The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-01-02
keokuk coIieolan Who Has Been
Driving Ono for Over a Year
In France Gives Inter.
estIno Testimony.
ARGUING WITH FRENCH
American Trucks and French Artil-
lery, and the Trucks Won the
Battle Of Dietion-
aries.

STAFFORD Stricken, son OF Mr.. and
Lars. Henry Stricken. and graduate
Of the Keokuk high school where he
had high rank, enlisted from North
western university as soon as we en-
tered the war.
In. the beginning, he drove Red
Cross ambulance as the swiftest
way to get into action in France.
Later he was transferred to the
motor truck corps Of Pershings army.
| How he Ia driving in France, and
how the gasoline engine compares
favorably with the army mule in gen.
eral devilment, is indicated in re-
cent letter he wrote his parents. Part
of this letter is as follows, and 1t Is
dated three days after the armlst1ce:
am writing you short note to
let you know that l know, that we
know that LA guerre est fines"
That is all we have heard for the last
three days. Every French poilu we
pass is wearing radiant face and
. shouts at us, LA guerre fms, La
guerre fnis," "Francais soldat, Amer
icaine soldat bon comrade." We slap
each other on the back and pass on
each thinking of the day when we
will rejoin our loved ones at home,
sweet home.
Motoring Under Difficulties.
On the morning of November 10,
went out in charge of convoy OF
six trucks. We loaded at railroad
station about ten liilometers from
camp. l had three truck loads OF
oats and one truck Of bread.
The road traffic was heavy, and
shell holes and mud made the roads
almost impossible. 1t took me all
day to traverse about thirty kilo-
meters and I must have walked
about half of that distance alongside
Of my lead truck. l did everything
from chogping down tree to towing
cars out of the mud and pushing
! them up steep hills by sheer force OF
strong back and weak mind.
| About shutdown / was forced to
stop again as the road was blocked
| as far as / could see. l walked on
ahead to see what the trouble was
land discovered that the entire road
was blocked for miles through the
valley Camions, camionettes, gen.
erals staff cars, artillery trains and
wagon trains were jammed in there
in what appeared to be hopeless
tangle. AS there were plenty of off,
| GERS on the job, and as my trucks
| were pretty far away from the center
iof the tangle, walked back, had the
fellows shut off their engines, and we
built fire and lowered around it all
through cold frosty night-roasting
one side while the other side froze
and then vice versa.
When the Truck Caught Fire.
About $3.50 a. M, l crawled in
! among the sacks OF oats on a truck
and tried to sleep, but gave 1t up
and crawled out again in about an
hour so stiff and cold l could hardly
move. l learned the next day, that
(, lust as / was crawling out of that
| truck the armistice with Germany
was signed. About O'Clock, trac-
i tor had pulled several cars out of the
ditch and it began to look like we
would be moving on again SO l had
| the fellows start their engines to
warm them up. In about two min
utes l heard the driver of my lead
! truck let out a. yell, Help! I'm on
| fire! Get a fire extinguisher! I'm
on fire!" His car had back fired into
the carburetor and his whole engine
was mass of flames. About fifteen
of us got busy on the jinx. threw
mud on the engine, got couple or
fire extinguishers working, jerked the
surplus gas cans off the side and got
the fire out in about five minutes.
When it was over the sweat was
standing out all over me-not SO
much from exertion as from fright.
If the fire on that truck had gotten
out of control the whole line would