The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1919-02-20

enough to make the place look bcauti
full. think that this trip up the Cir
onde is the best and prettiest one Nv,
had here.
The camp we went to from tn,
docks was about eight kilometers dis
tant, with seven and one half Of thes,
uphill. With much exersion on oul
part we at last reached the "woulc
be" rest camp and put in n few day,
bunk fatigue with frequent injection,
Of Corn Bilp', canned tomatoes and
hard tack, meanwhile trying TO get
next to how many centimes it took &c
make a penny and just what the
mademoiselle meant when she said
that oranges were selling for 'un
franc cinquante centimes" per pair
When one learns to interpret this
money here he has conquered the
Battle of Kom Bein" one of the
hardest fought battles of this war
from a financial standpoint. When
you get the art so good that you can
get twenty franc note (about
s3.sO) changed, carry off the change
in any thing smaller than a two-bushel
basket and get Ill the change count
ed before taps sounds. then is when
you have won in the Battle Of Kom
Bien".
Well, from this camp at Bordeaux
we started for the interior part Of
France. After riding about forty
eight hours in a French sidedoor
Pullman" labeled 40 Hommes, 8
Cheaeaux", we detrained at a place
called Anglers. where remained some
three weeks. This is just one Of the
many training camps that are scatter
ed all over this country. Here they
give the men three weeks Of real
srappy training and prepare them for
front line duty. was getting along
fine at this place, liked it quite well,
until they looked me up and classified
me two or three times one day and
found that had once said that
could use typewriter, so I was told
| could help out in the Orderly Room
for few days. did. and in the
meantime got an o S job wished
upon me.
| might mention here just what is
meant by SOS. Some say it means
save Our Ships. | have heard il
called Same Old Stuff" but higher
up in Army circles il is taken to mean
Service Of Supplies and takes in all
non-combatent troops who stay be-
hind the lines to provide the ways and
means Of supplying the fighting
troops with everything necessary to
go ahead. II takes in the operation
Of the Railroads, Docks, etc. and in
fact everything that pertains to the
backing up of the boys behind the
guns.
Having had this said SOS job wish
ed upon me, ! was sent to Tours, a
fairly good sized town which is the
headquarters Of the SOS. have
been working in the Central Records
Office ever since my arrival at Tours.
The Central Records Office is an Of
flee the character and nature of the
work of which is fully explained in
The three words in its name. At this
office are kept the records of each
soldier in the A r. We have here
several different sections, each one
keeping a record Of each man. One.
Tor instance. in the Locator Card See
ion, in this section we have each
mans name on a small card. telling
when he arrived in France, what or
yanization he came over with, his
rank, his serial number and each
,hange that has taken place concern
ng him since he came over. This
Locator Card tells just where this
nan can be found at any time. All
he information is taken off of the
Daily Reports that are sent in by each
organization, daily.
The Central Post Office is connect
ed with this section and get the adj
dresses for all astray mail matter
from these cards. Then there is the
Personnel Section in which is kept a
record similar to the afore-mention-
ed except that il pertains to the spec
al qualifications Of each man. For
Instance, there comes an order in for
a special number Of motor truck driv-
ers, all there is to do is to go to the
PERSONAL Section and pull out that
many cards Of men who are exper-
fenced along that line. Each trade or
special qualification is numbered on
the margin Of the card and a small
clip various colors are used for dis
tinction) is placed over that number
70 that these cards can be pulled right
out without even looking at the mans
name. Then there is the Master Card
Section which runs along about the
same line that the Locator does only
Il takes care of the man in his own
division. In this section the cards