Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-31

roomy cars the voyagers scrambled, all
of division headquarters and 316th In
fantry headquarters, band and first
battalion. There were twenty cars and
about fifty men to car, or 1000 men.
During the interval between buying
sort of waffle from Spanish vender
and the departure Of the train, I saw
Ralph Still, of Danville, Pa, more
lately of Philadelphia, who said that the
312th Field Artillery, his old outfit,
had sailed yesterday morning, the first
Seventy ninth Division unit to hit the
western trail, and that ten boats were
waiting for us at st. Nazaire. Ralph,
who wrote all the leading articles about
transit for the EVENING PUBLIC
LEDGER when it was making city trans
it live issue in Philadelphia politics,
had just put his knowledge Of trans
portation to good use in an extended
sightseeing tour of France, including d
look at Germany, Luxemburg and Bel
gium, and, il I'm not mistaken, a peep
into Italy. He was now on his way
from the A. e. F. University at
Beaune to rejoin his homeward- bound
outfit, the 274th Military Police Com
pany, attached to the Seventy ninth I
Division.
Smell Of the Salt Once More
The long train left the chimney pots.
OF Nantes with a roar that came from
about 160 carwheels and 1000 human
throats, and. humping, hating and
Jerking its way down the Loire, brought
its occupants, at 2 "A p. M, into their
first view of the sea for some ten
months. I forget what it was that the
immortal Ten Thousand Greeks shouted
when they first glimpsed the sea after
their big drive against the Turks
something like ''Thalassa. Thalassa 7"
or Tallahassee! Tallahassee 20 mean
ing The sea! The sea ~ whatever II
was, here is-what few Of these 1000
Americans said upon once more be-
holding the ocean in which lay their.
path toward home There she ID,
boysi"4
/ "Gee!''
Ee-ya.a-a.'
Yeah, DO ~
i Smell the salt? Wheel
There 1t lay. The mouth Of the
Loire, sparkling in the sunlight, spread
before us far, far into the west be
tween two horizon blue headlands, the
northerly tip marked by the cranes in
the shipyards Of st. Nazaire. Between
these two distant jaws of the mouth Of
the Loire was.a lighthouse, and farther
out on the broad expanse Of wster Z
sail, scarce discernible; beyond, that 4
skyline, nothing. Because 1t was
nothing we knew it was the ocean.
The temperance Of the ocean &C.
CURED while the locomotive was plug
q glng away between Donges and Mon
toir De Bretagne, big artillery center,
about seven kilometers east Of st.
Nazaire.
The next STOP shouted John
Purdy, Of 1888 Chancellor street. one
, OF the divisional observers. with ons
J eye on Fred Kaupp, Of Kensinrton. m :
] other observer, sis Fishtown."
Arrive at st. Naxaire
AT 4 O'Clock the train rolled nm n
the docks at st. Naxaire. Here !
: view OF the ocean was blocked by ware :
houses and the mammoth like gray hulk
OF the transatlantic liner, Paris, be :
ing built by the French I'd rival the II.
3. y. Leyiathan. The taneslisins sit
uation OF looking at the waterfront
without seeing the water did not lssl
long, for the troops were detraihed snd
marched ihve kilcmeters to Camp No. z.
on inc elevated outskirts of the city. for
process OF embarkation far more com.
pncated than merely walking aboard
ship. Overlooking ST. Nasaire and "a
harbor, the series Of camps forming thi1
important American embsrkation cent?,
were redolent Of Camp Meade. n,
low lying wooden barracks, conuecte<
by blackboard walks; tha. wide. orr
spaces, bare and sunlil. the vslicc
sandy soil the woodpiles, the BUNK
signpostr, bulletin boards, rubbish bcx.
es. dabs Of whitewash, and an afm..
sphere of order and cleanliness. nm
known at the shaggy and uncoutI front
ell brought back memories OF fhs Mayy'
land cantonment where the division ~
born. The embhrkation camps loolss
like Camp Meade. They smelled IjE'
u. They were nothing like ths 4. (:
soaked, muddy debarkation cs,nu{>-
Brest. which the division had Wa Z
tep months before. As''
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