The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1919-04-25
Muth OF Interest in
"StarS and StriDeS"

dated FEBRUARY %, and received by
the relatives of Frank Gilmore,
who is still in the service. The
paper is the official publication
of the A. Z. F., and is published
every week in Paris No subscrip-
tions are taken, but the papers
sell for ten cents each in United
States, or sixpence in Great Bri-
tain.
In an article about the force
which won st. Mihiel, the state
ment is made that the army was
three times as large as Grants
and, of course, Americas greatest
up to that time.
The first German prisoners to
be freed by the Allies, 500 men of
Alsatian- Lorraine descent, capture
ed by the A. E. F.. were at the
time of this publication about to
be freed from the American pri-
son camp near Tours, under an
agreement with the French govern
ment. The released men we're to
be given civilian clothes, and
transported free on regular pass
enger trains to their old homes in
redeemed Alsace and Lorraine.
The paper says that there we're
something like 100000 of the Ok
4x3 Christmas boxes arrived in
Europe, quite a good many more
than there had been men to send
coupons home. One carload of
them burned up at Bourges.
Port by port Uncle Sam was
closing out the greatest shipping
business that any country has on
foreign shores : base ports in
France A great deal of material
in the ports is being sold to the
French. A total of about two and
a half million tons have gone
throngis these foreign cities. and
thousands of men are employed.
Books were to be sent by mail
to the A. F. F., and any soldier can
receive two books by mail whether
he is stationed on the Rhine, or
the Mediterranean, or billeted in a
village in Burgundy, by the simple
process of mailing postal card,
naming the books he wants to the
American Library Association in
Paris, who expect 100000 soldiers
to write for books. The associa-
ton also expect to furnish books
fol the post schools, and to estab-
Iiob 1000 Ebror,o, <lr,,ort Eronoo
From frozen dugouts, from old
ruins, from those hastily improv-
ised and sunken openings in the
ground, from wheat fields and
river banks and meadow knoll,
from all the thousands of places
of isolation and great loneliness,
the dead were being tenderly lif-
ted and borne to take their place
in the ranks of the great army.
The service of more than 1000
soldiers was required for this work.
They are called the "Graves Reg
istration Service. They search
bodies for some mark of identifi-
cation, carry the remains to the
neatest cemetery, bury them, mark
the grave and report. The central
office of this service is at Tours
Canteens and post exchanges
operated by the Y. M. G. A. were
to be turned back to the army at
the request of the former, perhaps
during March. The Y had taken
charge of that work at the request
of General Pershing eighteen
months before. The transfer in.
volved canteen supplies on hand
worth some $2O,OOO,OOO. The
paper makes a lengthy statement
entirely generating the Y. M. @.
A. of unpleasant reports circulated
about the association in connection
with conflict in prices between
supplies sold by the army and by
the Y.
The newspaper contains "Fun-
nies", cartoons, poetrya short page,
and advertisements, much as does
any other publication.
There is statement that Chat
eau-Thierrys will always, in all
probability, be the great Ameri-
can shrine in Europe-the Gettys.
burg of the A. E. F. 1t is true
that only few hundred Americans
ever fought in its streets, and that
our unstinted suffering, our most
grievous losses, were spent on
Iquite another and later battle
field. But Chateau Thierry is a
symbol of that dramatic moment
in the history of mankind when
America rushed into the fight.
The old Marne town means much
to those who love America.