The Washington herald., 1922-09-09
BOOK REVIEWS
Tale of War Days Reviewed
By Common Enlisted Man
Tendency to Bite the Kindly Hand Which Fed
Him Such Delicious Canned Willie"
Exposed by Experiment.

kindness. democracy, fraternity, etc.
which we have been taught to be-
lieve. made American officers so
loved by most Of their troops.
We are sure that the author, who
has produced an excellent book, will
agree with US when We characterize
this chap as an ungrateful puppy
whose muddled. bourgeois brain
cannot craps the true picture OF the
stirring events he witnessed back
in 1918. We publish his review as
indicative of some of the Bolshevist
tendencies in this country. which
should be curbed with an iron hand.
Unless something like this is done
our newly born aristocracy will be
strangled in its swaddling clothes.
Books of this style, I had pre-
sumed, were out of date two years
ago. 1t is just another of the sew
eral hundred thousand war stories
written by folks who know nothing
about the war.
IF this review hurts the former
canteen workers feelings / am
sorry. There may be excellent
things to be said about the book
when 1t reaches the hand of a SYM
pathetic reviewer. With two years
service as a private in the A. Z. F.,
part of that time in the Army of
Occupation, II can easily be seen
that we are in no frame of mind
to treat this story tolerantly.
Wants True Pictures.
fed to the American public already.
This is a time when authors must
treat OF the war as II was, not as
superior folks would like to think it
was.
The author probably will he as
founded if she reads what I have to
say of her brain child Maybe she
thinks, since she says she was a can
teen worker overseas. that she does
know something about the souls of
men in those trying times. She is
mistaken.
I'm the first place. she gives a
very unfair, very bigoted picture of
the Rhineland under the Army of Oc-
cupation. I suspect that she has
glanced over, at sometime or other,
an inaccurate guidebook of Trier and
Coblenz. She has all her shades of
coloring wrong. She paints the ma
tives unfairly.
"All this, however. is of scant con-
sequence. We are aroused over her
pictures of the much "A bused American
private. She has the same attitude
as that of some of the secretaries
who brought such an unjust reputa-
ton upon the Young Mems Christian
tzAsociation after the armistice. She
treats the men in o. D. with an at
titude of superior tolerance that makes
the blood boil. Poor. faithful, brave.
contented, worshipping. brstnless sam
mie-that's it. We presume most OF
her associations overseas were with
very aristocratic class of second
lieutenants.
GuardhOu Menace Gone.
I'VE fellows stood for this attitude
once in preference to the guardhouse.
But we do not intend to be constantly
reminded of it now that the war is
over.
I'VE are still waiting for a decent
work of fiction based upon experiences
in the Army of Occupation. We are
still waiting to see a real, colorful
picture of the hopelessness, the ha-
tired. the loneliness, the unrest of the
troops, the society paradise of the
officers. the unaffected kindliness of
the German people, the sunrise over
the Hunsruck.
I'VE do not expect to read such a
book until some of the brilliant men
in the ranks who pined their souls
away under the nagging social ostra-
cism to which they were subjected
get over the hypnotic influence of the
ever-looming guardhouse. The hypno-
tist has gone his way-but the spell
is not entirely broken.
"'Three Balck Bags however, to do
it justice. will be interesting reading
to all that great mass of Americans
who think tbeir soldiers were like
frolicing puppies or like a sty full
Of fat, hungry little pigs" T. r. H.