The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-05-13

layelller, but for untlllty and comIort
forty homme. eight cheveux cars do
not favorably impress the Yankee
soldier who tours France with all Of
his worldly belongings on his back.
in a pack that weighs about eight
pounds, and the knowledge that the
supply sergeant has list of all this
junk on a slip of paper, darned small
in size but blamed big in conse-
Quences, and known in army Ian
guage as the soldiers 637. The
streetcars in the cities of France
are small enough, the Lord knows,
but when you look over a railroad
train made up of some thirty or forty
of these .'cute little side-door sleep
ers" you wonder how 1t is that the
Woolworth and other dime stores"
haven't cornered the whole output
and put them on display in their va
rious stores for little Johnny's Christ
mas present whe he writes his be,
loved Santa Claus to send him a
train of cars. Stand upon a hill and
watch train go over a bridge and
you'd swear that some toy railroad
had gotten loose somewhere and was
running away
Just the same, forty homme cars
are great for sociability; likewise
they might be very good incubators
for murder. It's enough to make a
man fight, to have somebody's num-
Der eleven hobnails impressed on his
face right in the middle of sleep.
troubled at best On the other hand,
you get to know who are the real
fal hot la
pettfness that still marks few, after
you've taken one trip one day on
these side-door sieepers so common
ly used as the means of locomotion
for the soldiers over here. And the
humor Of the trenches can have moth
ing on the humor of the forty homme
car. Hanging packs so they won't
come down, and yet SO that mess
kit flaps will be available when sal
mon and baked beans are passed
around Is an art that Is to be &C.
CURED by practice. Trying to sleep
at night is easy, once you get
stretched out sardine fashion across
the floor of the car. Arguments en-
sue as to whose foot is kicking some
body in the ribs. or as to who has
even finicky enough to crab the next
morning because the snoring was
not done in the same key. The real
heroes are those who catch Carnegie
derbies, which fall off packs, on
their noses, and still smile, as one
man did on one Of our trips, or the
man who draws the odd straw and
has to sleep lengthwise of the door
You can bet he doesn't wear stripes
ON his arm, either unless it is on
his own volition that he takes this
position. For rank still counts in
homme cars, 1t seems.
Well, anyway, the tin derby slipped
off the insecure position in which it
had been hung on pack and banged
a poor, unsuspecting sleeper on the
nose, breaking that organ somewhat.
After the first splutter to get his
breath and to ascertain the extent
of casualties, and to soothe the ruff
fled nerves Of the man who was
awakened by the rebound. the casual
remarked, without any idea of wit,
that somebody was laying a hem
let barrage" The car exploded.
An amateur vaudeville show, with
the village quartet warbling, or, per-
haps better, numbering everything in
the song line, was staged in one of
the cars on one trip, but nothing was
as funny as the encounter with a
French-American alliance In the rail-
road yards at one of the regulating
stations These French cars have
little coop at one end, something on
~ - q
small scale. 1t is here that the
trainmen SIT and ply the brakes
when the little toy engine UP in front
whistles like the merry-go-round in
Patterson,s carnival. The American
railroad men over here say you have
to guess every time you hear one
whistle; they use one blast for going
ahead and one blast for signal to
back up. Like the old lady who
marked her pies T. None for It's
mince and the other for faint mince
Well, In any event, airbrakes are not
popular with the employees OF the
French roads, hence trainmen ride
on all the trains in the little dog
houses on top the train, and wind
UP hand brakes when the little cars
threaten to pile up on top the en-.
CINE at the first stop.
This night in particular, however,
the caboose contained, besides sew
eral cases Of corned willy. beans, to-
matoes, jam, salmon and few
sheets of bread and stack Of rifles.
two American soldiers, who had
draped their blankets as comfortably
as possible over the paraphernalia
and were counting sleep In such
cramped quarters. The train was
stopped down in the yards some
place and voices could be heard out
side the car. 1t was the quick
tongue Of the French, and no one
suspected an invasion OF the private
boudoir of the supply sergeant and
another sergeant; for such were the
ranks of the men in the doghouse.
Out of the melee of voices, however,
came the sound of someone pound.
ing on the door, and a quick volley
OF French. 1t was evident that the
dugodt was to be occupied by other
than soldiers Americana. This
wouldn't do, so 1t was politely sug-
gested that American soldat" were