in the nos
pitaI This, while not SO comfortsoie
as the hospitals which most OF the
/ patients recently quilted, appears 10
I be well situated and sanitary, al
! though like the rest OF the camp IroHs
: which it is distant a mile or more, II
| All of "St Agony" is overcrowded,
one would say, but the construction
work moves on rapidly 70 mAke
more comfortable. while the NUMBER
of men who desire to pass through on
their way home increases in probably
a greater proportion. On December
! there were 1o.S9s men in the camp:
/ today there are 17.7lT. lncluoInB i'S'o
camp personnel
| From December / to February 10,
| 33,O52 men and 54S omcers passed
| through the camp. Some OF them 0e-
| longing to class A were sent TO the
army of occupation, but total OF
| 1851 have been sent to some pase
port. The number sent has been dou-
bling each month. In December there
were forty companies, in January
seventy companies, and in the hrst
sixteen days of February, 1913, max
ing a total of 233 sent home. Those
in December contained 6,039 men, and
149 officers; in January there We're
1856 men and $50 officers, and IN
February, 16,397 men and 244 on
GERS.
80 Quizzed at One Time.
Upon his arrival in the camp each
man passes through 1.-The MILL" where
thirty-two men are interviewed simui-
taneously on questions relating to
their records. After the principal
clerical examination they pass into q
dressing room to prepare themselves
and their clothing for medical exam
ination and personal disinfection. q
process which is known by a less
agreeab' term.
Men arriving unwen are assigned to
the hospital instead of to the bar
racks. or If suffering from colds -
medical officer specifies wooden ear-
racks instead of tents, although most
of the latter, like the barracks, are
heated by stoves Then they are
provided with two new uniforms ana
a full new equipment, except weapons.
When they arrive in the port Of en- 3
barkation after their discharge here a
of disinfection and are given com
plete new equipment.
think that the greatest unpleas-