The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1919-03-13


well, one Of ,hom had been a com
mcrcial traveller, and tho other wss
life insurance man he said, "bqlf
OF them over draft age. 81 course
Neither Of them made any ohiec'
ton 10 going under fire TO hand oa'
chocolate ?" enquircd.
~oh, no, no." he said. They wcft
game all right
| don't suppose you ever have any
difficulty with people who are gun'shy
do you ?n asked.
He laughed. "0h, yes, do. fou
get all kinds in the y service, just %
you do everywhere else. You have 70
do lot Of wecding-out and sorting
over all the time That's big part Of
my job, TO get tho right men in the
RICH, placcs--and TO spread them out
thin enough to 60 around. Three OF
my secretaries were sleeping IN that
barn over there two nights ago, when
the Boche began TO shell it. Two OF
them never stopped running tall they
got way back behind our base town
there, and, what was worse, they had
| left their blankets behind them Blan-
kots cost so like Sam Hill they're al
most worth more than this particular
kind Of secretary. The other one roll
ed over and went TO sleep. But you
can soon tell which are which, and
the ones who can't stand shcil-fre are
useful for centeens nj the rear.
He pointed TO very much battered
school building in a very mach dam
aged village we were passing,
"Sec that? The Bochcs were driv-
en- out Of this village at halfpast ten
in the morning, and at twelve o'clock
we had set up our canteon there, ana
in three hours we had served nine
hundred men. We didn't keep track,
we never do, but the Military Police
did, TO make sure too many didn't
gather at one tine. D'you see this
curve in the road? Two days ago you
would have had TO scoot over that at
a lively rate. One of our camions
coming up here with load of supplies
got all pocked full Of holes, and rolled
into town on three fiat tires. Nobody
hurt, though, and no harm done"
We ourselves, shortly after this,
rolled into the recapturcd city, OF what
was left of it, and our guide immcdi-
ately set to work. How he knew
where to 20 in ruined city which,
two days before, had been in the hands
of the Germans and which he had seen
for the first time the day before, l
cannot imagine. ! suppose IT was
some Y freemasonary. ! can TESTIFY
to its efficiency.
We went first to the Y warehouse
and distributing station, set up in
what had been a garage. Here there
was also an improvised counter over
which the usual Y commodities were
being sold, to steadily increasing
swarm of American soldiers who
seemed to have discovered the place
by scent, for there was no Red Tri-
angle set up. Back of this were four
large and high rooms, perhaps where
the automobiles had been stored in
pre-war days. These were piled from
floor to ceiling with packing cases OF
Y commodities,--soap, chocolate, cig-
arettes, letter paper, thread, shoe
laces, safety razors, tooth brushes,
tooth paste,-all the small articles
which make such difference in daily
life to civilized men. ] exclaimed over
the quantity that had already been
brought there, over the speed with
which transport must have been done,
and was told that this was the third
time in forty-eight hours that these
rooms had been filed from floor to
ceiling and emptied. Please remem-
Der that, two days before, the Ger
mans had been in occupation Of the
city"
But" added the secretary in charge
of that warehouse sadly, I'VE could
dispose of three times as much as we
have. There are SO very many men In
the American Army" Same old story.
After this we went down the street
on which there were no Red Triangle
signs, to a little house left, by some
queer chance, unchanged by shell fire.
Inside we found a plain, stalwart,
middle-aged American with a wide
brimmed felt hat, canvas leggins and
khaki trousers, his khaki flannel shirt
open at the throat, his sleeves rolled
up over big arms. With one hand ne
was ripping open packing case OF
soap, and with the other handing out
packages of cigarettes and taking IN
money from steadily increasing
crowd of American soldiers. His
consisted of a couple OF
hacking cases set across the hall OF
the little house.
n Ix..nI n,,t 4, ,xon;aI oyeefinp In