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 Book „ 
 
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 COFYKIGHT DEPOSrr. 
 
The American Spirit 
 
 I'.Y 
 
 Joseph Allen Minturn 
 Captain of Engineers, U. S. Army, A. E. F. 
 
 With Illustrations From Army Photographs and Drawings 
 By the Author 
 
 Globe Publishing Company 
 
 iooi Law Building 
 
 Indianapolis, Indiana 
 
a 
 
 
 Copyright, 1921 
 By Joseph Allen Minturn 
 
 DEC 10 192! 
 
 ©CLA653041 
 
 ^° 
 
WHY I ENTERED THE ARMY 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 WHY I DID IT 
 
 I have been asked why I left a comfortable home and a good 
 business at the age of fifty-six, to accept a commission as second 
 lieutenant, when the war broke out, while boys half my age were 
 going as first lieutenants and captains ; and why, after being hon- 
 orably discharged from an officers' training camp for over-age, 
 I went to so much trouble to get back in again? "If papa had to 
 go it would be different," one of my married daughters remarked 
 somewhat disgustedly. The leading question in a popular army 
 song is, "Why — she done it?" I haven't stopped before to con- 
 sider my answer, but as I have in mind to put the whole story on 
 paper before it fades from memory, let me begin far enough back 
 to get a good running jump at the solution. Family tradition 
 and ideals do much to influence those who happen to know about 
 them — in fact, the influence of an ideal is the greatest human 
 incentive : 
 
 Descendants of the Puritans who first set foot on 
 
 Plymouth Rock, 
 The honor and chief burden yours that Doors of 
 Freedom still unlock. 
 
 For several years before the memorable summer of 191 4, I 
 had interested myself, as a diversion, in working out the gene- 
 alogv of our family. On mother's side we were Puritans, 
 descended from John Howland and Elizabeth Tillie, who came 
 over in the Mayflower in 1620. I had helped to organize an Indi- 
 ana Mayflower Society, and as its historian read much about the 
 trials and triumphs of that first New England colony whose great 
 work has so influenced the highest ideals of the world : 
 
 Thev gave us Liberty of Speech, and right to publish as we 
 
 thought, 
 Implanting rev'rence for a God, in worship as our conscience 
 
 taugfht. 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Most favor'd this our Nation was, and we who in her precincts 
 
 dwell, 
 That Freedom sang her cradle-song and taught her lips a God to 
 
 spell. 
 
 The Howlands intermarried with the Gorhams and the 
 Fullers, whose several generations fought in King Philip's and 
 other colonial wars, and in the War of the Revolution. Soon 
 after gaining independence many New Englanders migrated to 
 newer parts of their great inheritance. Ours settled in the Ohio 
 Purchase, near Athens, where the rifle was then as necessary as 
 plow and axe. There my male progenitor, descended from the 
 Minturns, of New York and New Jersey, was born and married 
 my Puritan mother. Great-great-grandfather Minturn fought 
 nearlv four years for American independence, and father and 
 four uncles — two from each side of the family — were in the war 
 to save the Union. I was born June 20, 1861. A few days after 
 the stork came, father went to war as a lieutenant of infantry, 
 and patriotism rocked the cradle. Such influences are supreme. 
 
 Hohenzollern, senior, mad with despotism and the conceit that 
 German "Kultur" — meaning the State with his house at the head. 
 — was fittest, under Darwin's theory, to survive, had declared 
 that "the day" was come for Germany to rule over all. When we 
 entered the contest in 191 7, the Kaiser was making good the boast 
 of the invincibility of his army. He had Europe by the throat and 
 was more than menacing us. Does anybody doubt now that he 
 would have won the war had we staid out of it, or that he would 
 have recouped on us had he won? 
 
 To me, the dominating question was whether the fight in 
 Europe was ours or not. Answering in the affirmative, it fol- 
 lowed, so far as I was concerned, that the obligation for military 
 service was stronger against one who had lived most of his life's 
 expectancy, and was still fit, than it was against a young man who 
 had so much more of life to live and to lose. I felt fit, therefore 
 it was my duty to go. And it was not a question of "let George do 
 it." Some things can be passed on to George, but not all. He can 
 shine your shoes and wash the auto, but he can't do your court- 
 ing or defend your personal honor. I feel sorry for the strong, 
 husky fellows who staid at home, and have to put so much time in 
 explaining why ; they seem to have most trouble convincing them- 
 selves. They tell you how they wanted in, but for some insur- 
 
 2 
 
I DROP INTO POETRY 
 
 mountable reason failed, just as I failed to get into the Spanish- 
 American war. I tried in a way as the files of Governor Mount 
 and Adjutant General McKee should show, — but not with any 
 great determination, before the brief war was over. 
 
 Prior to April, 191 7, many patriotic meetings were held 
 denouncing our "watchful waiting" policy and lack of prepared- 
 ness. One of these in Tomlinson Hall in the early part of 19 17. 
 was addressed by Mr. Harlan, of Chicago, who aroused much 
 enthusiasm. I sat so quietly that my wife, who was standing on 
 her chair like the rest of the applauding audience, thought I was 
 indifferent. 
 
 My emotions are expressed differently. Like one of Dickens' 
 characters, when I feel deeply I can "drop into poetry," and the 
 fact that I wrote six on the subject of patriotism indicates how 
 very deeply I was moved. The lines on pages 1 and 2 of this 
 story are from one of over two hundred lines in length ! I will 
 give another here and spare the reader from the other four : 
 
 Patriotism. 
 
 Up and down our country broad 
 With a menace that has awed — 
 
 Comes across the water, 
 Breaking like a thunder crash 
 From a sky without a flash 
 
 Groans and shrieks of slaughter. 
 
 Women weep and men turn pale, \ ^ 
 
 And their speech and courage fail — \ 
 
 None these cowards chiding, 
 When, instead of bold array. 
 On their knees for peace they pray — 
 Preparedness in hiding. 
 
 Are our patriots of yore 
 Without issue — gone before — 
 
 Gathered to the fathers? 
 Or, is patriot a name 
 For unselfishness — the same 
 
 As sacrifice for others? 
 
 Patriotic sentiment 
 
 Is by Nature rarely lent 
 
 As a birthright due us : 
 But it comes by growth of mind 
 Like religion and its kind 
 
 Educated through us. 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 WOMEN WEEP AND MEN TURN PALE, 
 
 AND THEIR SPEECH AND COURAGE FAIL- 
 NONE THESE COWARDS CHIDING, 
 WHEN, INSTEAD OF BOLD ARRAY, 
 ON THEIR KNEES FOR PEACE THEY PRAY — 
 PREPAREDNESS IN HIDING. 
 
I RECEIVE LITTLE ENCOURAGEMENT 
 
 Let not then our teaching lag" — 
 Love of neighbor, country, flag, 
 
 From the cradle drill us 
 Till each breeze that blows shall bring 
 That triumphant Freedom's ring 
 
 Which shall ever thrill us. 
 
 My mind was made up to go into the service if I possibly 
 could. When I told my wife she laughed at the idea, and 
 either thought I was joking or too old. I immediately got in 
 communication with the Chief of Engineers, and other heads of 
 the War Department at Washington, and under instructions filled 
 out and filed numerous applications for a commission in the army, 
 none of which I ever heard from afterward. I had several inter- 
 views with Harry B. Smith, adjutant general of Indiana, whom I 
 knew well, and on his advice filed a similar application for a com- 
 mission in the Indiana Guard which I never heard from, and as 
 a last resort I called on Governor Goodrich and asked him to use 
 his influence. But he said, "Joe, you and I are too old to go to 
 war. Let the young men do the fighting. Don't you know the 
 Civil war was fought and won by boys under twenty-one?"' 
 
 The daily press began to advertise the first Officers' Training 
 Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, near Indianapolis, and told 
 where blank applications for admission could be had. These when 
 filled out and sworn to were to be mailed to General Barry, com- 
 manding the Central Department of the army at Chicago. I 
 obtained one and took great pains to print all the require 1 data 
 neatly by hand, laying stress on the fact that I was a graduate of 
 the Pennsylvania Military College with the degree of Civil 
 Engineer. Some clerk at Chicago must have overlooked the 
 sworn date of my birth — June 20, 1861 — for I very promptly 
 received acknowledgment in the form of a card ordering me to 
 report at once to the officer in charge of the U. S. recruiting 
 station at Indianapolis for physical examination. 
 
 This came as a surprise, after so many disappointments, and it 
 was with much nervousness that I hastened to obey. A sergeant 
 was the ranking officer then present at the recruiting place on 
 South Illinois street near the corner of Kentucky avenue. The 
 climb of a high pair of stairs to reach it made the heart-flutter 
 still greater. I was told that Captain Coppock was out in the 
 State on some examinations for the dav, but had left orders for 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 all Indianapolis applicants to meet him at his office promptly at 
 9 o'clock that night. 
 
 I had to tell my business 
 partner that afternoon what 
 I had done, and also my wife 
 at dinner time, but they did 
 not seem much worried, be- 
 cause I would not pass the 
 physical tests, in their esti- 
 / mation. 
 
 At 9 p. m. a dozen fine 
 F young fellows, none of them 
 these young MEN— mud] over twenty-one, filed 
 
 into Captain Coppock's private office and stood at attention. 
 Among these, as I remember, were the two sons of Hilton U. 
 Brown, Robert Stephenson, and Thomas A. Hendricks. I pur- 
 posely took a place in the rear rank. The captain ran his eye 
 over us as a drover would who was about to buy a bunch of 
 steers, and addressing me, asked : 
 
 "Are you interested in one of these young men?'' 
 "No sir," 1 replied, "I am here in my own behalf as a pros- 
 pective candidate to the training camp." 
 
 "You are over-age, aren't yon?" he offered more as a state- 
 ment of fact than as a question. 
 
 "1 hope not, sir. Here is my order from General Rarry to 
 report to you," and I handed him my card. He told the orderly 
 to firing him the rest of the papers in my case and after inspec- 
 tion said 
 
 "Well, it's not for me to stand in the way of any man's ambi- 
 tion. All of you go to the room across the hall and take your 
 clothes off," and turning to me, "You, too!" he said. 
 
 We obeyed literally and like the best things at a banquet, he 
 saved me for the last. I stood around for an hour naked while 
 he put the young fellows through all the tests of their anatomy ; 
 then he gave me the most rigid examination, and said I was 
 sound and all right, but over-age, — which last fact was admitted 
 and sworn to in my application. To avoid any future charge of 
 dereliction on his part, he proceeded to emphasize my over-age 
 by writing the words in red ink across the face of my papers. 
 Naturally, I did not feel elated. Our applications had a perfo- 
 
 6 
 
QUICK CHANGE FROM A CIVILIAN 
 
 rated part to be filled out by the examiner and to serve as 
 credentials for admission to the camp when torn off and returned. 
 We were told we would receive these by mail in a day or two if 
 we passed. I did not receive mine but continued to hope until 
 the day the camp opened ; then I acknowledged another disap- 
 pointment, and had begun to plan a new effort when I received 
 a card postmarked, "Indianapolis, Ind., 2 130 p. m., May 11. 1917." 
 and reading as follows : 
 
 ORIGINAL 
 
 Hq. Citizens' Training Camp, 
 
 Ft. Benj. Harrison, Ind. 
 You are authorized to report at this camp for the training 
 authorized by the War Department. 
 
 Upon receipt of this card start at once. 
 
 Bring this card with you and present it to the camp adjutant 
 upon arrh al. 
 
 By order of Colonel Glenn : 
 
 John S. Upham, 
 Capt. 3d. Infantry. 
 
 Adjutant. 
 
 Colonel Glenn had arrived at Fort Harrison several days 
 before the opening of the training camp, and I called on him to 
 personally urge my acceptance while my hopes were ebbing. He 
 referred me to Major Ely, a fine officer who was ordered to 
 France while the first camp was in training, and was there pro- 
 moted and won distinction at the front. I had been admitted to 
 the camp and had trained for a week before a letter from Colonel 
 Glenn reached my office down-town, regretting his inability to 
 admit me except in the regular way, and recommending that I 
 apply to the War Department for a commission. 
 
 I received my precious card postmarked ''2:30 p. m.. May n," 
 in the first mail deliverv after dinner. I grabbed my hat and 
 rushed for a car, and within an hour was part of a long line wait- 
 ing at the adjutant's office at the fort to be registered. The rest 
 was mere detail. Before another hour I had signed up, was 
 sworn in, and was the property of Uncle Sam for the duration of 
 the war ! Then I began a part realization of the great and sud- 
 den change. I wanted to return to tell my folks what had become 
 of me, and to arrange my affairs, but was told I could not without 
 a pass from the camp adjutant, and not then, except in military 
 
 7 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 uniform. Failure to find clothes at the quartermaster's large 
 enough, saved me that day from wearing the uniform, and as I 
 had to apply for a pass "through channels" — that is, through my 
 company commander, I came near not getting 'it at all in the 
 rush, and it was late when it reached me. When my wife learned 
 what I had done she nearly fainted. But after the first shock she 
 was game and never whimpered. For more than two years of 
 anxiety and suspense, during which she buried her brother and 
 my sister, who died of the "flu" and several of our children and 
 grandchildren nearly died of it, she stuck to her post, most of the 
 time alone, so as to look after things, as our children are scat- 
 tered and married. The women at home who lacked the novelty 
 of travel and excitement of events to break the monotony ; who 
 had all the uncertainties and suspense of war with its calamities to 
 dread, and bore all, keeping back their own bad news and cheer- 
 ing us the while with letters of love and hope and courage — they 
 are the ones to whom the medals for bravery belong, and of these 
 my wife is among the bravest. 
 
 Note. The frontispiece and illustration on page four are from drawings made 
 a few weeks before I entered the Officers' Training Camp at Fort Harrison, and 
 show the trend of my mind at that time. 
 
STRENUOUS LIFE AT FT. HARRISON 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 LIFE IN AN OFFICERS TRAINING CAMP 
 
 Every one of the two thousand and more men, admitted to the 
 training camp at Fort Harrison knew he had been selected over 
 three or four other applicants for no substantial reason, and that 
 every one of those others was eager to take his place. The lucky 
 ones were constantly reminded of this situation, and were on edge 
 to make good. In a course of three months they were expected 
 to absorb the four years of military instruction given at West 
 Point ! As I look back now I am amazed at how near we did it ; 
 of the amount of ground covered, and the correctness, and thor- 
 oughness of the instruction. 
 Of course, many details de- 
 veloped at the front by the 
 new conditions of warfare 
 had to be learned afterwards, 
 but the principles of maneu- 
 ver, of musketry, of target 
 designation, control of fire, 
 and use of the rifle, so essen- 
 tial to success in war, were 
 correct. More than once in 
 the great army training camps of the United States and in France, 
 when some important newly-issued bulletin was handed us, or 
 we were detailed for a post-graduate course to a specialist school, 
 we were surprised to find how little new there was over that 
 which we had gone over at Harrison. 
 
 I say "gone over" advisedly, for our rate of travel was too fast 
 for an exhaustive study ; but it came back to help, just as an early 
 study in school of the French language was a great help in the 
 rapid acquirement of a working knowledge of that language 
 when our boys landed in France. 
 
 To us candidates the training camp seemed more of an elimi- 
 nation race than a place of learning. How much humiliating 
 
 Q 
 
 TRAINING FOR AN ARMY OFFICER 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 work, such as sweeping and mopping the floors, cleaning of cuspi- 
 dors, "policing" of grounds which means picking up cigar butts, 
 cigarette fragments, fruit pits and banana skins, matches, sticks 
 and paper, — in fact everything visible to the naked eye not 
 fastened to the ground outside the barracks ; how much hiking 
 and double-timing and lighting express instruction we would 
 stand for or could endure from reveille at 5 145 a. m. to taps at 
 10 p. m. We were stunned with the vastness and variety of the 
 science of war. Infantry drill regulations, previously supposed 
 by us to contain all of the essentials, was found to be only a primer 
 on the rudiments. To read Shakespeare, a knowledge of the al- 
 phabet is important in about the same way that one must know 
 his I. D. R. to practice military science. 
 
 The first officers' training camps were largely experimental, 
 from the nature of things ; but the good work done, with so little 
 lost motion and waste of time, bespeaks an intelligent supervision 
 and loyal co-operation which signalized the work of the army 
 throughout the war. 
 
 I shall not attempt a diarv of this period, but a glimpse may 
 not be over-tedious: Our first trouble was in getting blankets 
 and equipment and clothes to fit. Eor the first night in camp 
 newspapers were my mattress and I found a blanket on top did 
 not keep out the cold from below. For many days, without pre- 
 vious acquaintance, we swopped hats and blouses with each other. 
 and in my own case I traded breeches twice with men I met on 
 the sidewalk — going inside, of course, to make the transfer — 
 before I got a pair small enough around the waist and long enough 
 in the legs. But so far as my observation went, nobody traded 
 socks or shoes. Much care was paid here, and always in the 
 army, to the comfort of the feet; not so much from humanitarian 
 motives as because an army cannot march with bad feet: and 
 unless it can march long and far as well as often, it is a poor army. 
 Socks with wrinkles or holes, though they be darned holes, are 
 apt to cause uneven pressure and raise a blister. We were taught 
 to change often, and to throw the socks away when worn through. 
 My wife wondered why I had sixteen pairs of good socks when I 
 came out of the service. Many a soldier who raised corns and 
 bunions all his civil life has quit for good. He has learned to 
 wear an ample shoe since his sergeant made him shoulder a heavy 
 
 10 
 
GETTING UNIFORMED 
 
 SWOPPING CLOTHES AT F 
 
 ■SAJ1 
 
 RT HARRISON 
 
 sack of sand to settle him down in the toes when he tried on his 
 first army pair. 
 
 At first I was in C company at Hanson, Captain Fickle, 
 commanding. He was one of the most likeable men I have served 
 under; a strict disciplinarian, but capable, and ready to explain 
 why, and as a result, meeting with willing obedience. It was a 
 source of never-ending re- 
 gret to a number of us who 
 were transferred out of his 
 company, and when mat- 
 ters commenced to go 
 wrong we got such conso- 
 lation as we could by tell- 
 ing each other how differ- 
 ent it would have been "if 
 we'd only staid in C." 
 
 On my first Sunday in camp there was an order to C company 
 for a squad of its largest men to report for special duty at B 
 barracks. I was on the detail and we were looking for some 
 marked honor. We found it in the hard and conspicuous labor of 
 unloading heavy crates of quartermaster supplies from trucks, 
 and carrying them to the barracks across a front sidewalk, 
 crowded with Indianapolis sight-seers. We overheard one pretty 
 girl ask her companion what she supposed those prisoners, mean- 
 ing us, had been guilty of, and more than one of my Indianapolis 
 acquaintances stared in a bewildered way at me. They couldn't 
 believe their eyes. I was getting early action on my patriotism. 
 Morris Levi, city editor of an Evansville daily, and a young 
 newspaper man from Greensburg, were on the same detail with 
 me, and we all worked like — I was going to say deck-hands, but I 
 think candidates for office would be stronger and more appropri- 
 ate. In the middle of the afternoon, when we were so tired our 
 feet were dragging, Durham, a candidate like ourselves, but with 
 previous experience which put him in command, and we thought 
 he was a "regular" asked me how I happened to be there. Evi- 
 dently he supposed I was too old, and I made up my mind that 
 my gray mustache must come off without delay. I related my 
 story briefly ; and in the hearing of the rest of the detail he said : 
 
 "You've worked enough today — you can go." 
 
 I thanked him for the crowd and told the bovs to follow me, 
 II 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 that we'd been relieved. We all started off when Dm ham halted 
 the rest with, "No! no! not you fellows — just dad here!" "Dad" 
 was mean enough to desert his comrades in this first episode of 
 the great war. 
 
 I remember the above incident because it is the only time I 
 recall any consideration being paid to me on account of age, and 
 also from the fact that the nickname of "Dad" stuck to me at 
 Harrison and followed me to France and back. 
 
 Several men with long State Guard and other military experi- 
 ence came ready-commissioned to the camp as assistant instruc- 
 tors and candidates for promotion. A few days after the above 
 Sunday incident the top sergeant — always an important man, 
 detailed me to take a pushcart and transfer the personal baggage 
 of a young one of those officers to C barracks orderly room 
 where he was to sleep. This second lieuey showed me where to get 
 his trunk and bed-roll, and followed at a discreet distance to indi- 
 cate where to put them, but did not condescend to lend a hand. 
 He looked as sheepish as I felt later in Paris, where I followed 
 a woman who wheeled my baggage on a hand-truck from the 
 station to a taxi. 
 
 We were required to march with full packs — fifty minutes' 
 hike and ten minutes' rest per hour according to the army rule, 
 and to do all manner of hard and menial work that we might 
 know from experience how to sympathize as officers later on 
 with the common soldiers under us. The great difference was 
 that we took our training seriously and did not "soldier" on the 
 job as the real soldiers do. 
 
 As soon as practicable the men who had expressed a preference 
 for a particular line of service, as aviation, light or heavy artillery, 
 coast defense, machine gunnery, engineers, cavalry and the like, 
 were segregated, questioned a little, and sent to special organiza- 
 tions or other camps. I thought I preferred the engineers and 
 responded to an invitation to meet Colonel Huffman at head- 
 quarters at 7 o'clock one night. When I reached the place there 
 was a line a city block long waiting to get in, and after standing 
 my turn I allowed myself to be bluffed out of the idea by the 
 colonel's suggestion that I could not pass a rigid engineering 
 examination. I had graduated at college thirty-five years before 
 in civil engineering and chemistry, but had been practicing patent 
 law most of the time since. I seemed to be setting; alone: all right 
 
RIGID PHYSICAL EXAMINATION 
 
 where I was in C and the fear of losing out by some turn of 
 fortune made me decide to let well enough alone. I learned after- 
 ward that there was no special examination and the sequel shows 
 that I was best fitted for service with the engineers. I was soon 
 to be transferred out of C company and later discharged for over- 
 age ; but the future is not known to us. 
 
 May and June of 191 7 were unusually cold and wet. About 
 every other hour of the day we had lectures and recitations on 
 our military studies, called "conferences," which were held out- 
 side unless it was actually raining at the time. The class sat on 
 the ground in a circle around the instructor and as the ground 
 was invariably wet and cold I early contracted a disorder resulting 
 in abscesses in the ears. Afraid to go to the hospital lest any com- 
 plaint would direct attention to me and perhaps be used against 
 me on account of my years, I bore the excruciating ear-aches 
 until one night I thought I would have to give up. I lay with 
 the left ear, which was the worse, on my canteen filled with hot 
 water when the abscess broke and gave me relief ; then I took 
 treatments every time I got town-leave, from Dr. Barnhill, and at 
 his suggestion carried a rubber cloth to sit on. Dr. Paul Coble, 
 his associate, gave me a few treatments ; then entered the army, 
 and was stationed at Fort Harrison in time to examine my ears 
 when the great physical round-up occurred there. That was the 
 middle of June, and a general weeding-out of defective candi- 
 dates resulted. The examinations occurred in one of the brick 
 barracks below the canteen. Our company was lined up alpha- 
 betically on the front sidewalk, entered the stoop by the north 
 steps, advanced and climbed a middle dividing rail by twos. Then 
 each pair was halted twenty feet from a wall at right angles, on 
 which a chart with words in rows of downwardly diminishing 
 sizes was posted. 
 
 The doctor who halted me immediately asked my age. I was 
 getting tired of the question and replied that I would rather not 
 tell. "But you'll have to, won't you?" "All right then," I re- 
 plied, "I'm fifty-six." "Well, that's no disgrace, is it? I'm fifty- 
 four." He wrote "20 — 20" eye-test on my examination card. 
 
 adding "You've remarkable sight for a man of your age !" 
 
 That was encouraging. "Inside, first door to the left — strip to the 
 waist," was the next order. There a specialist plugged in at all 
 points of our lungs with a long distance telephone and listened 
 
 13 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 for trouble ; made us expand, cough and say "ough," lean for- 
 ward, backward and sideways ; took our lung-dimensions before 
 and after inflation, and thumped us like wise ones sound a water- 
 melon. After that, a heart specialist listened to see if we had 
 leaky valves, tried us for hardened arteries and pumped up an 
 apparatus on our arms with a dial attachment for recording 
 blood pressure. Next, we were directed across the hall to a room 
 where we took off the rest of our raiment. We were inspected 
 for surface blemishes and a dentist saw if we had the war-require- 
 ment of sound teeth. We were stood on our toes, and our hands 
 
 and toes, and were made to stoop, 
 to spraddle, to kneel, to hop and 
 to twist until stiff joints, rup- 
 tures and flat feet were all sure 
 to be exposed. Dr. (Major) Co- 
 ble on throat and nose was next, 
 and after that came the test for 
 hearing, about which I was most 
 solicitous ; but my ears were so 
 nearly well that I passed the 
 ••how old are you?" tests w jthout any trouble. Still 
 
 naked, we submitted our full examination cards to a medical of- 
 ficer in charge. "How old are you?" he insisted. Then he said 
 my card was "fair for a boy," joked me on my age and volunteered 
 the assurance that he would not order me before the Camp Board 
 if I wanted to remain in the service. That made me feel much 
 easier, as it removed a haunting fear of discharge for disability, 
 which hovered over everybody until they had passed the ordeal, 
 and was greater in my case for obvious reasons. 
 
 About when we were getting organized and well enough 
 acquainted with each other's failings to use them effectively in 
 taking the conceit out of one another, the commandant ordered a 
 separation on geographical lines. Ohio men were removed to the 
 new East barracks, and those from Kentucky and West Virginia 
 were segregated into barracks of their own. Those remaining in 
 the old brick barracks were Indianians, and transfers were made 
 to fill up the gaps in their ranks. Some fifty or more of us — 
 the A to M's — were transferred to A company, where we found 
 its old members so well organized and entrenched against invad- 
 
 H 
 
SOME SOLDIERS AT FT. HARRISON 
 
 ers that we never quite got on terms of equality with candidates 
 or instructors. 
 
 Lieutenant Lockwood, born in the army and educated at West 
 Point, was the commander. He was very tall, very, very slender, 
 and as conscientious and narrow as his physique. He read a lec- 
 ture once to the assembled candidates of the camp on the supe- 
 riority of military over civil law and justice that caused me many 
 disappointments since, trying to find those Utopian army condi- 
 tions in practice. The developments of the World war will 
 necessitate a reversal of opinion on the part of that lecturer. It 
 was not known that Lieutenant Lockwood could smile. He kept 
 his milk of human kindness hermetically sealed, but a remark 
 he dropped when the board handed down a decision against me, 
 and a nice letter that he gave when I was discharged while in his 
 company, make me believe that he has loveable qualities only 
 needing to be uncovered. He was letter-perfect in his I. D. R., 
 and a believer in German "iron rigid discipline." 
 
 Major Kennedy, late from civil life, was the first assistant 
 instructor. He often got excited, which made him stutter. He 
 was always easily approached and because he did not have that 
 West Point pedestal to stand on, was the more popular. Lieuten- 
 ant Miller, second assistant, was chiefly remembered as agent for 
 the Infantry Journal, the circulation of which he ever had at 
 heart, and as the chief disturber of our slumbers at the evening 
 study-hour when we had to lie on our bunks for lack of chairs, 
 and were too "dog-tired" after each perfect day to keep our eyes 
 open, How memory goes back to those days when a comrade 
 would swat you with a pillow and tell you to "wake up, the study 
 hour is over !" 
 
 Butler, with the red hair of a born fighter, and frame of a 
 Hercules, Levi, with the refined mind and blinking eyes, and I, 
 were quartered together at A. In the same room was my first 
 good friend, Durham ; Cadeau, a jovial French boy, on whom we 
 relied to lead the singing which lightened our hikes ; "Dusty" 
 Rhodes, a chiropractor in civil life, who always came off best in 
 repartee and burned with an ambition to be captain of a truck- 
 company in France ; Davis, of Evansville, with fine ability as a 
 drill-master, and the figure of an Apollo, except that he juked 
 his head in spite of constant reminders by his many frank and 
 always out-spoken friends. He was under-age, and destined to 
 
 15 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 be tried for that offense when I was tried for the opposite. Then 
 there was "Doc" Howe, a graduate of Plattsburg, who prided 
 himself on the completeness of his equipment, including medicines 
 which he prescribed so freely that he got the above nickname 
 He had books on every military subject, and was so crazy over 
 machine-guns that he fired on the enemy in his sleep, kept us 
 awake with the horrors of his nightmares, and then disturbed our 
 morning naps by rising an hour before reveille that he might 
 not be rushed in dressing for roll-call ! I could almost touch Bob 
 Kennington from my bed. He who was sent out one day in our 
 training maneuvres with a flag to mark the position of the enemy 
 upon whom the rest of us were to advance without him seeing us. 
 
 He was to waive his 
 flag when he did see 
 us, but got mad be- 
 cause a detail slipped 
 t» around behind and 
 J captured him. He 
 ?i was a fine fellow, a 
 good soldier, and the 
 life of the barracks. 
 A feature of the camp 
 were addresses by prominent men — Taft, Bryan, Watson, New, 
 the State governors and others, and so many of the orators ad- 
 dressed the candidates as "My young heroes, etc.," that the 
 phrase became a by-word. Bob was fond of "sounding off" 
 with it, and as the fellows laughed then they little realized that 
 he was to be among the first to die for his country. He was 
 killed in action at Chauteau-Thierry. Our bunks were so 
 crowded that we had to get in from the end. Morris Levi 
 touched me on the right. He often declared he did not expect 
 to come out of the war alive, and was one of nine selected from 
 each company at the end of the first camp, to go at once to 
 Erance. My, how excited he was when the order was pub- 
 lished. His thoughts were for his mother and folks at 
 home. I heard he was wounded at the front, and while 
 I have constantly inquired, have learned none of the par- 
 ticulars, nor whether his premonition came true.* Jameson, of 
 Irvington, rubbed bl?nkets with me on the left. He aspired to 
 
 'MY YOUNG HEROES! 
 
 ; Fate fooled him bv bringing him back alive and well. 
 
 16 
 
THE SOLDIER EARLY ENCOURAGED TO SING 
 
 literature and was ever practicing by writing long letters to 
 friends which profited the rest of us in that he received many 
 boxes from them filled with delicious cake, fruit and other good 
 things, which the generous "Jamie" lavishly ''put out" to his 
 comrades. Gunn, a veteran of the Spanish-American war, with 
 fifteen battles credited to him on his discharge, was the boon 
 companion and closest rival in marksmanship of John Leggett, of 
 Winchester. Leggett was a born forager, and won my lasting 
 admiration and gratitude by introducing me to a can of cold but- 
 termilk that first Sunday when I got back from rustling quarter- 
 master crates. DeBruiler was the comedian of the company, and 
 spared none, from commandant clown, in his impersonations. He 
 was among the nine who went at once to France, as also were 
 Cadeau, Pirtle Hereod, Jr., and Menzies. The latter was reported 
 killed in action, but I have not been able to verify it. Bob Shidler 
 and Reed were the handsomest "big men" in our company, and 
 Blake only lacked a few years of being in my class — the oldest. 
 But space will not permit even the names here of the hundreds of 
 splendid comrades — picked men, indeed — of that first officers' 
 training camp. 
 
 Ohio was numerically stronger in the camp than Indiana, and 
 a friendly rivalry developed after the separation by States. This 
 manifested itself in various ways, but most frequently when the 
 candidates were all brought together to listen to some noted 
 speaker or to a lecture of general military interest. 
 
 Singing was encouraged and was made a feature at these 
 meetings. Each State had its own song. "Indiana" is high-grade, 
 but more difficult to sing than the others. "Ohio" is light and 
 easy, enabling the candidates from that State to get under way 
 quickly and keep a-going : 
 
 Ohio ! Ohio ! we'll make the Germans fly, 
 We're bound to do or die ! 
 
 Ohio ! Ohio ! we'll win the war or know the reason why. 
 And when we win the war, 
 We'll buy a keg of booze, 
 And we'll drink to old Ohio 
 Till we wobble in our shoes ! 
 
 Ohio ! Ohio ! we'll win the war or know the reason why ! 
 When they would run down, Indiana essayed to follow : 
 
 17 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Back home again, in Indiana, 
 
 And it seems that I can see 
 
 The gleaming candle light still shining bright 
 
 Through the sycamores for me ; 
 
 The new mown hay sends all its fragrance 
 
 From the fields I used to roam 
 
 When I dream about the moonlight on the Wabash, 
 
 Then I long for my Indiana home. 
 
 But before her men got the swing of the music some enthu- 
 siastic Buckeyes would start "West Virginia.'' I can't recall the 
 words, but the chorus expressed love for her "wooded hills, her 
 rocks and running rills," and was altogether more dignified than 
 
 Ohio's son?. West 
 
 Virginia and Ohio 
 seemed to have a good 
 working agreement mu- 
 sically, and together 
 these eastern compatri- 
 ots of ours would try 
 to sing us down. Then 
 supreme discord would 
 reign until the soothing 
 strains of "My Old Ken- 
 tucky Home" were sent 
 into the fray like a flag of truce, and we were all reminded that 
 we were not yet fighting the Huns on the fields of France. 
 After "My Old Kentucky Home," everybody rose to the occasion 
 and sang "Indiana" and if there was yet time to spare, sang the 
 Fort Harrison battle hymn, "Here's to Uncle Sammy, Faithful 
 and True," and "Long Boy," or some of the many new war 
 songs. We had rival athletics on the Fourth of July at the State 
 Fair Grounds which ended with a tug-of-war by picked teams — 
 green in my memory because I was awaiting decision by the 
 board on a charge of being too old for the army, and was picked 
 by my comrades as one out of 2.200 to pull on this team, and did 
 pull on it! 
 
 PULL ON A TUG-OF-WAR TEAM. — THE MAN 
 OVER THE HOLE 
 
COURT MARTIALED FOR OVER-AGE 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MY FIRST HONORABLE DISCHARGE 
 
 A young man by the name of Armstrong was a member of 
 A company. He was fresh from Culver Military Academy, and 
 showed special aptitude at Harrison, but as he would lack a few 
 weeks of being twenty-one when the camp was scheduled to close, 
 August 15, he grew nervous as the time approached and finally 
 took the matter up with Lieutenant Lockwood. The latter said 
 the question would have to be answered by the Camp Board, com- 
 prising Colonel (now General) Glenn and Majors Bell and 
 Darrah. Lockwood asked if there were any others in A company 
 who would not be eligible for commission when the camp closed, 
 and Armstrong gave him Davis as one who would be under the 
 minimum of twenty-one, and Minturn, who would be over the 
 maximum of forty-four. 
 
 The above I learned afterward, but when handed sealed orders 
 one day in the last week of June for the three of us to report to 
 the commanding officer at the hospital, this history was unknown. 
 We delivered our orders and were told to report back in the 
 morning. I was uneasy when the commanding officer there next 
 day pushed some papers toward me with a request that I sign 
 where he indicated. He noticed my hesitation, and in explanation 
 I remarked, "If you belong to the order of Knights of Pythias 
 you'll appreciate my reluctance to sign papers I know nothing 
 about." "O, that's it — well, read them over first if you want to," 
 he offered. "May I ask what it all means?" I questioned. "I 
 don't know further than that I am required to report on your 
 present physical condition, and you are to take my report with the 
 papers you brought here, to the camp adjutant." "I was given 
 to understand that I passed the rigid physical examination you 
 doctors gave all candidates of the camp recently — what's the mat- 
 ter now ?" I asked. "Don't know," he declared, "you can see I'm 
 reporting you O. K." 
 
 19 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 After the camp adjutant had looked the papers over he in- 
 quired, "Well, what are the charges?" 
 
 "Charges for what? I'm simply acting as messenger-boy or 
 courier, sir," I answered. 
 
 "These papers," he explained, "ask for an order for candidate 
 Joseph A. Minturn to appear before the board, but do not state 
 why. Take them back to Lieutenant Lock wood, and tell him to 
 insert the charges — then return them -to me." 
 
 The lieutenant entered the charge, "Over the maximum age 
 limit," and when I returned them to the adjutant, the latter in- 
 formed me that I would be sent for when the board was ready to 
 try my case. That unlucky moment occurred on the morning of 
 July 4. Court was convened in one of the temporary wooden 
 buildings in the Ohio camp. The stern figures of its personnel 
 were grouped back of a plain kitchen table and the accused, after 
 saluting at attention, was told to sit on a box in front. 
 
 "The charge was read and question put if it were true ?" 
 
 "Yes sir," was the answer, "I was fifty-six years old the 
 twentieth of last month." 
 
 "What previous military training have you had?" This was 
 answered as to the military school. 
 
 "Were you in the Spanish-American war?" 
 
 "No sir/' 
 
 "State Guard ?'* 
 
 "No sir." 
 
 "What was your business in civil life?" 
 
 "Patent lawyer, sir." 
 
 "Are you an athlete ?" 
 
 "I make no special claim, sir." 
 
 "Play football, baseball, golf or practice athletics of any kind?" 
 
 "Perhaps not in the sense you mean. I walk a great deal and 
 prefer to spend my spare time with a pencil and brush sketching 
 than with a ball bat." 
 
 "Have you anything to say in this case in your own behalf?" 
 
 "Yes sir, if I may be allowed to speak freely." 
 
 "This is your opportunity." 
 
 The accused arose and said : 
 
 "As the board has kindly permitted me to speak without re- 
 serve, I will say that this charge comes as a surprise and a very 
 disagreeable one too at this time. It might even be inferred from 
 
 20 
 
I PLEAD MY OWN CASE 
 
 the limited proceedings so far that I was initially admitted to this 
 camp on a false representation of my age. But that, sirs, is not 
 true. You have the original application for admission before you, 
 on which the date of my birth — June 20, 1861 — is written and 
 sworn to, and across the face of this paper in bold letters in red 
 ink is a warning of over-age written there by Captain Coppock, 
 the recruiting officer who first examined me. 
 
 "You gentlemen are the agents of the Government, sworn to 
 do impartial justice. The accused does not deny the right of the 
 Government to have excluded him from this training camp in the 
 beginning, or to have promptly discharged him when this record 
 was immediately added to by numerous qualification cards which 
 have invariably stated his correct age ; then, too, his gray hairs 
 and over-size have made it impossible for him to hide, and he has 
 been conscious more than once, in the past sixty days, of inspec- 
 tion by the members of this board. 
 
 "As to his physical fitness the accused successfully passed the 
 rigid examination given to all of the candidates a fortnight or so 
 ago, and has since been de- 
 
 clared sound and well by the 
 medical staff of this camp 
 with special reference to the 
 charge to which I am now 
 speaking. The accused be- 
 lieves himself to be perfectly 
 well and sound. He has not 
 missed a single formation or 
 tour of duty at Fort Harri- 
 son, including trench digging, 
 
 long marches with heavy packs, and police and guard duty in- 
 cluding the gathering of trash and cigar-butts around the bar- 
 racks-grounds, scrubbing the floors, washing the spittoons and 
 guarding the latrine ! The records of this camp will show that 
 there are hundreds of younger men who have not been able to 
 stand the grill, but against whom no charges have been, nor, I 
 venture to say, will be preferred, for physical disability. The 
 mentality of the accused needs no further argument than I am 
 now making, and the board will recognize that no hard and fast 
 age limit can fairly measure all people either physically or 
 mentally. 
 
 21 
 
 COURT MARTIALED FOR BEING 
 OVER-AGE 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "As to the law in the case by which this board may feel bound, 
 it is the spirit of all of our courts more and more to do justice 
 and equity and not to be bound to the strict letter of the law. It 
 is not equitable and right to subject any man to the rigid, and I 
 will say, humiliating requirements of this camp for two months, 
 to the great disarrangement of private affairs in this case, and on 
 the promise of a commission if the candidate proves mentally and 
 physically fit, and then discharge him near the end of the train- 
 ing period for the sole reason that he was over a forty-four 
 year maximum — a temporary limit which we all expect will soon 
 be raised. 
 
 "In civil life there is such a thing as an estoppel — where those 
 lose their right who fail to assert it at the proper time and allow 
 others innocently to gain a standing. In this case the equitable 
 principle of estoppel should be applied, for only a technicality 
 stands in the way of doing justice, and, in all modesty let me add, 
 of giving to our country in this time of war a willing soldier who 
 is physically and mentally fit and whose age and patriotism will 
 be an example for the emulation of younger men." 
 
 The speaker sat down. Silence prevailed for a full minute. 
 Then the president came to and announced that the board would 
 take the case under advisement. 
 
 When Davis, who was with me, reported the session to the 
 men of A company, they regarded the proceedings as unusual, 
 and bets were even as to the decision of the board. Snider, the 
 best drill-master among us, said I would be fired, basing his judg- 
 ment on the experience of a friend, a former regular army officer 
 who tried, he said, in every way to get back in the service, but was 
 refused because he was over the maximum age limit. The boys 
 wanted to know what I proposed to do if discharged, and this 
 discussion with the fact that Armstrong was discharged a couple 
 of days after the trial, made a like fate for me loom more certain, 
 as also did the impossibility of reconciling myself to it. 
 
 I met Captain Fickle and told him, with tears in my eyes, what 
 I feared. We agreed it never would have happened if I'd staid 
 in C company, and he voluntarily went to the members of the 
 board. He told them how my example had heartened the young 
 fellows of his company and made them ashamed to grumble and 
 weaken, and that the army needed more and not less of such men. 
 The Eighth (Ohio) training regiment had finished its rifle 
 
 22 
 
THE WORST HAPPENED 
 
 practice and the Ninth regiment, to which my company belonged, 
 was practice-shooting, preliminary to firing the record, while the 
 above proceedings of the board were on. Summer had come and 
 it was extremely hot and uncomfortable, waiting our turns to 
 fire on those treeless ranges. All of our morale had vaporized 
 and blown away, but as we were behind on our schedule we were 
 ordered out on Sunday, the eighth of July, to finish our prelimi- 
 nary shooting, ready to begin our record work on Monday. My 
 platoon had been waiting all morning for its turn and had just 
 been ordered up to the firing-line when somebody sounded off 
 for "Minturn." On going back I was told to report at once to 
 the orderly room in barracks for my discharge. Then was when 
 I heard Lieutenant Lockwood "cuss" and talk as if he were not 
 pleased. I was somewhat surprised, and asked him why he 
 brought charges in the first place if the decision was not what he 
 wanted. His reply was that he thought it would be kinder to me 
 to know the ruling of the board then than to be allowed to train a 
 month longer and be discharged. That might be logic to a fellow 
 who intended to give up, but from my viewpoint, so long as you 
 are in there is a chance, but when you're out you're done for 
 unless you can get back in, and I couldn't hope for more fortu- 
 nate accidents to help me. He consolingly said the war was 
 young and my services might be needed yet, and in anticipation 
 he gave me the following recommendation : 
 
 "i. Mr. Joseph A. Minturn was a candidate in this training 
 camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, from May n, 1917, 
 to July 8, 191 7. While a member of this company I found him to 
 be intelligent, quick to learn, enthusiastic and a willing worker. 
 He was discharged for the reason that he was over the legal age 
 for admission to this camp. I believe that he is worthy of a 
 commission. He is most anxious to serve his country, and seems 
 to be a vigorous and well-preserved man in spite of his age, He 
 performed his full duty while under my observation. 
 
 B. C. LOCKWOOD, TR , 
 1 st. Lieutenant Infantry, D. O. L." 
 
 I had some very cheap and sad-looking pictures in uniform 
 taken at a souvenir tent on my way out of camp, and slept at 
 home that Sunday night, but returned to the fort on Monday to 
 draw my pay and discuss the situation with my warmest friends. 
 Many candidates were being discharged at that time for incom- 
 
 23 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 petency, and some for venereal troubles, and my chagrin was 
 intensified by the thought that suspicion might be directed 
 against me. 
 
 On the advice of Captain Fickle I wrote, under date of July 
 10, 1917, to Brigadier-General Barry, C. O. Central Department, 
 Chicago, who was receiving applications for a second officers' 
 training camp. I repeated in substance what I had told the board 
 about my physical condition and faithful attention to duties, no 
 matter how menial, for two-thirds of the training period, and 
 asked reinstatement in the present camp or a waiver of the age- 
 limit and admission to the second one. I enclosed a copy of 
 Lieutenant Lockwood's letter and a formal application for admis- 
 sion to the second camp. 
 
 Chicago replied under date of July 20 : 
 
 "1. The Department Commander directs me to inform you 
 that your letter of application for registration has been received at 
 these headquarters, but will be held temporarily because your 
 case has been taken up with the adjutant general in Washington 
 with a view to your reinstatement in the training camp, and final 
 commission at the end, the same as other candidates, if you are 
 found qualified. 
 
 Y. M. MARKS, 
 Captain U. S. A., Ret." 
 
 24 
 
AN APPEAL TO CAESAR 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 AN APPEAL TO CAESAR 
 
 Several days before this came, however, I had been to Wash- 
 ington and back. I drew my pay at Fort Harrison and used it 
 in traveling toward the East by the first train with the purpose of 
 placing the case personally before the President. 
 
 The President of the United States, as commander-in-chief, I 
 argued to myself, is the only person able and fearless enough to 
 waive the technicality of my over-age ; his heart, like mine, is in 
 the cause, and his own age will enable him to appreciate my earnest 
 desire to serve my country. 
 
 I arrived in Washington about 4 p. m. July 11, and went 
 directly from the station to the senate office building where, al- 
 though the Senate had adjourned for the day, I hoped to find one 
 of our Indiana senators and enlist his services in reaching Mr. 
 Wilson. Senator New was not in, but I located Mr. Watson, who 
 gave me the famous Watsonian greeting, and in his genial whole- 
 hearted way assured me the pleasure would be all his in going 
 with me to see the adjutant general of the army — in fact he was 
 so harrassed by constituents trying to evade service that it was a 
 treat to work for a man who was trying so hard to get in — but he 
 declared he was not close enough to the administration to reach 
 Mr. Wilson. He engaged to accompany me to see the adjutant 
 general at the office of whom we arrived early next morning, 
 and I was delighted to find Senator New there on a war mission 
 for another man. He kindly offered his influence and my case 
 was ably presented by both senators to General McCain. But the 
 
 25 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 latter could offer no hope of re-instatement because of the "legal 
 bar," which he said my over-age presented, and could only sug- 
 gest in addition that I file a written application for a commission 
 and see what the War Department would do with it. He rang for 
 an orderly who brought a blank that I was told to fill and file 
 
 immediately — strong empha- 
 sis on the speed. I had it on 
 i|jjjt; file in half an hour, and, as I 
 
 expected, never heard from it 
 again and suspect it was only 
 intended as an easy way to 
 get rid of me. The adjutant 
 general and both senators as- 
 sured me all had been done 
 senators new and watson talk that could be, and as we de- 
 
 TO ADJUTANT GENERAL McCAIN , j , ,, o AT 
 
 in my behalf parted together Senator New 
 
 frankly advised : "I wish you'd 
 seen me before going out to Harrison, Joe. Your age is a legal 
 bar, and you can't get back in the army — I've seen too many try 
 it and fail — you've just wasted two months of your time. Sta- 
 tistics show that young men make the best soldiers and that the 
 Civil war was fought and won by men under twenty-one !" I re- 
 spect Mr. New for being deucedly candid in this, as in other 
 matters we have had between us in former years, though his 
 frankness may not be altogether pleasing at the time. 
 
 I thanked the two senators with sincerity, for they had gone 
 out of their way in a case that must have appeared hopeless to 
 them from the start, and I am sure now that their efforts helped 
 toward ultimate success. But I still believed the president was 
 bigger than that legal bar, and might help me if I could only 
 reach him. Being politically of the Republican party I naturally 
 turned first to my friends of that faith for suggestions ; but 
 Merrill Moores, Will Wood and a host of congressmen on whom 
 I called that day were "out" or impotent. Of my Democratic 
 acquaintances the vice-president ranked highest, and knowing 
 Mr. Marshall to be indeed democratic and human, as well as 
 somewhat beyond the "legal limit" himself, I worked my way 
 past the doorkeeper and into his private chambers at the Senate. 
 Mark Thistlethwaite, his secretary, was in the much-mirrored and 
 gilded room, which the vice-presidents successively claim as their 
 
 26 
 
I SEE VICE-PRESIDENT MARSHALL 
 
 own, waiting under the crystal pendants of the huge electrolier 
 with a Washington Post, containing a quarter-page picture of 
 Mrs. Marshall, with one of those little waifs on her lap that she 
 is so fond of mothering. The vice-president would be in soon 
 the secretary prophesied with truth. His wife's picture may have 
 put Mr. Marshall in a good humor, or perhaps he is always that 
 way — at any rate, he listened with apparent interest to the recital 
 of all that had happened to me at Fort Harrison — then he asked : 
 "What are you going to do about it, Minturn?" 
 
 "I'm going to appeal personally to the president if I can get a 
 hearing." 
 
 "Why don't you see the adjutant general? He looks after 
 army details." 
 
 "I have just come from there. Senators New and Watson 
 were both with me and urged that I be re-enlisted or commis- 
 sioned forthwith and were told that my over-age was a legal bar. 
 That's why I want to see the president — the man at the top." 
 
 Mr. Marshall looked me in the eyes squarely as he said, "I'm 
 going to risk your displeasure, Minturn, by telling you frankly I 
 will not try to arrange a personal interview with Mr. Wilson. 
 No doubt I could because of my position as vice-president, but 
 that man is too busy and too much worried with matters of world 
 importance. I think the army has treated you badly and will do 
 anything I can personally to help you except that. 
 
 "I've refused to interfere at all in army matters — turned 
 down at least five hundred constituents — many my warmest 
 friends and haven't even asked for the promotion of Gignilliat, 
 whom I'm obliged to for bringing the Black Horse Troop of 
 Culver to Washington twice to inauguration as my escort. 
 
 "We'll meet that legal bar by a special act of Congress making 
 you a lieutenant. Harry New and Merrill Moores and your other 
 Republican friends, with my help, can put a bill through, and 
 we'll do it if necessary. But you ought to see Baker first. Have 
 you seen Baker?" 
 
 "Do you mean the secretary of war?" I inquired. Mr. 
 Marshall nodded in the affirmative and I continued. "No sir! I 
 didn't think it any use as he'd most likely refer me to his adjutant 
 general, whom I've seen." 
 
 "Well, you see Baker — the secretary of war has some influ- 
 27 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 ence in the army yet. I want you to see him," and he turned to 
 the telephone at his hand to make an appointment. 
 
 "Can't get him now — he's out," he presently advised, "but I'll 
 get him later — you come back in an hour." 
 
 Returning as directed I found the vice-president pacing the 
 floor and holding a note of introduction, which he placed in my 
 hands, saying : 
 
 "You see Baker at 10 o'clock sharp tomorrow at his office in 
 the Army and Navy Building, and I'll see him in the meantime, 
 too." 
 
 The hotels and down-town streets of Washington that July 
 afternoon were thick with army officers from the grade of cap- 
 tain up, whose unbuttoned uniforms and civilian ways told the 
 military world that they were novices. Lieutenants did not seem 
 to have business bringing them to Washington at all. I called 
 at the Geological Survey on my old Pennsylvania Military Col- 
 lege schoolmate, Frank Sutton, and found him at his desk, awk- 
 ward and mad with trying to break in a new officer's uniform, 
 which was trimmed with a castle and the gold oak-leaves of a 
 major. The fact that he was older than I, and "in", gave me 
 some hope until he showed me the large original of a contour 
 map of Gettysburg, the reduced fac-simile of which had been the 
 bane of many of our "conferences" at Harrison. He said he 
 superintended the field-work when that was made, and I realized 
 the prestige such special training and ability should give. 
 
 I found the Army and Navy Building as securely guarded as 
 any camp in the enemy's country could be, but an exhibition of 
 my card to Mr. Baker, signed by Mr. Marshall, was sufficient to 
 pass me to the presence of the secretary's chief clerk. That func- 
 tionary greeted me as an expected guest and declared, "The vice- 
 president and secretary of war are closeted together in the secre- 
 tary's private office — will you go on in?" 
 
 "No, thank you," I decided, "I was not invited to a joint con- 
 ference between those officials and will wait here." 
 
 Presently the small but sprightly figure of Mr. Marshall, clad 
 in Palm Beach suit and agitating a Panama hat, appeared. He 
 noticed me at once and exclaimed : 
 
 28 
 
I MEET SECRETARY OF WAR BAKER 
 
 m&s&* 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT MARSHALL 
 PRESENTS ME TO SECRE- 
 TARY OF WAR BAKER 
 
 "Eve just been in talking to Mr. Baker about your case, Min- 
 turn — it won't be necessary for you to take much of bis time, but 
 I want you to meet him," and he led the way back through several 
 rooms to a west-front one. The secretary of war was next to the 
 window with his desk between us. 
 He rose and came forward with out- 
 stretched hand as the vice-president 
 exclaimed, "Mr. Baker, this is Mr. 
 Minturn, the man I've been talking 
 to you about." 
 
 We shook hands and were ex- 
 changing the usual compliments 
 when Mr. Marshall interrupted with 
 — "What are you going to do now, Minturn ?" 
 
 "Anything to advance the cause I'm here on," I replied. 
 
 "Get in the machine and ride back with me," and after making 
 our adieus to the secretary we entered his high-speed Winton, 
 emblazoned with the coat-of-arms of the United States. 
 
 "I met McCain at dinner last night," the vice-president 
 volunteered as we were passing the White House, "that's the 
 place to talk to people when you want to get next to them, and 
 in my usual blunt way I jumped on him and wanted to know why 
 the army was treating my friend Minturn so shabbily, and told 
 him Senator New and your other friends in Congress and myself 
 were going to have a bill passed commissioning you a lieutenant 
 if there was no other way to get around the bar of over-age!" 
 
 "That was awfully kind and I thank you more than I can 
 express," I took advantage to say, "the way you go after things 
 is a real tonic to a half-discouraged man. May I ask what 
 General McCain said in reply ?" 
 
 "He said 'don't have any special bills passed— the army's 
 opposed to politically made commissions and it would be a bad 
 precedent and a bad thing in the end for Minturn.' He said your 
 case had been on his mind all day — since the two senators and you 
 called on him this morning. He told me to write a full statement 
 of your case and get it to him at once and he would take it up 
 with the army board ; that you are too old to be made to associate 
 with lieutenants who are all youngsters, and assured me the 
 board would find some way to give you a much higher commis- 
 sion." These were opiate words to me. Thought is quick, and 
 
 29 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 spurred by such narcotics, I glimpsed in imagination little golden 
 leaves bursting like the tender foliage of spring-time from the 
 tops of my shoulders. 
 
 "Secretary Baker has just told me," he continued, slightly 
 interrupting the trance I was in, "that he would be present when 
 the army board considered your case and would lend a helping 
 hand, so I believe matters will come out all right in the end for 
 you." My open mind accepted this conjecture as proof on the 
 strength of which my gold leaves turned to silver, and far up in 
 the blue sky — hot as it was- — I heard the shrill cry of eagles — a 
 pair of them — and they circled around coming closer at each circle 
 until in time they perched, one on each of my shoulders, where 
 the silver leaves had been. 
 
 We had reached the Senate office-building and the machine 
 had stopped at the curb, where we both got out, and, greatly en- 
 couraged and very grateful too, I again thanked the vice-presi- 
 dent, gave him the necessary data for the statement asked for by 
 the adjutant general and asked: 
 
 "What shall I do now, Mr. Marshall, remain here and watch 
 things up, or go on back home?" 
 
 "Well, Minturn," the vice-president replied, with his inimit- 
 able Hoosier drawl, "I've always found when a man has bothered 
 his friends and they've done all they can for him, it's good policy 
 not to keep on bothering them !" That left but one thing for me 
 to do — go back home. I told him so, and as we parted he de- 
 clared, "You'll hear from the board, Minturn — I don't know how 
 soon, but you'll hear." 
 
 Mark Thistlethwaite was too good a newspaper man to miss an 
 item, which accounts for the following in the Indianapolis Star 
 the day before I got back home. It served to quiet the malicious 
 rumors about the cause of my discharge from the training camp : 
 
 "INDIANAPOLIS MAN, 56, FIGHTS FOR CHANCE TO 
 GO TO FRONT. 
 (Special to The Indianapolis Star.) 
 "Washington, July 13. — Secretary of War Baker was con- 
 fronted today by Joseph A. Minturn, of Indianapolis, formerly 
 a member of the Indiana Legislature, now a patent lawyer of 
 prominence. He entered the officers' training camp at Fort 
 Benjamin Harrison when it started, and only a few days ago was 
 given his discharge, the reason being that he is too old to make an 
 officer. Mr. Minturn pleads guilty to being fifty-six years old, 
 
 30 
 
MORE WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 but is strong and athletic and enthused with the fighting spirit. 
 He says there has been a member of the Minturn family in every 
 war in which the country has engaged, and that he never would 
 get over it if he is not permitted to bear out the family tradition 
 and go to the front in this crisis. 
 
 "Vice-President Marshall is much interested in his case and 
 secured an audience for him with Secretary Baker. The secretary 
 of war promised to give the case his personal attention and, if 
 possible, to waive the age regulation." 
 
 Not having heard from Washington by July 26, I made excuse 
 for calling Mr. Marshall's attention to my case by forwarding 
 four letters of recommendation and writing in part : 
 
 "Your letter to General McCain in my behalf was written on 
 the 13th inst, which will be two weeks ago by the time this 
 reaches you. Would it be impertinent to call attention to this 
 lapse of time while also forwarding the inclosures for consid- 
 eration with your former letter? I appreciate the many weighty 
 questions now before the war department and also taxing your 
 time, all of which make me hesitate to write of a matter prin- 
 cipally concerning myself, and only do so from fear that my 
 silence may be taken as evidence of waning interest, whereas, in 
 fact, my desire has increased if that were possible. I wish also to 
 thank you again for the interest and assistance so generously 
 extended during my recent visit there, which have so encouraged 
 me to hope for a successful outcome." 
 
 To this Mr. Thistlethwaite replied July 30, 19 17 : 
 
 "The vice-president wants me to say to you that you must not 
 be apprehensive because of lapse of two weeks in your case, with- 
 out information. That would not be regarded by him as at all 
 unusual. He is forwarding to the adjutant general the papers you 
 enclose." 
 
 And further, on August 4, 1917: 
 
 "We have filed the letters you submitted and the adjutant 
 general has informed the vice-president that your name has been 
 placed on the list being examined by the committee of army 
 officers. I was unable to ascertain just when we might expect 
 action." 
 
 I have gone to the point of tediousness in the above because I 
 want the reader to assist me in deciding to what influence I owed 
 
 31 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 my re-enlistment in the army. Personally I am not able to say. 
 It was pronounced impossible and yet was permitted. On July 
 27 — the very day after I wrote, as above, to the vice-president, I 
 received orders by way of the Central Department at Chicago to 
 re-enlist in the training camp from which I had been discharged. 
 On July 30, Mr. Marshall forwarded the papers I sent him, and 
 four days later I was advised by his office that my name had been 
 placed on the list being examined by a committee of army offi- 
 cers, and it was not then known (August 4) when action might 
 be expected. 
 
 Perhaps I should have ignored the following telegram, which 
 seems to be in answer to my letter to General Barry, and waited 
 for the army board to hand me a commission higher than a 
 lieutenancy, and perhaps (and most likely, my intuition 
 prompted) this was all the action I would get from any source : 
 
 "Ft. Benj. Harrison, Ind.. 1 132 p. m. July 27, 1917. 
 
 "Joseph A. Minturn, 
 
 "Pythian Building, Indianapolis. Ind. 
 
 "War Department authorizes yonr re-enlistment this training 
 camp if desired. Report at once to post adjutant, otherwise 
 advise. 
 
 "UPHAM, Adjutant." 
 
 3 2 
 
ORDERED BACK TO COMPANY A 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 MY RE-ENLISTMENT 
 
 When I reported next day the adjutant took pains to let me 
 know that re-enlistment did not guarantee a commission, which I 
 would have to take chances on winning, but he noted in pencil to 
 
 my company commander : " his name should be considered 
 
 by the board as age has been waived, per 4 Ind. A. G. O., July 
 24, 1917." 
 
 I was reassigned to Company A, Lieutenant (now captain) 
 Lockwood. Examinations for commission were already over with 
 and that very morning General Glenn was giving the candidates 
 of A company their last inspection. They were in formation in 
 front of A barracks when I arrived from headquarters, and Cap- 
 tain Lockwood told me to wait around in the orderly room a 
 while as the board might desire to question me. After the others 
 were dismissed I was ordered outside where I had a "formation" 
 all by myself. The board completely circumnavigated me ; then 
 the general with his coatless 
 rotund figure set off in good 
 opera bouffe by leather leg- 
 gings to the knees and military 
 slouch hat with gold band, 
 squared himself and asked : 
 
 "How old are you?" 
 
 I felt devilish enough to 
 reply, "just twenty-four days 
 older than when you asked the 
 same question and discharged me for over-age," but only smiled 
 and answered : 
 
 "Fifty-six years, one month and eight days, sir." 
 
 Captain Lockwood then called his attention to my telegram 
 and the adjutant's notation on it, which the general read and 
 continued : 
 
 33 
 
 'HOW OLD ARE YOU: 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "What was your business in civil life?" 
 "What previous military experience have you had?" 
 "Do you play baseball, football or golf?" 
 — and that was the full extent of my examination for a commis- 
 sion in the army. 
 
 After drawing my equipment and re-establishing my bunk in 
 the old squad room — now not nearly so crowded as when I left, 
 I was ordered to hunt up the company and fall in for the regular 
 schedule. I found the boys holding moot-court in the shade of a 
 spreading oak. They immediately adjourned and came in a body 
 
 to greet me, shouting 
 
 "Look who's here!" 
 "Dad's back !" 
 "How did you put it over ?" 
 
 That same day it was rumored that a courier had started for 
 Washington by way of Chicago with the recommendations for 
 commissions. None of us were told, so far as I know, what 
 branch of the service we were to be commissioned in or the rank 
 we were to receive. The suspense of waiting until August 15, — 
 the scheduled closing day of the camp, was great and interfered 
 with the effectiveness of the final days of training. The morale 
 was so low that Ohio cared not a whit whether Indiana sang, and 
 Indiana was as dumb as a moulting canary. 
 
 "What's the matter with you?" General Glenn chided, "we've 
 done all we are going to do to you, so you might as well look 
 pleasant about it." But General Despondency was in command 
 and perhaps for that reason no real casualties occurred in the 
 widely advertised mock battle between the two regiments with 
 which the camp closed. It was indeed so tame that the referees 
 called it a draw. 
 
 But everything human must end and so did the first officers' 
 training camp. We were lined up for the finish in four rows and 
 had not long to wait to learn why. Those in the front row were 
 "mullineers" and others to be commissioned captains of infan- 
 try ; in the next row, first lieutenants ; in the third row, second 
 lieutenants of mixed branches of the service, as quartermaster, 
 intelligence, machine gun and the like, and in the fourth row 
 were the poor fellows to be rejected for various reasons. They 
 went home without commissions, and in many cases with broken 
 hearts, as some I knew well confessed to me. 
 
 34 
 
SECOND LIEUTENANT, Q. M. C. 
 
 I was in the third row and was asked if I would accept a com- 
 mission as second lieutenant in the quartermaster corps. 
 Frankly, I was disappointed. I wanted active service and not a 
 Q. M. job which I feared would be a clerical one in the States 
 for the duration of the war. Besides, the rank was not what the 
 vice-president, speaking for the adjutant general and the secre- 
 tary of war, had voluntary promised. But there was no time for 
 debate ; a chance to serve was offered and I decided if I were 
 really sincere after all the fuss made to get in, I should take what 
 was offered, and work for a transfer and promotion ; so I 
 answered "yes." 
 
 I was eventually transferred to the engineers after even more 
 effort and opposition, and reached the grade of captain before 
 the brief war ended. So many unusual obstacles invariablv 
 blocked the way, however, that the War of the Roses, or some of 
 the Forty-year contests of history were needed to give me time 
 enough to capture the eagles of my Washington vision. This one 
 of only two years was altogether inadequate in the matter of time. 
 
 35 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ARMY LIFE IN THE Q. M. C, EQUIPPING A NEW ARMY 
 
 We were given fourteen days' vacation at the close of the 
 training camp, after which I was to report for duty to the com- 
 manding officer at Camp Taylor, near Louisville, Ky., with 
 nearly two hundred other new quartermaster-officers from 
 Harrison — none higher in rank than second lieutenant. We were 
 told that we would be given special instruction there for thirty 
 days, after which we would be advanced in rank according to 
 merit and definitely assigned. 
 
 I purposely reported ahead of time and was fortunately 
 assigned to serve under Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) 
 Pierson — the camp quartermaster. He was an old cavalry offi- 
 cer with hair as gray as mine if he'd had any. He was as blunt as 
 the square end of a pencil and could jolly or take the hide off 
 with equal thoroughness and ease. The only officer I afterward 
 liked as well was his first assistant, Captain Kennedy. I was 
 directly under Kennedy — absolutely ignorant of the voluminous 
 and complicated paper work which I naturally despised, made 
 lots of mistakes which I now suspect Captain Kennedy was as 
 ignorant of as I, but which he scolded me freely for when checked 
 and flaunted by our natural enemy — the division quartermaster — 
 and who looked at me with such all-pitying scorn and asked why 
 I didn't study my quartermaster manual when I went to him for 
 instructions, that I hated him till he did me so many unexpected 
 favors and proved himself a Prince in disguise. 
 
 Equipping a camp with a hundred organizations having a 
 quota of eighty thousand soldiers when full, is a big job at any 
 time, and was harder then by reason of inadequate supplies. 
 The supply officer of every unit, whether he had his full quota 
 of men or had but fifty of them or only five, looked to see what 
 supplies he was entitled to if full — then raced to the camp quar- 
 termaster and demanded the articles. We couldn't fill the requi- 
 sitions because we didn't have the goods, and we hadn't the goods 
 because demand was greater than supply. 
 
 36 
 
CAMP QUARTERMASTER ROUTINE 
 
 "They're not on earth !" Colonel Pierson often expostulated. 
 Pots, pans, cans, stoves, tables, knives, forks, axes, brooms, 
 mops, shoes, shirts, hats, blouses, soap, wood, coal, oats, hay, 
 mules, horses, wagons, automobiles, trucks, desks, typewriters, 
 all kinds of food supplies and articles innumerable had to be issued 
 on memorandum receipts in triplicate, named and alphabetically 
 arranged as prescribed in the quartermaster's bible — the O. M. 
 Manual, as : 
 
 Axes, meat, six-pound 2 
 
 Boilers, tin, 15x24 cooking 3 
 
 Cans, G. I. large 2 
 
 Pots, iron, 12-inch 4 
 
 Tables, kitchen, folding, small 1 
 
 etc., etc. 
 
 "Expendible" articles — those destroyed by use like wood, coal, 
 
 hay, soap and foods, were listed separately from the rest, because 
 
 the rest were "accountable," i. c, had to be accounted for by the 
 
 supplv officer, who drew them on memorandum receipt. He was 
 
 Mi ^vfe/st*,. :jjn - ■■£&■■. 
 
 PART OF THE CAMP QUARTERMASTER'S WAREHOUSES AT CAMP TAY- 
 LOR, KY. THIS IS FROM ONE OF THE DRAWINGS THAT LED TO MY 
 TRANSFER TO THE 309th ENGINEERS. See Page 44. 
 
 required to return the goods, produce a receipt showing where he 
 had legally delivered them to others, or pay for them before he 
 would be finally discharged from the army. We were told such 
 stories of how Old Accountability had gathered army officers in 
 like an octopus and held them in his toils for life that we were in 
 dread for our own future and longed for France and the front, 
 where "accountability" was dropped. A few days before writing 
 
 37 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 this I met a neighbor who held a commission as a quartermaster 
 captain in the war and was just returned to civil life with an 
 unsettled accountability of two hundred thousand dollars hanging 
 over him. That is not pleasant and leads the wise ones to be 
 over-zealous in learning how short weights and counts are made, 
 and so on the alert to pick up issue articles that a soldier out of 
 quarters lays his hat or coat off at his peril. At Camp Mills I 
 put aside my belt and revolver for a minute, and when I looked 
 around for them they were gone — nobody knew where. Auto- 
 matically I demanded their return by the nearest quartermaster. 
 He kindly offered to look for them if I could give a sufficient 
 description, which I was fortunately able to do, and thereupon he 
 raised the hinged lid of a convenient box, produced my lost arti- 
 cles and handed them to me with the joking remark that I owed 
 him something for taking care of my equipment. 
 
 Old Accountability turns them all into expert salvagers. They 
 will pick up every accountable article or piece of one, no matter 
 how old. For, is it not well known that an old pair of shoes can 
 be exchanged for a new pair, and that enough of the parts of an 
 automobile properly surveyed — another expert performance — has 
 been good many a time for a new one ? Just as enough of an old 
 paper dollar has been exchanged for a new whole dollar at the 
 United States Treasury. 
 
 The few of us employed by the camp quartermaster were 
 accounted fortunate by comrades who were not. Some of the 
 latter were attached to regiments of the division, while the re- 
 mainder — close to a hundred in number — were unattached and 
 because their superiors were too busy to bother with them were 
 left to their own devices pending the completion of a great quar- 
 termaster training camp at Jacksonville, Fla., where we were all 
 to go, according to an army periodical, our only source of infor- 
 mation. Leggett, from old company A at Harrison, was attached 
 to the Three Hundred and Ninth Engineer regiment and bragged 
 so continuously about the fine mess there, the earnestness and 
 efficiency of the officers and perfect discipline that I envied him. 
 He was bound to see real service with such an organization, while 
 my chances with a camp quartermaster were nil. But I was des- 
 tined to go to France as an engineer officer of that regiment. 
 
 General Hale, in the Orient when the United States declared 
 war, was on his way home to take command of the Eighty-fourth 
 
 38 
 
GENERAL HALE INSPECTS THE Q. M. OFFICERS 
 
 division. When he arrived in October he tightened up rapidly 
 on discipline. The young quartermaster officers had been 
 knocked from pillar to post so far as bunking and messing were 
 concerned and left generally to do as they pleased. They attended 
 the Kentucky races by day and played poker or called on the 
 Louisville girls until so late at night that they acted on the sug- 
 gestion of the song: 
 
 "O, it's nice to get up in the morning ; but it's nicer to lie in 
 bed," and often ate a late breakfast — they had their own mess at 
 this time in the barracks, where they bunked — arrayed in pajamas 
 or extreme negligee. This came to the ears of General Hale soon 
 after his arrival, and all unannounced he made an 8 a. m. inspec- 
 tion. What he heard when the boys, peremptorily ordered out of 
 bed, suggested what General Hale was ; where he might go to, 
 etc., before they realized that he was right there listening, and 
 what General Hale saw when he lined them up without ceremony, 
 was the scandal of the camp. They had not been true to their 
 trusts as officers and gentlemen — had disgraced the service, etc., 
 etc., he declared. They were almost put in irons and were made 
 very, very unhappy and were kept equally busy during the re- 
 mainder of their stay at Camp Taylor. Yet, they were more 
 sinned against than sinning. I knew them well — knew their 
 hearts were in the right place — that they were loyal, willing and 
 
 intelligent. But they were . 
 
 young — full of energy and .^ ^T^CiifJlri 
 
 as ready to fight the Ger- 
 mans as they were to 
 throw themselves to the 
 dogs. They had been mis- 
 led by promises and then 
 shamefully neglected — 
 shamefully neglected 
 — through no intention it may well be said, and perhaps unavoid- 
 ably in view of the rush and confusion of our National unpre- 
 paredness ; but General Hale found a way to keep them out of 
 disgrace after that, which might easily have been applied in the 
 first place. 
 
 As soon as troops began to roll in under the operation of the 
 conscription law these unattached quartermaster officers were put 
 in charge and developed great efficiency in handling the excited 
 
 39 
 
 GENERAL, HALE INSPECTS THE QUAR- 
 TERMASTER OFFICERS 
 
. THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 mobs that marched, marched, marched in unbroken shouting 
 columns from the unloading platforms, past our offices, to the 
 chutes, where they were shunted off like dumb animals are to 
 their pens at a great stock yard. 
 
 If they came from Gary, Indianapolis, Evansville, or where 
 not in Indiana, there was the properly labeled Indiana chute with 
 fenced-in aisles so the breachy ones couldn't jump out and run 
 away, I suppose, leading off from a main artery, each appropri- 
 ately lettered, and commandeered by quartermaster Second 
 Lieuies, who kept the men moving while other details stood at the 
 main entrance counting them and checking them off on talley 
 sheets brought from home by one of their own number — proud to 
 be thus honored. Illinois and Kentucky had similar chutes. 
 
 Train loads of men arrived at all hours of the twenty-four. 
 Often after quitting my own work at night I stood by the road to 
 answer the hand-waving and cheers of the endless parade. Some 
 were in shirt-sleeves or wore the overalls of the farm, while the 
 fashionable dress of others suggested all of the modern conve- 
 niences of home to which they would be strangers from now on. 
 Mosl of them put on a brave front, which gave me a greater feel- 
 in- of sadness than the sight of a melancholy face did. 
 
 I followed them to the chutes and saw many a doting father 
 say his last farewell to a son whom he was so loath to leave, that 
 he had followed him here from home, and I saw many a hilarious 
 lad give up a bottle that was sustaining him, and that he was 
 slyly smuggling into the camp. A few of these men were surly 
 and had to be rough-handled ; one or two were so terrified they 
 took their own lives ; the love or homesickness of others showed 
 in their disconsolate faces, but ninety per cent, of all were cheer- 
 ful and brave youngsters whom one couldn't look at without 
 loving — whom one felt like protecting in some way, but who 
 would, probably, be found protecting you in any real emergency. 
 
 This first favorable impression of the material from wdiich 
 our army was to be made was not afterwards lessened by our 
 long intimate association — when they were the common soldiers 
 and I but a second lieutenant one rank above them. In no other 
 way could I have secured the first-hand knowledge of the rank 
 and file of our great army which is mine, and I have fate to thank 
 now for starting me in at the bottom. I propose to do justice to 
 the enlisted men, for they and the lieutenants — the much-joked 
 
 40 
 
GENERAL BUNDY'S REPLY 
 
 about "shave tails" — the second lieuies who led them, are the 
 chaps who did the real fighting and won the war. Who ever 
 heard of a captain or a major or any of the higher officers going 
 "over the top" or capturing a machine-gun nest ? No, thev were 
 back in their "post of command" — in some safe dugout or cellar. 
 They were supposed to furnish the brains and issue the orders ; 
 they did decide on the zero hour, but after that, led by the second 
 lieuies, the soldiers quickly advanced beyond any control than 
 their own. General Bundy is credited with a reply that expresses 
 this. In answer to a criticism that his men were going forward 
 too fast he said, "If the Germans can't stop them how in hell 
 can I ?" 
 
 It is said jokingly in the army : "The major knows nothing 
 and does nothing ; the captain knows, but does nothing and the 
 second lieuey knows nothing, but does it all." 
 
 Getting back, however, to the camp quartermaster at Taylor — 
 there were at least fifty people in one long room, each provided 
 with a nice office desk which he placed to suit his own fancy. 
 Consequently they were in fantastic disorder. I had become ex- 
 pert at the end of the first week in issuing kitchen supplies on 
 memorandum receipts, and had been on the job all Sunday morn- 
 ing when Colonel Pierson came down the line, stopped at my desk 
 for the first time, and said : "This office looks like Hades had 
 
 '^# 
 
 
 CAMOUFLAGE IN WAR. THE SMOKE SCREEN 
 41 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 struck it, and you look old enough to know how to put it in order. 
 Come to my office and I'll give you my idea." There he helped 
 me to diagram a new arrangement, then told me to go and carry 
 it out. Assisted by a detail of enlisted men I started on changes 
 against which every occupant of a desk protested and argued 
 why he had to have his just the way it was. Captain Kennedy 
 had built a barricade with his and his clerks' desks to protect 
 himself from the mob of supply officers and ordered me, with a 
 scowl, to keep my hands off. I told him with malign joy for 
 imagined past indignities that I was obeying orders from Colonel 
 Pierson and couldn't vary from them without the colonel's in- 
 structions. Then he looked at my diagram, smiled for the first 
 time in his life, so I thought then, and said : "All right — go ahead 
 — I told the colonel when he asked who could carry this out that 
 I thought you could." 
 
 Captain Kennedy had been a quartermaster sergeant in his 
 young days, but for many years since had been in business at 
 St. Louis. He returned to the army for the war and brought 
 from civil life the initiative and courage to meet emergencies 
 which the army officer, bound by red tape and cowed by the ever- 
 threatening menace of personal accountability, was deficient in. 
 The fact that men at Camp Taylor suffered less from inadequate 
 supplies than soldiers in many other camps was due to Kennedy's 
 promptness and nerve — ably backed by his commanding officer. 
 This was illustrated in the early supply of troops with blankets. 
 We had exhausted the quartermaster depot at Jeffersonville, and 
 were advised that fifteen or twenty thousand conscripted men 
 would arrive in a couple of days. The nights were now quite cold 
 and there were no blankets in our warehouse nor to be had in time 
 through military channels. The trained army quartermaster, with 
 the fear of Old Accountability in his heart would have prepared 
 five copies of a formal requisition for blankets, sent three copies 
 to the quartermaster general at Washington, one to division 
 headquarters, and placed the other in his own files and awaited 
 developments. And while developments were maturing the thou- 
 sands of recruits would have arrived and suffered from exposure, 
 resulting in sickness and death to many ; the country would have 
 been horrified at the inefficiency of the army, and another blow 
 would thus have been struck for the Kaiser. Realizing this. 
 Captain Kennedy wired dealers in all neighboring western cities 
 
 42 
 
ORDERING BLANKETS 
 
 for quotations on blankets and comforts, and quantity available 
 for immediate delivery. From the replies he wired hurry-up 
 orders — $40,000 worth in one instance — which were filled and 
 delivered by fast freight in time to meet the emergency. Now 
 that the war is over it would not be inconsistent for the depart- 
 ment to court-martial Kennedy for such irregularity. 
 
 There were several opportunities to specialize in Quartermas- 
 ter work, such as in transportation, subsistence, finance, Jeffer- 
 sonville depot work, and I was urged by a comrade to sign up for 
 billeting service in France and perhaps would have gone had I 
 known something of the French language. He assured me he 
 would teach me enough on the way over. I think now it was for- 
 tunate that I accepted none of these opportunities which would 
 have negatived the one that came later and was accepted to my 
 greater liking. But who can tell? Life is a chance anyway and 
 I might have gone to France early and had greater opportunities 
 than attended the average billetnig officer, whose lot I observed 
 there was not a happy one. 
 
 43 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 HOW I BECAME AN ARMY INSTRUCTOR AND CAMOUFLUER 
 
 In three or four weeks we had the camp fairly well supplied 
 with "pots and pans and G. I. cans," so it was only necessary to 
 work an hour or two when Sunday came. The rest of the day I 
 had to myself and made a few sketches of our quartermaster sur- 
 roundings, which I intended sending home for the edification of 
 the folks there. My clerk, Grant, showed them to Captain 
 
 THE WITCHERY OF CAMOUFLAGE. SCREEN A-B IS 
 
 PAINTED TO REPRESENT A VILLAGE HID BY IT AND 
 
 AN ARMY MARCHES TO POSITION BACK OF THE 
 
 SCREEN 
 
 Kennedy, who asked me to give them to him. He said he didn't 
 
 know I could do that kind of work, and put me to sketching. 
 
 Soon I was not doing anything else and liked it inconceivably 
 
 better than listing — 
 
 Forks, meat, three-tined 6 
 
 Knives, paring, flat back 12 
 
 Skewers, steel, 6-inch 60 
 
 etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum. 
 
 Some of these sketches he took to division headquarters to 
 Colonel Van Dyne, division quartermaster, who showed them to 
 Major Kruger, then engaged on schedules for proposed division 
 schools, and who gave them to Colonel Guthrie, of the Three Hun- 
 dred and Ninth Engineers, who was looking for an instructor in 
 military landscape sketching and camouflage. 
 
 "The very job I'm looking for," I exclaimed when the cap- 
 tain told me about it. "I was a designer and engraver in the 
 
 44 
 
HOW I BECAME A CAMOUFLUER 
 
 early years of my life, have always practiced free-hand drawing 
 in my business, and have spent my Saturday half-holidays for 
 years in out-door sketching classes of the artist, Will Forsyth." 
 
 Mr. Forsythe had indeed urged me to get into military sketch- 
 ing and had written a letter along that line to the adjutant gen- 
 eral which I had forwarded through Mr. Marshall, in which he 
 said : 
 
 "Among those who recently graduated from the officers' 
 training camp at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, was Mr. Joseph A. 
 Minturn. * * * * It has occurred to me that he has a 
 special talent which should be considered in any assignment which 
 is given him, — free-hand drawing and oil and water color sketch- 
 ing from nature. 
 
 "Mr. Minturn, whom I have known almost all of my life, has 
 always taken an interest in and has practiced drawing. We were 
 art students together as boys, — for many years he followed 
 designing and engraving on wood, and he has for several recent 
 years been a pupil of mine in his leisure time in out-doors draw- 
 ing and observation where he has exhibited quick perception, and 
 portrayal ability, and it seems to me that it would be well, if 
 such qualifications are available at the front, to send him there, 
 and so make the best use of him, especially as he desires most of 
 all to be in the active strenuous life of the war and seems to be 
 well fitted for it. 
 
 "You will, I hope, pardon me for this suggestion, but it is 
 made from the point of view that a man is best fitted to render 
 the most efficient service in that for which he is naturally inclined 
 and is best prepared. 
 
 "Very sincerely yours, 
 
 "WILLIAM FORSYTH, 
 "Instructor at John Herron Art School." 
 
 Day after day passed without further developments until I 
 began to fear this was like so many other of my army dreams that 
 never came true. "Why don't you go and ask them — that's the 
 way I do!" Captain Kennedy counseled. So I put on my best 
 Kahn tailored dress coat and starched collar, rubbed up my nar- 
 row-last civilian tans and imitation pig-skin puttees and called on 
 Colonel Van Dyne. He is a gentleman and received me like one ; 
 but referred me to Major Kruger, who in turn sent me to Colonel 
 Guthrie, the commander of the engineers, whom Leggett had 
 described as a stickler for military etiquette. I went a back way 
 so as to practice the salute and standing at attention, and to 
 memorize my little piece which began, "Sir, Lieutenant Minturn 
 
 45 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 requests permission to speak to Colonel Guthrie, etc., etc." — then 
 in my ignorance rapped at his private door bearing the legend 
 "Commanding Officer," instead of approaching properly through 
 the ante-room of his adjutant. He invited me in, returned my 
 salute, listened to my opening statement, smiled and said, "That 
 was very well done, lieutenant, except that you should have 
 entered through the adjutant's office — sit down and tell me about 
 yourself." 
 
 He was over six feet tall, inclined to slenderness, forehead 
 high and intellectual, scant hair, which needed trimming, and 
 waved a little, prominent cheek bones, keen eyes, aquiline nose 
 and had a pleasant but tired expression about his eyes and mouth. 
 
 cream O 
 
 BROWN 
 GREEN 
 
 PAINTING A WHOLE VEHICLE SO IT CAN'T BE SEEN 
 
 One took him at once for an intelligent gentleman, and the 
 language he used aside from any suggestion of a brogue made one 
 suspect that some of his antecedents were Irish. 
 
 He was interested in my army experience to date and in Mr. 
 Forsyth's letter. 
 
 "Do you know anything about camouflage?" he inquired. 
 
 "Not by that name, sir. Just what is it ?" I had to ask. 
 
 "It's the art of hiding things with paint — the painting of a 
 wheel or a whole vehicle, for example, so it can't be seen." 
 
 Now that rather staggered me, but I was determined no little 
 thing like that should stand in my way, so I responded promptly : 
 
 "I never tried, sir, but if it can be done by anybody, rest 
 assured I'll do it." 
 
 "That's all right, be gorra! It don't make a whale of a dif- 
 46 
 
I MEET MAJOR FULMER 
 
 ference whether you've tried before or not.' You have the engi- 
 neer spirit and we're going to give you a chance to try." 
 
 "Bain!" turning to his lieutenant colonel, "those men out there 
 count time like beating a bass drum — one, two, three. FOUR — 
 one, two, three, FOUR ! Go out and stop it." 
 
 To me again he said, "Have you met Major Fulmer?" 
 
 I had not even heard of him, and so admitted. 
 
 "Well, you should meet Fulmer ; he's an authority on military 
 landscape sketching. Come with me to division headquarters and 
 I'll introduce you," and we crossed a field which until that year 
 raised asparagus but stirred by squads of drilling recruits now 
 raised clouds of highly fertilized dust. 
 
 At headquarters Colonel Guthrie introduced me to Major 
 John J. Fulmer, inspector of the Eighty-fourth division, who was 
 destined to influence my army career more than any other man. 
 He was of the class of middleweights physically, with scant hair, 
 not particularly caused I would say by sitting in damp churches, 
 although he was kind-hearted and one of the most conscientious 
 of men. Musketry, with which landscape sketching and target 
 designation are but related parts, was his hobby, but his modesty 
 helped others at his own expense so that he did not get the pro- 
 motion as soon in the late war which the importance of his labors 
 in it won. To him, as he rode through France, all landscapes 
 were possible battlefields wherein houses, trees, or conspicuous 
 things, were reference points from which hedges, roads and 
 animals were enemy positions so many fingers distant at such and 
 such o'clock. He was of that Pennsylvania Dutch stock which 
 revels in straight rows of whitewashed trees, and found no joy 
 in French moss, because it always covered up dirt ; nor in quaint 
 French architecture because the houses were notoriously devoid 
 of plumbing and all modern conveniences. Barring these congen- 
 ial defects he was the finest officer and man who ever carried a 
 mill-scale in his pocket or wore a swagger-stick. Colonel 
 McNabb used to say he was orderly, credulous and optimistic. 
 
 "If you can use Lieutenant Minturn for a week or two until 
 our school opens, he's at your service, Major," the colonel re- 
 marked during the visit, and the major said I was just in time to 
 make the drawings for a new edition of his book on Panoramic 
 Sketching that he was working on. His book was very largely 
 copied from later by the war department for a bulletin on this 
 
 47 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 subject distributed to the army. He first demonstrated that land- 
 scape drawing from nature is an easy mechanical operation, 
 devoid of mystery, requiring neither genius nor art. That if a 
 church tower, a house-gable, a tree, a hill-crest or any other prom- 
 inent object be taken as a reference point to start from each time, 
 the location of any object to the right or left can be marked on the 
 top edge of the paper by holding it so both objects can be seen at 
 once. A small cross or arrowhead will help to fix the place of 
 the reference point. 
 
 A MILITARY LANDSCAPE SKETCH. (Reduced One-half.) See Page 49. 
 
 The height of the object and its other location in the picture 
 are similarly measured on the side-edge of the sheet. A hori- 
 zontal line is drawn across the sheet to begin with wherever the 
 highest point of the picture is to be ; then this line is always held 
 level and even with the top of the highest object in the landscape 
 while things below are being marked on the side-edge of the 
 paper. To draw a tree, for example, its exact location to the 
 right, say, of the reference point is found by the above method 
 and recorded by a dot at the top of the sheet. The tree should 
 appear somewhere below in the picture in a vertical line from 
 that dot. Then the foot and top of the tree will be found and 
 dotted on the left edge of the sheet, and where horizontal lines 
 from the side dots cross the vertical line the lowest and highest 
 parts of the tree should be drawn. The width of the tree and 
 
 48 
 
MILITARY LANDSCAPE SKETCHING 
 
 distance from the ground to its first branches can be similarly 
 measured if necessary, and in like manner the position and appar- 
 ent size of houses, location of cross-roads, hill crests, fences and 
 all parts of a picture can be mechanically determined. Presently 
 these controlling features will be numerous enough to enable 
 remaining details to be drawn in by eye without further 
 measurements. 
 
 Another requirement is that the paper be held the same dis- 
 tance from the eye each time a measurement is made, which is 
 accomplished by passing a string of suitable length around the 
 draftsman's neck and tying the ends in holes through the side 
 edges of the drawing board. 
 
 In the army sheets with horizontal and vertical direction lines 
 are furnished in pads for this kind of work. They aid the eye to 
 carry across without other lines being drawn. The vertical lines 
 are one-half inch apart and subtend an angular measurement of 
 fifty mils when the drawing is made with the paper fifteen 
 inches from the eyes. The mil is the unit of angular measure- 
 ment in artillery and rifle ranging, hence it is important that the 
 sketches be drawn to a mil scale. 
 
 With a ruler showing inches divided into tenths and held 
 twenty inches from the eye, each tenth of an inch will measure or 
 cover five mils 1,000 yards away. The leaf-sight of a Spring- 
 field rifle, or an average person's finger at twenty inches, covers 
 fifty mils at 1,000 yards. 
 
 Major Fulmer taught me how to sketch — what features were 
 important in a military sketch and what were not and should be 
 omitted ; how to describe a location and its extent by mils with 
 reference to the clock-face; how to estimate ranges (distances) 
 by the use of the mil scale, and many other things of the utmost 
 importance in my future work. 
 
 In one of his lectures before the officers of the camp he had 
 an immense landscape painting on the stage, fully five feet high 
 and fifteen or eighteen feet long, and, to show how difficult it 
 was to tell soldiers where to direct their fire he had a half-dozen 
 of the audience stand and face about ; then pointing to a spot 
 where he said an enemy machine-gun was firing on us asked an 
 officer, it happened to be our old instructor, Captain Miller, of A 
 company at Harrison, to rise : 
 
 "You are in command of a platoon of infantry and are being 
 
 49 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 fired on by that machine-gun ; give the command to your men 
 just where to return the fire!" 
 
 Captain Miller knew how to give the command, "Range 600; 
 reference point, small house at 12 o'clock ; target, three fingers at 
 2:30 o'clock — fire at will, commence firing!" 
 
 The half-dozen standing officers were then faced to the front. 
 They had heard Captain Miller's directions without seeing the 
 spot pointed out and were successively told to direct the placing 
 of a pin-tag where each understood the target to be fired at was 
 located. Some were near one end of the picture, some at the 
 other : some near the middle top. and some far below and none 
 anywhere near the right place. 
 
 CAMOUFLAGED "CALAMITY JANE" FIRING THE LAST SHOT OF THE 
 WORLD WAR 
 
 "Your platoon would have been annihilated, was the major's 
 conclusion, "if you can't locate a target from a good description 
 how can you expect your men to do it from a probable bad one ?" 
 
 He was always drilling himself on target designation and esti- 
 mation of ranges, and after he had explained the system and 
 formulae he began to drill me. 
 
 "Lieutenant," he said about the third day, "yonder flagstaff is 
 sixty feet high. Measure it with your mil scale and tell me the 
 range." 
 
 5o 
 
ESTIMATING DISTANCES 
 
 "It measures fifteen mils," I repliec} after making- sure of it, 
 "and you say its actual height is sixty feet, which, reduced to 
 yards makes twenty — then, according to the rule, twenty multi- 
 plied by one thousand and divided by fifteen — the number of mils, 
 makes the distance 1.333 I /3 yards." 
 
 "That was easy. Now try this one: I've paced the distance 
 between those telegraph poles and know they are set forty-four 
 yards apart. Now, measure the distance in mils between the two 
 I point out to you and give me the range." 
 
 "The distance measures forty miles by my scale. What 
 formula does the major use on that for the range?" 
 
 "Same one; the only difference is that the measured object is 
 on the ground instead of in the air, that is, horizontal instead of 
 vertical." 
 
 "Then forty-four multiplied by one thousand and divided by 
 forty, the mil measurement, gives 1,100 yards as the range?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 At another time he said: "On the road yonder by the camp 
 quartermaster is a column of new recruits in fours. The road as 
 measured on the camp map on the wall there you will find is 
 1,200 yards from us. Measure the length of the column and tell 
 me how many men 'there are." 
 
 "The column covers 120 mils from head to rear," I replied 
 after measuring, "1,200 yards, the distance, multiplied by 120 
 mils and divided by one thousand according to the rule, gives 144 
 yards as the length of the column, but I don't know how many 
 men there are." 
 
 "What's your rule for men per yard in a column of fours?" 
 
 "If I ever knew, sir, I've forgotten." 
 
 "It's two to the yard, paragraph 27 of your Field Service 
 Regulations ; now don't forget that again !" 
 
 On another occasion we were out walking, his favorite exer- 
 cise, where he could revel in problems, when he stopped and 
 pointing, said : "Measure the length of that trench on the far 
 ridge and give me the range." 
 
 I measured it as 150 mils, then had to refer to my note book 
 for the formula and paced off three hundred yards toward the 
 trench, took a second mil measurement, which was two hundred 
 mils. Three hundred yards multiplied by two hundred mils and 
 the product divided by fifty, the difference between the two mil 
 
 St 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 measurements, gave 1,200 yards as the range or distance from us 
 to the trench. 
 
 If this becomes tiresome to you who read it, remember it is 
 but a suggestion of all we had to learn and practice and that we 
 were many times more tired. I know of no other way to convey 
 a conception of army tediousness and exactness to an outsider. 
 
 By command of Major General Hale in special order No. 44, 
 Eighty- fourth division, October 7, 191 7, I was attached to the 
 Three Hundred and Ninth Engineers and directed to report to 
 the commanding officer of that organization for duty, and on 
 October 11, 1917, by S. O. No. 48, General Hale detailed me on 
 special duty as instructor in the Engineer School of the Eighty- 
 fourth division. This took me away from the quartermasters 
 just in time to miss the rebuke and punishment given them by 
 General Hale, as previously related. 
 
 When the time came for me to leave Major Fulmer he gave 
 me the following endorsement : 
 
 "I have had an opportunity of closely observing the work of 
 Lieutenant Joseph A. Minturn, Quartermaster Corps, since the 
 organization of this command, the Eighty-fourth division, Camp 
 Zachary Taylor, Kentucky. 
 
 "His unusual ability to sketch is such as to make him a most 
 valuable addition to the service. Probably in the engineer corps 
 his work would prove of most value. During my service in the 
 army, I have never seen anyone who was able to handle the sub- 
 ject of military landscape sketching and master its details as 
 quickly as Lieutenant Minturn. His experience in civil life no 
 doubt contributed in a great measure to the grounding in this 
 work. 
 
 "I would strongly recommend him for the grade of captain, 
 and the employment of his services in the engineers' corps and 
 believe that should such transfer be made, the best interests of the 
 service would be subserved. 
 
 "J. J. FULMER, 
 "Major of Infantry, 
 "Division Inspector, 84th Division." 
 
McNABB'S STORY OF THE KAISER 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 IRON RIGID DISCIPLINE 
 
 Discipline in the Three Hundred and Ninth Engineers was 
 very strict. It reminded me of one of Colonel McNabb' stories : 
 
 The Kaiser was inspecting- a certain crack regiment of Prus- 
 sian guards, and asked its colonel what he considered its highest 
 merit. 
 
 "German iron-rigid discipline, your Majesty!" he replied 
 promptly, "it vas so great your Majesty can call any man to be 
 shot und he vill not so much as vink von eye." 
 
 The Kaiser said he would try it. 
 
 Mfc-£ 
 
 ^ 
 
 CONTRAST INVISIBILITY OF BRITISH SOLDIER ON 
 
 LEFT WEARING A SNIPERS ROBE, WITH ONE ON 
 
 RIGHT, WHO IS NOT 
 
 "Tell that man," indicating, "that his emperor is going to 
 have him shot, which will be to him the great honor of demon- 
 strating German iron-rigid discipline to all the world." 
 
 "Yaw! So! your Majesty! and he vill not move ein leedle 
 muscle !" declared the. delighted colonel as he placed the soldier 
 and lined up a firing squad to shoot him. 
 
 The Kaiser mercifully ordered the rifles to be loaded with 
 blank cartridges, without of course, letting the soldier know it 
 The squad fired. The soldier did not flinch or bat an eye, and 
 William was delighted. 
 
 "It vas great ! bring to me that soldier !" which was done, and 
 the emperor grasping him by the hand proclaimed : 
 
 53 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "You have this day made for me the highest proof of German 
 iron-rigid discipline, and you may now ask of me anything and I 
 will at once it give to you ; anything, my man, which you may 
 desire will your emperor now give ! Speak what it shall be." 
 
 Realizing his greatest immediate need the soldier earnestly 
 requested : "A clean pair of pants, your Majesty !" 
 
 This story may not be regarded by all as particularly apt, but 
 in view of their "bull pen" and other experiences which I could 
 relate, I have felt that the "fear of God" was not the only kind 
 the engineers had at times in their hearts. 
 
 The army is at least one part of our Republic where men are 
 not free and equal, and it requires a great man indeed to command 
 implicit obedience without doing it largely through fear. I heard 
 the complaint from a subordinate officer once that he couldn't 
 make his men do so and so. "Then that's your fault," he was 
 informed. "You have the greatest power back of you in the 
 world ; the whole force of the United States, if you know how to 
 use it." It is a common expression that "There's nothing the 
 army can't do to a man except get him in a family way." One 
 soon realizes the truth of this, and also how quickly those put in 
 authority learn of their power and how to use it. Harsh treat- 
 ment of subordinates to the point of bullying is too often encour- 
 aged by promotion, and I am of the opinion that "hard boiled" 
 Smith was instructed to make Paris unpopular for leave men by 
 "treating them rough" and was acting within the tacit under- 
 standing of his superiors. 
 
 The frame of mind is often shown by casual statement, we 
 were told, when instructed to be on the lookout for enemy spies 
 and propagandists, and, if unstudied remarks do reveal the true 
 heart of the speaker what would you think of this one? An 
 order that all prisoners should be delivered to their companies 
 each (.lay for regular company drill was not being obeyed, and the 
 reason was demanded of the captains. The buck was passed — 
 that's the army expression when responsibility is shifted to a sub- 
 ordinate, as, the general orders the colonel, who orders the major, 
 who orders the captain, who orders the first lieutenant, who 
 orders the second lieutenant, who has to carry it out because 
 there is no lower commissioned officer to pass it on to — and other 
 excuses were made until one officer declared he didn't drill his 
 
 54 
 
MEN ARE EXPENDIBLE IN THE ARMY 
 
 prisoners because he was afraid those belonging to his unit would 
 run away if allowed so much liberty. 
 
 "That's easy enough to stop," was the answer. "Don't you 
 know men are expendible in the army ? All you are required to do 
 is to command them to halt — twice — and if they don't obey, ex- 
 pend them !" 
 
 In other words, if a soldier didn't halt after being twice told 
 to halt, you should shoot him. The idea that a man was expendi- 
 ble while the shoes he wore were accountable, struck me as a bit 
 incongruous and I looked to see if the officer whose intelligence 
 and humanity were above the average, smiled when he said it ; 
 but he didn't, so, according to the test in the "Virginians" for 
 being in earnest, he must have meant it. 
 
 Mw 
 
 THERE ARE MANY TREES IN FRANCE LIKE THESE, 
 
 FRO w WHICH BRANCHES ARE CUT FOR FIREWOOD. 
 
 NOTE GREATER INVISIBILITY OF SOLDIER IN 
 
 SNIPER'S ROBE BY THE RIGHT TREE 
 
 When I first knew the engineers the colonel and lieutenant 
 colonel were West Point graduates, accustomed to dealing with 
 regulars, who did not average high in any human quality. Firm 
 treatment was required from the start, and the way they went 
 after the officers as well as the men of that regiment reminds me 
 of an election experience on Irish Hill in Indianapolis. I was 
 sent there by the central committee to see that the ballot box was 
 not stuffed or stolen, at least by the opposition. The approach 
 to the polls was roped off according to law, and there was no 
 legal reason why the men of the precinct should not approach to 
 the line of the ropes. A crowd of them did line up there, but my 
 
 55 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 precinct committeeman, with a record as a prize fighter backing 
 him up, started in early to drive them off, which aroused protest 
 and raised near riot so often that I became alarmed and expos- 
 tulated with the committeeman : 
 
 "Let them alone ; they have a right up to the ropes and are not 
 doing any harm ; what's the use all the time starting a rough 
 house ?" 
 
 "Whatell d'you know about it?" he asked, "you may know 
 how to run a prayermeetin' or election on the north side, but not 
 down here. Ye gotta begin on 'ese guys early an' get 'em trained ; 
 let 'em know whose boss or they'll be walkin' all over ye 'fore 
 night !" 
 
 We had a regimental mess where all of the officers ate, seated 
 in the order of their rank. Being a second lieuey quartermaster 
 my place might properly have been about three paces below the 
 second cook, but I was favored with a seat close to the captains. 
 I have no special grievance to ventilate in this or any other mat- 
 ter, unless it might be because they took me in and didn't make 
 company of me, but made me one of the family, even to the extent 
 of taxing me on my mess bill for birthday cups and wedding sil- 
 ver before I knew the officers apart. 
 
 Whoever started that fad there has regretted it more than 
 once, I am quite certain, unless it was originated by one of the 
 many who was early ordered to France, in which case the poor 
 fellow has had punishment enough. A nice silver cup to the 
 daughter of the regiment, another to the son, and seventy-five- 
 or one hundred-dollar table set to the first war bride, were all 
 very nice had it stopped there, but similar events followed and the 
 first were used only as precedents. Everybody remembers how 
 thick the war brides were around every camp, and following 
 them, the war babies, without any bonuses. The encouragement 
 offered by the Three Hundred and Ninth Engineer Officers' 
 Mess was irresistible. Bachelors of forty years' standing-, like 
 Captain Wasson, got married and those who hadn't sweethearts 
 before, met them like Lieutenant Bill, at one or the other of the 
 numerous dances where "we put it over every organization in 
 camp." They gave their hearts, camouflaged with little silver 
 castles as favors, and became so popular with the Belles of 
 Louisville, who easilv discovered the subterfuge, that the young 
 ladies came out to Taylor and gave one or two return benefits. 
 
 .6 
 
MILITARY TABLE ETIQUETTE 
 
 But it was all a game of "heads you win and tails I lose" for an 
 ancient benedict like myself. 
 
 Nobody could eat at the engineer officers' mess until the rank- 
 ing officer arrived. Whoever saw him first called "attention!" 
 then everybody jumped to his feet and stood like a graven image 
 until the officer was seated and commanded "rest !" At the close 
 of the meal we remained until the ranking officer was ready to 
 depart. When he arose "attention!" was called and everybody 
 jumped and stood as stiff as before until the superior one was 
 outside the door. 
 
 Any officer coming in late or desiring to leave early had to 
 approach, stand at attention, salute, get excused, about face and 
 take his seat or retire as the case might be. We could only get 
 even by exacting the same homage from our enlisted men ; exactly 
 what was expected and ordered. 
 
 Such formality is irritating until used to it. We had a number 
 of casual officers attached to our organization for passage to 
 Europe. On my way home months afterward I met one of them : 
 "What's become of that colonel of yours, who made us jump up 
 at meals until he was seated ?" he asked. 
 
 "He was detached and sent to the front to the first army." 
 "Well, if somebody don't shoot him in the back he'll miss 
 what's coming to him. Your adjutant told me when I objected to 
 all that damfoolishness that I'd either do as the rest did or get off 
 the ship." 
 
 "Why didn't you get off?" I inquired. 
 
 "Because the water's too deep for wading, or I'd have done 
 it, believe me !" 
 
 This mess hall discipline is only a sample ; every part of our 
 training and conduct was equally supervised. In the matter of 
 hand-salutes the negligence of many and the lifeless slovenly 
 wrong ways of doing a simple thing were provoking. Our colonel 
 lined up his officers for a private exhibition and after correcting 
 most of them, sent all out to instruct the men. Three days' grace 
 was allowed after which anybody in that area who neglected to 
 salute or did it wrong was given a chance to salute the air until 
 he learned how, and his memory worked back to normal. 
 
 "It's ten per cent, instruction and ninety per cent, follow up to 
 see that the instructions are carried out," was his admonition, and 
 he looked after the ninety per cent. 
 
 57 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 As a result of rigid discipline the engineers, rank and file, 
 were alert and always on the job. Illustrative of this our colonel 
 tells the story of why he promoted a D company man. General 
 Hale lived in what had been a farm house before the war, and 
 which happened in laying out the camp to come in the engineer 
 area. The man in question was doing guard duty on Post 5, 
 which passed the general's house. Among the many things a 
 soldier must be letter perfect in is his general orders, twelve in 
 number, which he memorizes the same as the Ten CommandmerDts, 
 and should equally understand the meaning of. If he knows 
 them by heart and stops to think what they mean he is posted as 
 to his general duties as a sentinel. They are numbered like this : 
 
 I. To take charge of this post and all Government property 
 in view. 
 2. 
 
 3- 
 
 4- 
 
 5- 
 
 6. To receive, obey, and pass on to the sentinel who relieves 
 me all orders from the commanding officer, officer of the day, 
 and all officers and non-commissioned officers of the guard only. 
 
 7- 
 
 8. 
 
 9. 
 
 10. In any case not covered by instructions to call the cor- 
 poral of the guard. 
 
 11. 
 
 \2. To be especially watchful at night, and, during the time 
 for challenging, to challenge all persons on or near my post, and 
 to allow no one to pass without proper authority. 
 
 On the night of our story some one tried to pass the sentinel 
 without proper authority, and, as instructed by his tenth general 
 order, he sang out lustily. "Corporal of the guard, Number 5! 
 Corporal of the guard. Number 5!" 
 
 One of the general's staff stuck his head out of an upstairs 
 window and called : 
 
 "Shut up! you'll wake the general and everybody in camp!" 
 
 "I obey orders from the commanding officer, officer of the 
 day and officers and non-commissioned officers of the guard 
 only, Sir! corporal of the guard, Number 5 ! corporal of the guard, 
 Number 5 !" louder than before. 
 
 58 
 
COMPULSORY SINGING EXERCISES 
 
 "For God's sake, quit! your roar's worse than the fire whistle; 
 if you'll hush I'll go myself and get the corporal of the guard for 
 you !" 
 
 When the staff officer told this story half complainingly at 
 Division Conference next day our colonel said it was a compliment 
 to his regiment and told the captain of D company to recommend 
 that man for promotion. 
 
 Everybody in the regiment had to sing regardless of voice or 
 ability to carry a tune. It was part of the training ; the higher 
 powers having decreed, I suppose, that if "music hath charms to 
 soothe" it might hold the German soldier quiet enough for ours 
 
 CAMOUFLAGE WIZANDRY: A CANVAS, A, B, C, D WITH A 
 
 RUINED FRENCH TOWN PAINTED ON IT HID THE REAL 
 
 TOWN AND A TRACK OVER WHICH TRAIN LOADS OF 
 
 MUNITIONS PASSED UNDETECTED 
 
 to stick him with a bayonet, or if not that, it might help our sol- 
 diers to forget the blisters raised by the "last long mile ;" at any 
 rate singing and music were made much of in our late war. 
 
 Goldsmith was our able singing master and Chaplain Miller 
 fluttered around, but more heartless ones were there to take the 
 names of any standing mute. Many were penalized for failure 
 to sing; the officers by confinement to the engineer area for 
 periods, depending on their particular grade of muteness. This 
 may seem mild punishment, but when it is remembered that 
 
 59 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 everybody had a wife or sweetheart waiting in town it will be 
 realized it was some hardship to pine away in the society of 
 wooden barracks on leave-days when the arms of the beloved were 
 open and their hearts yearning'. 
 
 Chaplain Miller was strong on contests. He battled so with 
 sin that his militant spirit carried into singing and athletics, over 
 both of which he had advisory jurisdiction. He arranged con- 
 tests between companies of our regiment and stirred up so much 
 rivalry that he inspired the chaplains of other division units to 
 challenge him and soon a war of song was on. 
 
 Singing teams were trained to the minute on medleys that 
 vanished into each other so imperceptibly that only the trained 
 ear could tell : 
 
 There's a long, long trail a-winding 
 
 Into the land of my dreams, 
 Where the nightingales are singing 
 
 And the white moon beams ; 
 There's a long, long night of waiting 
 
 Until my dreams all come true, 
 'Till the day when I'll be going down 
 That long, long trail with you. 
 Keep the home fires burning, 
 While your hearts are yearning. 
 Though your lads are far away, 
 They dream of home. 
 There's a silver lining 
 Through the dark cloud shining, 
 Turn the dark cloud inside out 
 'Till the boys come home. 
 Oh it's not the pack that you carry on your back 
 
 Nor the rifle on your shoulder, 
 Nor the five-inch crust of khaki colored dust 
 
 That makes you feel your limbs are growing older. 
 And it's not the hike on the hard turn-pike, 
 
 That wipes away your smile ; 
 Nor the socks of sister's 
 
 That raise the blooming blisters ; 
 It's the last, long mile. 
 
 Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag 
 
 And smile, smile, smile. 
 When you've a lucifer to light your fag, 
 
 Smile, boys, that's the style. 
 What's the use of worrying? 
 
 It never was worth while, so 
 60 
 
A SONG CONTEST 
 
 Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag 
 And smile, smile, smile. 
 Oh K-k-katie, beautiful K-k-katie 
 You're the only girl in all the world that I adore ! 
 When the moon shines o'er the c-cow shed 
 I'll be waiting for you at the k-k-kitchen door. 
 Good morning, Mr. Zip, Zip, Zip, 
 With your hair cut just as short as mine. 
 Good morning, Mr. Zip, Zip, Zip, 
 You're surely looking fine. 
 Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust, 
 If the Camels don't get you, the Fatimas must. 
 Good morning, Mr. Zip, Zip, Zip, 
 With your hair cut just as short as, 
 Your hair cut just as short as 
 Your hair cut just as short as mine. 
 Over there, over there. 
 
 Send the word, send the word over there, 
 That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming, 
 
 The drums rum-tumming everywhere. 
 So prepare, say a prayer, 
 
 Send the word, send the word to beware. 
 We'll be over, we're coming over, 
 And we won't come back 
 Till it's over over there. 
 Keep your head down Allemand, 
 Keep your head down Allemand, 
 Last night in the pale moonlight 
 We saw you, we saw you. 
 You were mending your broken wire 
 As we opened with rapid fire. 
 If you want to see your Vater in the Vaterland 
 Keep your head down Allemand. 
 
 Where do we go from here, boys ; 
 Where do we go from here ? 
 Slip a pill to Kaiser Bill 
 
 And make him shed a tear — 
 And when we see the enemy 
 
 We'll shoot them in the rear. 
 Oh joy, oh boy, 
 
 Where do we go from here? 
 Way down upon the Suwanee River, far, far away. 
 
 There's where my heart is turning ever. 
 There's where the old folks stay. 
 
 All up and down the whole creation, sadly I roam, 
 Still longing for the old plantation. 
 
 And for the old folks at home. 
 All the world am sad and dreary, everywhere I roam. 
 
 61 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 ( )li, darkies, how my heart grows weary. 
 Far from the old folks at home. 
 
 An amphitheater was built for the singers. Each team single- 
 filed to position filling the top row first, and sang the score 
 without pause or intermission. Military behavior evidently 
 counted five, volume two, speed two, and rhythm, melody and 
 consonance a third each. The engineers won easily on the first 
 three counts. 
 
 In the daily schedule singing came early, but each day was 
 perfected with an hour of play; compulsory play where you had 
 to, although you were not of a playful disposition, or were tempo- 
 rily indisposed. It was rough and fast, in keeping witli the great 
 for which we were training, and if anybod) was hurt it was 
 "in line of duty in time of war," and he was expendible anyway. 
 Following athletics so quickly that there was scant time in which 
 to dress and fall in under arms, came retreat and battalion or 
 regimental parade. Once in review at quick time and around 
 again at double time with no intermission, hut generally a call- 
 down by the colonel afterwards for no1 dressing your company 
 properly, or for doing "officers center" improperly, or for nol 
 saluting at eyes right according to orders, etc. The change from 
 quick to double time frequently put the men out to step and broke 
 the alignments, for which the company commanders blamed the 
 band in general and the bass drummer in particular. 
 
 Sergeant Kleesatelle was the bass-drum artist, and a good one, 
 but Captain Kelly was called for leading his company around 
 "like a flock of sheep" and decided it was Kleesatelle's fault. 
 
 "Do you know what double time is?" he demanded of the ser- 
 geant after review. 
 
 "Yes, sir, 180 steps to the minute, thirty-six inches each !" 
 
 "Well let me see you do it!" and he had another n. c. o. hold 
 a watch for an hour and count steps while Kleesatelle double- 
 timed back and forth in front of company headquarters beating 
 his bass drum. 
 
 That eyes right and hand salute in passing the colonel got me 
 and several others into trouble. The colonel declared he would 
 make me do it right or kill me. and as I wanted to die on the 
 fields of France rather than the parade ground of Sherman, I 
 tried my best. But after I had it to suit him. Captain Wildish, 
 upon being openly corrected in conference, excused himself by 
 
 62 
 
REGULATING THE ARM SWING 
 
 saying he was following instructions on page 163 of the L D. R. 
 and the colonel who had overlooked that page announced after 
 reading it that we would do eyes right according to drill regula- 
 tion thereafter. I give the colonel credit for being compromising 
 enough generally to give in to I. D. R. 
 
 Section 62 of the last named publication directs the march at 
 quick time and briefly states "The arms swing naturally." 
 Whether they swing four, six or any prescribed number of inches 
 is not stated, but the colonel conceived that his soldiers were giv- 
 ing their arms too much lost motion. As a preliminary to reform 
 he would stop all movement, then, from a habil of nothing he 
 could go to four or six inches, or, like humanely cutting off a 
 dog's tail an inch at a lime, could let out the swing gradually until 
 be gol it just where he wanted it. At any rate the order came to 
 keep the hands quiet and thumbs on the seams of the trousers. 
 This caused discontent, 
 because it was unnatural 
 and awkward. I hit it 
 gave the regimen! a 
 distinctive, if not a dis- 
 tinguished, appearance 
 which made the dough- 
 boys smile when they 
 saw us coming. 
 
 The colonel was in- 
 flexible. "Lieutenant 
 Minturn!" he yelled more than once, "did you see that fourth rear 
 man in the second squad swinging his hands?" 
 
 "No sir, I didn't." 
 
 "Well, what are you there for? I want you to keep your eyes 
 open and see what's going on. Punish him and report it to me." 
 
 As habit for unnatural things is hard to acquire this one was 
 slow in forming and the order against swinging the arms so far 
 as I know was never revoked. 
 
 THR DOUGHBOYS SUITED WHEN THEY 
 HAW US COMING 
 
 63 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 LIFE WITH THE ENGINEERS 
 
 The engineers were busy in the fall and winter of 1917-18. 
 Before the heavy snows and zero weather of that unprecedented 
 winter prevented, they hiked the seven miles to the rifle range for 
 daily practice-shooting, or longer distances on surveying and 
 pole-cutting details. Hundreds of them were busy with the more 
 enjoyable outdoor tasks of staking off miles of trenches in a large 
 area south of Preston road and bossing the infantrymen who were 
 detailed in daily lots of three or four thousands from other regi- 
 ments to do the manual labor. Bossing the job, our commander 
 insisted, was the true sphere of the engineer. When other sol- 
 diers were available they were required to do the work, but at 
 other times and particularly in our own area, our enlisted men 
 were taught the dignity of labor and how to become good 
 "straw bosses" by being bossed themselves. "Make it snappy" was 
 the slogan. Frequent orders came for large numbers of our men 
 to go as replacement troops to other divisions under orders for 
 immediate overseas service. The temptation was to get rid of our 
 least desirable ones — the dead wood. Our commander cautioned 
 "Play the game, gentlemen — play it fair! Don't send all your 
 worst men — and I think I needn't caution you not to send all of 
 your best." I noticed the stupidest in my classes and many with 
 unpronouncable names from East Chicago, Gary and northern 
 Indiana disappeared first. 
 
 By March, 1918, we were depleted to one-third of our allowed 
 strength under the new organization rules of 250 men per com- 
 pany. But the remnant were magnificent fellows mentally and 
 physically, trained by the months of camp life until they could 
 stand anything. Coincident with the spring rains came crowds 
 of new men. Captain Hess had been busy as personnel officer 
 with the qualification cards of the depot brigades until the right 
 of selection was denied there. Then he toured Indiana and with 
 
 64 
 
BREAKING IN RAW RECRUITS 
 
 the aid of Captain Dynes at Indianapolis and other specialists our 
 ranks began to fill again with very good material. An excellent 
 regimental band was one result of this selection and some good 
 art-talent came to my department. Captain Hess always had the 
 camouflage section in mind. 
 
 These new men had to be taught to shoot, to drill, and to be 
 all-around pioneer engineer soldiers, which means much indeed 
 from construction to demolition of rail and wagon roads; 
 ponton, truss and other bridges ; barracks, water-works and sew- 
 age plants. How to survey and map a country, to lay out field 
 fortifications, superintend sapping and mining operations, to tie 
 the clove hitch, bowline and fifty-seven more kinds of knots than 
 a sailor knows ; do all that others do and what nobody else can 
 and incidentally camouflage the rest of the army from the enemy. 
 For themselves, they haven't time to take cover. 
 
 A FRENCH GUN CAMOUFLAGED WITH CHICKEN WIRE SCREEN 
 
 We were in hopes of early overseas orders for the Eighty- 
 fourth division so there was no waiting for good weather and the 
 hardships of army life must have been real indeed to those men 
 who came to us that spring soft and new. A glimpse from their 
 side may be had in the following letter from my friend, Will 
 Forsyth, which was written on behalf of one of them. First, you 
 will note how he bewails his own misfortune in not being able to 
 get into the same discomforts of the army. How perverse is 
 human nature. 
 
 " I congratulate you heartily and say 'go on — go to it!' 
 
 65 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 and keep it up. Nevertheless, mixed with my exaltation over 
 what you have done and are doing is a feeling of downright envy. 
 For I must stay at home and can do nothing. Confound the luck ! 
 What is subscribing for bonds, etc., etc., etc., and gardening to 
 service there? I can't reconcile myself to any other view than 
 that it falls far short of what one ought to do. I can't help but 
 feel humiliated — though it is no fault of mine. 
 
 "Of course I wanted to congratulate you and compliment you 
 on your service, but there is a more urgent cause for this letter 
 and it is this : Among the art school boys who have recently en- 
 listed is a certain Earl W. Bott, as soft as mush physically, a 
 mother's boy and all that, but he enlisted ; partly my fault, for the 
 musicians' corps, was accepted and assigned to the Three Hun- 
 dred and Ninth engineers, your regiment. He has been gone about 
 ten days or two weeks, and I have a letter from him describing 
 his life. It seems that when a softy is assigned to an old regi- 
 ment like yours, he doesn't get the gradual hardening-up training 
 that the drafted rookies get, but is plunged right into the thick of 
 things before he gets his breath. The consequences are that 
 being unprepared, it gets their goat and knocks them out. 
 
 "Bott never marched in the rain for seven miles without a 
 raincoat or umbrella, and I doubt whether he ever walked that far 
 at one stretch in his life; never handled a gun; never had one in 
 his hands before ; never shoveled coal or hauled sod or did any 
 of those things before, and now he has to do all of them, all at 
 once ; but the funny part is that he's game. He don't complain a 
 bit, and he wants to stay in and is scared to death for fear they 
 will fire him ; all the more so for the reason that there is a sur- 
 plusage of fellows who play the particular instrument that he 
 does. He's afraid because he's soft that he'll have to go if any- 
 body does. It is such an astonishing surprise to me that I am 
 urged to write this plea to you. It so happens that Bott is a 
 lithographer ; a good one, and gave up a fine position to enlist. 
 Learned to play the saxophone so that he could pass as a musician, 
 never hoping that they'd take him as a soldier. His desire to stay 
 in and the way he takes his medicine is almost pathetic, it is so in 
 contrast to everything expected of him. So I thought that I'd 
 write to you, asking you to look him up and keep track of him. 
 and if he is in danger of being fired from the musicians he might 
 be useful, even a find for the 'camouflage' department. I'm sure 
 
 66 
 
THE NIGHT SERVICE OFFICER 
 
 you could use him if there is any opening, and since he has de- 
 veloped so much spunk and wants to stay in so bad, I'm sure 
 Uncle Samuel can make a man of him. He needs the army like 
 thousands of others as much perhaps as the army needs them, and 
 we don't want to lose a man if we can help it. I'm not so much 
 interested in Bott as a person, as I'm anxious to help the United 
 States to another soldier — hence this letter. 
 
 "We are now quite stripped of boys at the school. Every able- 
 bodied boy of enlisting age that we have had in the last three or 
 four years is in, and out of the lot only one drafted man. , Some 
 score, eh, for an art school ? It's about the only thing I've got to 
 be proud of. I don't know how much I'm guilty of this, but I'm 
 accessary to it anyway, and have left no word unsaid to help the 
 thing along. There is another boy recently gone to your camp 
 from here, Malcom Gregory, who might also be of use to you as 
 a camoufleur, but I'll stop now as this is enough to inflict on you 
 at one time. 
 
 "Yours sincerely, 
 
 "W. Forsyth." 
 
 The night of the day when this letter came I was on as night 
 service officer. This official must be present at regimental head- 
 quarters every minute of the time from retreat until he is relieved 
 at 8:30 the next morning. He must have an orderly bring his 
 bed-roll so he can sleep there, 
 and also bring him his meals ; 
 but as it excused him from the 
 irksomeness of attending "con- 
 ference" the duty was not un- 
 welcome save when it inter- 
 fered with town-leave. He 
 gave attention to emergency 
 orders and had a sentinel al- 
 ways at his disposal. Some- 
 time during his tour of duty — 
 it might be early or it might be 
 late — he was sure to be called 
 to the telephone to receive a 
 code message originating at division headquarters and to be re- 
 turned there without distortion after passing through a score or 
 
 67 
 
 PRIVATE BOTT REPORTS TO 
 
 THE LIEUTENANT!" 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 more like himself. It was a test of ability to handle code mes- 
 sages, which were meaningless to us and ran like this: 
 
 P— S— A— T— B— L. 
 
 N— K— Y— O— D— I. 
 
 R_M— V— C— G— H. 
 
 etc., etc. 
 
 Letters like P— T — B — C — G — or like A — J — K, and others 
 sound so much alike that we had to say P, as in pig ; T, as in top ; 
 B, as in boy ; C, as in cat ; G, as in gun ; A, as in axe ; J, as in 
 John ; K, as in kid, and so on. 
 
 I had sent for Bott and was in the midst of one of these sense- 
 less jangles when he appeared. He was a frail, spindling young- 
 ster, who limped badly in both feet, which evidently hurt him, as 
 he tried to stand at attention, but my strange declarations over 
 the telephone took his mind off his misery. As soon as he had the 
 opportunity he told me he had bad blisters on his feet from march- 
 ing to the rifle range, and the doctor didn't do much for him 
 except put him on light ditty, cleaning out stables and mopping 
 the kitchen and dining room, and he hoped that his feet would 
 soon be well enough for him to return to heavy duty, which in his 
 opinion, was a whole lot easier than the kind the doctor had pre- 
 scribed. Bott, I observed, had a sense of humor; he made him- 
 self useful with brush and pen and went to France and came 
 back with his regiment. While abroad he was official illustrator 
 of the history of D company, which gave him excuse to go to 
 Nantes every day or so for a brush or pen or bottle of ink — un- 
 failing evidence that he developed into a good soldier — one who 
 could use his head. 
 
 The story is told of one of these new men in another organ- 
 ization. He was on guard without having thoroughly learned his 
 duties, and a certain colonel was addicted to inspections on his 
 own account of the soldiers of the camp. General Hale had 
 called attention to a lack of familiarity with insignia indicating 
 rank and urged that attention be given to instruction in such 
 matters. The insignia of a brigadier general is one star ; major 
 general, two stars, and of a colonel, a spread eagle. The colonel 
 of our story was halted somewhat awkwardly by*the sentinel and 
 in reply to challenge said he was General Hale. Without further 
 ceremony he advanced and displayed his silver eagle. 
 
 68 
 
INSPECTING THE GUARD 
 
 "It's the old bird, all right; you can pass," the sentinel de- 
 cided, but didn't come to present arms. 
 
 "Don't you know an eagle from a star, or how to salute an 
 officer?" the colonel demanded. "Let me have that gun." and 
 thinking he was to be instructed by an officer the sentinel handed 
 his piece over in violation of the rule, that under no circum- 
 stances will he yield his piece, except to persons provided for in 
 his General Orders No. 6. The sentinel was minus his rifle when 
 the next detail came to relieve him because the colonel took it with 
 him as an object lesson. The sentinel was roundly censored, and 
 duly punished and to see if he had learned his lesson, he was 
 again approached a few weeks later while on guard. This time 
 
 AN AEROPLANE PICTURE OP VERDUN. IN THE 
 IS THE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 [IDDLE BACKGROUND 
 
 the challenge "Halt! who is there?" was disregarded, and the 
 person challenged continued toward the sentinel. The challenge 
 was repeated with the same result whereupon the sentinel brought 
 his piece to aim and fired without any further warning. The 
 range was too close for a miss, and he was obeying his instruc- 
 tions, which read : "A sentinel will not permit any person to ap- 
 proach so close as to prevent the proper use of his own weapon 
 before recognizing the person or receiving the countersign." 
 
 69 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 This story, whether true or not, illustrates a point of truth 
 that the men of the new army were quick to learn ; they seldom 
 made the same mistake twice and whenever a guard said "halt" 
 to any of us, we didn't argue with him ; we halted, and did what- 
 ever else he told us to do. 
 
 The story also reminds me that one of my first assignments 
 after attachment to the engineers was the preparation of an illus- 
 trated bulletin of several pages, showing the insignia of rank of 
 all persons in the armies of the United States, Great Britain, 
 France and Germany, which was reproduced by zincography at 
 the engineer plant and distributed to the Eighty-fourth division 
 for instruction purposes. The compiling of this gave me a per- 
 sonal acquaintance with British and French army officers at- 
 tached to our division, and this led later to much practical 
 information from them on the use of camouflage at the front. 
 
 I often passed the guard house at Camp Taylor in going to and 
 from the Engineer School, and my age and build apparently con- 
 fused me in the minds of some of the new men with the command- 
 ing officer. 
 
 Special orders for sentinels say "between reveille and retreat 
 to turn out the guard for all persons designated by the command- 
 ing officer," etc., which, of course, includes the latter. It is the 
 duty of the sentinel at the guard house — post No. i — to be on the 
 alert for the approach of persons or parties entitled to this com- 
 pliment and when he sees such he sings out, "Turn out the guard, 
 commanding officer." 
 
 The guard is divided into three parts known as reliefs, which 
 go on duty for two hours each, and when the alarm is given by 
 the sentinel to turn out the guard the two reliefs not on duty are 
 generally asleep or lying down at rest in the guard house with 
 their equipment off. They must jump quickly to get ready and 
 in formation outside in time to give the honors. 
 
 More than once I was mistaken for the commanding officer 
 and had my vanity tickled by orders to turn out the guard. I 
 gleefully told Colonel Bain about it, but he couldn't see the joke 
 if a second lieuey allowed the guard to be actually turned out for 
 him, and severely asked: 
 
 "What did you do, let them turn out ?" 
 
 "Oh, no!" I relieved him, "I saluted and said, 'never mind 
 70 
 
EASY TO GET IN THE GUARD-HOUSE 
 
 the guard.' " And the colonel then thought it was real funny and 
 laughed about it too. 
 
 Every day at n a. m. the commanding officers of the several 
 division units met General Hale at his headquarters and received 
 his orders for camp discipline, etc,, verbally. At 1 1 130 our bugles 
 sounded officers' call and our colonel verbally gave us the division 
 orders with additions of his own, which were all passed on by the 
 company commanders to their men. It was Adjutant Merrick's 
 business to keep full notes and everybody's to remember and 
 obey ; any soldier, high or low, was S. O. L. in that organization 
 who failed. If he forgot, or said he didn't know, Captain Mer- 
 rick would put his finger on the order, reams deep in the bale of 
 notes though it might be, and the excuse was thereafter void. 
 Hence it was real easy to get in the guard house as a prisoner and 
 for such, life was purposely made bleak and thorny to distinguish 
 that institution from the hospital as a rest-cure. 
 
 All smokes and reading, even to love letters, were barred, but 
 letters from a prisoner's wife or mother were opened and read 
 to him by the sergeant of the guard, or would be kept until bis 
 term ended. All eats were eliminated save such rations as were 
 sent over by their company cooks, which grew cold waiting for 
 the O. D. to inspect them, and throw out sweets and all sugges- 
 tions of dessert. What was left must be eaten standing, and 
 travel to and from latrines was ordered at double time, urged on 
 by the persuasive bayonet of an accompanying guard. Here was 
 an institution, too, where labor was recognized and insisted on ; 
 but the hours for work and rest of the standard union labor day 
 were nearly reversed. 
 
 While I sent several men to the guard house by direction of 
 my superiors in particular cases, I only recall one where I did it 
 on my own initiative. We prided ourselves in F company on 
 ability to discipline our men by company punishment — generally 
 by denying some privilege — without resorting to court-martial 
 and guard-house methods, which left black marks on the soldier's 
 service record. In the case referred to I had been detailed as 
 mess officer of the Officers' Mess. Civilian cooks had been em- 
 ployed until just previous to my tour of duty, but army cooks 
 were then doing the work. A cook in the army is of higher rank 
 than a private and gets ten dollars more pay a month. I had no 
 more than taken charge when the first cook asked me for more 
 
 71 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 pay. I took it up with the Mess Council, who said "no", the man 
 was a soldier and must be content with the pay of his rank. On 
 the Wednesday when I conveyed the ultimatum to the first cook 
 he went to Louisville to order supplies as he had been doing, but 
 failed to report back until the following Sunday night. When 
 asked for an explanation he said he felt so badly over the refusal 
 to raise his wages that he took a drink too many with a friend 
 and forgot he was in the army. This A. W. O. L. could not be 
 overlooked, as I told him, and the outcome was that he lost his 
 extra pay and privileges as a cook, was fined $15 and sentenced to 
 two weeks in the guard-house by order of the summary court. 
 But soldiers could not be detailed as waiters in a mess like ours 
 against their will. They could be hired if they were willing, but 
 money was no inducement in the Three Hundred and Ninth. 
 Our fellows said they didn't join the army for that kind of serv- 
 ice, and we had to hire civilian colored boys. 
 
 The job as mess officer is as unpopular as that of mess ser- 
 geant. It was wished on me and luckily taken away by my 
 request before I entirely lost standing in the regiment. 1 suc- 
 ceeded in bringing the monthly charge per officer down from $33 
 to $27, including a wedding present and a couple of cups. 
 
 A story is told on the men who were training in bayonet exer- 
 cise after the signing of the Armistice. All interest had abated ; 
 the instructors vainly endeavored to put pep into the class by 
 fiercely ordering them to jab the sacks stuffed with hay: "Go 
 after them ! treat 'em rough ! they're dirty Huns ! give it to them !" 
 etc., but nothing doing until this happy thought occurred: the 
 sacks were mess sergeants. 
 
 When one suggested it the boys came to life with a snap and 
 jabbed the sacks nearly to destruction before the drill-masters 
 could stop them. 
 
 Most of my experiences with the engineers seem to cluster 
 around the mess hall. That is because it was the only place where 
 we could comfortably be seated in a body, and it was in many 
 respects our home. The building, finished a short while after I 
 was attached to the organization, was a long, narrow frame with 
 the kitchen at one end and a large open fireplace at the other, 
 where the yule-log and various others gave out a continuous 
 
 72 
 
MRS. BAIN TAKES EXCEPTIONS 
 
 THE LATE COL. WILLIAM 
 
 GUTHRIE OF THE 309th 
 
 ENGINEERS 
 
 cheer. The tables were in two long 
 rows, joined by one across at the end 
 toward the fireplace, where the colonel 
 and his staff sat. 
 
 The housewarming was a big 
 Thanksgiving-night dance, the lavish 
 autumn decorations for which long re- 
 mained to cover the exposed rafters 
 and to decorate the walls. I remember 
 well, because I was detailed to make 
 pictures and cartoons for the occa- 
 sion, and was so prolific that the hang- 
 ing committee was at their wits' end 
 to find wall space enough in that fifty- 
 foot long room, and also because I 
 was publicly complimented by Colonel 
 Guthrie, which helped in making me 
 acquainted and more at ease in my new 
 environment. 
 
 The colonel told me in advance that I might go the limit on 
 cartoons. One showed him lecturing on the army rifle and 
 Lieutenant Colonel Bain, quite bald, in the audience. 
 
 On the night of the dance Colonel Bain came across the floor 
 and said his wife wanted to speak to me. When introduced she 
 said: 
 
 "Lieutenant Minturn, I want to talk to you about that cartoon 
 of Colonel Bain, — it isn't fair to him." 
 
 I felt guilty, but there were so many grounds for condemna- 
 tion that I sparred by asking: 
 
 "In what way is it unfair, Mrs. Bain?" 
 
 "Oh, his hair — you only show two hairs, and he has five ! 
 You not only do him an injustice, but you discourage him and I'm 
 afraid he'll quit using Herpicide altogether !" 
 
 Each day after the evening meal we had Officers' School, 
 officially spoken of as a conference, lasting from one to three 
 hours. Two large maps, fully ten feet square, one of Gettysburg 
 battlefield and vicinity, and the other of France and the war zone 
 were always available near the fireplace toward which we grouped 
 our chairs. There Colonel Guthrie, a man of extraordinary intel- 
 
 73 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 lect and expression, gave inimitable talks on military topics, or 
 we listened to experiences by officers who had been overseas. 
 The colonel firmly believed that trench warfare, as then waged, 
 would lead to no conclusion and that open warfare alone could 
 give a decision. Hence his insistance on the study of maneuver, 
 that we be ready when the time came. Officers were successively 
 detailed to read up and discuss the events of the day and to peg off 
 the front line changes on the war map. The colonel figured out 
 the ballistics of "Big Bertha" to show how possible but of what 
 little practical value the big gun was, and he explained the numer- 
 ous pamphlets issued almost daily on the new methods of this 
 war, but the serious work centered around a treatise on Technique 
 of Modern Tactics, by Bond and McDonough, and after we were 
 supposed to have mastered that and had reviewed I. D. R. and 
 F. S. R. we were given army maneuver problems on the Gettys- 
 burg map to solve. 
 
 To men who were tired out by a long and hard day those night 
 conferences were often more than tedious. On one occasion in 
 midwinter — the snows were deep, I know, and my day had been 
 particularly tiresome — the colonel talked until after 10 o'clock. 
 I was crossing the company street behind Lieutenant Kelly after 
 dismissal and remarked to him : 
 
 "These conferences after dinner are getting to be like regular 
 banquets, aren't they ?" 
 
 "Yes," he agreed, thinking I was in a complimentary mood, 
 and I corrected him by adding : 
 "I mean long drawn out !" 
 
 "Hush!" he whispered, "the colonel's just ahead of us and 
 heard you." 
 
 So he was, and just then turned off in the dark to his own 
 quarters, and if he heard I was hopeful that he was unable to 
 recognize in the night. Perhaps he did not know the speaker, but 
 whoever he was he got back at him next day at officers' call in 
 this wise : 
 
 "Last night I overheard a remark, which if intended for my 
 ears, was very unkind and not manly. No doubt I am tedious, 
 but I do the best I know how and I would think far more of those 
 who criticize if they came to me openly and above board." 
 
 I felt like thirty cents, and told Lieutenant Kelly that I was 
 going to apologize, but he advised : 
 
 74 
 
FUNERAL OF COLONEL GUTHRIE 
 
 "What's the use stirring it up again? The colonel's got it 
 out of his system now, and you'll only make him feel worse by 
 bringing it fresh to his mind." 
 
 I am making fine progress in the army, I thought to myself. 
 I offended Colonel Bain by that cartoon and now have offended 
 Colonel Guthrie with my wagging tongue, and if I remain a sec- 
 ond lieutenant for the duration of the war it will only serve me 
 right. 
 
 Colonel Guthrie died 
 early in April, 1918, 
 from trouble largely con- 
 tributed to by overwork 
 for the regiment. His 
 body was taken to West 
 Point Militarv Academy 
 for burial, but we gave the funeral of colonel guthrie 
 
 him military honors. I can see the cortege moving slowly to the 
 muffled music of the band, which he had so enthusiastically 
 organized, his horse with boots and saber hanging from the 
 empty saddle led behind a caisson drawn by four black horses, 
 bearing the casket on which the colors for which he died, were 
 draped. 
 
 Thus passed a brave, just soldier, whose life was a sacrifice to 
 duty, long before his time, as all who knew him felt. The follow- 
 ing tribute is from a letter to the widow, dictated by General Hale : 
 
 "Colonel Guthrie was one of the most able and efficient offi- 
 cers, not only in this division, but in the army. Loyalty, cheerful- 
 ness and efficiency were ever his creed. 'Duty, honor, country,' 
 the motto of his beloved Alma Mater was always his watchword. 
 
 "The commanding general appreciates to the highest degree 
 the earnest and untiring efforts of Colonel Guthrie to the organ- 
 ization and training of his regiment, and it is his belief that in so 
 doing, Colonel Guthrie's unceasing energy in that direction really 
 underminded his health and hastened his death." 
 
 75 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 TRAINING IN MINOR TACTICS AND EQUITATION 
 
 The pace was a killing one, and we had to take it. Lieuten- 
 ant Colonel Bain was made a full colonel and commanding offi- 
 cer of the regiment. Instead of lecturing to his subordinates he 
 made them do the work and every officer — doctor, preacher, and 
 quartermaster included had to solve innumerable problems in 
 minor tactics — reconnaissance, patroling, security, attack, de- 
 fense, convoying, withdrawal from action, holding engagements 
 and specialties in engineering, on the Gettysburg map, of which 
 the following are but samples : 
 
 Map Problem No. 3 — Security 
 
 General Situation : 
 
 The Susquehanna River forms the boundry between two 
 nations at war. The Reds are crossing the river in force with 
 strong detachments of cavalry reconnoitering toward Gettysburg. 
 Blue forces are being moved forward to oppose the Red advance. 
 Special Situation : 
 
 The First Blue division which had nearly completed detrain- 
 ing at Gettysburg on October 8, 1914, sent forward to New 
 Oxford the Fourth infantry and Troop A, Second Cavalry, under 
 Colonel B., with orders to secure and hold the crossing over the 
 Little Conowago (South Branch) at Diehls Mill. Colonel B. 
 designated the First Battalion and Troop A. to form advance 
 guard under command of Major A. 
 
 When the head of the advance guard reserve reached 584 
 crossroads, one-half mile east of Brush Run Station, a trooper 
 from the advance cavalry delivered the following message : 
 
 Adv. Cavalry, New Oxford, 
 8 Oct., 1914, 9:45 a. m. 
 Major A. : 
 
 Hostile cavalry regiment approaching from the southeast. I 
 have fallen back to this point without resistance. Citizens here 
 say positively that a considerable force of Red infantry camped 
 last night near Spring Grove. 
 
 O. 
 Capt. 2d Cav. 
 76 
 
PROBLEM IN MINOR TACTICS 
 
 When Major A. finished reading the above message his staff 
 pointed out an approaching column of cavalry whose head was 
 about 1,000 yards east of Hetrick farmhouse. It was now 9:15 
 a. m. Looking back at the main body Major A. saw that the 
 regiment had halted with its head at the point where the Western 
 Maryland Railway crosses York Pike ; the men were falling out 
 for the hourly halt. The advance guard had not yet halted. 
 
 The Little Conowago (South Branch) is about fifty yards 
 wide, three feet deep with muddy bottom and overhanging banks. 
 The Western Maryland Railway is intact to a point some dis- 
 tance east of New Oxford. 
 
 Required : 
 
 1. Brief statement of Major A.'s disposition at 9:51 a. m. 
 
 2. Major A.'s estimate of the situation. 
 
 3. His orders (exactly as given). 
 
 Map Problem No. 4 — Infantry Combat 
 
 General Situation : 
 
 An eastern army in hostile country is engaging a western 
 army along the general line Biglerville — Goldenville — hill — 527 — 
 hill 618 — Wolf Hill. Both armies are extending their lines south 
 along Rock Creek. 
 Special Situation : 
 
 The First Eastern Division is attacking along the Hanover 
 Road, its front extending north half-way to the York Turnpike, 
 and south half-way to the Baltimore Turnpike. 
 
 On the morning of October 20 the First brigade, north of the 
 Hanover Turnpike, and the Second brigade, south of the Hanover 
 Road, succeeded in forcing the enemy off the high ground just 
 west of White Run and in keeping possession in spite of heavy 
 counter attacks during the afternoon. 
 
 A night attack made by the enemy at 1 1 p. m. drove the First 
 brigade back to White Run, but the brigade commander, re-in- 
 forced by a regiment of the Third brigade, succeeded in recap- 
 turing this high ground at daylight and in pushing his line for- 
 ward to knoll 606 and the ridge extending south from that knoll 
 to Hanover Road. South of the Hanover Road the Second bri- 
 gade had maintained its position west of White Run during the 
 night in spite of hostile night attacks and in the morning had 
 attempted to join in the advance of the First brigade to the ridge 
 south of knoll 606, but as adjoining troops on the south had been 
 unable to hold their position west of White Run the Second bri- 
 gade had, at 9 a. m. been compelled to fall back to the ridge 
 extending from roadfork 546 to orchard northwest of roadfork 
 452. 
 Situation at 9 a. m. October 21. 
 
 North of the First brigade the Sixth brigade, Second division, 
 
 77 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 occupies the crescent-shaped knoll west and south of roadfork 
 587. The First brigade occupies, with the Third Infantry and 
 the attached Seventh Infantry, the line, 606, 
 inclusive, south to Hanover Road. The First 
 Infantry and Second Infantry, which suffered 
 severely during the day and night of the twen- 
 tieth, have been sent back to Dutch Road to 
 rest. The remaining regiments of the Third 
 brigade have been posted ; the Eighth at Han- 
 over Road crossing of White Run, the Ninth 
 at orchard northeast of Storrick, as reserves 
 for the Second and First brigades, respect- 
 ively. The artillery is in position east of White 
 Run. 
 
 chaplain mil- At this time the First brigade commander, 
 
 LE ?o A solve AD having ridden to the Ninth Infantry and con- 
 
 problems suited with the regimental commander, gives 
 
 the following order to Major A., commanding First battalion, 
 
 Ninth Infantry. 
 
 Orders of the Brigade Commander: 
 
 "Our advance line is suffering severely from infantry and 
 machine gun fire from the woods to the west and from artillery 
 fire evidently from Benner's Hill. Our troops on knoll 606 are 
 under close fire from troops in sunken road by Rocky Grove 
 school house, and machine guns posted on knoll 612 which stops 
 their further advance. 
 
 "With your battalion and the machine gun company of your 
 regiment, which the regimental commander will place at your 
 disposal, advance north and then west up this draw and capture 
 and hold knoll 612 as a supporting point for the advance along 
 the whole line. 
 
 "The Eighteenth Infantry (Sixth brigade) holds edge of 
 woods on north slope of knoll 606. Your advance will be between 
 those two woods. Our artillery east of White Run will support 
 you. Lieutenant X. (artillery) will accompany you as agent of 
 communication. 
 
 "The enemy's effective aeroplane reconnaissance makes it 
 necessary for you to advance in a formation to avoid loss from 
 hostile artillery on Benner's Hill. 
 
 "The remainder of your regiment is needed here and cannot 
 support you." 
 
 Required : 
 
 1. Estimate of the situation. 
 
 2. All orders and messages of Major A. 
 
 3. Disposition for holding knoll 612 if captured. 
 
 In some of the problems there was a Sergeant Hill, who was 
 78 
 
PROBLEMS IN MILITARY ENGINEERING 
 
 put in various trying situations that were immortalized In song 
 by the student-officers, of which I recall the two following 
 verses : 
 
 It's situation Number One ; 
 Said Sergeant Hill — "Look out for fun 
 And see the Reds begin to dance 
 When I shall shoot them in the pants. 
 
 It's situation Number Two ; 
 Oh, Sergeant Hill, what will you do? 
 "I'll drop my pack and throw my gun — 
 And then for cover, run, run, run !" 
 
 As the spring weather permitted, the Red and Blue forces 
 moved off the Gettysburg map to the real terrain in the vicinity 
 of Camp Taylor and Louisville, and we had problems in railroad 
 repair and the movement of our own regiment and division. On 
 several occasions at Camp Sherman, we were loaded into trucks — 
 sometimes taking our suppers with us for an early start — and 
 unloaded at unexpected places miles away, where mimeographed 
 details of friendly and enemy troops and their location near where 
 we had stopped were supplied, and we were required in thirty 
 minutes or less to estimate the situation and write the orders we 
 should give, were we in actual command under the conditions 
 named. 
 
 When the time was up our answers were collected, we were 
 ordered again into the trucks and taken further miles into the 
 country to new positions to which the same army had advanced, 
 or been driven, and the problem there presented had to be worked 
 out to fit the new location. After this was several times repeated 
 we returned to the camp where our solutions were criticized and 
 our errors exposed. All this was interesting but difficult, as it 
 touched every phase of military knowledge, and taxed all and 
 overtaxed many of us. 
 
 Did you ever look at a horse and realize what an agent for 
 giving misery and pain to human beings he might be made ? 
 
 To ride a horse in a normal way is a pleasure, but to take 
 equitation in the army with its "monkey drills" and bull pen meth- 
 ods as we had it, was not. 
 
 79 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 I cannot look at a circus horse rider any more without pitying 
 him as I do trained dogs, seals, and other animals that have been 
 tortured and frightened into their efficiency. 
 
 Think of a fellow so stiff that somebody must give him a leg 
 when he mounts, being required to jump off and on a moving- 
 animal without a saddle, and on an empty stomach, for equitation 
 came right after reveille and before breakfast. Think of him 
 folding his arms and leaning back until his shoulders rest on the 
 posterior end of the animal, which generally kicked up at the 
 contact, and then being ordered to "hold both legs straight against 
 the horse's neck !" Think of him being ordered to reverse his 
 seat and face the tail with the animal at a trot ; then go on around. 
 Think of his swinging his left arm in vertical circles and his right 
 at the same time horizontally in half circles and following his 
 right hand continuously with his eyes, then while both amis are 
 going as above, raising both feet until the legs to the knees are 
 parallel with the ground, and a lot more vulgarly known as 
 monkey drills. And while the troop strung out singly in a wide 
 circle are doing this, suppose your spine is freezing with a fear 
 that you will be the unlucky one to go next into the bull pen; an 
 institution of torture so close at hand that the periphery of the 
 circle you are racing around almost touches it, and into which 
 the officers doing the monkey drill until their turn comes, know 
 they must each go. 
 
 We were very curious about the bull pen while the enlisted 
 men were building it, and wondered what it was for. One or two 
 of us thought it was to break some of the wild horses in that we 
 had to ride. The patriotic fanners, who sacrificed horses to their 
 Government evidently believed the time opportune to get rid of 
 those that would do the loop and tail-spin like an aeroplane ; oth- 
 ers of us thought it was a corral for some of our fractious pack- 
 mules. It was an oval track a little larger than a circus ring, 
 enclosed on both sides by a twelve-foot fence. In it four horses 
 were turned loose, without bridle, saddle, or anything on but their 
 hair. Four officers at a time were called from their "monkey 
 drill" and assisted to mount the horses. The animals were then 
 urged into a run and at the quarter stretches a man with a whip 
 would spring out and yell and whip them. Sometimes a fright- 
 cued animal would wheel and run back or try to jump through 
 
 80 
 
THE BULL PEN AT SHERMAN 
 
 the fence, and the equally frightened officer would lean over to 
 grasp the neck or mane. 
 
 EM S 
 
 THE BULL PEN. A CARTOON BY WOLPORD M. EBERLY OF COMPANY F. 
 
 REPRODUCED FROM THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF COMPANY F, 309th 
 
 ENGINEERS. By Permission. 
 
 Then Colonel Bain, who was one of the men with a whip, 
 would yell, "Lean back! fold your arms! let go of that mane!" 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 It was great fun for him and for the regiments of doughboys, who 
 jeered and shouted as they marched past on their way to the 
 rifle range. 
 
 Some of the good riders among us, Mazeppa-like, were able 
 to stay on, but most of the officers fell off or were thrown or 
 raked off, and many were injured. In one morning four were so 
 seriously hurt that they were taken to the base hospital, and the 
 doctors there began to inquire what kind of a lunatic asylum we 
 were trying to run. Those four referred to were Captain Kelly, 
 injured spine; Lieutenant Helfrich, jaw bones broken, and Lieu- 
 tenants Harwood and Shogrou, hurt in hip and back. The latter, 
 a brave, husky lad, was heard to say that equitation in the army 
 had taught him to fear and hate the sight of a horse, and others 
 were brought to much the same feeling by the needlessly severe 
 and eccentric training - . 
 
 The ladies, "God bless 'em," rubbed it in here harder than 
 they probably knew. The wives of the married officers came to 
 Chillicothe to be with their husbands all they could before the 
 daily-expected orders to leave for France. In the early days of 
 Camp Taylor the ladies generally honored us with their presence 
 at our table on Saturday evenings and Sundays, which were leave 
 periods for all who were not being disciplined or were not on 
 guard or other special duty. The ladies enjoyed the novelty as 
 much as we did their presence, but this was stopped by an order 
 of General Hale, forbidding the entrance of women into buildings 
 of the camp. Said order was intended to apply to sleeping quar- 
 ters, and was generally so construed and applied except by the 
 engineers, who, with their usual severity took no chances of a 
 "skin" by adopting the harshest construction and barred the 
 women from the mess halls as well. When General Hale an- 
 nounced that orders of Taylor applied at Sherman, where appli- 
 cable, the enforcement of the one excluding women from our mess 
 was continued. At last the desire was so strong that Colonel 
 Bain requested special permission for the wives to eat with us 
 and was informed that the general's order was never intended to 
 prohibit it. 
 
 So the word was sent around that they might come, and the 
 colonel, a practical joker in his way, thought to have a little fun at 
 their expense by having a sentinel posted to turn them back at 
 
 82 
 
THE LADIES SING ABOUT OUR BULL PEN 
 
 first. My wife and Mrs Gabbart were crossing the drill field 
 from the Community House and were halted by a guard : 
 
 "Ladies are not allowed here ; you'll have to go back !" he 
 ordered. 
 
 "But we have permission from Colonel Bain," they insisted 
 without stopping. 
 
 "Can't help that, my orders are from General Hale, and I'll 
 have to arrest you for disobedience and impertinence." He 
 started them off toward the guard-house, which was just beyond 
 the mess-hall. Near the latter he was halted by the colonel, who 
 severely inquired what the matter was, then gave the ladies the 
 laugh, led them in and seated them at his table where Mrs. Bain 
 and others were waiting. 
 
 After dinner the colonel announced that our guests had pre- 
 pared a little entertainment in appreciation of the privilege they 
 were enjoying, and without further ceremony the fair ones sang 
 the following parody, which we overheard them say to each other, 
 was in the key of B. flat. It flattened us all right : 
 
 Build a bull pen, Engineers, 
 
 Build a bull pen, Engineers ; 
 
 Stript bare of everything but hair 
 
 Turn horses, loose horses, 
 
 Then mount and try to ride 
 
 With this music by your side — 
 
 "Lean back ! to me you ride in a way that doesn't count 
 
 Like learning to dismount, Engineers !" 
 
 Move your bull pen, Engineers, 
 
 Move your bull pen, Engineers ; 
 
 At dawn, we were looking on, 
 
 We saw you, we saw you, 
 
 You were riding your horses' ears 
 
 Which caused us to shed some tears. 
 
 If you want to keep a secret from your loving wives 
 
 Move your bull pen, Engineers. 
 
 In the bull pen, Engineers, 
 
 In the bull pen, Engineers ; 
 
 You can't stick — it makes us very sick 
 
 To see you, to see you ! 
 
 The trick is so very neat — 
 
 All you do is to hold your seat, 
 
 Just act sane — sit straight and loose the mane 
 
 In the bull pen. Engineers. 
 
 83 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Take your bull pen, Engineers, 
 
 Take your bull pen, Engineers, 
 
 T'other side, and teach 'em how to ride 
 
 In Berlin, in Berlin ! 
 
 Put every Fritz and Heine there 
 
 Though they think it isn't fair — 
 
 Make the Boche ride till he wears off all the hide 
 
 In the bull pen, Engineers. 
 
 This book is not a work of genius, but only an attempt by one 
 of the millions of ordinary mortals to voice the emotions that 
 recently controlled the average American, and to convey a civil- 
 ian's impressions of army life to the great number of other 
 civilians who have had no opportunity for first-hand knowledge of 
 that which man practiced first and has earnestly studied since — 
 the art of war. It may be defined as anything to win. It goes in 
 circles and since the sanction of poison gas and flame it harks back 
 in practice to the centuries before Christ. 
 
 The game of minor tactics described in this chapter was taught 
 to us but I fear it cannot be played according to the rules any 
 longer because the important element of surprise has been elimi- 
 nated by the airplane. The latter makes concealment more neces- 
 sary and more difficult. The "bull-pen" must also become only a 
 memory because cavalry will be useless, horseback riding too con- 
 spicuous for safety and equitation a lost art. We will give some 
 attention to the art of concealment now known as camouflage. 
 
 84 
 
CAMOUFLAGE IN WAR 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 CAMOUFLAGE IN WAR 
 
 In the preceding pages I have given the reader an insight 
 into the earnest, thorough, almost too severe discipline of the 
 Three Hundred and Ninth engineers. When they were charged 
 by their chief at Washington, in August, 191 7, with providing a 
 technically trained personnel, and the special material required 
 for camouflage, for the Eighty-fourth division, it will be cor- 
 rectly surmised that the one selected to carry out the order had a 
 real man's job. 
 
 But in my ignorance I rushed gaily in where angels might 
 have hesitated. Fortunately, while I knew nothing about the sub- 
 ject, my superiors were very little ahead of me in their knowledge, 
 My reports for a while remind me of a young acquaintance in civil 
 life who started his business career as a solicitor of life insurance. 
 When daily importuned as to> his success by his doting parent his 
 answer was, "I've nothing to report but activity, mother.' ' 
 
 About that time, the fall of 191 7, the leading magazines and 
 journals were taking turns at publishing sensational articles on 
 the subject : How a clever imitation of a dead German or a dead 
 horse w r as substituted for the reality in No Man's Land and used 
 as an observation post, or how the positions of Boche snipers 
 were disclosed by decoying them into shooting at a painted 
 papier machc head raised above our parapet on a stick ; how 
 broken trees, logs, posts and even stones were replaced by hollow 
 imitations which were hiding places, and the weird effects that 
 razzle-dazzle crazy-patch colors on ships, aeroplanes, and cater- 
 pillar tanks had on Heine and Fritz. Colonel Guthrie remarked 
 that it was better than reading a dime novel when he was tired 
 out and needed to relax, and he often made remarks that tended 
 to ridicule the subject and detract from its real importance. This 
 tendency of the old army men to belittle camouflage was because 
 they did not know what all was meant by it, and also because they 
 
 85 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 are trained to follow "regulations" and to regard anything not in 
 regulations as clandestine. When Braddock marched against the 
 Indians it was not in "regulations" to dodge and hide behind trees 
 
 OU«W BATTER^ 
 
 THE GUN EMPLACEMENT IS CAREFULLY CAMOU- 
 FLAGED, WHILE THE ROAD, A-B, IS CARRIED OVER 
 IT ON PAINTED CANVAS TO TRACKS LEADING TO 
 A DUMMY BATTERY 
 
 and rocks. Young George Washington urged him to fight In- 
 dians as the Indians fought, but Braddock would not. and the 
 result has gone down in history as Braddock's Defeat. 
 
 Our earliest instructions from the War Department said : 
 
 "Camouflage, as practiced in the present war, is a new devel- 
 opment, which has been carried to a high point of efficiency and 
 value, particularly by the French. 
 
 "It embraces, at present, not only the concealment of every- 
 thing used in military operations, trenches, gun emplacements, 
 military trains, machines of all sorts, observation posts, even 
 horses and men (snipers), but in making dummy-trenches, gun 
 emplacements, bridges, etc. 
 
 "It is of great value to conceal from observation any of the 
 material of war, but this value is greatly increased if we, at the 
 same time, can furnish the enemy with a dummy target concealed 
 just enough to be discovered. For example, if the enemy ascer- 
 tains the fire is coming from a concealed battery he will continue 
 to observe and thoroughly search the terrain, while if in the imme- 
 diate vicinity dummy guns and emplacements are partially 
 concealed and fire simulated with smoke bombs, the chances for 
 the life of the battery are greatly increased." 
 
 I found afterwards it was only those who had not been at the 
 front who spoke slightingly of camouflage ; that the closer one 
 got to the fighting line in France the less he ridiculed it, and when 
 
 86 
 
MILITARY CAMOUFLAGE REASONING 
 
 he reached the place where real danger was, his voice was loud in 
 calling for it. 
 
 Of course, every man in the army, or who has been in it, be- 
 lieves his particular branch of the service was paramount in its 
 importance, and all others but contributory. The infantryman 
 knows that he is the bone and sinew of the army ; the artilleryman, 
 that but for his barrage and scientific work the infantry would be 
 helpless and lost ; the quartermaster, that but for his supplies to 
 both, their efforts would be in vain ; the engineers that they blaze 
 the way for all to advance, and they alone furnish the roads, the 
 bridges and the fortifications. The doctor has statistics to prove 
 that but for him more men would die from disease than from bul- 
 lets, and there are the aviators, the tank, the gas, and other 
 important branches with weighty testimony to be heard. Every 
 specialist in each branch of the service rightfully prides himself 
 on his contribution or he would not be fit for his job ; but I think 
 I can prove to any intelligent person with an open mind that 
 camouflage is indispensable and has come to stay. 
 
 Since the advent of gunpowder and other high explosives in 
 warfare, there has been a great and protracted struggle for su- 
 premacy between offensive weapons and defensive materials. 
 This led to a general acceptance of the idea, for many years, that 
 strong walls, to meet the assailants' missies, were among the prin- 
 cipal objects to be attained. Hence the castles on high places and 
 the walled and deeply moated cities of Europe. But an obstacle, 
 however difficult, can never in itself be an effective bar to the 
 passage of resolute men. The thick walls of stone and reinforced 
 concrete of the supposedly impregnable forts that protected the 
 frontier of Belgium, served only as burial-coverings for the de- 
 fenders when the German army seriously challenged them with 
 modern artillery in 1914. The main purpose of all field-fortifica- 
 tions on last analysis, must be to place the assailants in an unfa- 
 vorable situation for using their own weapons, and greatly expose 
 them to those of the defenders. 
 
 Thuillier, in his standard work, "Principles of Land Defense," 
 has said : "In the present time, when the penetrative and destruc- 
 tive effect of the projectiles has become so enormous, it has 
 become a matter of great difficulty to find materials capable of 
 resisting. It is therefore open to question whether it is not more 
 expedient to so design the defensive works that the attackers 
 
 87 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 would find it most difficult to see and range on them or to ob- 
 serve the results of their fire, instead of burying the defenders 
 under masses of steel and concrete. The end aimed at would be 
 equallv well secured by the former method, as it would be very 
 difficult for the attackers to secure an effective hit, while the 
 great disadvantages of the latter method, namely, the hindrance 
 of freedom of action and the difficulty of supervision and con- 
 trol, would be avoided." 
 
 This was written in 1902, and was based on the teachings of 
 the Boer war. Speaking of the Boer, who had adopted the tac- 
 tics of the American Indian to which Europe was as much a 
 stranger as when Braddock went to his defeat, the above writer 
 said in his closing chapter: "He (the Boer) argued that if he 
 could make himself unseen, it was probable that even the most 
 powerful gun would be unable to hit him. and that if while un- 
 seen himself, he could find a cranny to fire his rifle through, he 
 would be able, by the rapid fire of that weapon in the use of which 
 he was an adept, to stay the advance of the well-disciplined, but 
 unpracticed at cover-taking, British troops. His premises were 
 more correct than ours." 
 
 A RAILROAD CONCEALED BY A COVER OF CHICKEN 
 
 WIRE AND RAFFIA. WHICH IS REMOVED WHILE A 
 
 TRAIN IS PASSING 
 
 The developments of the World war have demonstrated that 
 no obstacle can be erected to resist modern projectiles and explo- 
 sives. The French learning their lesson from the fate of Belgium 
 removed their guns from the forts before the siege of Verdun 
 and planted them in the hills, in places unknown to the enemy, 
 where they used them under cover. This was camouflage, and 
 the Germans did not pass. 
 
 The aeroplane, as the far-seeing eye of the enemy, makes 
 concealment, under the more general name of camouflage, a neces- 
 
MORE ABOUT CAMOUFLAGE 
 
 cessity where modern artillery is also his weapon. Use camou- 
 flage or die, is the ultimatum and will so continue as long as the 
 aeroplane remains a weapon of war, and the use of the aeroplane 
 in war is but in its infancy. 
 
 I would like to see all that was learned this time brought 
 together in a treatise on camouflage, and, weary as I am now 
 with the military service, I would willingly contribute to the limit 
 of my ability to such a work so those charged with "providing a 
 technically trained personnel" and the special material for cam- 
 ouflage, in the next war, will have something to start with which 
 we didn't have in the last one. 
 
 Through the kindness of the very accommodating attendants 
 of the Louisville public library and of Stewart's book store, we 
 obtained copies of every periodical containing an article or a 
 paragraph on the subject of camouflage, and my acquaintance 
 and affiliation with the quartermaster personnel enabled me to 
 successfully requisition generous supplies of paints, brushes, can- 
 vas, chicken-wire, and other things that experience or fancy 
 suggested were, or might become, "special material for camou- 
 flage," but the press clippings were so impractical that I do not 
 wonder they made Colonel Guthrie laugh. 
 
 About the time our classes started I was handed a typewritten 
 bulletin from the War Department, previously mentioned and 
 quoted from, which digested a lecture by Major Mackenzie of the 
 British army, devoted almost entirely to the concealment of 
 trenches ; and detailed to the engineer school, was a very intelli- 
 gent French sergeant of engineers, Martine, by name, who gave 
 us much practical information on the manner of screening roads 
 at the front. But Sergeant Martine took issue with the British 
 on the utility of trench concealment. Guided by the bulletin, but 
 with the sergeant holding back, we managed to start the classes 
 with pick and shovel. Sergeant "Heavy" Weathers, a fat, jovial 
 lad, detailed to the regiment from the regular army, was put in 
 charge of the digging reliefs after we had "sited" the proposed 
 trench in approved waves, with cornerless traverses. When we 
 checked up the work next day the waves had straightened into 
 bee-lines, and the traverse-turns were angular and square. 
 
 "Why didn't you dig that trench the way it was marked out 
 for you, sergeant ?" Weathers was asked. 
 
 "Sir, the French sergeant changed it." 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "What did you change that trench for?" I demanded of 
 Martine. 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders and said something that sounded 
 to me like "Three beans, messier, three beans," but which I now 
 know he meant to say that the trench was very good. 
 
 "Three beans!" I exclaimed, very much provoked; "it isn't 
 worth that ; you've spoiled it. The dirt thrown out for the para- 
 pet and paradose you have leveled off smooth and even too. We 
 want to get away from the straight geometric patterns and sharp 
 angles engineers have always used, because they are stiff and 
 unnatural, and catch the eye quicker than irregular looking curves 
 like the windings of a country stream do. Leave the dirt thrown 
 out, in little mounds and hills, to confuse with and hide the heads 
 of men in the trenches looking out ; it's easier done the way I tell 
 vou and a whole lot better." 
 
 NOTE HOW CONSPICUOUS THE SOLDIERS' HEADS ARE 
 ABOVE THE EVEN SANDBAG PARAPET 
 
 The sergeant tried to make me believe he didn't "compre" 
 this long lecture, but I felt sure he had a fair knowledge of Eng- 
 lish or he wouldn't have been sent to this country as an instructor, 
 and so it turned out when he finally said : 
 
 "No use — ze Bache, him know where iss ze trench." Like 
 many another, he was stubbornly for the teachings of the old 
 school ; he was there to instruct America and meant to do it as he 
 had himself been taught. But the rank of a second lieuey finally 
 overcame his zeal and losing interest in the department of field- 
 fortifications of the camouflage section, he left us to our own 
 idiosyncrasies and transferred his time and affections to classes 
 in uncamouflaged field-fortifications under Lieutenant Taylor. 
 
 There is room for honest differences in working out new 
 theories, and this I found to be true more than once in working 
 with some of the first lieutenants over me ; nice boys who admit- 
 
 90 
 
MY HARDEST THING TO CONTEND WITH 
 
 ted their inexperience, but also insisted that military deference be 
 paid to their rank by accepting their judgment on all debatable 
 questions. 
 
 Since reaching my majority I had always been in business of 
 my own, giving orders instead of receiving them from others. 
 I have been asked what was the hardest thing for me to contend 
 with in the army, and have replied that it was to keep up with the 
 young officers around me, but I will amend that by adding, "and 
 to be dictated to by youngsters who ranked me, in matters about 
 which I knew more than they." As I only lacked nine months of 
 being as old as General Pershing, it is obvious that practically all 
 of my seniors in rank were my juniors in age. But that didn't 
 worry me so long as they were reasonable. Most of them were. 
 We were all trying to win the war and I am frank enough to 
 
 AND HOW INCONSPICUOUS THEY ARE AFTER A FEW 
 
 MINUTES WORK OF MAKING THE BAGS IRREGULAR 
 
 ON TOP OF THE PARAPET. THE MAN AT B HAS HIS 
 
 SNIPER'S HELMET ON HERE 
 
 admit that most of them were better men, physically and mentally 
 alert, fresh from college and as keen as Gillette blades. Leader- 
 ship interpreted as a tendency to boss the job, scored big in their 
 selection from civil life, and their commissions read that they were 
 to exact obedience from their subordinates. To illustrate their 
 mental keenness : when I thought to display the range-estimating 
 knowledge acquired from Major Fulmer, I unfortunately selected 
 Lieutenant Johnson, one of the brightest officers of the Three 
 Hundred and Ninth engineers, to make first impressions on, and 
 was chagrined that he worked the problem a bit quicker than I did 
 myself. Later I was trying to find a book giving the prismatic 
 colors and their arrangement, and asked Captain Allen where one 
 could be found. He said he didn't know of any available book, 
 but he could give me the colors as wanted, and immediately 
 recited : 
 
 9i 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red," and added, 
 "the initials of these colors spell the word VIBGYOR ; remember 
 that and you'll always remember the colors in their order in the 
 solar spectrum." 
 
 At another time I was detailed to defend a sergeant in a case 
 which Lieutenant Bill was prosecuting, and was surprised at the 
 lawyer-like manner in which he presented his evidence and 
 summed it up before the court. I know he was without legal 
 training, but he couldn't have done better had he been a graduate 
 of Harvard Law School. 
 
 Their ability and quickness was well shown in their psycholog- 
 ical grades. Nobody could tell in advance just what the new army 
 from civil life would do, and every crank with a pet theory on 
 physical or mental efficiency-indication was licensed to try it out 
 on us. We were all ordered to take a psychological examination, 
 in which five was perfect and four just beyond human attain- 
 ment. Regular army officers were included until their grades 
 commenced coming in at two and under for so many that they had 
 to be excluded "for the good of the service," to save its reputation. 
 
 We took the test in blocks of a hundred or two at a time, 
 seated at tables with pencil and paper. The leader stood on a 
 platform and several spotters circulated through the body to see 
 that nobody fudged on Uncle Sam. When he was ready the 
 leader said : 
 
 "You will all hold up your pencils so I can see them, and keep 
 them there until I say 'go !', then you will write down the numbers 
 I shall repeat, stopping the instant I say 'stop,' and again holding 
 up your pencils. I will now repeat ten numbers which you will 
 remember and write down after I am through, just as I give them, 
 but not beginning until I say 'go !' " 
 
 Next he gave us ten words ; then to draw a line connecting 
 certain dots in certain ones of a dozen or more lines, or to draw 
 lines under, over, through, between, alongside, etc., etc., of cir- 
 cles or squares on printed diagrams, all exercises to indicate 
 adaptability, we were told, for remembering orders and commands 
 in the great war. 
 
 Then we were asked for synonyms and antonyms ; indicative. 
 I suppose, of our ability to crab over army life or to lambaste 
 subordinates, and for antithesis and syllogisms, presumably to 
 show how near we could interpret wrong and incomplete orders, 
 
 92 
 
MORE ABOUT CAMOUFLAGE 
 
 and wound up with problems in mental arithmetic, all at break- 
 neck speed. We were told if we didn't know to guess, as it was 
 important to ascertain how good we were at that. 
 
 Most of the engineers made high grades like 3.5, 3.75, and 4. 
 I noticed some who afterwards attained highest rank were among 
 those with the low grades and our Major Smith, a former Purdue 
 University professor, declared the test was more indicative of 
 snap-judgment than strong reasoning power, because there was 
 not time enough allowed for a careful thinker to function. That 
 was consoling to me with a grade of 2.55, and I immediately listed 
 myself with the careful thinkers. 
 
 I started to tell you something about camouflage, but as usual 
 have sadly digressed. 
 
 Anything that keeps the enemy from recognizing the exist- 
 ence, nature, or location of our supplies, troops, artillery, dug- 
 
 FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF AN IDEAL SECTION OF A GERMAN 
 TRENCH. IT LOOKS LIKE A DUMP HEAP 
 
 outs, observation-posts, telephone stations, and other military 
 works is camouflage, which should not be confused with simple 
 screening. 
 
 The country in which the late war was fought was sketched, 
 mapped and checked up more accurately than any battle-area in 
 history. It was divided up into blocks, lettered and numbered so 
 every spot could be quickly referred to. Thousands of observers 
 of both contestants in aeroplanes, captive balloons and other posi- 
 tions of advantage, were constantly photographing and examin- 
 ing the country to discover any movement by the opposite side. 
 
 Photographs taken from directly overhead or obliquely were 
 minutely studied by specialists trained to detect and interpret the 
 faintest marks, and other observers from the ground or from 
 captive balloons or in low-flying aeroplanes with field-glasses 
 looked into military secrets, unless skillfully concealed by 
 camouflage. 
 
 Each division had a division camouflage officer with subor- 
 
 93 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 dinate officers under him. They advanced with the divisional 
 engineer, ahead of the division, to reconnoiter for positions and 
 to plan for their camouflage. They afterward inspected the cam- 
 ouflage as erected. The bulletins issued in France said: "The 
 instructions regarding concealment are of vital importance and 
 must be obeyed." 
 
 Non-commissioned officers of the camouflage section were de- 
 tailed by the division camouflage officer to go forward with the 
 infantry, artillery, machine-gun and other organizations most 
 needing their services. 
 
 All camouflage was required to be planned with a knowledge 
 of the locality, secured by aeroplane photographs. As a conse- 
 quence the camouflage and aviation sections worked closely to- 
 gether. Country in which military works were about to be placed 
 were first photographed to enable the camouflage to be planned 
 wisely ; then afterward to determine the success of the conceal- 
 ment attempted. 
 
 A few of the problems of common occurrence may not be 
 amiss : Unless properly concealed, the extra dirt from excavating 
 dugouts along trenches where the men slept, made the positions 
 of the dugouts conspicuous in the photographs ; piles of ammuni- 
 tion and other supplies called "dumps" being stacked in human 
 regularity as contrasted with nature which is exceedingly irreg- 
 ular, showed in air pictures most conspicuously ; barbed wire 
 entanglements showed as straight-edged bands of different shade, 
 usually darker than the ground traversed. They were often ac- 
 centuated by marginal paths or by the narrowing of roads passing 
 through them, and if the enemy was able to trace our system of 
 wire they found from its formation the location of our machine- 
 gun emplacements, strong-points, in fact, our entire system of 
 defense. 
 
 Telephone and buzzerphone systems connecting batteries, com- 
 mand posts and observation posts were visible in enemy photo- 
 graphs, the overhead lines showing as a series of light dots, dirt 
 from post-holes, spaced regularly in straight lines and in most 
 cases followed by a path caused by linemen hunting breaks in the 
 wire. Often these paths were enlarged by men walking from one 
 important place to another, since the telephone line usually takes 
 the shortest route. If the wires were in trenches left open so 
 trouble could be located, they differed from defensive trenches 
 
 94 
 
ARMY CAMOUFLAGE BULLETINS 
 
 in that they were straighter and were free from traverses. Either 
 way the lines were very apparent and were a vulnerable part, for. 
 by breaking the system of communication a battery could be ren- 
 dereded ineffectual and useless or a whole division disorganized 
 by cutting it off from its divisional command. 
 
 The elimination of foot-prints and paths was a most serious 
 problem. Just as the nap on plush shows every touch, so foot- 
 prints made by men around camouflaged works provided signs 
 by which the work was likely to be discovered by the enemy. 
 They changed the natural texture of the surface and it photo- 
 graphed light. 
 
 Engineer Field Notes No. 23A, issued to us in France, said : 
 
 "We must not make the error of believing that movement les- 
 sens the use of and the absolute necessity for camouflage. 
 
 "As movement of troops is in itself conspicuous, so does the 
 necessity for concealment increase proportionately. The move- 
 ments of troops and guns in the back area is closely watched by 
 the enemy aeroplanes and, as soon as the former arrive near new 
 positions, aeroplane photographs are taken. It is the invariable 
 rule that camouflage must be completed before emplacing the 
 guns. Therefore, the camouflage detail should precede a battery 
 and, if possible, the guns should not be brought near the pro- 
 posed emplacement until the camouflage has been erected. If 
 this is not done it becomes an easy task for the enemy's intelligence 
 officer to plot the new positions on the map, which means that 
 the guns will either be destroyed or the position be rendered 
 untenable. 
 
 "Everything that can assist in quick concealment must be 
 utilized ; as positions beside existing paths or roads, in broken 
 mottled ground, guns irregularly aligned, the use of natural cover 
 such as groups of trees and cut branches, and the quick erection 
 of the various types of light, portable camouflage materials sup- 
 plied by the camouflage section for field and heavy artillery, 
 machine-guns, trench mortars, search lights, etc. 
 
 "Men must be drilled in quick erection of camouflage, as a 
 few moments' delay may result in severe casualties and possible 
 annihilation." 
 
 This doesn't sound as if camouflage was regarded as a joke 
 by the fighting men at the front, does it? I quote the following 
 from another bulletin issued in France : 
 
 95 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "As soon as an advance has been arrested more permanent 
 camouflage than the portable sets must be erected, covering not 
 only the gun itself, but also the shelters which will be dug. 
 
 DRAWN FROM PHOTOGRAPH OF LARGE FRENCH CAM- 
 OUFLAGED GUNS AT THE BATTLE OF VERDUN 
 
 "To secure such camouflage : 
 
 "i. Ask the divisional engineer for a camouflage officer." 
 
 This bulletin also defines the measure of responsibility of the 
 various officers and says, in regard to camouflage rules for any 
 particular location, "These the camouflage officer must make, 
 sufficient to cover the maintenance of the camouflage and the 
 preservation of the concealment it affords." The officer in com- 
 mand is then charged with enforcement of the rules made by the 
 camouflage officer as follows: 
 
 "Very Important. Camouflage discipline is the observance 
 of the camouflage rules which prevent the discovery of a camou- 
 flage position. It is created to prevent the betrayal of the posi- 
 tion through carelessness. Its enforcement must be strict, unre- 
 mitting and universal, if unnecessary annihilation would be 
 avoided and the tactical mission fulfilled. There are no special 
 privileges for officers. The foot-print of a general is as visible 
 in the aeroplane photograph as that of an enlisted man." 
 
 At Camp Taylor and later at Camp Sherman the camouflage 
 section of the Eighty-fourth division tried out all suggested 
 ideas and many original ones, which were finally boiled down into 
 
 96 
 
SOME OF OUR MASTERPIECES 
 
 a sixty-four-page set of instructions embellished with 120 illus- 
 trations, the pictures making it attractive and easy to grasp. 
 This was reproduced by mimeograph, illustrations and all, Ser- 
 geant Kleesatelle cutting the stencils in surprisingly good detail, 
 and the mimeographed work was numerously distributed in the 
 division. By later comparison with actual camouflage in France 
 our instructions tallied remarkably. 
 
 An early performance by Sergeant Kleesatelle was the con- 
 version of a conspicuous latrine into a pen of mules. One had 
 his head, made of painted tin, projecting out between the two top 
 boards in such a natural way that his ears flapped in the wind, and 
 Major Arthur Robinson declared it so fooled his favorite saddle 
 mare that she neighed to it when he rode up one day to get a close 
 view of the penned animals. 
 
 Kleesatelle's fame so inspired Corporal Harper that he painted 
 an old stone building into an open garage with several ambulance 
 wagons in- it. One outlined on tin was just entering and being 
 extended past the building broke the outline and looked quite 
 realistic from the distant roadway. Colonel Bain told the follow- 
 ing story on General Hale, in connection with this work : 
 
 "The general and his chief of staff, Colonel Halstead, were 
 riding by when the general noticed Harper's masterpiece. 
 
 "Halstead," he called, "I gave orders that no army vehicles 
 were to be stored in any old buildings in this camp, didn't I?" 
 
 "You did, sir." 
 
 "Well, look at that ambulance in that old shed. We'll go 
 right now and see who's to blame for that disobedience of orders." 
 
 So they turned their horses in on the side road leading to the 
 old stone building, rode clear around it before the general was 
 satisfied, then he looked sheepishly at his chief of staff and said : 
 
 "I guess we'll say nothing about this to anybody, Halstead." 
 
 Harper looked like an Indian and claimed to be partly of that 
 descent. "If you want to see my likeness any time," he often 
 boasted, "look at the Indian head on the new buffalo nickel ; I 
 sat as the model for the sculptor who designed it." He had tes- 
 timonials from a score of prominent artists of New York, for 
 whom he had posed, and he knew many of the tricks of the trade, 
 which helped us in producing several large relief maps of front- 
 line entrenchments in papier mache for divisional instruction 
 purposes. 
 
 97 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Besides Kleesatelle, Weathers and Harper, who have been 
 mentioned, my enthusiastic assistants were Sergeant Sharp, who 
 engineered the erection of the big sheet steel observation tree and 
 painted a warehouse into a well-filled coal-shed while a coal fam- 
 ine was on ; Archer, who popularized our workshed by painting 
 its exterior into a beer and coca-cola canteen ; Corporals Popp and 
 Taylor, who painted weird patches and foliage on barracks and 
 mule sheds until man and beast were delirious or lost in trying to 
 find the way home ; Bott, who could do anything with a brush, 
 but fell heir to most of the regimental sign-painting, and others of 
 a list so long that it would include nearly all of the many who 
 were detailed from time to time to the camouflage, sign-painting 
 and drawing classes. Captain Durham and many of my old com- 
 rades of Fort Harrison training days, and many officers of the 
 division who ranked me, were detailed for instruction. 
 
 Those desiring to learn more of the technique of camouflage 
 will be enlightened b> following me through France in the pages 
 to come, where I saw it as taught in the school of experience. 
 
 98 
 
ARMY TRANSFER AND PROMOTION 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 A CHAPTER ON ARMY TRANSFER AND PROMOTION 
 
 As previously stated, I was detailed as an instructor in the 
 Engineer School by order of the division commander, on October 
 i- 1, 191 7. When Colonel Guthrie at our first interview informed 
 Lieutenant Colonel Bain that he would employ me as an instruc- 
 tor the latter suggests that a request be made to the War Depart- 
 ment for transfer to the engineers, to which suggestion Colonel 
 Guthrie then demurred: 
 
 "Don't be in too big a hurry, Bain ; see first if the lieutenant 
 can make good." 
 
 On the eighth of November, following, Colonel Bain, as com- 
 mandant of the Engineer School, called me into his office and said 
 Colonel Guthrie advised that I make application for a commission 
 in the Engineer Reserve corps, and urged prompt attention on my 
 part as there was a likelihood of my being ordered to the Jackson- 
 ville, Fla., quartermaster school with the body of quartermaster 
 second lieutenants waiting to go. 
 
 The rules required such application to be accompanied by let- 
 ters of recommendation from three people acquainted with me 
 For this I obtained letters from Mr. Fred Hetherington, presi- 
 dent of Hetherington & Berner Company. Mr. St. Clair Parry, 
 president of Parry Manufacturing Company, both of Indianapo- 
 lis, ana! Major Fulmer. 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel Bain forwarded the papers to the chief of 
 engineers, Washington, which, at Colonel Guthrie's suggestion, 
 were for a captaincy. The letter of advice by Colonel Bain was 
 dated November 15, 1917, and said in part: 
 
 * * * "Lieutenant Minturn is at present a very valuable 
 member of the faculty of the Engineer School, Eighty-fourth 
 division, and also in the instructing staff of the engineer regiment. 
 
 "3. It is understood that on account of his commission being 
 in the quartermaster company, he is subject to removal from his 
 
 99 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 present duties at any time and it is believed that such removal 
 would not be to the best interest of the Government in the pres- 
 ent emergency. 
 
 "4. Particular attention is invited to the letter of recommen- 
 dation of Lieutenant Minturn, which is signed by Major J. J. 
 Fulmer, Division Inspector, Eighty-fourth division. Major 
 Fulmer is himself considered in the regular army, an expert on 
 rifle firing and military sketching and his opinion in this connec- 
 tion should bear great weight." 
 
 Naturally I felt elated for I regarded this as an indication 
 that I was making good in a line of army work that fired my 
 imagination. One of my quartermaster friends attached to aft 
 infantry regiment dampered my ardor a little by declaring a trans- 
 
 AMERICAN SOLDIERS BEHIND A CAMOUFLAGE OF BRUSH ERECTED BY 
 THE RETREATING GERMANS 
 
 fer from one line of service to another was now impossible ; that 
 he had tried it with the recommendation of General Hale and was 
 refused. But my case was different, and the air I was walking on 
 sustained me for about a week until the chief of engineer's reply, 
 dated November 19, reached me. He said: 
 
 1. Reference is made to your communication of November 
 15, forwarding application for examination for commission as 
 captain in the Engineer Officers' Reserve corps from Second 
 Lieutenant Joseph A. Minturn. 
 
 2. Orders from the chief of staff have been issued whereby 
 
 IOO 
 
MR. MARSHALL DECLINES 
 
 no commission can be given, excepting to full vacancies actually 
 existing. There are no vacancies at the present time in the 
 Engineer Officers' Reserve corps, and there will be none until 
 the present inactive list has been, entirely exhausted. For this 
 reason, it will be impossible to consider the application of 
 Lieutenant Minturn. 
 
 3. There are a very large number of applications on file 
 ahead of Lieutenant Minturn's, so that it seems quite probable 
 that it will be impossible to offer him any encouragement for 
 quite "a long time in the future. His papers have been placed on 
 file for such consideration, or if desired they will be returned 
 to him. 
 
 This began to remind me of the rocky road I traveled to get 
 the commission I did have. I consulted with one of my good 
 friends, who knew the army game, and he suggested that I use 
 some of the political influence that helped me to get back into the 
 army. 
 
 "But there are recent strict orders against that," I reminded 
 him. 
 
 "Oh, well, that'll never be brought against you if you succeed. 
 Get one of your friends to talk for you." 
 
 I thought if I could explain the situation to Mr. Marshall he 
 would be interested, and a word from him backed by the army 
 endorsements I had, would fix it for me speedily. As I didn't 
 want to write letters I obtained a pass and went to Indianapolis 
 where I made arrangements with Postmaster Robert E. Spring- 
 steen to go to Washington in my behalf. The result is told in the 
 following extract from his report dated December 12, 1917: 
 
 "I talked to Mr. Marshall and Mr. Thistlethwaite both about 
 your case and both stated emphatically that it would be impossible 
 for them to take any action in the matter. I went over the case 
 carefully with them and even requested that they hold your papers 
 and give the matter some consideration in the future, but they 
 said it would be absolutely useless because they had been turned 
 down on so many requests for transfer that it would not be worth 
 while. They stated that the department absolutely refused to con- 
 sider transfers, except those that came through the lines that you 
 have already followed." 
 
 Noting that Mr. Springsteen and the vice-president were mis- 
 taken as to what I was asking for, and there being no other way 
 open to me then, I wrote as follows to the postmaster and he for- 
 warded a copy of my letter to Mr. Marshall : 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "I am afraid I did not make my desires plain to you. I did 
 not ask for a transfer as such is generally understood ; I want an 
 order to take an examination for a commission as captain in the 
 Engineers Reserve corps — just the same as if I had no commis- 
 sion at all in the army. This has not been refused me, but I am 
 told through military channels that I must wait until all of a large 
 number of commissioned but unassigned engineer officers have 
 been assigned for duty, and still longer until a large number of 
 applications ahead of mine have been acted upon, before mine 
 can be considered. 
 
 "There is no reason, since I have been strongly recommended 
 by the superior officers of an engineer regiment to which I am 
 attached and am now doing the work of an engineer officer, 
 why I should be handicapped and my efficiency impaired by the 
 strict enforcement of a general rule that does not fit my case. 
 Please read over the chief of engineers' letter, and the statement 
 which I prepared for you, and see if it is not clear that I am asking 
 for an order for examination for a commission and not a transfer. 
 I want precedence over a number of others by reason of peculiar 
 conditions entitling me to it — because I am now performing the 
 duties of the office to which I am asked to be commissioned, and 
 in which I am retained by the special efforts of the officers of 
 the Eighty-fourth division, as the position is not an easy one to 
 fill. You can readily see that anything I have to teach is les- 
 sened in dignity and importance with men who are sticklers in 
 matters of rank and use that as a measure of merit, when a man 
 of my years, as instructor, is apparently worthy only of the lowest 
 commission of second lieutenant." 
 
 In a letter from Mr. Springsteen, dated December 27, 1917, 
 he quotes from Mr. Marshall's reply, as follows: 
 
 "The vice-president regrets that he is unable to become con- 
 vinced that Minturn should have precedence over others, and, as 
 his request through military channels has been denied because 
 others are ahead of him, the vice-president feels unwilling to use 
 any further personal influence, not that he has anything against 
 Minturn, but knowing that preference given him will work to the 
 detriment of others. I trust you and Mr. Minturn will 
 understand." 
 
 While awaiting the outcome of these negotiations an order 
 came from the War Department, dated December 10, 191 7, reliev- 
 ing me and seventy-two other quartermaster second lieutenants 
 from duty at Camp Taylor and ordering us to proceed without 
 delay to Camp Joseph E. Johnston, Jacksonville, Fla. Colonel 
 Guthrie got busy over the wires with Washington, through our 
 
 102 
 
COL. GUTHRIE RENEWS HIS RECOMMENDATION 
 
 division headquarters, and by some means had the part relating 
 to me rescinded for the time being, but the constant menace of 
 being ordered back to the quartermaster remained. 
 
 During the months of January and February Colonel Guthrie 
 and Lieutenant Colonel Bain were both absent much of the time 
 on sick leave, so nothing more was done in my case, but on Feb- 
 ruary 25, 1918, Colonel Guthrie wrote to the chief of engineers 
 that through information informally received, conditions which 
 led to the order of the chief of staff, referred to in the letter of 
 November 15, 1917, no longer obtained, he understood, and it 
 might be possible to give favorable consideration to the applica- 
 tion for transfer of Lieutenant Minturn to the engineers. The 
 following is an extract from Colonel Guthrie's letter : 
 
 "2. Since the above communications were written. Lieuten- 
 ant Minturn's services have been very satisfactory indeed, and he 
 has been of very great assistance in the Division Engineer School 
 as instructor, both in camouflage and in landscape sketching." 
 
 My former application and the papers supporting it, which 
 the chief of engineer's office said would be placed on file for 
 future consideration were evidently thrown in the wastebasket, 
 judging from this reply, dated March 4, 1918: 
 
 "1. Receipt is acknowledged of your communication of Feb- 
 ruary 24, 1918, concerning Lieut. Joseph A. Minturn. A search 
 of the records of this office fails to disclose your letter of Novem- 
 ber 15, 1917, or the copy of the reply of this office of November 
 19, 191 7. It is suggested that you renew your recommendation 
 in this case, setting forth the facts in full in order that the matter 
 may be given proper consideration. 
 
 "2. If your recommendation is one for the promotion of this 
 officer, or his assignment to other duties, you are advised that it 
 should be submitted through military channels." 
 
 It is the practice in the army to add whatever you have to say 
 in reply to correspondence, by way of an endorsement, which is 
 returned with the original. Following this procedure, Colonel 
 Guthrie returned the letter with an endorsement dated March 11, 
 including copies of former papers and stating in part : 
 
 "2. The application of Lieutenant Minturn referred to in my 
 letter of February 25, 19 18, was an application for examination 
 for a commission as captain in the Engineer Reserve Corps. 
 * * * * 
 
 103 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "3. Lieutenant Minturn holds a commission as second lieu- 
 tenant in the Quartermaster Corps, but has been on duty ever 
 since the establishment of the Engineer School, Eighty-fourth 
 division, N. A., as instructor in panoramic sketching and camou- 
 flage ; his services have been very satisfactory and he has con- 
 tributed very largely to the success of the engineer school. 
 Lieutenant Minturn was educated as an engineer, but later grad- 
 uated in law and practiced that profession. However, as a side 
 line he has kept up with engineering, particularly surveying of 
 subdivisions and building construction. By arrangement, he is 
 detailed for the Engineer School, but, being a member of the 
 Quartermaster corps, he is of course subject to orders which 
 would take him back to duties belonging to that corps at any time. 
 
 "4. It is my opinion that Lieutenant Minturn should be com- 
 missioned in the Engineers, and it is believed that his direct 
 commission by means of the old application is probably the 
 quickest and easiest way to accomplish this purpose. It is not 
 desired to assign Lieutenant Minturn to other duties at the pres- 
 ent time, and it is intended to secure his promotion more by means 
 of a new commission than by transfer." 
 
 These papers came back with an indorsement by the chief of 
 engineers which convinced me that I was up against that Fate 
 which always starts a fight whenever I go after anything. It was 
 dated March 22, 1918, and read: 
 
 "1. Returned, disapproved. 
 
 "2. These papers show that when Lieutenant Minturn 
 entered the military service he was not a practicing engineer, but 
 was a lawyer and therefore not eligible for appointment in the 
 Engineer Reserve corps. 
 
 By command of the Chief of Engineers : 
 
 E. EVELETH WINSLOW, 
 Brigadier General, Engineers. 
 
 Now, what do you know about that? Nearly up to the goal 
 and turned down because I was a lawyer ! Instead of discourag- 
 ing me it put ginger into the pursuit and made me really deter- 
 mined to be an engineer captain. Just how, I didn't know. It was 
 not meant to be, I suppose, but what I had heard Colonel Guthrie 
 and other regular army men say against lawyers made me feel 
 that General Winslow's reason for disapproval was a slur on my 
 civil profession. According to the colonel a lawyer's mind is 
 
 104 
 
CITED IN REPORTS TO ADJUTANT GENERAL 
 
 trained wrong for him to ever become a good soldier. He draws 
 his conclusion, so the colonel said more than once in my presence, 
 according to the side of the case that his retainer comes from, 
 then warps the facts to fit his estimate of what he would like the 
 situation to be ; not what it was, while an army officer leaves his 
 mind open until he gets all the facts, then estimates the situation 
 from the facts and on this bases his conclusion. I came near get- 
 ting in bad trying to correct this wrong impression of the colo- 
 nel's. I had regarded a trial lawyer as necessarily a good fighter 
 and a good general, one who had to estimate both sides of the 
 situation carefully and use his ammunition well to win a legal 
 battle, and believed then and do yet that a good fighter in court 
 would make a good fighter in the army. 
 
 But as my specialty was patent law, involving a wide knowl- 
 edge of all of the arts and sciences as well as of engineering, why 
 fight the general practitioner's battles when I could qualify in 
 this case as an engineer? I set about getting affidavits and was 
 soon in position to submit a formidable array of sworn statements 
 from prominent manufacturers and college professors who knew 
 me professionally in civil life, to the effect that I was an engineer 
 and practiced it for more than twenty years prior to and up to my 
 entering the military service. If the chief of engineers doesn't 
 throw my papers away again, posterity will have something to be 
 proud of when it reads that record of its ancestor. 
 
 To these affidavits I added the following quotations taken 
 from reports of inspectors sent by the War Department to inspect 
 the Eighty^-fourth division and the Three Hundred and Ninth 
 engineers, respectively : 
 
 Extract from the report to the adjutant general, U. S. Army, 
 Washington, D. C, of the inspection of the Eighty-fourth divi- 
 sion, N, A., made by General T. O. Donaldson, I. G. D., February 
 19, 1918, referring to the Three Hundred and Ninth Engineers: 
 
 "* * * * A great deal of attention has been devoted to 
 camouflage instruction and good work seems to have been done 
 in this subject. The instructor in this subject, Second Lieutenant 
 Joseph A. Minturn, 0. M. C, appears to have a natural talent for 
 this work. It appears this officer should be transferred from the 
 Quartermaster corps to the Engineer regiment for which he is 
 better fitted. * * * * The officer appears to be in fine 
 physical condition." 
 
 Extract from the report to the Adjutant General, U. S. Army, 
 Washington, D. C., of the inspection of the Three Hundred and 
 
 105 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Ninth Engineer regiment and train. Eighty-fourth division, N. A., 
 made by Colonel Lytle Brown, Engineers, N. A., April 14, 191 8: 
 « 2 _ * * * * There is attached one officer of the Quar- 
 termaster corps, Second Lieut. J. A. Minturn, of whom special 
 mention is here made. This officer is gifted and qualified to an 
 extraordinary degree for service in camouflage work. I recom- 
 mend that he be transferred from the Quartermaster corps to the 
 Engineer Officers' Reserve corps and be promoted * * with 
 a view to his assignment to camouflage work." 
 
 Colonel Guthrie was dead, and Colonel Bain, as his successor, 
 forwarded my papers to the chief of engineers. 
 
 One day in April Colonel Pearson, camp quartermaster, 
 called me to his office and wanted to know how I was getting 
 along at the engineers, and just what I was doing there. I told 
 him, and he asked : 
 
 K«SP 
 
 AMERICAN TROOPS PRESSING THE BOCHE RETREAT IN THE 
 ST. MIHIEL SALIENT 
 
 "I thought they were going to transfer you and give you a 
 promotion?" 
 
 "That's been the effort for some months, I understand." 
 
 "Well, why don't they do it then I'll get you a captaincy ; 
 come on back home, we need you here." 
 
 "I wouldn't see service at the front, here, would I ?" 
 
 "No, you don't really want that?" 
 
 "But I do, though: now I've gone this far I'd rather go to 
 France as a second lieutenant than stay here as a captain ! Can't 
 you recommend me for a captaincy and overseas service too?" 
 
 "All right," after a moment's thought, "you're no good to me 
 or the quartermaster department where you are now. Write me 
 
 106 
 
COLONEL PEARSON'S RECOMMENDATION 
 
 a letter giving your education and army experience and I'll do it." 
 He wrote the following letter to the quartermaster general as the 
 result of our interview : 
 
 April 29, 1918. 
 From : Camp Quartermaster, Camp Zachary Taylor, Ky. 
 To : The Quartermaster General of the army 
 
 (Attention Personnel Division) 
 Subject: Transfer of Second Lieut. loseph A. Minturn, 
 Q. M. C, N. A. 
 
 1. Attention is invited to the attached letter of Lieutenant 
 Minturn giving a brief history of his education and assignment ; 
 also to the several letters of recommendation and certification of 
 his ability from various army officers and others regarding Lieu- 
 tenant Minturn. 
 
 2. Lieutenant Minturn reported for duty at this camp on 
 August 29, 1917, and was attached to the Purchase and Property 
 branches of the camp quartermaster, where he did most excellent 
 work. 
 
 3. Since October 7, 1917, Lieutenant Minturn has been 
 attached to the Three Hundred and Ninth Engineers, as an 
 instructor in Field Fortifications and Topography— panoramic 
 sketching and camouflage work. 
 
 4. Lieutenant Minturn is still attached to the division as indi- 
 cated above, and he is most eminently fitted for the work he is 
 doing. 
 
 5. While Lieutenant Minturn is 57 years of age he is a mag- 
 nificent specimen physically and mentally, and his whole training 
 has been along engineering lines, and his ability was so well 
 recognized here that he was immediately detached by the division 
 commander from the Quartermaster Department and assigned for 
 duty with the engineers. 
 
 6. While this office would like very much indeed to have 
 a man with the ability possessed by Lieutenant Minturn attached 
 here for duty, it is an absolute waste of very valuable material to 
 keep such a man in a subordinate position here in the Quarter- 
 master Department, and I urgently recommend his transfer to the 
 Engineer corps, where he will give a most excellent account of 
 himself on any duty to which he may be assigned, as his engineer 
 ing experience has been most extensive, and he is a thoroughly 
 practical as well as a theoretical engineer. 
 
 7. In connection with the above I would, recommend that he 
 be promoted to the grade of captain, as his services have been of 
 inestimable value since he came to this camp, and Minturn is a 
 most capable man and his promotion is warranted. 
 
 107 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 8. Lieutenant Minturn is extremely desirous for foreign 
 service and will make an excellent man for such duty. 
 
 S. B. PEARSON, 
 Lt. Colonel, Q. M. Corps. 
 8 Incls. (Copy for Lt. Minturn.) 
 
 On May 12, 1918, paragraph 2 of Division Special Orders No. 
 131, relieved me from attachment to the Three Hundred and 
 Ninth Engineers and assigned me to duty in the office of the 
 Division Quartermaster. This was to insure my going overseas 
 with the division ; otherwise I would have remained behind with 
 the camp quartermaster ; but less than a week later I was handed 
 a copy of the following telegram : 
 
 Washington, D. C. 7:33 p. m. May 17, 1918. 
 Commanding General, Camp Taylor, Ky. 
 
 Second Lieutenant Joseph Allen Minturn appointed first 
 lieutenant Engineers National Army with rank from May 15. 
 Direct him to mire acceptance Attention Room 363. and report 
 to you for assignment to duty with Three Hundred and Ninth 
 Engineers. 
 
 McCain 
 
 7:22 p. m. 
 
 Curiously that was not in response to my application for exam- 
 ination for a commission as captain in the Engineer Reserve corps 
 but a transfer; a doing of the very thing that Mr. Marshall and 
 others had delcared the department absolutely refused to con- 
 sider. It was for a first lieutenancy ; why not a captaincy which 
 Colonel Guthrie had told me to put in for and had been talked so 
 much about? Colonel Guthrie died before Colonel Lytle Brown 
 came to inspect our regiment, but I had Colonel Bain's statement 
 that Colonel Brown was going to recommend a captaincy and 
 assignment to camouflage work, upon which event Colonel Brown 
 thought I would be sent to instruct at the Engineer Officers' 
 Training camp at Ft. Lee, in Virginia. In that case I would 
 never have seen France and am glad I did not get a captaincy 
 then. 
 
 [08 
 
WE MARCH AND CAMP 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HIKES AT CAMP TAYLOR 
 
 There had been much talk of a long hike of the Three Hun- 
 dred and Ninth engineers to Indianapolis and Martinsville, the 
 latter place being Colonel Bain's home town, which would com- 
 bine practical engineering with marching and tent life. It was 
 looked forward to with pleasant anticipation as a relief from irk- 
 some barracks routine. We were not told when the start would 
 be made, but were warned to be ready. 
 
 The order came early in May that the regiment would move 
 out by 6 o'clock next morning, and great was the bustle that fol- 
 lowed but few there were who actually were ready when the 
 time came. 
 
 The regiment finally got away ; marched out two or three 
 miles, then marched back, which was far enough, however, to 
 demonstrate how little prepared we were. We were cautioned 
 again to get ready, as none would be told when the real march 
 would begin. 
 
 Within a week a second order came and we got away in very 
 good shape. Colonel Bain informed me that as a second lieuten- 
 ant I was not entitled to ride ; therefore, I should walk and would 
 be attached to D company for the trip. The stable orderly not 
 receiving instructions from anybody it seems, reasoned it out that 
 I was entitled to a horse and brought me one, which, thinking 
 the C. O. had probably changed his mind, I mounted and rode 
 bravely off with the officers of Company D. The colonel started 
 ahead, but halted at the first little village to review his troops. 
 
 "What are you doing with that horse?" he demanded when he 
 saw me riding by. 
 
 "The orderly brought him without my request, sir, I supposed 
 you'd changed your mind and sent him. So I'm riding him, as I 
 take it you'd have me do," and I smiled my gratitude. 
 
 "No, not so! I intended you should walk." 
 109 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "Very sorry for the mistake, sir; shall I walk from here?" 
 
 "No, if you're soldier enough to rustle yourself a mount in my 
 regiment without orders you're entitled to ride, so keep your 
 horse." I kept him, but don't know yet whether the colonel was 
 in earnest or only joking in the whole matter. 
 
 We marched toward the Ohio river and soon were in the hilly 
 country bordering that waterway. One of the enlisted men with 
 weak lungs fell out exhausted, and I insisted on his taking my 
 horse, while I hiked with Little Casey. 
 
 Casey was a character. He represented the Knights of Co- 
 lumbus, and furnished the boys with free writing material and 
 stamps at cost, and mailed their letters and cards for accommoda- 
 tion. He refused when offered a chance to ride in the regimental 
 wagons, and carried his pack like the rest of the boys so he'd have 
 no advantage, he said, over the lowest private. 
 
 His sympathy and cheer made Casey justly popular and the 
 regiment would gladly have taken him to France, but he couldn't 
 get orders from his superiors to go. 
 
 The camp we finally made was on a level strip between the 
 high bluffs and the river, near Iroquois Park and West Port, on 
 ground barely large enough for our purpose which we reached 
 over a trail so rocky and steep that one of F company's tool- 
 wagons, mules, driver and all, fell off and rolled over and over 
 until stopped by a tree half way to the bottom. We camped there, 
 where hoarse whistles of passing steamboats saluted us for several 
 days, cutting timber, building a new road up the hill with easy 
 grades and reconstructing a considerable -bridge over a creek 
 between our camp and West Port so we could get out that way 
 011 our return home. 
 
 Outposting, as rigid as if we were in the enemy's country, 
 was insisted on. The first night 1 was in command of a picket of 
 three squads, posted at a road- fork in the woods remote from the 
 camp. Our picket furnished a cossack post on our level further 
 out, and in daytime a sentry squad in observation on top of the 
 bluff. It was my business to inspect the reliefs and the climb to 
 the post on the hill was better than medicine to reduce the weight. 
 We could see Louisville from there. Our food, a stew, was 
 brought out in a wash-boiler from the company kitchen at the 
 main camp, and as I was preparing to eat my portion, one of the 
 men asked if I would have a cup of milk. He had a bucketful, 
 
 no 
 
FIRST CAMP EXPERIENCES 
 
 fresh from the cow. How he got it I did not inquire. He was a 
 good soldier and as a good soldier is known to be a good forager 
 it is not always best to be too inquisitive. 
 
 a^pgQgagS ^rrT^-yy^^ . 
 
 KENTUCKY WAS SO PATRIOTIC THAT EVEN THE COWS CAME 
 UP TO BE MILKED 
 
 In the morning of the fourth day equipment and rifles were 
 removed from the many long rows of shelter-tents in the big 
 camp, the shallow drains around the tents were filled and sodded 
 and pounded down, the tent-pins were loosened and the men were 
 standing at attention in front of their respective tents when the 
 "general" was sounded. With the last note of the bugles every 
 tent was lowered toward the river side; the packs were quickly 
 made up, equipment swung and the men marched off in about the 
 time it takes to write about it. Like magic, the busy camp became 
 once more a lonesome field, without rubbish or scrap or scarcely 
 a sign remaining to tell .the world that two thousand men had 
 lived there four days, so marvelous and. thorough is our army. 
 
 We put out an advance guard, with regulation point, advance 
 party, support and reserve, to guard the regiment against surprise, 
 whether expected from the Blue Grass region or the mountains, 
 from ghosts of the Bloody Hunting Grounds, feudalists, moon- 
 shiners, hookworm or German sympathizers, I know not, but I do 
 know we were prepared, until our point made a mistake in the 
 road, wandered off and got lost. 
 
 At no time on this hike were we more than eight or nine miles 
 from Camp Taylor, but it was just as tiresome to march around 
 in a circle as in a straight-away direction. We were purposelv 
 
 in 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 shunted "around Robin Hood's barn" to harden the good men 
 and to bring the imperfections of the poor ones to the surface. 
 We understood that these hikes were but preliminary to the ex- 
 pected march on Indianapolis and Martinsville, the enthusiasm 
 for which began to wane as the novelty wore off. We were 
 destined never to go to Indianapolis because the entire Eighty- 
 fourth division moved too soon to Camp Sherman. But we did 
 begin another hike in early June, getting as far as LaGrange from 
 where we made a forced march to take our place with the de- 
 parting division. 
 
 I was transferred to the engineers and made a first lieutenant 
 between the times of the hikes to West Port and LaGrange, and 
 on this last hike I was entitled to ride a horse. Our march was 
 past the Louisville water works, where many of the ladies came 
 out to cheer us on our way, and we continued east along the Ohio, 
 through a beautiful country not yet browned by the hot summer 
 sun which beat down and made a canteen of water seem too little 
 for a soldier weighted with a heavy pack and gun. 
 
 We established Camp Guthrie where a fair creek empties into 
 the Ohio, and remained there three days, doing only good unto 
 the farmer, who had let us into his pasture. Our camp was on 
 the far side of a ravine across which the road ran after leaving 
 the gate. It was so steep to a small bridge at the bottom, and so 
 crooked that some of the wheels of one or two of the wagons 
 missed the bridge entirely, causing the wagons to turn turtle. So 
 we dug a new road straighter and easier and rebuilt the bridge 
 to show we were good fellows and that all we wanted was work. 
 
 A regiment of men, with the teams and tools provided by a 
 generous Government, can do wonders in a short time, as we 
 demonstrated next day to the admiration of that community when 
 the lucky farmer, who had swarmed the hive of busy bees that we 
 were, turned us into a large primeval timber lot. A deep, wide 
 ravine was here also, through which the owner wanted a wagon 
 road after the tract was cleared. The axes gleamed, the chips 
 flew, the trees fell, the brush was cut and burned, the logs piled 
 and the stumps blown out. Then a winding road was surveyed 
 dug and graded, and a bridge built of round timber with end cribs 
 and a fifteen-foot span, altogether a fair day's work for the privi- 
 lege of tenting two nights and a day in the owner's pasture. 
 
 It was at Camp Guthrie that the regimental order assigning 
 112 
 
MORE CAMP EXPERIENCES 
 
 me to F company was published. The first thing Captain Kelly 
 asked was what I knew about barrel rafts, and as I had just 
 watched E company build and take one apart I was not wholly 
 ignorant. It was now F company's turn to show its skill in lash- 
 ing poles together and floating them on empty oil barrels, and I 
 was detailed to lead the men to the creek where they stripped for 
 the job, and, like small boys, didn't want to come out of the water 
 when our time was up. Needing a shave here and having forgot- 
 ten my razor, I hunted up Goldsmith, D company's barber, and 
 found him in default of a chair, with a customer prone on the 
 ground, face up, head thrown back into a convenient hole, and 
 the barber astride his chest wielding lather and razor. 
 
 THE BARBER AT WORK AT CAMP GUTHRIE 
 
 Our next camp was near LaGrange, but only for a night. 
 Orders to return to Camp Taylor met us here. Next day was hot 
 and dusty and F company was well to the rear of the column. 
 As the day wore on we passed many a brave lad who had suc- 
 cumbed to heat and blisters and fallen out by the wayside. We 
 counted them by the dozens, lying in the shade of a friendly bush 
 or tree until the wagon-train at the rear arrived to pick them up. 
 Sergeants Ryan and Weathers, with their songs, chaff and run- 
 ning jokes, helped wonderfully to keep up the spirits of the men. 
 When the band played the soldiers forgot how tired and sore they 
 were, we were told. The band was at the front and we so far 
 back that we couldn't hear it play, but the sergeants challenged 
 discouragement so effectually with wit and song that only a few 
 of our men gave up. 
 
 113 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 We went into camp early, ate supper and rested until after 
 dark ; then broke camp and marched on and on in the cool moon- 
 less night. Cautions came down the line, voiced from man to man 
 from those in front, to beware of a hole in the road, a broken rail 
 at the next bridge, and the like ; it was so dark. About 2 a. m. a 
 shout carried with it the news that the advance party had 
 sighted the lights of Camp Taylor, and from that time on excite- 
 ment grew, for our call back meant that we were on the eve of 
 our great adventure overseas ; and the next day the regiment was 
 reprimanded by General Hale for coming into camp too noisily. 
 
 Muster day, when every soldier must answer to his name, 
 came every two months, and December 31 was one of these, fall- 
 ing on a Sunday before New Year's. I asked for leave to remain 
 in Louisville over Sunday and Monday with my wife, who had 
 come from Indianapolis for the holidays, and we had a room with 
 a Mrs. Clark on Fourth street. Major Efrid was the senior offi- 
 cer in camp when I asked for leave, which he granted readily, 
 without a thought about muster-day, apparently, nor did I remem- 
 ber it. I saw him at church Sunday morning, so he knew I was 
 not far away from camp. 
 
 That night, just before the whistles blew the New Year in, I 
 was called out of bed to the telephone by the engineer adjutant, 
 who asked if I had been in the regimental area at any time that 
 day, and when I replied in the negative, he said it was muster- 
 day ; I had not answered to my name when it was called ; it would 
 not appear on the muster-roll, and there would be trouble. But 
 it was too late then to get there, so I told him I would be out in 
 the morning. 
 
 My wife had come in contact but a few times with army dis- 
 cipline, and couldn't reconcile herself to the need of so much of it. 
 
 "Won't they even let you sleep?" she asked a little peeved. 
 But when I told her what the matter was she became unduly 
 alarmed. 
 
 "What will they do to you, put you in the guard house?" 
 
 "Oh, I guess not," I answered with studied indifference, "but 
 I may lose my pay for a while." 
 
 Our room — the best we could find in crowded Louisville 
 then— was open so the Clarks could hear everything, and their 
 four-year-old daughter heard Mrs. Minturn inquire about the 
 guard house. I reported at the camp bright and early ; had my 
 
 114 
 
IN THE GARDEN HOUSE 
 
 name put on the muster-roll, and returned to Louisville to finish 
 my leave. The wee Clark saw me enter, and, rushing to her 
 mother exclaimed : 
 
 "Oh, mama, they put Lieutenant Minturn in the garden house, 
 but he's out now !" 
 
 Starting near E company barracks was a ravine which con- 
 tinued with increasing depth to a deep stone quarry back of the 
 Engineer School buildings. Near the quarry was a small house 
 where dynamite and T. N. T. were stored and there were rumors 
 that German sympathizers were plotting to capture the explosives 
 and blow up Camp Taylor. The scheme was so plausible that the 
 vicinity was made a guard post but the guard was so nervous and 
 lonesome down there that he was constantly calling for the cor- 
 poral till that officer refused to respond. But one of the men who 
 had been assigned to that post regularly hit on a plan to get com- 
 pany. He emptied straw and trash in the ravine near the bar- 
 racks, which was very much against the rules of sanitation. 
 
 The infraction was reported and condemned, but it did not 
 stop, and Colonel Guthrie declared he would stop it by posting a 
 guard and keeping him there until it was stopped. The new post 
 extended down to and met the one coming up from the quarry, 
 which enabled the two guards to see each other at every round. 
 This occurence and the feeling that re-enforcements were near, 
 made the tour of duty of the quarry guard more endurable. 
 
 115 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 WITH THE EIGHTY-FOURTH DIVISION AT CAMP SHERMAN, OHIO 
 
 We moved to Camp Sherman, near Chillicothe, Ohio, as an- 
 ticipated, taking everything but our paint brushes, which had to 
 be turned in to the quartermaster at Taylor ; but he gave us a re- 
 ceipt, without specifying the kind, which entitled us to draw 480 
 new brushes from the quartermaster at Sherman to take the place 
 of those turned in, and we gained a hundred per cent, on the 
 transaction in quality and sizes drawn there. 
 
 I insisted on Mrs. Minturn coming to Chillicothe and remain- 
 ing until we left for France. The attractive Community House 
 was just across the road from our regimental area, and although 
 commodious, with its dozen of rooming annexes, the great number 
 of friends and relatives of the soldiers of the division more than 
 filled it. I stood in line for an hour and could only make reserva- 
 tion for a room twelve days off. But it was a corner one with 
 two windows, and I wrote my wife that she had better wait for 
 it, which she did, but only to be placed in an inside, inferior room 
 instead. I was very much provoked when I found her there. 
 She arrived at an hour when I was unable to get away to meet 
 her, and I protested with the management. I insisted on having 
 the room that I had contracted for, but Captain Netts was unwill- 
 ing to disturb Major Rockwell, who had taken it without previous 
 reservation, a day or two before my wife arrived. I was supposed 
 to waive my right gracefully in favor of a superior officer, but 
 the proposition did not appeal to my sense of fairness. Colonel 
 Bain advised that I protest in writing to General Hale. In due 
 course the paper came back with an indorsement by Captain Netts, 
 describing the old system of letting rooms, and a new and better 
 one, for which he said it had been changed, and all reservations, 
 including mine, cancelled. He concluded with the following 
 paragraph : 
 
 5. Lieutenant Minturn, by his cross-examining attitude, he 
 116 
 
UNFAIR TREATMENT 
 
 having been a lawyer in civil life, greatly annoyed and aroused 
 the young lady at the desk, and also Mr. Kennedy, the general 
 manager. I, Captain Netts, was conferred with Saturday night 
 and explained the situation to Lieutenant Minturn, but Lieutenant 
 Minturn's mind would accept but one idea, that he had been 
 wronged and discriminated against. Lieutenant Minturn has 
 failed to grasp the democratic idea of the Community House. 
 People of the caliber of Mary Roberts Rinehart have been incon- 
 venienced far more than Lieutenant Minturn at this institution 
 without complaint. 
 
 It was bad taste to drag the name of Mrs. Mary Roberts 
 Rinehart into this. I didn't know her, and hold no brief in her 
 behalf, but it's dollars to doughnuts she wouldn't have submitted 
 to the deal we got, without complaint. I stood on contractual 
 rights guaranteed by section ten of the constitution of the United 
 States, and objected to the Community House brand of democracy 
 which licensed them to impair my right at their will. That was 
 the chief objection to Kaiser Bill, whom I'd left my happy home 
 to fight, and it made me especially indignant that my wife was 
 pushed aside to accommodate a major. The army, which con- 
 trolled the Community House, would give me no redress, and I 
 am sore over it yet. I was thrown out of court by the ninth in- 
 dorsement, which said : 
 
 "No good will result from a continuance of this subject. It 
 is considered closed. By command of Major General Hale." 
 
 ■ During the brief stay of the Eighty-fourth division at Camp 
 Sherman many Ohio recruits were added to our numbers, and 
 these, with the increment of 1918 at Taylor, were practiced vigor- 
 ously on the rifle rang*e, which was extensive enough to accom- 
 modate a number of regiments at once. 
 
 It was at Sherman that I first heard of Colonel McNabb, and 
 his system of pistol and rifle training. He had been the instruc- 
 tor of the Eighty-third division, which had just gone from here 
 overseas, and Colonel Bain advised us to read and follow the 
 instructions that McNabb left in a small pamphlet obtainable at 
 the camp canteens. I met and served under Colonel McNabb at 
 Chaumont, France, and will have more to say about him when we 
 reach that part of the story. He insisted in his teachings that all 
 bad shooting was caused by flinching; that anybody could aim 
 straight enough, but many spoiled the result by moving the butt 
 of the gun at the instant of pulling the trigger. Most novices 
 
 117 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 doubt this, and lay the gun-movement which throws them off the 
 bull's-eye to the kick of the piece. One way to demonstrate to a 
 man that it is his flinching and not the gun-kick which spoils his 
 aim, is to mix a few blank cartridges, made by drilling through 
 the shell above the bullet and taking the powder out, with his 
 clip of five good ones without letting him know it. The blanks 
 make no kick because there is no explosion, but the man will flinch 
 at the moment of pulling the trigger, and move his piece just the 
 
 COLONEL ANDREW J. (SANDY) McNA] 
 GENERAL STAFF, A. B. F. 
 
 same, thereby giving himself away, and making him feel and look 
 so foolish that he will exercise self-control enough afterwards to 
 break himself of the fault. 
 
 "The trigger-squeeze is the main thing," Colonel McNabb 
 insisted. "Learn by practice with an unloaded piece to squeeze 
 the trigger so gradually that you won't know just when the gun is 
 going off, and you won't know when to flinch. It will be too late 
 
 118 
 
SANDY McNABB 
 
 to spoil your aim if you do, but if you pull the trigger with a 
 conscious effort to snap the cartridge you're nearly sure to 
 flinch." 
 
 He said bad marksmen were invariably caused by bad coach- 
 ing. He claimed one hundred per cent, efficiency by his method 
 of training, and received a citation from General Pershing for 
 distinguished service in France in rifle and pistol instruction. 
 He was the crack shot of the army himself, and it was a common 
 saying that any living thing Sandy McNabb shot at at a thousand 
 yards and under might as well lay down and die, for he'd surely 
 kill it. He was an army plainsman for many years where his 
 reputation was known further than himself. He got off a train in 
 Montana for a little shooting once with his favorite Springfield 
 rifle and some of the natives, used to the Remington, wanted to 
 know what he could hit with such a gun. 
 
 "You, at half a mile," was McNabb's jaunty reply. 
 
 "Well, stranger, I'd be willing to let ye shoot at me fur all day 
 at a half a mile with that !" 
 
 "Would ye? Must be wanting to commit suicide. Do you see 
 that bush in the distance ? How far is it ?" 
 
 "Better'n a half-mile, I reckon — 'leven hundred yards, any- 
 way." 
 
 "All right, just watch me kick up the dust to the left." 
 
 He brought up his gun and fired and the dust rose to the left 
 of the bush where he said it would. 
 
 "Well, I'll be dashed! You must be Sandy McNabb, stran- 
 ger," was the exclamation. 
 
 His father visited McNabb at Camp Sherman and left this 
 story : "Sandy came home for a visit and saw a fly crawling on 
 a large mirror across the room, whipped out his revolver and shot 
 the fly dead." 
 
 "How about the mirror?" somebody asked. 
 
 "Oh, broke it to pieces, of course, but he got the fly !" 
 
 McNabb had a batallion of negro troops on the rifle range 
 and one fine specimen of colored manhood was listless and surly : 
 couldn't shoot and wouldn't try. 
 
 "What the is the matter with you anyway ?" McNabb 
 
 demanded. "I'll put dynamite under you if you don't wake up." 
 
 "No use, sah, I cain't hit nothin'." 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "Let me see you try," And Sandy got down and showed him 
 how he was flinching. 
 
 "You're worse than a girl. Does it scare you like that to 
 shoot a gun off ?" 
 
 His black comrades began to jeer and plague the soldier, who 
 looked daggers in return and mumbled how he'd "Make yo' all 
 niggars eat dirt out o' my han' yet!" But the colonel shut his 
 tormentors up by saying he'd give them all a chance to do better 
 if they could, and kept correcting the first man and showing him 
 how until he quit flinching and began to make good scores. Then 
 the black became intensely interested and next day the colonel 
 found him alert and busy coaching his whole squad. 
 
 "Yo' all's flinchin' — yo' is — how come yo' all laughs at me 
 yestidy an' now yo' sca'ed like milk mos' too strong fo' yo' ! 
 Didn' yo' see de colonel done science me on de trigga' squeeze an' 
 say fo' yo' all to keep yo' eye on de gun sights an' ta'get, an' 
 squeeze de trigga' widout any conscience ? I is gwine instruc' yo' 
 all lak de colonel done make me promise 'fo' he'd let me up!" 
 
 Colonel McNabb kept a revolver in his desk and practiced the 
 trigger squeeze as constantly with it as a young lady does the fin- 
 ger exercises on a piano when she desires to reach or retain effi- 
 ciency as a performer. 
 
GETTING READY TO GO OVERSEAS 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 FROM SHERMAN TO CAMP MILLS 
 
 Early in August word came to pack for overseas. Boxes 
 were requisitioned, and after they had been beautifully marked by 
 the graduates of our sign-writing class, they were packed with 
 regimental and company property. The enlisted man was re- 
 quired to carry his gun, extra clothing, shoes, blankets, and such 
 equipment as had been issued to him. These made a good man's 
 load, but in addition, many had musical instruments, books, and 
 cherished belongings that they were loth to part with, and they 
 were generously permitted to take along all they were willing to 
 carry. Some men were sights to behold as they started on their 
 long journey, but they did not travel far until experience taught 
 them to get rid of all excess baggage. The officers of my grade 
 were allowed a bed-roll, a small locker, and such hand-baggage 
 as they were willing to carry ; but most of us had accumulated 
 equipment, clothing, and books, far in excess of our accommoda- 
 tions. The result was that much valuable personal property was 
 smuggled into the packing-boxes supposed to receive only regi- 
 mental and company belongings. The latter amounted to a good 
 train load, which was put in charge of Lieutenant Davis, of F 
 company, with Sergeant Ryan, of F, and details from other com- 
 panies of the regiment under him. They guarded it to the sea- 
 board ; camped with it on the dock, and went with it across the 
 Atlantic in an old tub that after a long and dangerous passage got 
 to France after the armistice was signed, and our part of the cargo 
 was salvaged without ever being delivered to the regiment. My 
 Bond and McDonough, a fine assortment of oil paints in tubes, 
 and many other belongings were thus lost to me. The major por- 
 tion of the mimeographed edition of our lectures on camouflage, 
 with its 120 illustrations which Sergeant Kleesatelle had cut the 
 stencils for and printed so nicely, were in the shipment, together 
 with the choicest models and exhibits from Lieutenant Bill's En- 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 REFUSES TO ENTRAIN WITH HIS 
 REGIMENT 
 
 gener-School Museum. Just why the latter were taken to Europe 
 I was never fully advised. Even to this day, when I make a 
 futile search for something I knew I once had, the sickening 
 realization dawns that it was in that shipment that never caught 
 up with us. 
 
 We had a billy-goat and a couple of half-grown nannies that 
 Bill had decoyed from somewhere, and a dog "Bobby" in company 
 F that gave us some anxiety. But Bill we found too independent 
 to allow himself to be smuggled aboard train in an army blanket. 
 
 He walked off with 
 his two young wives 
 at the last minute, 
 chewing the cud of 
 contentment, and left 
 us to center our affec- 
 tions on Bobby as the 
 company mascot. How 
 Hobby got on the train 
 has never been published. I found him standing in the open side- 
 door of our commissary-car at the middle of the train then rac- 
 ing toward Marion, Ohio, to go east over the Erie. 
 
 That was his favorite pastime throughout the trip, and no 
 child ever took more interest in watching the scenery. He at- 
 tracted as much attention in the towns where we stopped as the 
 soldiers did, and the Red Cross girls who handed doughnuts and 
 coffee to the men insisted on pouring out a pan of milk for Bobby, 
 who wagged his tail in grateful appreciation. 
 
 We went in a round-about way from Chillicothe, Ohio, over 
 the Erie to New York, but we presume it was necessary for the 
 Government to use all available routes in troop-movement to 
 avoid congestion of traffic. Other army divisions were moving 
 to the sea-board, and when we arrived at Port Jarvis early Sunday 
 evening we were held in the yards there through the night in 
 order to make our terminal connections by daylight. Our train 
 lay for the night between two trains filled with soldiers from other 
 divisions ; one of which as I remember was from Camp Grant. 
 
 Civilians were not allowed in our area the morning we left 
 Camp Sherman, but the regiment lined up on the drill-field oppo- 
 site the Community House before marching to the train, and many 
 sweethearts and wives were looking at us. On any other occasion 
 
 122 
 
I ASSUME ACCOUNTABILITY FOR A STOVE 
 
 they would have been amazed and amused at the sight. A regi- 
 ment of Huns after sacking a town could not have been more 
 overloaded, but we were glad to be on our way. We had been 
 two months at Sherman, and that was just two too many. 
 "Where do we go from here, boys?" truly expresses the unrest 
 of the soldier. 
 
 I was detailed as supply-officer for the train. The duties were 
 to see that the 482 officers and men aboard, comprising Com- 
 panies E and F, a few casual officers, and three prisoners, were 
 fed three times a day, and that the personal baggage of the offi- 
 cers was safely transported and delivered to the owners at our 
 destination. According to instructions an express or baggage car 
 was set the day before on the camp track, but on inspection it was 
 unsanitary and smelled of rank fish. We threw out the slatted 
 flooring and had the car switched up to a water-plug, where it 
 was scrubbed and slushed, and after it was dry great crates of 
 bread and supplies of canned meats and vegetables were loaded 
 and a stove for making coffee installed, which latter article came 
 near getting me into trouble. It was furnished by a civilian, who 
 had the Government contract for supplying coffee for the jour- 
 ney. As supply officer for our train, I signed for the outfit, and 
 it was part of the agreement that this contractor's agent would 
 visit us at New York, take over the stove and pay four dollars to 
 our company cooks for making the beverage en route, he furnish- 
 ing all the materials. 
 
 The agent failed to appear as scheduled ; the cooks were not 
 paid, and I did not want to lose possession of the articles which 
 I had assumed accountability for, and therefore ordered the men 
 to take them along when they detrained. It was a large stove ; 
 new, with two copper boilers and of considerable value. 
 
 When Colonel Bain saw it at Camp Mills he demanded : 
 "Where did you get that stove?" Brought it with us from Camp 
 Sherman, sir." Why didn't you leave it in the car where you 
 found it? You had no business taking it out." "I signed for it, 
 sir. A man was to meet us in New York and take it off our 
 hands and pay our cooks for making coffee en route here ; nobody 
 met us and we are holding the stove until we get a proper release 
 and our money." "You'll have that stove following you and the 
 regiment all over France. Get rid of it." 
 
 We did get rid of it, but not until the contractor hunted us up 
 123 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 and paid the money and gave a proper release. And also not until 
 I had several nightmares, in which I was hiking through shell-torn 
 France with Joan of Arc and LaFayette vainly striving to release 
 me from a pack in which a stove and two large coffee boilers 
 predominated. 
 
 The train from Sherman was made up of 
 day-coaches for the enlisted men, E company's 
 in front, separated from F company by the 
 commissary car to which corporals reported at 
 meal time, and received rations for their squads, 
 and Pullmans in the rear for officers. 
 
 In France there were no Pullmans ; offi- 
 cers rode in coaches and enlisted men in box 
 cars, the capacity of which was fixed by the 
 famous legend "40 Hommes, 8 Cheveaux." 
 
 We reached Camp Mills near sundown af- 
 ter a day of shunting by rail and ferry around 
 Manhattan and Long Island, which we did not 
 complain about, because the sky-lines and 
 ''lafaye^tte, I'm water-fronts were new to us raw inlanders. 
 
 Camp Mills was on a barren and unattractive part of Long 
 Island, well in from the coast near the western end. There was 
 plenty of room to spread over the flat country ; it was a city of 
 tents with occasional wooden administration buildings, and was 
 not an attractive place to linger in. It was a concentration camp 
 for soldiers about to go overseas and our ranks were soon over- 
 filled with casuals from Louisiana to Maine to whom it was my 
 duty to read the Articles of War and impress with the seriousness 
 of their new obligations. 
 
 124 
 
OUR STOP-OVER AT CAMP MILLS 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 LIFE AT CAMP MILLS AND ABOARD SHIP 
 
 We were quartered in tents at Camp Mills, in Section 5, Block 
 3, close to camp headquarters, and from sign-boards still visible, 
 close to where the Rainbow Division mobilized for oversea serv- 
 ice. As the sun went down a chilly breeze came in from the 
 Atlantic across Mineola aviation field, and blew clouds of sand) 
 real estate into the food that the company cooks were preparing 
 for men with appetites whetted by a three-day diet of cold canned 
 beef, salmon and beans. During this wait I had spread my blan- 
 kets and was unreefing the walls of the tent that my predecessor 
 had tied up to allow the ground inside to dry, when an orderly 
 told me to report to the commanding officer. There I was told 
 to "deliver those three prisoners that came on your train to their 
 own organizations at once, and get receipts for them." 
 
 I shall always remember Camp Mills after that night's experi- 
 ence. A stranger in a camp of many square miles where a hun- 
 dred thousand soldiers are, who are equally strange to the camp 
 and to each other, is an easy place to get lost in. Each of the 
 three prisoners belonged to a different organization ; all, as it 
 turned out, quartered in different parts of the camp, and not even 
 camp headquarters could tell just where those newly arrived 
 regiments that night were located. But it was up to me to find 
 out "at once," which meant that I called for a guard-detail and 
 marched off in the dark without supper. 
 
 Many a tired and snoring officer was called from dreamland 
 to answer if his was the Three Hundred and Enthty-enth regi- 
 ment of the Eighty-fourth division, and to swear at us when he 
 discovered our mistake. But along after midnight we delivered 
 our last prisoner, got a receipt for him and for his confiscated 
 knife, watch, or pocket money, from his commanding officer, and 
 returned with much the same feeling that the man who found 
 Garcia must have experienced. 
 
 125 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Tuesday and Wednesday I was on guard duty in a dust-storm 
 more severe than any we had had at Sherman, where we then 
 thought the limit had been reached, and on Wednesday I visited 
 New York City, via Hempstead, Jamaica, and the elevated in an 
 effort to locate Herbert, who had recently joined the naval avia- 
 tion corps, and wrote that he would sail for France about this 
 time. After supper Harry Grove and I visited naval headquar- 
 ters 280 Broadway. A clerk called up League Island receiving 
 ship at Philadelphia, and was told that Herbert might be at 
 Rockaway Air Station, but I was disappointed when I went there 
 the next afternoon. 
 
 The few days while we remained at Camp Mills were occupied 
 with outfitting the men with overseas equipment, and in breaking 
 in a horde of miscellaneous recruits with which our ranks were 
 quickly over-filled. Inspections alternated drill-periods through- 
 out the day, and to keep us limbered up for coming sea and 
 over-the-top duty our colonel located a piece of ground a mile or 
 so outside the camp limits large enough to hold a regimental 
 parade on, where we drilled and stood retreat and where the 
 ground was so full of hills and holes, hid by the tall grass, that 
 most of the company officers fell down while attempting "front 
 and center" to the great merriment of the reviewing officers and 
 watching troops. 
 
 We had been at Mills but a short time when Lieutenant Davis, 
 in charge of our heavy baggage, visited us. He said he was soon 
 to sail on a small freighter, the captain of which, he thought, 
 would take Bobby to France. According to agreement I smug- 
 gled Bobby out of camp next night and Davis met me at Country 
 Life Press Station. Bobby got to France in safety, rejoined his 
 company, and came back to the states with it. Lieutenant Davis 
 informed me that he inquired of the embarkation intelligence 
 department at my request and learned that Herbert went aboard- 
 ship August 26, and I had only missed him a few hours. This 
 was a great disappointment as I had not seen the boy for several 
 years and one could not tell what might happen now. 
 
 Our change to overseas caps and the crooks in our necks got 
 by watching the drills in the sky of aeroplane squadrons, often 
 more than fifty planes were in sight at once, made us look and act 
 strangely, even to ourselves. But after many were gratified for 
 the first time with the sights of Coney Island and the lights of 
 
 126 
 
GOING ABOARD SHIP 
 
 Broadway, we embarked for the fatherland of Miss Liberty. As 
 we watched her and the Woolworth building disappear in the 
 West, and gazed upon the last captive balloon searching the har- 
 bor for submarines, we thought of Charles Frohman, and what he 
 called his "great adventure," and wondered if we too might be 
 similarly embarked. 
 
 The formality of going aboard was less than we anticipated. 
 We had been lectured at Sherman by embarkation specialists on 
 the necessity of hav- 
 ing service records, 
 full equipment from 
 spurs to rubber bath 
 tubs, tubercular ty- 
 phoid, insect, vener- 
 eal and all the long 
 lists of certificates is- 
 sued to us since we 
 joined the army, 
 ready for immediate 
 inspection before we 
 would be allowed 
 iboard ship. We pic- 
 tured ourselves as 
 lined up on the dock 
 to go aboard, in nar 
 row passages, be- 
 tween mountains of commissary and ordnance supplies that we 
 were crowding out, each with an armful of documents that would 
 be miscroscopically examined by experts, and any little flaw in 
 which would require the flawee to stand aside while his organiza- 
 tion sailed away and left him to wander through the war as a 
 casual, a man almost without a country. 
 
 So it was with great trepidation that we marched into an 
 immense warehouse at pier 23, Manhattan, to find it empty ex- 
 cept for a group of Red Cross women waiting to serve free coffee 
 and sandwiches, and when our turn came to file up the gang- 
 plank past officers, who merely checked our names, we were more 
 surprised that not one of our documents was called for, nor any 
 equipment inspected. 
 
 Our boat was the "Scandinavian," flying the British flag. 
 127 
 
 CROOKS IN OUR NECKS GOT BY WATCHING 
 DRILLS IN THE SKY OF AEROPLANE SQUADRONS 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Weird patches of black, white and brown covered it from water- 
 line to the top of the smoke stacks. It was surrounded by more 
 than a dozen equally camouflaged troop transports, all for the 
 first few days out guarded by a convoy of gray naval cruisers 
 and several fleet little submarine chasers. But the navy left us 
 suddenly to find most of our way across that enormously big and 
 restless ocean alone. 
 
 On all of the many decks of the Scandinavian and clear down 
 to the hull where one could hear the wash of the waters through 
 the sides of the vessel as the ship plowed its way, the enlisted men 
 were hung up in hammocks like crowded bats to sleep in hatch- 
 ways, mess-rooms, steerage, everywhere. So great was the rush 
 to get our soldiers into France that the vessels were overloaded 
 and the discomforts from that source were added to by strict or- 
 ders to keep all port-holes and windows closed at night, and 
 thickly covered to prevent our light from being seen by enemy 
 submarines. 
 
 The men of Company F were quartered in steerage sections 
 K N E and P, Section K in peace time was a third-class dining 
 room, but now hung so full of hammocks at night that passage- 
 way was almost barred. A long serving window opened into it 
 from a kitchen, and through this room and past that window over 
 a thousand men marched in single file three times a day to be 
 served with food, which was ladeled into their own mess kits. A 
 commissioned army officer was required to be on watch with 
 every company at all hours of the twenty-four. Each watch was 
 for eight hours. My private lo<j was as follows : 
 
 First day out, Lieutenants Bill and Rose are my roommates. 
 Bill hangs picture of his war bride conspicuously on wall first 
 tiling; reads letter No. 1, from wife and says he has fifteen more 
 to be opened and read, one each day. Am on watch in steerage 
 section K N E P from 10 p. m. to 6 a. m. 
 
 Stench with port-holes closed, horrible ; nearly seasick ; rats 
 ran over my feet. 
 
 Second dav, Lieutenant Johnson sick, which placed me in 
 command of the company. 
 
 Third dav. Lieutenant Johnson still indisposed, and confined 
 to his bed ; Coloned Bain stated at noon conference that the polic- 
 ing of F company quarters poorest on the ship, and its officers 
 would be confined to company limits if policing not better tomor- 
 
 128 
 
SHIP INSPECTIONS 
 
 row. Sea quite rough ; not seasick, but from prospect of confine- 
 ment to steerage, nearly so. In addition to other duties am censor 
 of all letters written by F company men. Officers and men are 
 required to wear life-preservers at all times, except when at 
 meals and in bed ; then must be within reach ; also belt and can- 
 teen full of water. Men provided with ordinary cork life-pre- 
 servers,' but officers with new kind like a quilted sleeveless jacket, 
 filled with a species of buoyant cat-tail fiber called "Kapok," 
 which made a good protector against cold, and was soft, flexible 
 and comfortable to wear. 
 
 Fourth day. Up before revielle and down in steerage to in- 
 spect policing and food. One corporal complained that dinner 
 yesterday, which I thought looked good, was unfit for human to 
 eat, and "never thought the American Gov- 
 ernment would offer such food to a soldier." 
 So I sampled the bread and meat this morn- 
 ing. Bread was dark brown, but moist and 
 sweet ; apparently wholesome. Think trou- 
 ble is men are used to white bread. Cook 
 tried to give me helping of meat from supply 
 different from men's but I insisted and got 
 a piece from same deep pan out of which 
 the men were being served, and found it 
 hot, tender, sweet-smelling steak, cooked in 
 water, but unseasoned ; a thin white soup or 
 gruel, peas, potatoes, coffee, prunes and 
 oleomargarine completed the ration. Many 
 of the men fell out of line to eat at tables. 
 We got skinned for bad policing when half the ship feeds 
 in our quarters, so ordered all men to eat on deck. Had ham- 
 mocks folded and stored overhead in recesses made for storage of 
 life preservers when not in use ; packs laid evenly crosswise of the 
 long tables ; mattresses in berths, where there were any, 
 doubled over half to expose floor through bed bottoms ; packs and 
 equipment laid orderly on the folded mattresses. All men, sick 
 or well, ordered on deck during inspection of quarters from 10 to 
 1 1 a. m. Colonel Bain announced at conference, "All quarters 
 are in better condition today, even F company's." I thought this 
 an uncalled for slur on F and said so, explaining that I was the 
 only officer of the company able to be on duty, or present to 
 
 LIEUTENANT BILL 
 AND HIS WAR BRIDE 
 
 129 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 speak for it, and that ship's messing arrangements particularly 
 added to policing difficulties. Rest of officers didn't know 
 whether to smile or frown, until commanding officer smiled. 
 After adjournment Major Efrid advised if any of the younger 
 officers had said what I did, they would have been court mar- 
 shalled for impertinence. But C. O. knew I meant no imperti- 
 nence, and was only telling truth about best company in regiment. 
 
 Went on duty KXEP from 2 p. m. to 10 p. m., then eight 
 hours longer until 6 a. m. in Lieutenant Johnson's place, who was 
 still confined to his berth by sea-sickness. About midnight one 
 of the guards on deck called me to side-rail, saying: "Sir, one of 
 the port-holes must be uncovered ; see the light reflected there 
 in the water?" It did look like it, but on investigation we found 
 the light in the waves was caused by a phosphorescent glow of 
 some kind, which a private of F company who had been a country 
 school superintendent in civil life, explained next day. was given 
 off by minute animals called pyrocystis, that abound in certain 
 waters of the ocean. An officer needing special information on 
 any subject was generally able to get it by asking some private in 
 his own company. 
 
 The ship rocks so much more than usual today that the table 
 at dinner, 7:30 p. m., is equipped, for the first time, with strips 
 to keep the dishes from sliding off. Some of the officers were 
 talking about iceburgs. swordfish, whales, etc., that had been 
 sighted, and one declared while he had seen none of the alxDve, 
 he had seen mermen riding bareback on sea horses in a bull ring, 
 at which joke Colonel Bain laughed heartily. ( )thers, to whom 
 the allusion to bull-rings brought disagreeable memories, were 
 not so hilarii »us. 
 
 Fifth day. Relieved 6 a. m. after sixteen hours' watch duty, 
 b\ Lieutenant Wasserman. Went to bed; steward waked me to 
 ask if I wanted breakfast. "No, let me sleep." Roused again by 
 an orderly who said : "The commanding officer sends his com- 
 pliments and wishes to see Lieutenant Minturn at once." 
 Dressed and reported, to get skin from Colonel Bain, because F 
 company men had not been coming to attention and saluting him 
 properly. Back to bed and asleep, when another orderly reported 
 with directions from the commanding officer to place privates 
 Simpson and Williams under company punishment for not salut- 
 
 130 
 
THE CENSOR COPIES SOME LETTERS 
 
 ing Colonel Bain. After that another knocked to ask where the 
 
 gun of one of the prisoners of F company 
 
 was, and before I could get settled after that 
 
 the men began their daily physical drill on 
 
 the promenade deck, forming the roof of my 
 
 state-room, making so much noise that I 
 
 gave up trying to sleep ; dressed and found 
 
 that I had lost all my United States money, 
 
 $25.00, out of my hip pocket. 
 
 All men were drilled daily in life-saving 
 and fire formations, each company being as- 
 signed a place on the ship's deck, and timed 
 by commanding officers in falling in. F 
 company being on port side of promenade 
 (upper) deck, men had to climb a ladder captain (doctor) 
 
 , . , , . . „. , DAVIS. "MY LITTLE 
 
 from main deck to reach station, thirst day playmate.- 
 
 F company was second from the last. That 
 would not do, so we instructed the sergeants to get F men on 
 deck as soon as they heard the bugle call for officers' assembly, 
 and not to wait for a command from their officers after confer- 
 ence, as heretofore. As a result we were near first, but still 
 behind E and D and the Train who beat us at our own game, 
 and reported by guess instead of calling the roll. Next day the 
 colonel ordered all men to their bunks before the signal to fall 
 in, and we were fifth out of twelve. 
 
 Seventh day, Sunday. No company drill and had an unusual 
 desire to attend church. Father ( >'Brien's services were being 
 held in the officer's dining room at 10 a. m., but could not get in 
 for the crowd. Waited at the door for protestant services at 11 
 a. m. Colonel Bain came down stairway from upper deck and I 
 saluted. Soon an orderly notified me to report to him at his 
 headquarters. "Lieutenant, what are those men congregated 
 below there for?" he demanded. "Church, sir, at least that is what 
 I was there for." "Why did you not call them to attention when I 
 came down, instead of compelling me to push through?" "Beg 
 pardon, I replied, "I saluted the colonel, but did not call the men 
 to attention for fear of disturbing the services going on inside 
 the open door." Moral : Don't hang around church doors while 
 in the army. The colonel is getting more exacting every day, 
 and I fear I shall be disciplined yet. Lieutenant Shagrau is con- 
 
 131 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 fined to his company area for a month for not knowing that 
 guardsmen should be called to attention every time officers taking 
 exercise on the promenade deck passed the part used for the 
 guard-house. 
 
 I am interested in some of the letters I censor. All the writers 
 say they would like to write more, but dare not for fear of the 
 censor. Many tell the old joke: "Had six meals today; three 
 down and three up," but the following is equal to Ring Lardner's 
 best: 
 
 "At see, dear nel ; i cant Date this because the senser Says 
 the germans wil no where ime at. Say, ime on the Old Boat al 
 right, trubel is ther is 2 many of us on at i time, yesterday i seen 
 a shark. We hav a Y. M. C. A. on Board two. Say ! nel less both 
 rite 3 or 4 letters a week it will be nise if you dont here from me 
 so of fin jest remember ime on Duty so Mutch. Say nel send me 
 some riting paper and You sure wil get it all back again for ime 
 not going 2 rite too eny other girl & want you to do the same. 
 Say nel i have just thru my last good cigaret over-borde if you 
 love me like you say then send me a pack of camels Say nel if you 
 love me you wil hav to lurn to Love camels to & ile pay when i git 
 on shoar. ime broke now Bying Apples and crackers at the can- 
 teen to keep from starving to Deth. Say nel i just seen a young 
 Wale 35, had 2 fins on his back but big enuf to swalo me hole. 
 Say nel a fello gits tired of the Role of the ship, ime not a bit 
 seasick but it makes you tird a Balansing so mutch, mothers levell 
 kitchen flore for life wen i git out of this nel take mine dry from 
 now on. Say nel i blame the germans for it & only Hoap the war 
 will Last til i can git at them boshes they wil sure hav 2 to go sum 
 too keep awaigh from my baonet work ime Fast nel and Rite 
 there with that line of goods take it from me & i Hoap they cum 
 in bunches so i can hav it over quick and get back two you. 
 thats how i think of you nel. Say if i don't stop and shave ile 
 have to get a dog Lisense. 
 
 "ime your soldier brave and troo 
 
 and ime thinking all day of you 
 
 and i hope youl rite a few 
 
 letters to him who must now say adew." 
 
 We passed the first vessel this evening since leaving New 
 
 York. Next day one of the naval cruisers fired a single shot and 
 
 at conference the commanding officer warned all to be ready for 
 
 emergencies in case of submarines, the danger from which would 
 
 132 
 
A CARTOON BY EBERLY 
 
 be greater from now on. We have daily war news by wireless, 
 and report is, that two submarine attacks were made yesterday. 
 
 IF a Gum Had a Strot^ SWnniA 
 an<\ a lot o\ N«v« te hot* 
 c(\ancc 
 
 day *■/,(„ ft,r (Widjoi&viwBs, 
 
 CARTOON BY EBERLY OP COMPANY F. FROM COMPANY F "EXPERI- 
 ENCES." By Permission 
 
 Flood of letters to be censored on account of yesterday being 
 Sunday, and no drills, which gave the men time to write. 
 Private M. to parents : 
 
 '33 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "This morning we had church services at n a. m. I was 
 thinking of all of you at home, and how I wished I was in the 
 Old Baptist church today. Our Chaplain Miller read the 24th. 
 Psalm and took his text from Rev. 19:16. He preached a fine 
 sermon and I am very thankful for the privilege of attending. 
 So you see we have church away out here on the ocean as well as 
 you do on the land." 
 
 The following is from Private S. : 
 
 "You know how I have always loved the water? Well, last 
 night I swore if I ever got back home alive, 1 would tear down 
 every marine painting in the house. But tonight it is different, 
 I have got my "see legs" again and I think I will be able to 
 weather any storm. Of course this is far from a pleasure trip. 
 A third class trip is bad enough in peace times, but in times of 
 war — well the least said about it the better. You know from our 
 experience up on the lakes, that boat crews are a funny lot. 
 There are a few typical Englishmen in our crew and you should 
 hear one of them say, "Ang your bloody 'ammock hon the '00k." 
 
 Private R. G., writing at length to "Swcetee," Omaha, Neb., 
 is evidently a diplomat and knows who the official censor to F 
 company is. He says : 
 
 "We have a fine bunch of officers and sergeants, with the 
 exception of a few of the sergeants, who held their position before 
 the company was fully organized. The corporals I can say very 
 little for. Only a few of them have any education or conception 
 of system or justice. If God is good I shall never have to put my 
 life in the hands of some of those corporals especially. They 
 mean all right but have never had the experience to teach them 
 how to exercise authority properly. 
 
 "If we didn't have such a fine bunch of commissioned offi- 
 cers it would be past me to survive. One old fellow, especially — 
 he's positively the grandest officer I ever saw, and is liked by all* 
 and believe me, I would go across no man's land any time for him, 
 Lieutenant Minturn is his name, and he is in charge of the cam- 
 ouflage work of the engineers. I certainly hope I get directly 
 under him. I am sure I would make good at camouflaging as it 
 runs along an artistic line, and painting to a great extent, and 
 there is nothing I would rather do." 
 
 Private R. L. tells the unvarnished truth (as he sees it) to 
 his young wife back in the states : 
 
 1.34 
 
AS COMMANDER OF THE GUARD 
 
 "This is the first day I have been able to write since I left 
 port, as. most of my time has been spent in feeding the fishes. 
 This has been a terrible journey with all inconveniences and very 
 few things that are good. The food that we are getting is very 
 poor, but this is probably due to the English methods. 
 
 "Such an unpleasant journey would be very hard to endure 
 were it not for what we may help to do to make this a Christian, 
 and a democratic world, and a place fit for our loved ones to live 
 in and for our dear wives and folks back in our own loved coun- 
 try to whom our thoughts are ever turned. Dearest, do keep a 
 brave heart and it will not be long until we will be coming home 
 and then you and I shall be very happy together again." 
 
 So ran the hopes and promises of every letter, and to the 
 credit of most of the writers they bravely said they were well and 
 feeling fine, and on edge to annihilate the Hun. 
 
 The complaints of our men about food and lodging are not 
 much different from those made by troops who have traveled on 
 this boat before. Some have left their tales of woe in penciled 
 scrawls on the walls of the ship, and these have been answered 
 there by returning soldiers, coming back to Canada and the states 
 to regain lost health, or perhaps to die. They tell us with author- 
 ity that our hardships are as nothing compared to what we may 
 expect before we come back. 
 
 One of our cruisers turned about and steamed toward home 
 just before dark, or at least toward the setting sun, which we 
 supposed is the homeward way. We have been zigzaging from 
 the warm latitude of sea-grass and jelly-fish to the regions of 
 the iceberg and whale, to outwit the enemy's under-sea navy 
 until we scarce know what direction we did come from. 
 
 Ninth day out. I went on duty at 8 a. m. yesterday as com- 
 mander of the guard ; ninety-one men under me. Am writing 
 this at 2 o'clock in the morning, in the smoking cabin of the ship. 
 Here are six tables. bolted to the floor, each surrounded on three 
 sides by leather-cushioned benches forming a half-dozen stalls 
 now doing duty as headquarters for six companies of our regi- 
 ment. My tour of guard duty has not been uneventful. Upon 
 return from breakfast after guardmounting Lieutenant Kellum 
 informed me that Lieutenant Colonel Elliott had sent twice for 
 prisoner Casey to be produced for court-martial- trial ; that Casey 
 and the twelve other prisoners had been sent out under guard to 
 
 135 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 work at sweeping and policing the ship, and he could not he 
 located immediately in the crowded and many compartmented 
 vessel. While we were' talking the order came the third time for 
 the prisoner, and soon came another for me to report at once, as 
 commander of the guard, to Colonel Bain. When I reported he 
 demanded why prisoner Casey, whom the court had been waiting 
 three-quarters of an hour for. had not arrived. I told him it was 
 because I didn't know just where he was to be found; that he'd 
 been sent out as we were ordered to do, to work under guard, and 
 had not been located yet by a sergeant and two men who were out 
 looking for him. "What?" he exclaimed. "Don't you as com- 
 mander of the guard know where your prisoners are? Get him 
 here right away !" "Yes, sir," I replied, "I'm trying my best to 
 find him, and will report with him as soon as he is located." 
 This innocently intended explanation seemed to anger the Colonel 
 more than if I had not attempted to make a reply to what I 
 supposed was, in part, a question. "Don't you tell me what 
 
 you're trying to 
 do. You get tli a: 
 prisoner here, 
 and get him here 
 d — d quick." And 
 he puffed and 
 beat the table 
 with his fist. I 
 didn't dare an- 
 swer further than 
 to meekly say, 
 "Yes sir" and 
 upon return to 
 t h e guard-deck 
 sent both waiting reliefs of fifty-eight men to scour the ship for 
 prisoner Casey. They soon brought him in almost scared stiff 
 with apprehension because of so many after him. and I sent him 
 in charge of Sergeant Perrin to the commanding officer. As 
 Lieutenants Shagrou and Harwood, who preceded us on guard 
 duty, had both been sentenced for technical errors, by the colonel, 
 Lieutenant Kellum and I anticipated confinement to company 
 area for six months at least, for not producing prisoner Casey 
 sooner, but we heard nothing more about the matter. 
 
 136 
 
 'YOU GET THAT PRISONER HERE D- 
 
A CLASH WITH THE SHIP'S STEWARD 
 
 At 5 p. m. yesterday the officer of the day found that the 
 prisoners were not complying with the order to stand while eating, 
 and to wear their life preservers. One of them made some objec- 
 tion when told to comply, and was brought up on deck from the 
 "Brig." and sentenced to go without his supper and breakfast. 
 To this he protested, saying he was too weak to go without eat- 
 ing, and began to act ugly. 
 
 One of the prisoners had attacked his guard recently and the 
 colonel ordered us to go the limit in checking all mutinous actions 
 and words. As commander of the guard, it was up to me to 
 carry out all orders, so I instructed the guard to shoot if the 
 prisoner committed any overt act. The latter scowled at me: 
 "Oh I mean it," I assured him. "That gun is loaded all right, 
 but you needen't be afraid if you behave yourself." He marched 
 off meekly enough to sweep the deck as punishment for imperti- 
 nence, until midnight, but was relieved at 10:30 for good conduct, 
 and sent back to the "Brig," as a ship's prison is called. 
 
 A Masonic meeting was held in the cabin aft by the officers on 
 board belonging to that order, from 8 to 1 1 tonight. Thirty-two 
 Masons were present, representing seventeen states, Canada, 
 England, Scotland, and Govan, wherever that is; and after the 
 British representatives had given us pointers on Masonic conduct 
 in their country, those from the states were called on for remarks. 
 The Worshipful Master sat behind a table with empty lower 
 shelves in a middle stall that only the pilot of the ship could guar- 
 antee was "in the East." 
 
 Presently there was confusion without the temple caused by 
 the sergeant of the guard clamoring for instructions from the 
 officer of the guard in compliance with his G. O. No. 10. Be- 
 fore going to the meeting I had given the fifty-eight guardsmen 
 of the waiting reliefs permission to go to the deck below for 
 protection from an icy wind that invited influenza particularly as 
 underclothing and overcoats had not been issued to the men. 
 Some of them asked if they could stand in the gangway of the 
 midships' cabin. The O. G. gave them permission, and like good 
 soldiers they promptly laid themselves down upon the floor and 
 went to sleep. Later the ship's steward came out of his state- 
 room and stumbled over a score of them to his great indignation 
 and possible slight injury. Then he ordered every soldier to go 
 outside, and the sergeant, remembering his general order No. 6, 
 
 137 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 paid no attention to the steward, but came to report and nearly- 
 broke up our 
 novel Masonic 
 meeting 1 on the 
 High Seas with 
 a fear that a 
 s u b m a r i 11 e 
 alarm was being 
 sounded in the 
 earnest efforts 
 of the sergeant 
 to communicate 
 with the com- 
 mander of the 
 
 •YOU ARE NOT CAPTAIN OF THIS SHIP" <>Uard. 
 
 The steward was English and the captain a quiet old Scotch- 
 man with too much sense, we thought, to turn our men out. We 
 said to the steward: "These men are going to France to fight 
 your battles, and we don't want them to die of exposure before 
 they get that chance. You are not the captain of this ship any- 
 way, and our soldiers are going to stay out of the wind and cold 
 tonight right where they are until the captain of the Scandanavian 
 orders them out." "( )f course, sir, that's all right, sir, Ill's get the 
 order at once, sir!" And he posted off to the captain. We were 
 a little nervous in spite of our brave front, while waiting for the 
 steward's return, because we had been cautioned not to interfere 
 with the ship's officers, and when the sergeant suggested: "If 
 the lieutenant thinks best, perhaps I'd better have the men come 
 out," I was wondering in my own mind what Colonel Bain's 
 attitude would be if the captain were to side with the steward 
 and make complaint. But we saw the steward coming, and were 
 all relieved when he reported : "Sir, the captain says that the men 
 may remain where they are." 
 
 He also apologized, by saying that he was only doing his duty 
 as he understood his orders, and we in turn thanked him very 
 sincerely for his trouble and kindness in getting the captain's per- 
 mission for the men to remain, and truthfully added that we were 
 a little afraid the captain might object. 
 
 Tenth day. Sea very rough, and boat pitching and rolling 
 138 
 
COMPLAINTS BY OUR SOLDIERS 
 
 badly ; many men sick, and have a touch of it myself. On duty 
 KNEP last night. Passed place at 4 a. m., where the European 
 navy should have met us, but at n a. m. not in sight. More let- 
 ters to be censored. Soldiers writing industriously to catch first 
 mail home. Here are some more extracts : 
 R. to his mother : 
 
 "Mother dear, we all realize what sacrifices you people back 
 home are making, but God only knows what we are going 
 through, and all that puts courage in us to stand it are the memo- 
 ries of those at home. It sure is a big change in life, just like 
 being in a different world here, but we intend to fight our way 
 back to that other world in good old U. S. A. so dear to us. 
 Home is what the soldier most thinks of— that and his girl." 
 He writes to his wife : 
 
 "I would part right now with $25.00 for a good meal, such 
 as you would give me any time. The Johnnie Bulls are good fel- 
 lows and mean well, no doubt, but they can't cook worth a d . 
 
 We are just hoping for the time again when we can have our 
 company cooks. I have been so sick for four or five days that 
 more than once I nearly threw up my hobnails; but am feeling 
 better now. I look at your picture every chance I get. Writing 
 this is like sitting in a poorly ventilated cellar with a candle and 
 going through the motion of a loop-the-loop at a carnival. 
 Hoover says save food, but I haven't seen much saved the last 
 week." 
 
 Private R. L. ; again to his mother : 
 
 "I am very tired of this journey, and also feel very weak, but 
 we are looking forward to a better day, and that keeps us moving. 
 Haven't eaten now for eight days. A sea voyage is not such a 
 pleasant trip as many imagine. I never care to see water again 
 after I have reached the dear old U. S. A. There are times when 
 the ocean is beautiful, but it cannot be appreciated by one whose 
 chief occupation is vomiting. The ship does rock terribly at 
 times, and the breakers roll over the deck quite frequently." 
 
 One of the men assailed the officers of F company so bitterly 
 in a letter that I sent it back with a note that such expressions 
 were likely to get him into trouble. He also said if he had known 
 what he knows now Uncle Sam would never have gotten him on 
 the boat. 
 
 Another soldier wrote that the U. S. had contracted with a 
 
 139 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 British company to transport soldiers at so much per head, and 
 that was why our men were packed in the ship like sardines, and 
 fed so shamefully ; that the British company was getting rich by 
 its methods ; that it was wrong for the men to be loaded like cattle 
 and fed like hogs when their officers were accommodated luxuri- 
 ously and feasted on the best ; that the officers got choice and the 
 men what was left ; that he had helped to hoist meat out of ship's 
 hold that was green with mold, and if he ever became an officer 
 he would see that his men fared as well as he, or he would insist 
 upon eating the food that was supplied to the men. 
 
 I sent for the writer and told him there might be much truth 
 in his charges. I didn't know but didn't believe he could prove 
 them. He'd written a bully letter anyway and should feel much 
 relieved to get all he'd said out of his system, but now he'd bet- 
 ter continue following Lincoln's advice in a similar case and tear 
 the letter up. 
 
 140 
 
CHASED BY SUBMARINES INTO GLASGOW 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE BRITISH ISLES 
 
 Twelfth day. Routed out at 5 145 this morning for duty in 
 K N E P. Last night Bill and Rose went to bed with their clothes 
 on because of submarine scare. Our convoy had not arrived. 
 Bill forgot, in his anxiety, to read his daily letter from his wife 
 until Rose reminded him by asking if the mail was late today. 
 This morning the destroyers are arriving, and we are passing the 
 north of Ireland, the mountainous and rocky coast of which ap- 
 pears too far away to the right for us to distinguihs details 
 About noon we came in sight of Scotland, also high and rocky, 
 and entered the Firth of Clyde, which gradually narrowed to the 
 Clyde river ; then we knew we were bound for Glasgow. We 
 passed many jagged rocky islands standing out of the sea like 
 enormous sugar cones. About the middle of the afternoon I went 
 on deck from censoring letters, and was delighted beyond my pow- 
 ers of expression with the country we were passing through. 
 Either it is beautiful or what I had recently experienced on the 
 ship made me think so. I realize that appreciation generally 
 depends upon the mental attitude of the observer, but we were 
 near enough to distinguish trees and rocks and fields and houses 
 on both sides, and I cannot now believe I was deceived. The 
 country was rugged in the main, but with tracts near level, and 
 pretty valleys sloping down to the edge of the river laid off by 
 trim hedges into checkered fields, spotted here and there with 
 stone houses and villages, and occasionally a lordly manor sur- 
 rounded by many acres where the landscape artist's skill has 
 added to nature's handiwork. 
 
 About 7 p. m. we passed through the net across the Clyde and 
 were out of submarine danger. This made us feel relieved as if 
 all of our dangers were now over. We learned here that five of 
 our transports were going to Glascow instead of Liverpool 
 because of submarine activity. There is an unverified rumor that 
 
 141 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 one of our transports was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland this 
 morning. 
 
 Thirteenth day. When we awoke this day the ship was tied 
 up safely to the dock in Glascow. On the way here last night we 
 passed the great Clyde ship-yards, visible in an interesting way, 
 by reason of the extensive illuminations required for the night 
 shifts of builders to work by. In one yard of giant cranes and 
 derricks an immense vessel was under construction, said to be 
 larger than the illfated Lusitania, which was also built on the 
 Clyde. The ways deliver the ships lengthwise of the river to go 
 with the current and to get room enough for the launching. Our 
 dock is surrounded by warehouses that shut off a view of the 
 city. Captains Farlow, Graham and I went on the ship's bridge 
 which enabled us to see over. The docks are in a large basin 
 dredged out in irregular blocks from the Clyde. There is little or 
 no current and an abundance of floating garbage in the water. 
 The basin is full of camouflaged ships. It is surrounded by an 
 unbroken line of apartment houses six and seven stories high, 
 with innumerable chimneys, each terminating with a row of high 
 chimney-pots. These and the double decked trams that passed 
 and repassed in the distance were among the novelties that I 
 remember. 
 
 I also had my first experience with the European tipping 
 system. I had lost all of my United States money ; was unable 
 to cash one of my travel checks, and borrowed five dollars from 
 Lieutenant Shaugrau. This did not allow great munificence in 
 tipping the army of ship servants. We often commented on the 
 excess number of these people whom it seemed to us might be 
 better employed at serving in the army. Lieutenant Bill asked 
 how much I had given one of the waiters. Two dollars, I told 
 him, and he said that was what he offered at his table, but the 
 waiter refused to accept so little. I had no more than reached my 
 state-room when my waiter appeared, handed my money back, and 
 said it was not enough. I thanked him for returning it and told 
 him I would keep it myself if he didn't want it, and that is the 
 way we parted. Later I learned that LTncle Sam expected us to 
 tip more liberally and would refund such expenditures by an offi- 
 cer on a sea voyage up to fifteen dollars. 
 
 As we left the ship about noon to entrain, a British sergeant 
 at the gang-plank handed each of us "A message to you from His 
 
 142 
 
RIDE BY RAIL THROUGH ENGLAND 
 
 Majesty, King George Fifth," bearing the embossed royal coat of 
 arms and "Windsor castle" followed by a facsimile of the king's 
 handwriting in words as follows : 
 
 "Soldiers of the United States : The people of the British 
 Isles welcome you on your way to take your stand beside the 
 armies of many nations now fighting in the Old World the great 
 battles for human freedom. The allies will gain new heart and 
 spirit in your company. I wish I could shake the hand of each 
 one of you and bid you God speed on your mission." 
 
 "George R. I." 
 
 The entraining was in charge of wounded British officers, 
 and the one for F company could not count a squad of eight men 
 correctly. A fellow-officer apologized for him, saying his friend 
 had just been discharged from the hospital and was not fit to 
 work. Here we saw the women doing the heavy lifting of dock 
 and longshoremen and in many respects we noted the depletion 
 of man-power. Again we wondered why the droves of slackers 
 en shipboard doing chamber maid work, waiting on tables, and 
 the like, were not better utilized. 
 
 When Emerson visited Glascow eighty years ago and traveled 
 thence toward London by rail, as we were about to do, he was 
 loud in his praise of the accommodations and speed which he said 
 were far superior to anything in America. But America has so 
 developed since then that our soldiers laughed at the toys which 
 their engines and little compartmented cars appeared to them to 
 be in comparison to our moguls and Pullmans. Nevertheless the 
 train made forty and fifty miles an hour, and was very comfort- 
 able. The roadbed was depressed in Glascow so only the bare 
 legs of Scotch bairns lining the banks and waiving the double 
 cross of Britain in one hand and the stars and stripes in the other 
 for our benefit, were visible : but for many miles after leaving 
 Glascow before we crossed the bleak and lonesome hills on the 
 border made famous as the home region of Thomas Carlisle, we 
 were entranced by the trim hedges, "the penciled fields," the vil- 
 lages in stone that told of centuries of prosperity and good taste, 
 and the smooth and level roads connecting them that made our 
 Lincoln and Dixie highways for motoring look cheap and 
 unromantic. 
 
 We crossed into England at Carlisle, journeyed thence to 
 Manchester and almost paralleled the west coast down to Crewes 
 
 143 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 opposite Liverpool. We stopped well on in the night in the big 
 railway sheds at Birmingham, where, as at Glascow and other 
 places, where the halt was long enough, coffee and the inevitable 
 cold meat pies were served to all who would partake. The team- 
 work of the British Red Cross everywhere was excellent. Girls 
 flocked to talk to the Americans, many not out of their teens yet, 
 and all so eager for souvenirs that the officers feared their ad- 
 mirers would take the newly cloned Sam Browne belts away from 
 them. One of the young ladies, on Lieutenant Johnson's invita- 
 tion that she go to France with us. settled herself down in our 
 compartment so long that we began to fear that she was taking us 
 in earnest. The people seemed as much amused with our pronun- 
 ciation as we were with their queer English. "Don't see why 
 they couldn't be taught to speak correctly while they were about 
 it," was the comment of the American soldier. We detrained at 
 
 AVE MARCHED IS FRONT OF KING ALFRED'S STATUE 
 
 Winchester early Sunday morning and marched, in the rain, 
 through the winding streets of that quaint old town. The early 
 
 144 
 
CAMPING AT WINNAL DOWN 
 
 milk-maid with horse and cart was dealing the lacteal into open 
 mouthed pitchers and crocks, which she left on the door-steps of 
 neat red and white brick residences, where the cat and dog could 
 sample it as in good old American days before our Boards of 
 Health required milk to be delivered in closed bottles. We 
 marched in front of King Alfred's statue, then column left 
 across the bridge by the old mill where the east gate of the ancient 
 walled city stood, then climbed the road up St. Giles. The camp 
 was at Winnal Down, four miles out of town and up hill. As 
 soon as the soldiers had rid themselves of their packs and had 
 breakfasted, they begged paper from the Y. M. C. A. and began 
 writing letters home. "Some of them," we quote, "told what a 
 fine time they were having, and others told the truth." 
 
 Private S. writes: 
 
 "I wish I could do justice to the beautiful scenery we have 
 passed through. The last days on the water were monotonous — 
 each just like the one before — sky and water and a crowded ship ; 
 we have waited in vain for the first signs of land. As I lay sleep- 
 ing last night I was awakened suddenly by the slam of a door and 
 thought I heard the words, "Yes you can see a lighthouse on the 
 starboard side." Some guard must have announced it. I didn't 
 know if I were dreaming or not, but rather than miss a chance I 
 slipped on my overcoat and shoes (all that was necessary for I 
 have not undressed for many a day) and went on deck. Sure 
 enough, there was a lighthouse visible, throwing first the red and 
 then the white. I stood at the rail and watched it ever so long. 
 The night was cold but fine ; the sea not rough, and the regu- 
 larity of the flashes made me think so much of the nights when 
 you and I have watched the lighthouse flashes across the water 
 together. This morning I was up bright and early, but what has 
 happened since cannot be described without giving away our pres- 
 ent location. I have seen some of the prettiest sights of my life — 
 seascape blending with landscape — the scenery is wonderful. The 
 villages are very pretty and remind me so much of Little Current 
 and the other villages of the Georgian Bay." 
 
 '45 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 A VISIT TO WINCHESTER 
 
 On Monday I was given permission to visit Winchester. Had 
 to walk the four miles to town, but regretted that I had not time 
 and leave to walk twenty miles further on to Stonehenge, where 
 the temple of the Druids makes the Roman history of Winchester, 
 and the writing of Domesday Book events of but yesterday by 
 comparison. 
 
 Passed St. Catherine's Hill on my left and St. Giles' Hill at 
 the eastern edge of Winchester, noted as the place for annual 
 fairs in ye olden times, when people came from all Europe to 
 trade. The celebration in 1901 of the lapse of one thousand years 
 since the crowning of King Alfred, was held on this hill now 
 kept as a city park. Winchester is beautiful from here in its fore- 
 ground of green trees enlivened by the red tile roofs ; the massive 
 grey Cathedral conspicuous with its tower and pinnacles ; Wyke- 
 ham's College to the left, with its "two Warden's Towers," con- 
 trasting in grace with the heavier tower of the Cathedral, and in 
 the background other Hampshire hills that blend from green to 
 blue. But the best part of Europe, to me, lies not in its scenery — 
 we have as fine at home — but in the memories aroused by its his- 
 torical past. Winchester breathes the spirit of the centuries ; a 
 city "ruled upon skille," for a thousand years, and still retaining 
 in its hospitals, schools and religious institutions the dress and 
 customs of feudal days. The ghosts of Saxon King Kynegils, 
 who listened and first accepted the Gospel message, of Egbert, 
 Cnut the Dane, and King Arthur's Round table haunt you here. 
 The Romans built and dwelt here and we tread where Alfred the 
 Great and William the Conqueror trod ; where the last of the 
 Saxon kings was led to execution ; where Henry I. ruled ; where 
 Matilda and Stephen fought ; where John was absolved by the 
 Pope for his unkingly practices, and where Henry III. held wild 
 revel. Bishop Beaufort, who helped to condemn Joan of Arc to 
 
 146 
 
OLD CASTLE HALL AT WINCHESTER 
 
 be burned, lived here. Henry VIII. , Charles V., Mary and Philip, 
 of Spain ; Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh, James I., Charles I., Oliver 
 Cromwell and a host of statesmen and church dignitaries visited, 
 or were prominent in their day in this little town of Winchester, 
 to which the eccentricities of war have brought me from a conti- 
 nent unknown to many of its ancient kings. Only a man of stone 
 could be indifferent to this place where so much of great history 
 had its beginning. 
 
 I walked on as I felt like it through the windings of High 
 street, stopping to study a quaint building here and to admire a 
 bit of green and bloom drooping over on ancient wall, or growing 
 out of the joints of it ; to read the odd signs and to study and per- 
 haps talk to one of its citizens or guests until I found myself at the 
 West gate. This is close to the castle and is also a block house 
 strong enough to hold against human enemies in the siege of 1666, 
 but not able to keep out the plague that entered and made the city 
 a charnel house, which an ugly monument near the gate bears wit- 
 ness to. Three other gates as interesting as this were torn down 
 to get them out of the way of traffic in a former period of util- 
 itarianism which took with it, also the tomb of Alfred the Great, 
 and made other ruins much to the regret now of the city and 
 Nation. It is related that the West Gate was spared only because 
 a large upper room in it was in use as a popular ale-house, an 
 argument in favor of the saving power of strong drink. 
 
 The room now is used as a museum where an old soldier will 
 show one the lance of Sir Launcelot, a rope made from the Golden 
 Fleece, by King Arthur, and many other articles in "a collection 
 of rare local interest," in proportion to the size of the tip you give 
 him. He had just been out "having one" on a couple of the 
 doughboys when I arrived and was consequently in fine fettle, 
 which accounts for much of the local color that I am able to pass 
 on here to the reader. 
 
 At the distance of a good hop-skip-and-jump from the West 
 Gate is Castle Hall, where the rush of history makes the mind 
 reel. The interior with its columns is as majectic as the cathedrals 
 of France which I have since seen enough of to qualify me as a 
 connoisseur. Here the Frenchman De Monfort, who first gave 
 the Englishmen the idea of a representative assembly, caused the 
 first parliament to be held nearly eight hundred years ago. Here 
 Henry VIII. received Emperor Charles V. with great ceremony ; 
 
 147 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 here Sir Walter Raleigh was tried and unjustly condemned, and 
 here, hanging high on its western wall out of reach of souvenir 
 hunters, is King Arthur's Round Table that Henry VIII. and his 
 guest, Charles V., of Spain, were credulous enough to believe 
 King Arthur and his knights, Sir Launcelot, Sir Galahaut, Sir 
 Bedivera and Sir Kay, sat down to as Tennyson has told us they 
 did. In fact the four knights carved their names on the Round 
 Table as school boys carved theirs on their desks ; their names 
 are there and what is the use denying that they did it, while listen- 
 ing to King Arthur's lectures. 
 
 A railing twenty feet 
 from the wall, built, I 
 suppose, to keep sou- 
 venir hunters like the 
 Americans, from whit- 
 tling the table to pieces 
 or adding their names 
 to the Knightly list, in- 
 sures the enchantment 
 of distance to a view of 
 a much advertised piece 
 of furniture, and really 
 adds to the enjoyment 
 of a situation in which 
 too close familiaritv 
 
 HANGING HIGH ON THE CASTLE WALL OUT -' 
 
 op reach of souvenir hunters is king might weaken interest 
 
 ARTHUR'S ROUND TABLE & 
 
 The authorities came near tearing down the City Cross in 
 High street in their campaign to modernize Winchester, and had 
 an order to that effect in the hands of the street commissioner or 
 whatever they call that factotem ; but the people rose in near-riot 
 and saved it. It is. popularly known as "the butter market," be- 
 cause the country folk were in the habit of placing their crocks 
 of butter on the steps of the shrine on market-days to be sampled 
 by the good wives of Winchester. Perhaps anticipated interfer- 
 ence with this custom is what saved the quaint old structure, 
 which does block the sidewalk and is badly out of repair. 
 
 I secured the above information pertaining to the dairy indus- 
 try of Winchester from a seedy individual with a red nose, and, 
 
 148 
 
WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL 
 
 true to his species, he took advantage of our slight acquaintance 
 to strike me for a loan with which to buy a cup of coffee. Then 
 he showed me Godbegot house, which I had passed in High street, 
 and confided that it was a sanctuary where those obnoxious to 
 the law might take refuge and the police couldn't touch them. I 
 promised to keep that in mind because I might need a place of 
 refuge before I got out of town. 
 
 Next was the ancient church of St. Lawrence hid in a little 
 crooked street leading past the public square to the Cathedral, and 
 then I passed the town museum where I turned in, but of all I 
 saw there, I can only remember a bit of mosaic flooring laid by 
 the Romans. 
 
 Of the many points of interest in Winchester the Cathedral 
 easily takes first place. Within the limits of the church close the 
 Romans built a temple to Apollo ; then the Saxons built according 
 to their ideas, which the first Norman bishop appointed by the 
 Conqueror, regarded as dwarfed and inadequate. He tore down 
 and built according to plans of his own, leaving the Saxon crypt 
 and nothing more. The shape of the Cathedral is cruciform, but 
 only in the north and south trancepts can the heavy, joyless Nor- 
 man masonry be seen. The rest was changed or covered up to 
 suit the ideas of beauty and grace of later Plantagenet taste. 
 
 I met a pleasant gentleman who was about to unlock the front 
 door of the Cathedral. He handed me a wrought iron key a foot 
 long, and suggested that I unlock and open the door. The latter 
 was of solid oak massive and heavily ironed so anyone opening it 
 might expect to exert himself in the accomplishment. But I was 
 trained and willing to try. The key entered easily; the bolt shot 
 back as readily, and the weight of my two hundred and twenty 
 pounds against the released door made it fly open to my surprise 
 and to the delight of the slender gentleman who had suggested the 
 experiment. He turned out to be one of the ushers or guides, and 
 dilated on the perfect workmanship that made the operation so 
 easy. That guide and I became great chums on short acquaint- 
 ance. He confided to me that he was the best informed man in 
 his line in England, and Westminster Abbey had been trying to 
 get him but he wouldn't go because here at Winchester thev had 
 real dead ones, the bones of kings and queens that were great, 
 centuries before Westminster was ever thought of. "Here," he 
 said pointing to the tops of many high windows, "you see patches 
 
 149 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 of stained glass that is the original fourteenth century article ; 
 very rare and wonderful in its coloring as you observe. They 
 escaped the destruction of Cromwell's soldiers, who used the nave 
 here as a stable and only escaped because the men were not able 
 to throw stones straight enough to knock them all out. After the 
 Rebellion the broken pieces were gathered up and set in the west 
 windows," and he pointed to the large windows, filled with the 
 same glass in crazy-patch patterns. "All down these aisles," he 
 continued, "noted people had been buried and their graves marked 
 with brass inscriptions and designs ; but most of the brass had 
 been pried loose and knocked off by Cromwell's men to show 
 contempt for Established church." 
 
 Many of the inscrip- 
 tions to which he point- 
 ed were badly used, 
 others not so badly, 
 while some were whole 
 and looked as good as 
 new. "Yes" the guide 
 replied, when attention 
 was called to the latter, 
 "interments have been 
 made here in recent 
 years. The inscriptions 
 to which you have just 
 called attention, mark 
 the graves of distin- 
 guished soldiers of the 
 Boer war. But Win- 
 chester Cathedral is far 
 more exclusive than 
 Westminster Abbey." 
 
 From this, I take it, 
 only the oldest and most 
 select of English nobil- 
 ity may rest their bones 
 at Winchester. There are such degrees of greatness that it is too 
 bad Gray did not write his immortal Elegy here. 
 
 Several American officers, and women connected with our 
 army service, entered the church and joined us. As we walked 
 
 150 
 
 A SEEDY INDIVIDUAL INFORMS ME THAT 
 
 THE CITY CROSS IS POPULARLY KNOWN 
 
 AS "THE BUTTER MARKET" 
 
ORIGIN OF THE PAWNBROKER'S SIGN 
 
 down the middle of the nave the forest of lofty columns that rose 
 and towered above us branching and interlacing at the roof, was 
 so impressive that none of us spoke or cared to. Once the guide 
 called attention to hooks high up on the unbroken pillars where 
 tapestries were hung for "the coronation of kings, the marriages 
 and burials of princes ; the consecration of bishops," and we were 
 reminded that we were walking where the rulers of church and 
 state had trod in most solemn procession. The spell was only 
 broken when we reached the baptismal font, an example of 
 eleventh century art done in black marble. Reliefs on its four 
 sides represent scenes from the life of St. Nicholas — our good old 
 Santa Claus. Here our guide said the babies of the parish for 
 five hundred years past have been baptized in water taken from a 
 well in the old Saxon crypt dug a thousand years ago. The font 
 is about three feet square and two feet deep, and the side toward 
 the middle of the church has St. Nicholas giving three purses of 
 gold to a poor man, who, according to our guide, had three daugh- 
 ters unable to marry because the old man was too poor to give 
 them a dower. If they were as homely in life as they were on the 
 font no wonder the fellows refused to take them without a bonus. 
 According to our guide, the thrifty parent started a pawn-shop 
 with the gold, and from the three bags originated the idea of the 
 three balls known to the world as the sign of the pawn-broker. I 
 have heard other stories about the origin of the pawn-broker's 
 sign, but none supported by any degree of proof. Here are the 
 three bags of gold, in a carving five hundred years old at least, 
 and, as with Sir Arthur's Round Table, I give this story credence 
 over those that have nothing to support them at all. 
 
 Our attention was called to the columns near the steps of the 
 choir, where the daring alterations begun by Bishop Edyngton 
 and continued by William, of Wykeham, were left incomplete — 
 perhaps to show us how it was done — in part by chiseling away 
 the heavy Norman columns and in other places by tearing out and 
 rebuilding them anew. The added sense of height, of beauty, and 
 of impressiveness, are made apparent, and they strikingly illus- 
 trate the genius of the later architect who visualized all this in 
 advance. 
 
 To emphasize the comparatively small stature of the men of 
 the Conqueror's time our guide seated us on a heavy oak bench on 
 which the monks of the Cathedral sat and gossiped in their rest 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 periods. Our knees were half-way to our chins by reason of the 
 lowness of the bench. This bench faced the south transept, where 
 there was much scaffolding to support the roof while many of the 
 ancient timbers, eaten through and through by a destructive 
 grub, were being replaced, and in a small room in this same part 
 of the Cathedral we were shown the tomb of Sir Izaac Walton, 
 the angler. Here our guide came forward with another of his 
 illuminating stories, to the effect that when notable people visited 
 the fisherman he invited them to fish with him in the Itchen, a 
 small stream with a large reputation, just outside the town, and 
 for bait, he kept a number of dead rats suspended and fly-blown, 
 from which he extracted a goodly quantity of fat maggots, and 
 that he always carried his bait in his mouth. 
 
 This prepared us to ascend to the choir where we were shown 
 the little stalls on each side with carved seats where the monks 
 sat and chanted their lives away. The carvings in oak were done 
 by them and they had their little jokes by carving each other in 
 characture-busts on the ends of the arms. One had a wagging 
 tongue, which the guide wagged for us by pressing with his 
 pencil. 
 
 Here we walked over the plain tomb of William II., who must 
 have been a lover of music or hoped the noise would frighten 
 away the powers of evil, and in a room kept under lock and key 
 for some reason not apparent or explained to us, we were shown 
 souvenirs of bloody Mary including the chair she sat on for four 
 hours while the ceremony of her marriage to Philip of Spain was 
 being conducted. Further on in the east end of the Cathedral are 
 a number of very elaborate chantry chapels, each containing the 
 tomb of its founder, and each vicing with the rest in the elaborate- 
 ness of its English and French medieval sculpture. Most of them 
 were greatly damaged by Cromwell's men except that of Bishop 
 Beaufort, afterwards a cardinal, whose chapel was spared by the 
 favor of the leader of the rebels who had gone to school to him. 
 Next, the guide took us down in the basement, or crypt, where 
 the frescoes of the early Saxons or Normans were as bizarre and 
 crude as the writings of Beowulf, and told us a story about some 
 reconstruction work on part of the foundation that was giving 
 way. We had swallowed the fables about the origin of the sign 
 of the pawn-broker and Sir Izaac Walton's bait-carrying idiosyn- 
 crasies without protest, but when he told us how divers had to 
 
 152 
 
WINCHESTER COLLEGE 
 
 be employed to lay cement foundations under sixteen feet of 
 water for the repairs of the Cathedral, and the only water here- 
 abouts was the little Itchen, we asked him if he were dreaming 
 about St. Mark's Cathedral at Venice, or telling us of the early 
 lake-dwellers in Switzerland that he had evidently been reading 
 about? But he insisted that he was relating the truth in regard 
 to Winchester Cathedral. We had enough. We let him lead us 
 back to the main floor, where he collected his tip, and hurried off 
 to repeat his fictions to a long column of enlisted men filing in 
 at the front door. 
 
 I next turned to Winchester College, where William of Wyke- 
 ham established the first public school not an appendage of a 
 monastic or collegiate institution. Passing College Brew House 
 and through the old Outer Gateway into a large covered passage 
 I was admonished by a sign to ring for the lodge porter. He came 
 at his leisure, waited until enough others had arrived to be worth 
 his while, then led us through the Middle Gate into Chamber 
 Court and mediaevalism where the people must still doff their 
 hats to the virgin over the gate, and where the scholars, watched 
 over by a master, are dressed in the style of the Thirteenth 
 Century. 
 
 We were shown the chapel and wandered through the beauti- 
 ful cloisters behind it ; then climbed to the "hall" with the beam 
 ceiling, carved wainscoting, and high end-platform, where the 
 founder's portrait hangs above. These high platforms, or 
 "thrones," are conspicuous features wherever the scholars are 
 wont to assemble. They are the official seats of the masters, who 
 enforce the world-famous motto of the school, that freely trans- 
 lated from the original Latin reads : 
 
 "Learn, or leave, or stay and be licked." 
 
 The alumni here are fond of preserving their memory by white 
 enamel plates several inches wide and a foot or more long bearing 
 their names in Old English, and nailed to the walls until every 
 available inch appears to be covered. 
 
 Walking back from here toward the Cathedral I passed "the 
 glorious Old Close Wall," high enough in all conscience to turn 
 back any but a New York hook and ladder company, and over its 
 moss-covered area were patches of blooming flowers that gave 
 it all the glory it had. I tried to sketch in front of the Cathedral, 
 but was driven to cover under one of the magnificent trees that 
 
 153 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 make the place famous, by one of the ever-frequent showers of 
 this locality, and tried to start a little conversation with a young 
 English woman of the better class, who had sought shelter under 
 my tree. 
 
 "You have a beautiful city," I ventured. 
 
 She looked at me as if about to resent a familiarity, then 
 changed her mind and drawled: "Oh-h, do you-h think so-h?" 
 
 "Yes indeed. The moss-covered walls, the quaint architecture, 
 the tile roofs, the grand trees, and even the crooked streets, all 
 look as if they had been fitting themselves together for a thousand 
 years. Don't you admire it?" 
 
 "No-h I cawnt say I evah saw anything to interest me in 
 Winchestah." 
 
 "Possibly my enthu- 
 siasm is due to inexperience 
 — this is the first time I've 
 been here," and realizing 
 that I had not touched the 
 right chord, I tried again by 
 asking, "Are you interested 
 in the war?" 
 
 "No-h I'm tiahd of it — 
 we'i e been in fouah yeahs, 
 don't chew-know!" 
 
 Her tone was what the 
 fiction-writers call "wither- 
 ing sarcasm." She meant 
 to give me a national cut I 
 imagine for our slowness in 
 getting into the war, and a 
 personal one for daring to talk to her without an introduction. 
 But why so much formality between friends. I withered to the 
 extent of giving up further conversational efforts and her image 
 has ever recurred to me as typically English. A French woman 
 would have been too kind-hearted to snub an American like that. 
 I walked back to camp in time to take command of the com- 
 pany for the evening while Lieutenants Johnson and Wasserman 
 made their visit to Winchester. We were expecting orders to 
 leave on short notice so I had to keep in close touch with regi- 
 mental headquarters located in wooden barracks with a front 
 
 154 
 
 "YOU HAVE A BKATTIFUL, CITY 
 
CROSSING THE CHANNEL TO FRANCE 
 
 porch. A half-dozen orderlies lounging in front jumped to at- 
 tention as I entered. There were no orders yet, so the adjutant 
 said, and I went outside to make up my mind whether to wait or 
 go back to the company. The orderlies sprang to attention again 
 in a manner that was annoying to one so tired as I after a hard 
 day's sightseeing, and I gave the instant command that suited my 
 own inclination — "Rest." But before I reached the edge of the 
 porch an orderly who had followed me out saluted with : 
 
 "Sir, the commanding officer presents his compliments and 
 would like to see the Lieutenant." 
 
 I reentered and Colonel Bain demanded : 
 
 "Why did you give the command, 'Rest' when those men 
 should have remained at attention?" 
 
 Were you ever put in a position where what was going to hap- 
 pen to you right quickly depended upon how much quicker your 
 brain could formulate a saving answer? Mine saved me once 
 more by prompting : 
 
 "Sir, I'm waiting here for F company's travel orders and only 
 stepped outside for fresh air." 
 
 That made it all right if I intended to remain a while instead 
 of passing on, which in fact I hadn't determined upon until this 
 incident helped suddenly to make up my mind. 
 
 Several hours later the order came to entrain next morning. 
 We counter-marched to Winchester and made the ten miles to 
 Southampton by rail ; then loafed until 5 p. m., and watched the 
 unloading of stretcher after stretcher of wounded soldiers from a 
 hospital-boat that had just made port. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE ENGLISH CHANNEL AND LE HAVRE 
 
 The regiment crossed the channel on two small ships ; the 
 "Nopatin" and the "Monas Queen." Ours was the "Monas 
 Queen," on which there was scant standing room for the men. 
 
 155 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 If they slept that night they must have slept upright or in hori- 
 zontal layers. The officers had staterooms, the doors to which 
 could not be closed because of obstructions in the form of diag- 
 onal beams that had been put through the openings to brace the 
 ship which had been built for calmer waters than the English 
 Channel. 
 
 Our boat left Southampton at 6 p. m., passed the Isle of 
 Wight, a low and treeless coast so far as we could see, and 
 reached the open channel by dark, where all who went to sleep 
 after that were certainly well rocked. It was about this month 
 that the Mayflower and the Speedwell sailed out of Southampton 
 with our Pilgrim Fathers aboard. What changes in three hundred 
 years ! 
 
 Some time that night we reached France. It was misty and 
 dimly lighted when I crawled on deck to find we were tied fast 
 at the mouth of the river Seine. Le Havre was the place, which 
 I am informed, was originally called Havre (or harbor) de Grace. 
 I remember that because of a town by the same name near the 
 mouth of our Susquehanna at home. This one at the river-gate to 
 Paris got its name from a church, and, because it is so modern — 
 only four hundred years old — its streets were laid out before the 
 houses were built and were plotted chiefly in straight lines around 
 the docks. This is referred to in the books as quite out of the 
 ordinary for a French city to have straight streets, because, we 
 are told, the older towns developed along "natural" lines. Here 
 and there a house built at the owner's fancy on irregular paths 
 that in time became the built-up crooked streets we know today. 
 
 We got an exceedingly early start in debarking because no- 
 body had undressed the night before, and there was no breakfast 
 to bother with. We marched over long stretches of dock to which 
 were tied submarines, submarine chasers, and a great variety of 
 naval vessels, besides the camouflaged ships that we were most 
 familiar with. Le Havre next to Marsailles, is the greatest 
 seaport of France, and has been an important naval base since the 
 first Napoleon's time. We crossed innumerable bridges that 
 brought us finally to paved streets with many-storied business 
 houses on each side, but no sky-scrapers as would be in evidence 
 in a town of this importance in the states. The French may boast 
 of the straightness of the streets of Le Havre, but they do not say 
 
 156 
 
OUR MARCH THROUGH LE HAVRE 
 
 WE MARCHED THROUGH THE STRAIGHT 
 
 STREETS OF LE HARVE, BESIEGED BY 
 
 BEGGING CHILDREN 
 
 how narrow and short the straight parts are. We found many 
 angles to turn, and discovered early that we were elbowing people 
 out of the way, who 
 spoke a language we 
 did not understand — 
 that is, except the cry 
 of a mob of boys and 
 girls who yelled "pen- 
 ny" as they held out 
 their dirty hands and 
 even tried to hold the 
 soldiers until they re- 
 sponded with the coin. 
 
 When we halted for 
 the regulation rest we 
 were in a wide street in 
 a nice residential por- 
 tion at its intersection 
 with Rue Victor Hugo. 
 I didn't then know that 
 every self-respecting 
 French town has a Victor Hugo street, and tried to ask some of 
 the natives where the great writer's house was. 
 
 Hardly had we halted than scores of women and girls with 
 baskets of fruit appeared and we were soon as busy as a street 
 carnival at home. All of a sudden there was a female scatter- 
 ment caused by a gendarme in uniform, who drove the fair mer- 
 chants away because they were profiteering — charging thirty 
 cents a pound for grapes. But our men were hungry and thirsty, 
 and as soon as the policemen passed on the women came back and 
 sold out all they had. 
 
 Before we halted again we had marched along a body of water 
 so wide that no opposite shore was visible. Between us and the 
 water on our left was a bathing beach, and to our right a long, 
 high bluff, thick with casinos, terraced gardens, and elaborate 
 architecture — a fashionable summer resort, no doubt, in times of 
 peace, but now deserted. 
 
 The boulevard we were traversing led up by an easy grade, 
 but after a mile or more we turned abruptly to the right into a 
 steep street defined by high walls through the gates of which and 
 
 157 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 over their tops we caught glimpses of chataux surrounded by 
 Edens of delight so tempting that I ventured in at the Villa of 
 La Rosa near which the troops halted to rest. 
 
 Lieutenant Bill accompanied me. We were met at the porter's 
 lodge by a little woman in battle-ship grey, with whom we ex- 
 changed smiles, and the few French words we knew. 
 
 "Bonjour madam! entrer? — combein? — tresbein — beaucoup 
 merci !" 
 
 She beckoned us on and deluged us with a greeting that must 
 have been friendly, judging from her manner, but from her words 
 we understood nothing. Presently a head gardener came forward 
 and we tried to talk to him. By some kind of mind reading pro- 
 cess it was imparted to us that the grand "maison" was closed 
 because the owner and his family were in the army ; but the free- 
 dom of the gardens was at our disposal. 
 
 The latter were in terraces reached by winding roads lined 
 with flowers and ornamental trees. Nearly hid in an upper corner 
 by splendid foliage was a green-house; below a terrace of rare 
 roses from which the gardener presented us each a bloom ; below 
 the rose terrace a tennis court, out of commission, and just inside 
 the high front wall an extensive garage empty and deserted. 
 
 This was only one beautiful villa that we were permitted to 
 explore out of many equally or more beautiful that we caught 
 glimpses of through gateway-vistas as we passed — all sur- 
 rounded by high stone walls over which the flags and flowers 
 hung, in many places. 
 
 I gave my rose to private Tilton to send to his wife, and then 
 we began to climb a hill that the men with heavy packs declared 
 was perpendicular. The road did wind with many horseshoe 
 bends that I cut off by climbing across and thereby lost liaison 
 with F company which Lieutenant Johnson was ably leading. 
 
 When the men arrived at camp B, Base I, a "rest camp," on 
 top of that high bluff, they needed rest but found mud over shoe 
 top deep that they had to line up in, and they wondered what kind 
 of engineers had planned such 'drainage. It was near noon before 
 they were assigned to curiously camouflaged tents too small to 
 accommodate half the number put in them. They couldn't lie 
 down but were greatly comforted by the knowledge that they were 
 closest to a series of deep narrow trenches in which they were 
 
 158 
 
THE PRIVATE SOLDIER'S VIEWPOINT 
 
 instructed to take refuge in case of an air attack, the possibilities 
 of which were impressed on all by numerous signs like this : 
 
 AIR CRAFT ALARM 
 
 6 GUNS WILL BE FIRED 
 
 CHURCH BELLS RUNG 
 
 BUGLES SOUNDED 
 
 There was a very attractive Y. M. C. A. hut here where offi- 
 cers were sold a good dinner for 80 cents. The soldiers were 
 served the accustomed "slum" which was accepted for once with- 
 out complaint by appetites whetted by a twenty-four hour 
 vacation. 
 
 By good fortune I was detailed to take fifty men to Le Havre 
 at 7 p. m. to move baggage. We were conveyed in army trucks, 
 which saved a hard march. After we had transferred the baggage 
 we prepared and placed three days' rations for the regiment in 
 cars side-tracked and waiting for their passengers. It is always 
 interesting to get the viewpoint of the enlisted man on what is 
 taking place, and I am able to quote the following from a "His- 
 tory of F company, Three Hundred and Ninth Engineers," pub- 
 lished since its members returned to America. 
 
 "Later in the day a report was published that 'E' and 'F' com- 
 panies would leave that night for a three days' train ride. There 
 was no question but that Italy was the destination, for what part 
 of France was that far distant? Little was known of the speed 
 of 'side door Pullmans' at that time. At 8 o'clock that night the 
 two companies began to march to Le Havre under the leadership 
 of 'Commander' Johnson. This was one of the hardest hikes ever 
 taken by the company since its organization. Arriving at 'la gare' 
 the soldiers found their Pullmans already made up. They con- 
 sisted of a box-car for every forty men. In these cars had been 
 placed rations for the journey. One wondered how two score 
 men could confine themselves and all their equipment in so small a 
 space. With Americans nothing is impossible, so at 11 o'clock the 
 'special' pulled out of Le Havre, each car taxed to its capacity. 
 My, what a night ! Kriesel was too long for the space allotted 
 him ; Gialdini was too broad ; Karaker would not sleep so close to 
 
 159 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 any one, so he sat up. Still the train moved on. At dawn typical 
 scenes of France presented themselves. For miles around could 
 be seen vineyards, pastures and fertile fields. Here and there 
 were noticed groups of stone and cement buildings. With these 
 interesting sights to view, every man wanted an outside seat. 
 This was denied some, but there were a few who scarcely took 
 time to eat for fear of losing their commanding position by the 
 window. The meals on this trip consisted of the customary army 
 bill-of-fare : beans, corned beef, 'petit' jam and bread. These 
 delicacies were rationed out by the ranking sergeants who always 
 
 had the interest of the 
 men at heart. Conse- 
 quently they never al- 
 lowed the privates to 
 devour more than was 
 good for them. About 
 noon the next day, 
 the train passed 
 through Versailles. 
 This is as close as 
 many of the men ever 
 came to Paris, and the 
 front. The route then 
 turned toward the 
 southwest and at 10 
 o'clock that night a 
 stop was made at Tours. Here the Red Cross served coffee 
 and sandwiches. This was a Godsend, and so the Red Cross 
 proved to be at all times. Another night passed with all its 
 vicissitudes. Morning found the company well on its way 
 toward southern France. On all sides were seen the thing for 
 which this country is noted ; acres and acres of vineyards. How 
 enticing this luscious fruit looked to the young American, accus- 
 tomed to all the comforts of a typical American home. The effect 
 of war could be seen very plainly, for scarcely ever was young or 
 middle-aged man noticed in the country or small villages through 
 which the train passed. All the work was carried on by women 
 and children. The signs of grief seemed to be present in every 
 one's face. Great were the burdens carried by these once happy 
 and care-free people. 
 
 160 
 
 OUR ENLISTED MEN ENJOYING THE NIGHT 
 
 ACCOMMODATIONS OF A "40 HOMMES, 8 
 
 CHEVEAUX" PULLMAN 
 
VILLAGE OF ST. GERMAIN 
 
 "At 6 130 Friday afternoon the train stopped for the last time, 
 and the battalion detrained at St. Astier. For almost forty-eight 
 hours the route had been due south, and the Three Hundred and 
 Ninth Engineers were now only eighty miles from the Spanish 
 border. Lieutenant Minturn was in charge of the company, Lieu- 
 tenant Johnson having gone ahead to arrange for the billets. A 
 guide had been expected to meet the troops at this point, but failed 
 to appear, so worn out from loss of sleep and three days of con- 
 stant travel, the company started out over the hills of southern 
 France in search of the village of St. Germain. No one had any 
 idea where he was going or what he would find when he arrived 
 there. Some thought they were marching toward an American 
 camp, others that they would pitch tents along the side of the 
 road, while a few looked forward to billets. Never had hills 
 seemed so steep or roads so hard as on that march. To add to the 
 misery it began to rain, and whenever a cluster of white houses 
 came into sight, the men were sure that their journey was at an 
 end. It was at this time that the indomitable spirit instilled by- 
 Captain Kelly asserted itself. The company arrived at St. Ger- 
 main with full strength, after a hike of about seven miles, while 
 trucks were picking up men from other units who were unable to 
 stand the strain. The only 'F' company casualty was George 
 Black. When the marching column halted at the edge of St. 
 Germain the lanky blacksmith started a clog dance. The weight 
 of his pack caused him to lose a step and over he went into a 
 ditch. Black was rescued after some difficulty, and continued in 
 line with the aid of a cane." 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 OUR FIRST BILLETING IN FRANCE 
 
 F company was in the lead followed by E. We halted our 
 commands with the head of F under a big tree at the middle of the 
 village. Not even the American billeting officer, known as the 
 town major, was there to greet us, and Lieutenant Lardner and I 
 walked up hill to the mayor's office, which was closed for the 
 night ; hut we found the town major, who roomed in the building, 
 
 161 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 and learned that he was not expecting us for a day or two. But he 
 gave us billeting directions — F company at the neighboring vil- 
 lage of Aeuriac. 
 
 Colonel Bain, accompanied by Colonel Kruger, of division 
 headquarters, arrived while we were talking to the billeting offi- 
 cer, and as we came away Colonel Kruger remarked : 
 
 "Minturn, I have bad news for you. There's an order at 
 headquarters taking you away from your regiment." 
 
 "What for colonel?" I asked. 
 
 "Instructor at the A. E. F. Army Schools." 
 
 I had greatly appreciated the five months close contact with 
 the men of F company, and if they were to see service at the 
 front as we all supposed, I preferred to remain with them and 
 said so. 
 
 A small boy volunteered to guide F company to Aeuriac and 
 he soon had us climbing a steep hill that our tired soldiers, groan- 
 ing under their packs, declared must lead straight up — they hoped 
 to Heaven — but were so suspicious of ever} thing on this side that 
 they had scant hopes of finding anything good. The road was so 
 old that travel had worn it down shoulder-deep. 
 
 There was a leveler road, as we learned afterwards, which 
 would have been a little longer, that we might have taken, but 
 we then knew nothing of it and followed our young guide. 
 
 It was that dark when we arrived we couldn't tell a manure 
 pile from a cow shed. A Frenchman brought a lantern by the 
 light of which we read chalked numbers on the stable doors indi- 
 cating the estimated capacity. There were dirt floors and no 
 straw, and details were sent back to St. Germain for additional 
 blankets. Some of the detailed men returned by midnight and 
 more made themselves beds by the roadside, where they slept 
 sweetly until morning. But next day we got straightened out as 
 satisfactorily as billeting in a French farming village would per- 
 mit, and we staid there long enough to make some of our men 
 declare they would never be able again to pass a cow shed or a 
 pig pen without wanting to turn in and make themselves at home. 
 About 2 o'clock that night I made my first acquaintance with the 
 excellent beds of France — proverbially good whether in homes of 
 high or low estate. This was at the Villa of La Source, some 
 three miles from Aeuriac. M. Mauze and his wife did their part 
 
 162 
 
M. MAUZE OF LA SOURCE 
 
 by taking a score of soldiers and a half-dozen officers into their 
 commodious home. They were refined and hospitable, but the 
 chief attractions to our officers were the two charming daughters, 
 the elder of whom had studied English at school and was the 
 family interpreter. If we made as many humorous mistakes with 
 our French as she with her English, I cannot wonder at the 
 extreme good nature to the verge of suppressed merriment, of our 
 hosts whenever we talked to them in their own language. The 
 fiance of this 
 young lady was 
 in the French 
 army where he 
 had been twice 
 wounded since 
 he began fight- 
 ing, in 1914, 
 and the whole 
 family were in- 
 terested in the 
 American sol- 
 diers. 
 
 We assured them that we had our own mess and would not 
 impose on their hospitality further than to enjoy their excellent 
 beds, but they insisted that we partake of their cake and wine at 
 least, and delighted in telling us over and over what the French 
 was for "spoon," "door-knob," "picture," "napkin," and all of the 
 things we had to learn the names of like little children. 
 
 My only regret was that F company was so far away that we 
 could not get to Aeuriac in time to stand reveille at 5 145 in the 
 morning, and Lieutenant Wasserman and I were forced to move 
 into St. Germain. Eventually I occupied a bed in the same room 
 with Lieutenant Rose, our regimental dental officer, who gained a 
 great professional reputation with the French people thereabouts 
 by reason of his skill on some of them. He made no charge and in 
 one particular instance a young woman whom he had relieved of a 
 toothache insisted that he dine with her family. 
 
 Somebody had to lead Rose home that night, and he woke me 
 up by repeating: "No — not on your life — Fm not drunk — watch 
 
 163 
 
 MAKING WINE AT AEURIAC. COMPANY F KITCHEN 
 WAS IN THE YARD OUTSIDE THE DOOR WHERE 
 THE DOG STANDS. THE BOY STOMPING GRAPES IN 
 THE TUB WAS CLEANING OUT THE COW STABLE A 
 FEW MINUTES BEFORE AND DID NOT WASH HIS 
 FEET 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 me!" But he had on his clothes, boots and a ripping headache 
 next morning. He explained later that he didn't drink near as 
 much champaign as Chaplains Miller and O'Brien, who were bil- 
 leted with his hosts, and were both at the dinner. 
 
 The French people, it has often been remarked, drink much 
 wine and little water. "Facts about France," a book relied on by 
 the American overseas soldier, says, (page 46) : 
 
 "A second rule of health is : Never drink water, unless you 
 know it is safe and even then drink very little of it." This rule 
 was followed by our army there to the extent that we were per- 
 mitted and many times advised by our superior officers to drink- 
 wine if we couldn't get our dearly beloved chlorinated water, 
 which everybody despised. 
 
 A few nights after his dinner party Lieutenant Rose decided 
 to take a bucket bath in our room, and to heat the water and take 
 the chill off the air, he built a rousing wood fire in a fire-place 
 with which the room was provided. 
 
 ft was on the second floor ; the windows had no shutters or 
 blinds, and the bright light from the fire streamed out against the 
 white walls of the adjacent buildings in such an unusual manner 
 that the residents of Germain decided our house was burning up. 
 An excited crowd of them gathered in the street below crying, 
 "Feu!" "Incendie!" etc., until they broke in the outer door in 
 their excitement and came floundering and yelling up the stairs. 
 Rose, standing stark naked in his G. I. bucket of water, wondered 
 what the row was all about, and was nearly as excited as the pop- 
 ulace when they shouted in French and began pounding on his 
 door. 
 
 "What the h — ontray !" he yelled and as the door was not 
 locked it opened readily to an effort by one of his visitors and a 
 dozen heads crowed to get a good look. 
 
 Then they broke into a laugh, "Oui ! oui ! Le bain ! Bonsoir 
 Americana !" and stumbled back into the street again. 
 
 St. Germain has the crooked streets and other earmarks of 
 antiquity, including a chateau of its own, with a moat around it. 
 The buildings are not so imposing as the Chateau of Neuvic, not 
 far away ; but the inside walls have a finish that cannot be dupli- 
 cated in all France. They are elaborately frescoed by an old doc- 
 tor, who was still living at the chateau, and entertained us with 
 an exhibition of his small canvases. His perseverance and indns- 
 
 164 
 
ART AT ST. GERMAIN 
 
 try are greatly to his credit. Some of our soldiers declared the 
 old gentleman was "nuts" but if so he has been that way a long 
 time, for it has required many years to cover all this wall space as 
 he has done, with such attention to detail. Generations hence this 
 
 A DOZEN HEADS CROWDED TO GET A GOOD LOOK 
 
 crudity of expression may appeal to the Epsteins of that day and 
 St. Germain became a mecca for the devotees of true art. 
 
 Besides its wine, the principal industry of the town is the man- 
 ufacture of cloth slippers. These are worn on the street inside of 
 wooden shoes, which the wearers cleverly step out of and leave 
 beside the door upon entering a house. 
 
 The following prices are posted by the French Government : 
 
 Potato flour V* peck $ .25 cents 
 
 Tapioca flour y 2 peck 31 
 
 Rice, 1st. quality 
 
 Carolina, one pound 40 
 
 Beans per pound 24 " 
 
 Split peas, per pound 44 
 
 Lard, per pound 56 
 
 Cheese, per pound 1.10 
 
 Sugar, per pound 22 
 
 Chocolate, V2 pound 27 " 
 
 Coffee, 1st quality per pound '. .80 " 
 
 Coffee, 3rd. quality per pound 72 " 
 
 We had been at St. Germain about ten days when the regi- 
 
 165 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 meat was assembled in a field opposite La Source, and addressed 
 by General Hale, who said he was unofficially advised that the 
 Eighty-fourth was to be held together as a fighting division and 
 would go to the trenches at the front in one month. That same 
 night Colonel Bain called me to his headquarters at the City Hall 
 and said he had orders for me to report as an instructor at one of 
 the engineer schools of the A. E. F., but had replied that my serv- 
 ices were needed with my division and regiment unless the exigen- 
 cies of the war otherwise demanded. I sincerely thanked him, 
 because General Hale's talk had made us believe that we would 
 soon be at the front, a service that our regiment to a man was 
 praying for, now that we had gotten this far after so many 
 months of training as a pioneer regiment. 
 
 A field on a flat hill of thistles two miles northwest of St. 
 Germain was secured and intensive drill inaugurated; but never- 
 theless, a few officers went on leave to Bordeaux and more to 
 nearby Perigueux, the capitol of the department of Dordogne, in' 
 which we were then stationed. Perigueux is 310 miles southwest 
 of Paris, seventy-nine miles east of Bordeaux, and about the same 
 distance from the border of Spain. In it are the ruins of a Roman 
 amphitheater that seated forty thousand spectators when early 
 Christians were popular as bonfires, and it contains one of the 
 most interesting of sacred Christian buildings — the Cathedral of 
 St. Front. Captain Gabbert will always remember St. Front, 
 because it was while he was admiring its five cupalos that one of 
 the virgins who tempted St. Anthony, came tripping along and 
 asked him if he would'nt "promenade?*' Of course he would 
 (not) and in order to get rid of her in a nice way he approached 
 a corner policeman and asked him to tell him something about the 
 church. 
 
 He had recently paid five francs for a copy of Picart's Eng- 
 lish-French French-English dictionary, and so felt able to talk 
 with a French person of any sex or rank. He succeeded in forc- 
 ing an admission from the policeman that St. Front was built a 
 thousand years ago and resembles St. Mark's at Venice ; that its 
 five cupalos are ninety feet high and are supported on a vaulted 
 roof with pointed arches, which, the policeman admitted, had fur- 
 nished the inspiration and technique for all the Gothic architec- 
 ture of the Middle Ages that spread through France and thence 
 to Spain, and to England, Germany and other countries. I looked 
 
 166 
 
F. COMPANY AT NEUVIC 
 
 this up in the Encyclopedia Brittanica and found the policeman 
 was telling the truth. 
 
 When Gabbart reported the above at regimental mess it was 
 considered such a high and unbought testimonial for Picard's 
 dictionary that most of our officers hastened to Neuvic and made 
 a run on the visible supply, so I had to pay an extra franc for a 
 copy, but 1 have never yet been able to hold a French man or 
 woman long enough to translate a thing into either French or 
 English by using it. 
 
 One Saturday noon I was about to take my seat for dinner 
 when Colonel Pain called me to his table and gave me peremptory 
 orders to take F company to the quartermaster depot at Neuvic 
 and report to the commanding officer there for duty. 
 
 "The company went on a hike and is not back yet, will I have 
 time to eat my dinner, sir?" 
 
 "No! I said go at once. Take what F company men you can 
 find, and let the rest follow ; but go ahead yourself and arrange 
 for billeting your men." 
 
 "We have thirty on sick report, sir. What shall we do with 
 them?" 
 
 "Take them along." 
 
 "Will transportation be furnished?" 
 
 "A truck for the sick — the rest of you walk." 
 
 We didn't know it at the time, but we learned later that our 
 sick men were the first ones down with the "flu" that was epi- 
 demic the world over that winter of 1918-1919. 
 
 The sick were quartered on the floor without mattresses in the 
 drafty old loft of a shoe factory at Neuvic. Many were delirious 
 and all so uncomfortable that every man able to walk preferred 
 full duty ; the loading and unloading of division supplies that had 
 been the job of two companies of infantry, whom we relieved. 
 Several of our men worked half the night and went on again at 
 4 o'clock Sunday morning, and after working all Sunday were on 
 the job before daylight Monday. I was on continuous duty my- 
 self for twenty-four hours. There were no complaints, partly be- 
 cause such things are barred in the army, but more for the reason 
 that ours were men of grit and backbone, and they won the praise 
 of the officers of the division who were not used to Three Hun- 
 dred and Ninth Engineers' efficiency and endurance. 
 
 After Sunday dinner at division quartermaster officers' mess 
 167 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 where acquaintance with luxuries, parted with in America, were 
 again renewed, I walked into Neuvic to find a billet for the night, 
 and turned to the left after crossing the bridge at the edge of the 
 tuwn to look at the Chateau we had heard praised so highly. It 
 was being used as division headquarters (G. 2) by General Hale 
 and his staff. Of the many chateaus that I afterward saw in 
 France, I do not recall a single one now that did not have an 
 American general billeted in it. Whether the French owners 
 forced the chateaus on our generals, or the reverse happened, I 
 am unable to say, but may it not be that the descendants of their 
 once noble owners were curious to see how the old places, built to 
 accommodate a small army, would look full of real live soldiers. 
 
 I was making a long distance sketch from inside the grounds 
 when Lieut. Col. Gideon Blain, of Indianapolis, came along and 
 volunteered to show me the fine points of the palace. 
 
 ( In our way up he asked if I had heard the latest; that Ger- 
 many had asked for an armistice in which to discuss President 
 Wilson's fourteen points? 
 
 "It would lie a shame to stop the war just as we are getting 
 into it," I insisted. 
 
 "Yes from a personal view-point perhaps, but think of the 
 hundreds of lives it would save !" 
 
 "Right now, perhaps, but Germany isn't licked enough or she 
 would sue for peace on any terms instead of asking to discuss 
 them. In later years we may have to fight again and lose more 
 lives than if we do the job right while we're at it." 
 
 That was Sunday, October 6, 1918, a month before the armis- 
 tice was signed without giving Germany any chance to discuss 
 Wilson's fourteen points, and most of us believe now the war 
 stopped too soon for the good of the world. 
 
 The chateau of Neuvic was built in 1535, or perhaps in view of 
 known French slowness it would be more accurate to say it was 
 started then. It is on the bank of the river Isle, at the very 
 water's edge, with deep moats blasted out of the rock running in 
 from the river. Immense trees overhang the moats, which are 
 lined with hedges of box and are filled with clear water of appar- 
 ent great depth. At one end of the building is the chapel, in front 
 of which was the handsomest elm in all Europe, and to Lieutenant 
 Colonel Blain the chief object of interest there. After admiring 
 the tree he said there were others along the river bank between 
 
CHATEAU AT NEUVIC 
 
 the chateau and the spring-house. So we crossed a bridge over 
 the moat and wandered down a sylvian way bounded on one side 
 by a magnificently wooded bluff and on the other by the river, 
 walled with cut stone and bearing evidence of use at one time as 
 a landing dock for boats. A quarter mile down the avenue is a 
 grotto with large basins at different levels fed by a waterfall. 
 This may have been my lady's bath, if she enjoyed a plunge in cold 
 spring water, but was built more likely for laundry or dairy 
 purposes. 
 
 A wing opposite the chapel-end of the chateau was the main 
 entrance into a hall with a grand stairway that leads to the roof 
 under which is room for the men-at-arms, who defended the castle 
 and now occupied by many American doughboys of the Eighty- 
 fourth division. The construction at every turn suggests the war- 
 fare of the mediaeval times in which the chateau was built, when 
 the bow, the lance and the boardsword were the chief weapons. 
 There are battlements, turrets, and towers with projecting floors 
 and openings called machicolations, through which the besieged 
 dropped stones and hot tar on the heads of the neighboring princes 
 who came to make reprisals in a bad humor, and port-holes every 
 few feet at the middle of long vertical recesses remind us that the 
 recesses were necessary in which the archers could draw their 
 bows. 
 
 The grand stairway led to a hall where the division adjutant 
 was trying to adapt its antique furniture to the needs of modern 
 warfare. Over his desk was a large painting of Henry IV. to 
 which he called my attention, with the statement that the king had 
 used this very room and furniture on visits to the chateau. He 
 obtained his history from a French post card that I found later, 
 and laboriously translated, and which stated that Chateau de 
 Neuvic was one of the grand chateaus of France in Henry IV's 
 time, and because of its immense room which gave retreat for 
 hundreds of warriors, Henry IV and his prime minister, Sully, 
 once made it their headquarters. 
 
 Henry's picture looked the good-natured jollier that history 
 says he was. He had a time keeping the Catholics from cutting 
 his head off or killing him at the massacre of St. Bartholomew 
 before he was King of France, and was only saved by his Catho- 
 lic wife, Marguerite de Valois, whom he afterwards neglected and 
 divorced. He succeeded in quieting the religious factions, that 
 
 169 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 were waging civil war on each other, by himself turning from 
 Huguenot to Catholic. Through his edict of Nantes he saved 
 France from the terrors of the Inquisition, and encouraged that 
 religious tolerance which has distinguished modern France. But 
 poor Henry could not save himself from the hands of the religious 
 assassin. 
 
 I found a good billet at Neuvic and just before bed time an 
 order came to defend Sergeant Dennim, of B company, at court 
 martial trial next morning for disobedience of orders in allowing 
 men to detrain at Javinny en route here, before orders to detrain 
 were efiven bv the commanding: officer. 
 
 COLONEL, BAIN, CENTER; LIEUT. COLONEL ELLIOTT. LEFT; MAYOR OF 
 ST. GERMAIN, RIGHT, AND THE FAMILY OF THE MAYOR 
 
 Monday morning Lieutenant Wasserman and I walked five 
 miles to St. Germaine to attend the trial. Court was called imme- 
 diately upon our arrival there at 9 a. m. Colonel Bain and Lieu- 
 tenant Colonel Elliott testified against my client ; nineteen wit- 
 nesses in all were examined. I anticipated a severe verdict and 
 while it was "guilty" the sentence was a fine of one-half pay for 
 three months — no confinement or reduction to ranks — and we 
 congratulated ourselves after all. 
 
THE EPIDEMIC OF INFLUENZA 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 CAMP THISTLE-DOWN 
 
 When the court adjourned at 11:30 it was reported that F 
 company had been relieved at Neuvic and was on its way back to 
 Aeuviac. Our men on sick report had increased to thirty-seven. 
 On Wednesday we had forty-three ; the other companies of the 
 regiment not so many in proportion but enough to so alarm the 
 medical staff that it was decided to move out of the crowded, 
 unsanitary billets into small shelter-tents. Half of a shelter-tent 
 is part of every soldier's equipment. He puts his half with that of 
 his "buddy" ; they crawl in from one end and, if not too long of 
 body and legs, can get under cover. 
 
 The camp was on our drill-field, and was known among the 
 soldiers as "Camp Thistle-Down" because of its numerous variety 
 and generous crop of nettles. 
 
 Rain was almost continuous, and the move seemed hazardous ; 
 almost suicidal because of the exposure, but it proved a good one, 
 and redounded much to the credit of our unequaled medical staff. 
 Hospital tents were erected at a safe distance from the camp 
 where a few of the worst cases died ; four of F company and as 
 many more scattered among the other companies, out of near 
 three hundred cases in the regiment. 
 
 Because private Charles C. Thompson, an F company man, 
 died first, it fell to my lot to make the necessary arrangements for 
 burial in the cemetery at St. Germain in compliance with French 
 law ; to build the coffin, dig the grave, and arrange for a military 
 funeral, and because I thus learned the routine early, I was made 
 the regimental undertaker in the absence of our two chaplains, 
 who had previously gone to Bordeaux in connection with their 
 other work. 
 
 The family of the mayor, our friends at La Source, and all of 
 the good people of St. Germain, were lavish with flowers to cover 
 the pine boxes, draped with flags of the United States and 
 
 171 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Dur Comrades at St.Germain. 
 
 grntheliftie cemetery in the hills of Saint Germain 
 2= : Where- 1 he "che st nutrfig-arid olive add their wealth 
 ^Ao the -terrain]^'"' "^ 
 /VeK^t^^fa field 'and forest, nook and cranny, 
 2^0^- iii'lf and dale 
 
 By the mosses, green and golden, that by magic touch 
 
 prevail, 
 Turning roughness info beauty: by the vineyard, fig, and 
 
 grain, 
 There we laid our stricken comrades, there our marfyr'd 
 
 dead remain / 
 Sincelwe bore them op our shoulders, keeping step 
 to muffled drum; / 
 
 
 There 
 
 oounded u 
 
 the last salute was fired and the bugle's 
 re'quf&mf / / / / 
 
 inded iapS/Whi'ch/svveetfv echoed as we watched 
 setting s\\x\/ / 
 Y'rjarbmlgerjara^s/ap^tory of the cycles yet to run. 
 \\\tearW of rranceltHeir Graves will moisten, hallow'd 
 
 \ \ | /memoes e'er^esteemT" 
 
 -^Those who died in line Qf:dutyzWho have paid the 
 
 price ' supreme.XT S^ ^ &sh ■ ? 
 
 '•**""".»!'■ J?" " ~l ; -i;A.MINtURN,COF , ,309EfSG(?S.,A.E.r 
 • -, A *-' mi «' &: •'/ .Wve-« ^ 
 
 sss 
 
 PART OF MY CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY P'S HISTORY, "OUR EXPERI- 
 BNCES." Reproduced Here by Permission 
 
 France, and to cover the new graves like a blanket. The regi- 
 mental band was in the lead ; then the squads that fired the salute 
 over the unfilled graves; next the coffins, for the burials were 
 always double, borne on the shoulders of the comrades of the de- 
 
 172 
 
I CONTRACT THE MUMPS 
 
 ceased ; then the chaplain from division headquarters, who came 
 for the occasion ; our own officers, the dignitaries of the town, 
 then the companies to which the stricken soldier beolnged, and at 
 the end the humble citizens, old men, women and children, all that 
 the war had left at home. 
 
 Always in the evening these last rites were paid. Pluvius 
 was kind enough to withhold his showers so the rays of the setting 
 sun could brighten the laying to rest of these boys who had offered 
 all they had, and whose offering had been accepted by that fate 
 which allows some to live and others to go through the hardships 
 of war and die, just before they reach the field of battle and of 
 glory. We who live can well be reconciled with that fact ; but it 
 seems sad that these men who had come so far must die from 
 disease that profited none, and so far away from those most near 
 and dear to them. 
 
 The exertion of my numerous funerals so tired me that I 
 consulted Dr. Davis about it and called his attention to a swollen 
 condition of the right side of my face. He insisted on marking 
 me "sick in quarters." The next day at officers' mess Dr. Efert 
 pronounced my malady the mumps, whereupon Colonel Bain or- 
 dered me to stay in my room. There I occupied my time in cen- 
 soring a mass of letters that had been allowed to accumulate. If 
 there was an epidemic of mumps back home among the folks of 
 F company who read those letters the chances are they con- 
 tracted it from the censor. Here is an "extract" from a letter by 
 Corp. X. : 
 
 "The country about here is very interesting. It is the most 
 primitive I have seen ; in fact I did not suppose such conditoins 
 and customs existed in this age. The people are thrifty in their 
 way and seem to have all they need, but they cling to the old 
 fashions in living. Ancient ox-carts, or more likely, cow-carts, 
 shepherds tending herds and flocks to keep even the geese out of 
 unfenced fields, wooden shoes, wooden plows hitched to yokes 
 tied to the horns of the animals, no telephones, and seldom a news- 
 paper are the prevailing conditions. 
 
 "Nearly all of the homes are of stone centuries old, in which 
 barn and dwellings a*-e all in one ; a yard surrounded by high 
 ^tone walls. We were billeted a couple of weeks at a French 
 farming village ; all the farmers live in villages here. The people 
 were kind to us, and I had long talks with the old daddies. We 
 
 173 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 managed to understand each other quite well. They all tried so 
 hard to understand us. We are their 'comrades' they say, and 
 from the oldest 'grandmere' to the petite garcon they give us a 
 smile and friendly greeting." 
 
 Captain Noonan. of D company, is reported very sick from 
 the mumps and my informant stated the regiment had orders to 
 move and Noonan and I would be left behind. But the next time 
 Major Efert examined my face he said the order was changed and 
 Noonon and I would go along in a separate car. 
 
 Rose is daily growing more popular in St. Germain society. 
 At his last dinner out, the men-folk sat at the table with their hats 
 on, and after eating their "potage" poured a glass of vin blanc in 
 their soup plates, which they drank in the good old way that many 
 of our ancestors drank coffee from their saucers. Spinach, beef, 
 roast turkey, grapes and "fouinage" followed in separate courses, 
 and everybody put cognac in their coffee instead of milk. So 
 much for the customs of St. Germain. 
 
 Captain (Dr.) Davis informed me that the regiment would en- 
 train Tuesday morning and that he had been transferred to the 
 sanitary train. We were near the same age, and were so often 
 together that in America whenever Captain McDonald saw either 
 of us alone he inquired. "Where is your little playmate?" We 
 often debated our chances of seeing France at our ages, but here 
 we both are. 
 
 Dr. Davis further imparted that at conference today the Colo- 
 nel remarked that Lieutenant Minturn might get orders to go to 
 the army school at Langres, near Metz and the front, as instruc- 
 tor instead of accompanying the regiment. That prospect began 
 to take on definite form and a new interest ; but no order inter- 
 cepted me and on Tuesday morning Captain Noonan and I were 
 hauled over to Mussidan in an ambulance. Instead of being 
 crowded like the rest, we shared a whole compartment with 
 Lieutenant Dimm and Doctor Helfrich, and were watched over 
 and favored in a manner very novel and pleasing to a tired soldier 
 no sicker than I. My first letter in France from Herbert came 
 last night, written from Pauillac, which, he says, is near Bordeaux, 
 but this train is taking me where ? I do not know, except that is 
 is not toward Bordeaux. 
 
 We rode through vineyards and hills and then through a level 
 country where the roads lined with tall trees, the streams lined 
 
 174 
 
NANTES, BIRTHPLACE OF JULES VERNE 
 
 with short trunks of ample girth but having low, bushy tops, soon 
 to be clipped off as faggots for fire-wood, and the acres of tall 
 cabbage-like stalks in rows from which Brussels sprouts are har- 
 vested, were the features of most lasting impression of this trip 
 That is, until we reached Nantes, the city made famous by the, 
 edict of Henry IV., that charter of liberty of the Huguenots in 
 France for nearly a hundred years. The name of Nantes was im- 
 pressed on my mind by a picture of long ago, showing King 
 Henry in a door-way flourishing a document before an excited 
 crowd. The title printed under it was the "Edict of Nantes." and 
 aroused my curiosity to learn what all the excitement was about. 
 The whole story came back to me as our train followed the 
 crooked Loire through the ancient business portion of the com- 
 monwealth, and another memory of my youth gave prominence to 
 this city of Nantes. Here Jules Verne was born and grew to man- 
 hood, and who knows but that his dream of the Nautilus was 
 suggested by some of the odd craft here in the river Loire. His 
 "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" is an imaginary 
 flight of forty years ago that describes the submarines we had to 
 dodge in crossing over here ; his "Five Weeks in a Balloon" is 
 commonplace in comparison now with the exploits of our living 
 aviators, and who can say a "Trip from the Earth to the Moon" 
 may not be attempted in a projectile shot from a still bigger 
 "Bertha" than the one that has been bombarding Paris at a sev- 
 enty-five-mile range? Jules Verne died in 1905, before the World 
 war fulfilled his scientific prophecies ; peeved because his country- 
 men did not give him credit as a prophet that he felt entitled to. 
 
 The regiment detrained at Montour, a suburb of St. Nazaire, 
 near one of the marvelous American base ports. They spent the 
 first night under their shelter-tents in a cabbage patch, where 
 they felt at home for various reasons ; but next day they were 
 inducted into squad tents where F company remained until the 
 regiment came home the following July. Near them was a camp 
 of colored soldiers from the states. As I was taken to the hos- 
 pital, I must copy again from the published history of F company : 
 
 "When we first arrived some one called over to one of the 
 colored troops to inquire what kind of a camp they were in. 
 'Rest camp, boss,' came the reply. 'Yo do all you kin in the day 
 time, and the rest you do at night." Next day the truth of this 
 statement was brought home to the men. The Pont Chateau and 
 
 175 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Donges roads were in need of repair, and the work was assigned 
 to the first platoon. Each man was made a foreman and was 
 given a detail from the Fiftieth artillery. They left camp at 7 
 o'clock in the morning, and it was often after 6 before they re- 
 turned. On the following Monday the remainder of the company 
 was assigned the task of laying several miles of side-track and the 
 building of about a hundred warehouses on the marsh land along 
 the banks of the Loire. No rain clothes had yet been issued, and 
 everyone was still wearing his field shoes. The rainy season had 
 started and the ground, always soggy and water soaked, soon 
 became a veritable lake. Some one suggested that it would be 
 necessary to use a pantoon bridge for the road bed. 
 
 "After a few days' experience in carrying lunches, it was 
 decided to bring a warm meal from the camp at noon. This al- 
 most caused another military funeral in the company, because 
 Cook Wintner lost his way. Everyone had fixed bayonets when 
 they lined up for mess that evening, but as usual Adolph had a 
 good alibi and the incident ended when mess sergeant, Guy 
 Kuhns, promised never again to trust Wintner with the 'chow.' " 
 
 The F company "history" tells the following story of Guy 
 Kuhns in his effort to get fresh eggs at St. Germain for the 
 sick men, and I can appreciate it from the trouble I had in making 
 a farmer's wife understand that I wanted eggs. This is the story 
 from the "history :" 
 
 "Guy Kuhns was trying to buy some eggs from a French 
 woman. She could not understand what his 'oof meant, so in his 
 desperation he squatted down, flapped his arms like wings, and 
 cackled like a hen. Then the light of understanding dawned on 
 her face ; 'Oui ! oui ! oui ! Je compree !' and she took him by the 
 hand and led him to the latrine." 
 
 176 
 
IN HOSPITAL AT ST. NAZAIRE 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ST. NAZAIRE AND PARIS 
 
 Captain noonan and I were told to wait at "le gare" in Mon- 
 toir for an ambulance to take us to a hospital. It came late and 
 we were buffeted over long and rough roads, but the end was 
 worth the price. We were ticketed to ward 10, Base Hospital 
 101, St. Nazaire, where we made the professional acquaintance of 
 that divine being in human form, known to the soldiers as a Red 
 Cross nurse. We spent six days there ; the closest to heaven and 
 heavenly rest experienced in all of my two years of army life. 
 No revielle ; three meals a day in bed ; eggs, chicken, ice cream 
 and a cup of hot cocoa between meals, and again at 9 p. m. as a 
 night cap. 
 
 On Sunday Lieutenant Johnson brought me the much talked- 
 of order from which I quote the following : 
 
 "3. Pursuant to instructions contained in 2nd indorsement 
 from the adjutant general G. H. O., American E. F., dated Octo- 
 ber 14, 1918, First Lieutenant Joseph A. Minturn, 309th Engi- 
 neers, will proceed to Langres, so as to reach there November 10, 
 1918, reporting upon arrival to the commandant, army schools 
 thereat, for duty as instructor. 
 
 "The travel directed is necessary in the military service." 
 
 I was anxious to be out and away, but under the hospital 
 rules was required to remain until the following Wednesday. 
 
 The day I returned to the regiment I learned that Colonel 
 Bain had been relieved from duty with the Three Hundred and 
 Ninth Engineers and was ordered to the first army at the front. 
 In a talk with him he 
 said, I would have bet- 
 ter opportunities for ad- 
 vancement than if I re- 
 mained with the Three 
 Hundred and Ninth ; 
 that I had made rapid 
 improvement, and had 
 the qualifications of a 
 good company command- 
 er and he would be sur- 
 prised if I were not soon promoted. Can it be that he had pur- 
 posely held me back while he was in command of the regiment 
 
 177 
 
 OAPTAIN NOONAN AND I. IN BASE HOSPITAL, 
 ST. NAZAIRE, WITH THE MUMPS 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 for some purpose? I cannot imagine what and put the question 
 to Col. Albert Smith since my discharge, who said it was probably 
 to make sure the gratification of my desire for service overseas ; 
 otherwise I might have remained as he did, in this country. 
 
 Major Hess gave a farewell dinner at the Grand Hotel in St. 
 Nazaire to Colonel Bain, to which all of the officers of the regi- 
 ment were invited. Wit, wine and hilarity, not unmixed with 
 sadness over the breaking of old ties, so detained us that all of the 
 fifty-seven railway gates between the hotel and our camp were 
 closed and the gatemen asleep. Every railroad crossing at grade 
 in France has double gates, and a substantial gate-keeper's lodge, 
 with an attendant ready to open the gates, if he isn't asleep in the 
 lodge. Some of these gates have been carried away by impatient 
 American truck drivers. 
 
 Of my hospital experience the aforesaid history of F company 
 has these kind words, for which I take this opportunity of extend- 
 ing my most venerable appreciation : 
 
 "Lieutenant Minturn was too sly to catch the 'flu' but began 
 his childhood days over again by contracting the mumps. He was 
 confined to his quarters for ten days and secured a well-earned 
 and well-deserved rest. No man in the company has endured the 
 sacrifices that this 'grand old man' has, and it was with pleasure 
 that the company learned of his recovery." 
 
 The first day out of the hospital was spent in locating my bag- 
 gage, which is hard enough to keep in touch with when you 
 haven't the mumps, and are on the job. The next two days I 
 was in charge of F company platoons on railroad track-laying, in 
 water half way to the knees of the men, and participated with 
 much interest in a race with Lieutenant Lardner and E company, 
 who were working on a spur parallel with the track we were lay- 
 ing. The fourth day I insisted on being relieved from company 
 duty so I could get away to my new assignment as I did not pro- 
 pose to wait until November 10 to report there. Colonel Bain had 
 already taken his departure but thoughtfully left the following 
 estimate and appreciation : 
 
 Headquarters 309 Engineers, U. S. A., 
 
 American E. F., France. 
 To Whom it May Concern: October 31, 1918. 
 
 First Lieutenant Joseph A. Minturn, Three Hundred and 
 Ninth Engineers, has been under my close supervision and obser- 
 vation for almost one year. He came to me as a second lieutenant 
 in the Quartermaster corps in order to perform the duties of 
 
 178 
 
COLONEL BAIN'S LETTER 
 
 Instructor in Camouflage and Military Sketching in the Eighty- 
 fourth division, Engineer School, of which I was commandant. 
 At my earnest solicitation, Lieutenant Minturn was promoted to 
 the grade of first lieutenant engineers and assigned to my com- 
 mand in the Three Hundred and Ninth Engineers. 
 
 Lieutenant Minturn is a man of excellent character and hi^li 
 attainments. He is well beyond the age which would submit him 
 to compulsory military service and he is in this war from a sense 
 of duty to his country. His success along the lines of his special- 
 ties, viz., camouflage and military sketching, have been most 
 highly satisfactory. His work in camouflage at Camp Taylor, 
 Ky., and Camp Sherman, Ohio, has brought forth praise and 
 admiration from his superior officers, including the commanding 
 general of the Eighty-fourth division and from all other persons 
 who have observed his work. 
 
 Inasmuch as in the pioneer engineer service an officer or 
 enlisted man cannot afford to be a pure specialist, I have given 
 Lieutenant Minturn as much company and engineering duty as 
 was possible. On account of his age and unfamiliarity with 
 purely military subjects, he did not get along with the military 
 engineering work so well at first, but his earnest endeavor to 
 learn and his indefatigable energy have wrought a wonderful 
 improvement, and it is my opinion that if allowed to remain with 
 a sapper company he would become, within a reasonable time, a 
 first-class company officer as well as an excellent specialist in 
 camouflage and militarv sketching. 
 
 JARVIS J. BAIN, 
 Colonel Engineers, U. S. A., Commanding. 
 
 This was the last word from Colonel Bain and I will be as 
 frank in summing up my opinion of him as he was of me. He 
 was able, honest and candid ; candid at times to an unnecessary 
 degree ; he had the West Point idea of "iron rigid discipline," 
 borrowed from Germany, but not adapted to American troops 
 without considerable modification ; he made the common mistake 
 of assuming that the enlisted personnel of the National army was 
 of the same "hard boiled" caliber as the regular army of peace 
 times, and he was often over-zealous in his efforts to maintain the 
 supremacy in the army of his particular regiment, and the corps 
 of engineers, the branch of the service to which he belonged. 
 
 Gay "Paree" was very demure on the first of November, 1918, 
 when I blinked at her first from the portals of the D'Orsay rail- 
 way station and hailed a taxi, which took me to St. Ann street in 
 an endeavor to get my twenty-four-hour pass extended. But the 
 story I told the officious second Leuie in charge lacked original- 
 
 179 
 
THE. AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 ity, or conviction, as it failed to carry, and he refused a single 
 moment's grace. That so relieved and settled my mind that I 
 discharged the taxi and set out like Byard Taylor for "views 
 afoot." 
 
 The streets were not crowded ; civilians were greatly outnum- 
 bered by the military, and, among these, Americans easily pre- 
 dominated. How they got to Paris and staid there I would like 
 to know. The carvings on the triumphal arches and other struc- 
 tures were protected by barricades of sand bags ; the Louvre was 
 closed, run down and deserted, and its openings similarly barri- 
 caded. I was told that the best pictures and best other art had 
 been removed to Bordeaux. But the Eiffel tower yet remained 
 to project itself into the background of every perspective. The 
 entrance to the subway next to the place de la Opera bore the 
 notice "Refuge" to invite all to a place of safety who were 
 alarmed by Big Bertha's shells, or by bombs dropped by German 
 aeroplanes. Grave, determined Paris was earning that decoration 
 
 for bravery which 
 France has since 
 given her with the 
 world's approval. 
 
 The railroads of 
 France radiate from 
 Paris like spokes 
 from the hub of a 
 wheel, and one desir- 
 ing to go from spoke 
 to spoke can make the 
 journey easier bv 
 traveling first to the 
 hub (Paris) and then 
 to his destination. That is why I saw Paris several times after 
 the armistice was signed, and was privileged to watch her come 
 to life afterward like a perennial in springtime. 
 
 I had to let a little depot-woman truck my luggage for me, 
 much to my embarrassment. Then it was an all-day ride in a 
 southeasterly direction from Paris, next day to Langres, and, due 
 to my ignorance of the custom of reserving a seat in advance, I 
 might have stood all the way, as the train was crowded, had it 
 not been for a young lady, who heard me inquire for a seat, and 
 told me, in very good English, that the one next to her was not 
 
 180 
 
 MY TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO PARIS 
 
ARRIVAL AT LANGRES 
 
 taken. I couldn't determine if she were English or American, 
 and was surprised when she said that she was French and had 
 learned her English at school. She changed cars at Chaumont 
 for her home at Toul, that city of war widows, where four 
 years of constant jeopardy and suspense had driven out mirth. 
 She told me as we passed through Troyes that my station 
 was forty-five kilometers beyond Chaumont, where she 
 would change. As my idea of the length of a kilometer was then 
 quite vague, and none of the stations were announced, I feared 
 being carried past my destination. Facing me in the compartment 
 were two French engineer officers, interestedly conversing in 
 their own language. I tried to talk to my neighbors on either 
 hand, but "je ne comprendre pas," was the result. 
 
 "Is there anyone here who speaks English?" I inquired with' 
 some concern, loud enough for all to hear. 
 
 "I do, sir, in what way can I be of service?" asked one of the 
 engineer officers. 
 
 "Please tell me if we have passed Langrees." 
 
 "Pardon, but what was the name again?" 
 
 "Langrees ! L-A-N-G-R-E-S !" Spelling it. 
 
 "Oh, you mean Long! It is fifteen kilometers on yet. I'll tell 
 you when we get there." 
 
 These incidents illustrate how common it was to meet French 
 people who spoke good English, and how uncommon it was for me 
 to pronounce French names and words so a French person would 
 understand. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 LANGRES, HAUTE-MARNE 
 
 The railway station at Langres is at the foot of a hill so high 
 and steep that the ascent must be made by a cogged road unless 
 one prefers an hour's climb up a grade all too steep for pleasant 
 walking. While we wait for the little train to decide to come 
 down for us I have time to examine the surroundings. 
 
 Diderot says the town "is like the cock on the tower of a 
 church." It looks too big to me for a weather-cock and far too 
 firmly placed to turn with the wind. Its frowning wall has tur- 
 rets and towers enough, and behind are a few great buildings 
 
 181 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 among trees and a multitude of lower red roofs. The sides of the 
 hills are clothed with more trees than are usually found ; beyond 
 to the right is a detached elevation crowned with a colossal stat- 
 ute, and to the extreme left is a lake from which Langres, if 
 viewed from there, might be likened more to a lighthouse than to 
 a cock on a church tower. 
 
 But our little train has ventured down again ; the first con- 
 ductor encountered in France has collected nearly half as much for 
 the trip up as the entire fare from Paris, and with more or less 
 uncertainty as to the outcome, we rise slowly, and with much the 
 same sensation experienced in a first ride in an aeroplane. The 
 country begins to look like a checkerboard, and in the distance to 
 the left are the blue Alsatian Mountains, which we had sung and 
 read much about. When we paused on Cremaillere viaduct we 
 supposed it was in deference to a law of the road not to drive on 
 the bridge faster than a walk, but found it was to get up steam 
 enough to make the last lap, which finally took us through a hole 
 in the wall, and to the getting-off place between the eastern ram- 
 parts and a large four-story building, in which I afterward learned, 
 was our Army Intelligence School and School of the Line. The 
 view is well worth coming to see, but you must see it yourself for 
 I am as short of adjectives to describe it as our engine was of 
 steam. 
 
 Here some kind friend directed me to the Grand Hotel de la 
 Poste as the most modern and best. How I found my way past 
 St. Mammes cathedral, around Diderot in bronze, and up the 
 crooked street to a tiny open space the size of a good airshaft 
 called the Place Ziegler, where the hotel fronts, is a mystery. I 
 was overjoyed though, with the novelty of traversing streets with 
 stores where I could stand in the middle and touch the show 
 windows on both sides, and where the men and women I met had 
 to shunt into doorways like a train on a siding to let me pass. 
 But I was soon making signs to Mme. Lamy, who spoke scant 
 English, in my effort to make her acquainted with my needs, and 
 while she was deciding on my rank, which would determine who 
 of several of us would get the best rooms, I studied an elaborate 
 annunciator on the wall that must have rung chimes in its youth, 
 but, like the Sphinx, was now silent. Either the hotel had lost its 
 pristine grandeur or my single silver bar did not entitle me to 
 draw much of it, for, after climbing a spiral stair to room i, 
 
 182 
 
GRAND HOTEL DA LA POSTE 
 
 where I was assigned, I discovered that I had no outside window 
 nor means for artificial light. But later the madam gave me a 
 candle, by the dim flicker of which I discerned several chairs, 
 each backless or lacking a leg ; a sofa with a collapsed bottom, and 
 a pretentious washstand with a stationary bowl, and a faucet 
 above ready to discharge into it from a waterless waterback. 
 
 The old homme who showed me my room pointed to a sepa- 
 rate bowl and pitcher and said something about "eau" and "laver" 
 but was as silent as the annunciator about anything that had the 
 sound of soap or towel ; however, there was a good bed, and a 
 nice little feather mattress to cover with, and I slept soundly after 
 I later turned in for the night. 
 
 Soon dinner was served in courses from "pottage" to "fou- 
 mage" with wine, and was well worth the price of five francs. 
 
 AMERICAN ARMY SCHOOL, HEADQUARTERS AT 
 LANGRES, FRANCE 
 
 There were many American officers at the tables and some French 
 civilians. All of the romantic interest and adventure detailed of 
 the assemblies here by Major Powell in his "A. P. O. 714" article 
 in Scribners (April, 1919) may have belonged to the guests, but 
 they did not tell me the story of their lives. 
 
 The memories that linger most persistently are of the disincli- 
 nation of a waitress to serve me bread because I had no bread 
 check, and of a Frenchman with the silken beard and beatific 
 countenance of a Christ of the Old Masters, who proved to be a 
 local tailor soliciting trade from our officers. The bread situa- 
 tion was relieved by the generosity of an American colonel who 
 singularly preferred our army bread to the French kind, and 
 divided from a supply cached in a convenient closet. 
 
 183 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Upon inquiry next day at the Army School headquarters near 
 City Hall, I learned that my station was at the Army Infantry 
 Specialists School, at Ft. Plesnoy, some five or six miles to the 
 northeast. I had all that day, while waiting for transportation, 
 to look the town over, and was there frequently afterward. 
 Langres, around which the great United States army schools were 
 grouped; Chamont, where the commanding general lived, and 
 the general headquarters (G. H. Q.) were located, and Tours, 
 headquarters for the Service of Supply (S. O. S.), were the three 
 chief American centers in France, and naturally, anything about 
 them should be of interest. 
 
 Langres is eighty miles south of Verdun and was within a few 
 hour's ride of the front-line trenches of the St. Mihiel and Toul 
 sectors. An old Roman road runs from there past the birthplace 
 of Joan of Arc, at Domremy, fifty miles away toward Verdun 
 Before the war Langres had nine thousand inhabitants, but at 
 the time I write it had several thousand more by reason of an 
 influx of refugees from the North. Its expansion is stopped on 
 three sides by the sudden drop of the hill on which it is built, and 
 the neck of its little plateau on the fourth side does not encourage 
 expansion in that direction. In fact, the neck is mostly occupied 
 by a fortification known as the Citadelle, which contains the 
 Turenne barracks where there was a large school for making 
 officers out of enlisted men, and where the Infantry Specialist 
 School and other institutions for special training were organized 
 and then removed to different ones of a chain of surrounding 
 forts. 
 
 Here in Turenne barracks was the base printing plant, installed 
 and operated by the Twenty-ninth Engineers, where the carloads 
 of maps required to guide our millions of fighting men to victory, 
 were kept up to the minute in the location of every trench, strong- 
 point, wire entanglement, etc., of both contending armies. It 
 was complete in every detail of engraving, lithographing and 
 color-printing equipment, but not content with a stationary plant 
 almost on the line of battle, the Twenty-ninth Engineers designed 
 and completed one on wheels which was ready to go into Germany 
 with our mobile army at the time of the signing of the Armistice. 
 
 The walled city of Langres extends more than twice as far 
 north and south as it does east and west, and as its wall follows 
 the edge of the plateau the steep slopes below make it appear more 
 
 184 
 
THE ROMANS AT LANGRES 
 
 impregnable. It is circled by a dozen forts and was thought 
 capable of resisting any attack. The gigantic statue to "our Lady 
 of Deliverance" on Gallows Hill, west of the town, which I first 
 saw from the railway station, commemorates the successful resis- 
 tance of the Germans in the war of 1870-71, but the destruction 
 with modern artillery in the World war has dissolutionized its 
 inhabitants of any such present security. 
 
 As far back as history goes there has been a town here. It 
 was a worshiping place for the Druids before Caesar came. He 
 changed the name a few times and finally settled on Lingones, 
 from which, I suppose, the present name is modernized. 
 
 In the present wall around the city is a Roman gate, closed 
 now, but still pointed to as the most notable monument of the 
 Roman Empire extant in Eastern France. The architectural design 
 is fine, but more than that, it carries the mind to its builder, the 
 Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who before he died in 180 A. D., 
 wrote his noble Meditations — a book that was the daily study and 
 guide of our Captain John Smith — he who helped to found the 
 United States and was -r=r r^== ^.n. _ 
 
 
 saved from death by 
 Pocahontas. 
 
 Aurelius stained his 
 escutcheon by sanc- 
 tioning the cruel per- 
 secution of the Chris- 
 ians ; but he was born 
 a pagan and shared 
 the popular belief that 
 a severe plague and 
 the public reverses of 
 
 his reign were judg- ROMAN GATE A t"lTngrf7s 
 ments sent by the gods 
 for not checking the advancing tide of Christianity. I say this 
 by way of explanation of why a man good enough to write the 
 Meditations could have given the order for the burning in a 
 fiery furnace like unto which Shadrach, Mesheck and Abednego 
 were cast, of the St. Geosmes twins. The twins were converted 
 to Christianity by the preaching of St. Benignus, first missionary 
 to Langres, and the Church of the Twin Saints located just be- 
 yond the citadel is called the cradle of Christianity in France. 
 How appropriate that America, actuated by Christ's teachings, 
 
 185 
 
 BUILT BY MARCUS 
 AURELIUS ABOUT 157 B. C. 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 should select this Cradle of Christianity as the place in which to 
 complete the training of the world's greatest crusaders. 
 
 A mile further out from the Church of the Twin- Saints is 
 Marnotte Spring, the source of the river Marne. The water 
 from this spring flows past Chaumont and Chauteau-Thierry 
 into the Seine at Paris and thence to the Atlantic. Rain falling 
 but a short distance away feeds the headwaters of the Meuse and 
 flows past St. Mihiel, Verdun and Sedan through Belgium to 
 the North Sea, while water falling on the south side of the 
 Langres Plateau enters the Rhone and flowing south reaches the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 But I did not bring you to Marnotte Spring just to show you 
 a part of this remarkable water-shed ; a few feet up the slope 
 from the shrine of the Virgin is the cave of Julius Sabinus, who 
 boasted his descent from Julius Caesar. But he made a wrong 
 political guess by espousing the cause of Vitellius against Otho, 
 who was made emperor of Rome after the murder of Galba in 
 A. D. 69. His troops from Langres were defeated and Sabinus 
 escaped to the cave and lived in hiding for nine years, but was 
 then discovered, taken to Rome and beheaded. Contrast this 
 with the fate of William Hohenzollern and his generals who also 
 made a wrong guess, and then tried to make it good by reviving 
 all the cruelties of ancient warfare! They have not even had to 
 hide in a cave to save their necks. 
 
 The decadence of Rome and its invasion by the barbarian 
 hordes from the north inaugurated generations of misery for 
 Langres, located as it was directly in their path. About 264 
 A. D. a Vandal chief chopped off the head of Bishop St. Didier, 
 whose offense was that he pleaded for the lives of his people ; 
 then the Vandals massacred the citizens and absolutely destroyed 
 the city. It was rebuilt and again attacked early in the fourth 
 century, but saved by the aid of some Roman legions under 
 Constantius Chlorus, who fought a bloody battle near the town of 
 \ 'iegny, two or three miles distant, which town we passed in 
 going to and from our station at Fort Plesnoy. 
 
 Attila, the Hun, from whom the Kaiser patterned his atroci- 
 ties, passed by and stopped to completely destroy Langres, and 
 later the Saracens as completely destroyed it. But the people as 
 persistently rebuilt, just as the French will do in the regions 
 devastated by this World war, each time on top of the old debris, 
 which, here, has raised the surface more than twenty feet above 
 
 186 
 
LANGRES A CATHOLIC CITY 
 
 the level existing when Aurelius built the Roman gate that still 
 stands, but so low it cannot now be used. 
 
 Since the destruction of Langres by the Saracens, over a 
 thousand years ago, the city has been undisturbed by the many 
 local wars and raids of robber-bands, that frequently laid waste 
 the neighboring country during these centuries. This was 
 largely on account of the influence of the Church of Rome to 
 which the habitants de Langres became early and zealously at- 
 tached. It is claimed that the Chapter here, besides furnishing 
 the church with numerous bishops, has fifteen cardinals and two 
 popes to its credit and that no other community of equal size has 
 so many edifices originally built by the church and so richly 
 carved and decorated. Many of these have been appropriated by 
 the State in later years, but the embellishments remain to take 
 the visitor by surprise at every turn of the narrow and crooked 
 streets. 
 
 In 1 591 the inhabitants of Langres declared themselves for 
 our old friend Henry IV, and the Duke of Lorraine came over 
 with troops from Chaumont to repeat what happened to the 
 people of Langres under the leadership of Julius Sabinus. They 
 pulled a huge howitzer-kind of a war-machine up the hill, 
 and, lacking confidence in their marksmanship, had it planted 
 almost against the gate in the wall leading to the City Hall, so as 
 to be sure not to miss, and were about to shoot down the gate 
 when the town was saved, — not like Rome, by a goose — but by a 
 baker at work in his shop by the ramparts. I climbed up to that 
 gate after midnight one night with a light pack on my back, — 
 the crew on the cogged road not keeping such late hours, and am 
 sure any baker working within the distance of a city block could 
 have heard me puff long before I reached the gate. How Cap- 
 tain Brichanteau followed by two hundred horsemen and three 
 thousand infantrymen "stole up to the very gate before they were 
 discovered," as the story declares, passes all understanding. 
 But the baker heard the noise and raised the neighbors by firing 
 a gun, the enemy fled precipitately and "today v\ e may see that 
 war-machine in the museum of Langres" which, of course, proves 
 the story. 
 
 This is only a meager statement, historically and otherwise, of 
 the sleepy old provincial town selected by our hi h command for 
 the grouping together of the various military schools where the 
 knowledge from three years of experience by our allies in a 
 
 187 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 highly specialized warfare was imparted to the leaders of our 
 troops ; and to this training as well as to the valor of our soldiers, 
 success of the American arms from Chauteau-Thierrv to the 
 Argonne-Meuse is due. 
 
 Grouped together, as the schools of all branches of the serv- 
 ice were, here, with the two exceptions of the Artillery School at 
 Saumur and aviation at Issoudun, demonstrations for visiting 
 classes were possible, that led to intelligent co-operation later in 
 the St. Mihiel and Argonne offensives, and as the schools were 
 less than three hours' ride by automobile from No-Man's-Land 
 the instructors were sent to the front frequently to check up and 
 verify their work. 
 
 The General Staff College was in the large building near 
 where we got off the cunicular. This was a post-graduate course 
 for officers who had acquitted themselves with special credit in 
 the School of the Line. After graduation here they might ex- 
 pect to be intimately associated with General Pershing in the 
 development and execution of the deep strategy of the war, on the 
 
 THE RAMPARTS. LANGRES, PRANCE. THE SCHOOL, OF THE LINE WAS 
 
 IN THE LARGE MIDDLE BLTILDING. THE WAGON ROAD LINED WITH 
 
 TREES IN THE DISTANCE GOES TO FORT PLESNOY 
 
 Staff of a division, corps, or army in the field, or at general head- 
 quarters at Chaumont-Olympus, where all of the thunderbolts of 
 Jupiter were supposed to be forged and from whence at any rate 
 they were hurled. 
 
 The School of the Line was in another large building ad- 
 joining that of the Staff College — both originally convents or 
 church property seized by Napoleon. Here officers who were 
 supposed to function at the front, were taught the science of 
 maneuver and the handling of troops, — and incidentally, without 
 being taught, became obsessed with the idea that their genius was 
 
 188 
 
A. E. F. SCHOOLS AT LANGRES 
 
 too rare to be hazarded for the good of the army outside of a 
 safe dug-out well to the rear. 
 
 The Sanitary School was also on the ramparts close by, from 
 which a grand view, almost into Germany, was afforded. We 
 have mentioned the Candidates School in Turenne barracks. 
 Here six thousand picked men from the A. E. F. were graduated 
 every three months into second lieutenants, and here the stu- 
 dents of the army signal corps put up and took down vast kilo- 
 meters of field telegraph and telephone wire; learned the mys- 
 teries of the Listening-in service, and practiced day- and night- 
 signaling so effectively that Mars has since been trying to answer 
 back. Continuing on south from Langres through Turenne bar- 
 racks and past the Church of the Twin Saints at St. Geosmes, 
 where we turn to the right, we come soon to Fort de la Bonnelle. 
 devoted to the training of pigeons for use at the front ; and they 
 proved to be ninety-five per cent, proficient in finding their way 
 safely through barrage and gas-cloud in the World war. 
 
 Not very far in the opposite direction from St. Geosmes or 
 more in the neighborhood of Marnotte Spring and the Cave of 
 Sabinus, was the Tank School at Fort du Cognelat. There, our 
 men were taught, among other things, to use the Renault 
 "whippets" effectively in supporting our line of scouts by wiping 
 up machine-gun nests as they did in the St. Mihiel and Argonne 
 offensives. 
 
 They ran these road-rollers over the Bosch, and peppered 
 them with the leaden hail to boot, as fast as our scouts could 
 locate the infernal nests. Five miles to the north and a little west 
 from Langres, at Fort Saint Menge, was the Army Engineer 
 School, to which I at first supposed I was ordered, but which I 
 visited on several occasions. This was on another ridge which 
 overlooked a great artificial lake known as the Reservoir de 
 Charmes, where the engineers learned to build pontoon and other 
 bridges, and at the Fort the Camouflage, Pioneer, Demolition, 
 Mining, Flash and Sound Ranging and Gas Schools were 
 conducted. 
 
 Fort de Plesnoy was between five and six miles east by north- 
 east from Langres. Here a detail of over two thousand soldiers 
 were taught musketry, the use of hand grenades, automatic- 
 rifles, trench-mortars, 37-millimeter guns, sniping, scouting and 
 bavonet work in the Army Infantry Specialists' School. Between 
 
 180 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Fort de Plesnoy and Langres and only a mile or so from the 
 latter as the crow flies, is Fort de Peigney, where the Machine 
 Gun School which was originally a part of the Infantry Special- 
 ists' School, was located, and there students secured practical 
 instruction in the use of the Hotchkiss, Vickers, Browning and 
 Lewis machine-guns. Soon after my discharge and return to 
 Indianapolis I met Jean Cadou, of Company A, Fort Benjamin 
 Plarrison, and learned that he was stationed there at Fort de 
 Peigney, while I was passing back and forth every few days 
 without knowing it. 
 
 There were bakers, cooks, farriers and innumerable other 
 minor schools at Langres and vicinity also, but enough has been 
 said to give the reader an intelligent idea of my new surround- 
 ings. What happened to me during the next few days is related 
 more vividly than I could recall it now, in the following letter to 
 my wife, written on Thanksgiving Day after the armistice was 
 signed and the censorship lifted, permitting the soldiers of the 
 A. E. F., for the first time, to write their experiences home in 
 detail. 
 
 This letter is a general review of much that I have already 
 chronicled, but I hope the repetition will not prove to be tedious : 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 MY FIRST UN CENSORED LETTER 
 
 Army Infantry Specialists' School, 
 Fort de Plesnoy, France, November 28, 1918. 
 My dear wife : The censorship has been lifted as the en- 
 closed clipping shows, which now permits me to write you more 
 fully than I have been able before in regard to my army experi- 
 ences since I left the states, and I am going to spend this Thanks- 
 giving afternoon, with the aid of the adjutant's typewriter, in 
 giving you a brief history. 
 
 We left Camp Sherman, Ohio, as you know, on Saturday, 
 August 24, 1918, for Camp Mills, L. I., N. Y., on train No. 2>7, 
 of which I was made supply officer and had to see that our 482 
 officers and men on board were fed three times a day ; also had 
 
 190 
 
MY FIRST UNCENSORED LETTER 
 
 charge of all baggage. We went via Columbus and Marion, Ohio, 
 and thence on the Erie through Pennsylvania and New York 
 states. We were held over Sunday night at Port Jarvis to have 
 daylight in making the ferry and several other changes, and ar- 
 rived at Camp Mills Monday just before dark. I was detailed to 
 deliver four prisoners to as many different organizations forth- 
 with. It was pitch dark before I got my detail together and* 
 started, and it was near midnight before we got back from hunt- 
 ing the scattered regiments in a big strange camp and routing 
 out the commanding officers to get their receipts for the 
 prisoners. 
 
 We began at once equipping our men and completing our 
 quota for overseas service. The most noticeable feature of our 
 stay here was the daily drill in the sky over us of innumerable 
 aeroplanes. 
 
 Our second battalion entrained for embarkation at I 140 p. m. 
 Sunday, September 8, and that same evening our regiment went 
 aboard the "Scandanavian," a British boat, but did not leave the 
 dock until 9 o'clock on Monday. 
 
 OUR CONVOY OF CAMOUFLAGED SHIPS SAILING OUT OF NEW YORK 
 HARBOR 
 
 Then we steamed down the bay and joined fourteen other 
 vessels — all strangely camouflaged in different wierd patterns — 
 which were to be convoyed to Europe with the Scandinavian. 
 A number of naval vessels accompanied us and the sight of them 
 on our front and flanks gave a sense of security until they left 
 us the fourth or fifth day out. A number of air-craft, including 
 cigar-shaped balloons from which observation cars were sus- 
 pended, remained with us Monday. These balloons were tied to 
 steamers that towed them along, and we were positively assured 
 that all submarines were as easily seen by the balloon observers 
 as if the ocean water were so much glass. 
 
 191 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Twelve days later we sighted the north of Ireland, to the 
 great joy of all, from the commanding officer to the nineteen 
 prisoners in the "brig." In many respects it was a memorable 
 trip. Officers and men were required to wear life-preservers and 
 belts with full canteens attached, except while asleep, and then 
 they must be in instant reach, and life-boat drills were called at 
 unexpected times. The ship was badly overcrowded and had to 
 be closed down so tight to hide the lights from the enemy that 
 ventilation was interfered with. About once each twenty-four 
 hours I had to go on watch eight continuous hours with my cam- 
 pany in the forward steerage, and on one occasion was on for 
 sixteen hours without intermission — then had a turn as officer 
 of the guard, — a strenuous job of inspecting thirty odd posts all 
 over the ship with the boat rising and falling in fifty-foot plunges. 
 During rest-periods I censored the company letters. 
 
 The night of September 19 was the time of our greatest ap- 
 prehension. All of that day we had been studying the horizon 
 ahead for signs of British destroyers, which should have come 
 out to meet us. Several rumors of submarines seen were re- 
 peated and it was declared that were it not for the heavy sea, 
 which was prohibitive of submarine operations, we woufd surely 
 have been torpedoed. Lieutenant's Bill ("pussy ears") and Rose, 
 who were my room-mates, went to bed with their clothes on. I 
 thought it only hysterics, and as I had to go on watch at six in 
 the morning, undressed as usual and went to bed. I was very 
 much surprised to learn that one of the transports of our convoy 
 was torpedoed and her passengers and crew taken off in life- 
 boats. This was verified at the camp at Winchester by an of- 
 ficer acquaintance, who told me he was on the boat and lost 
 everything including the clothes he took off when he retired. 
 
 Because of this submarine activity our ship put into Glascow, 
 Scotland, instead of going on to Liverpool. About noon of the 
 20th of September we came in sight of the rocky coast of Scot- 
 land — the Highlands — and entered the Firth of Clyde, which 
 gradually narrows to the Clyde river. Bluffs and high ground 
 occur on each side sometimes sloping to the water, and all care- 
 fully cultivated, hedged and improved, with occasional quaint 
 stone-built villages on the banks or higher up a valley. 
 
 We passed the home of Harry Louder, now Sir Harry. A 
 group of us were on the top deck behind the bridge ; the shades 
 
 192 
 
WE LAND AT GLASGOW 
 
 of night were falling and the whole ship load bent to listen to 
 Chaplain O'Brien's baritone from our midst : 
 
 "Roaming in the gloaming 
 
 On the bonnie banks of Clyde ; 
 
 Roaming in the gloaming 
 
 With my lassie by my side ; 
 
 When the birds have gone to rest 
 
 That's the time that I like best 
 
 Then we can go roaming in the gloaming." 
 
 About 7 p. m. we were towed through a submarine net, which 
 stretches across the Clyde. A middle section was opened by two 
 launches to let us through, and then we were beyond the menace 
 of the submarine. The trip up the Clyde by night past the great- 
 est ship yards in the world, all alight and filled with the noise 
 and bustle of the shifts of workmen rushing to beat the depreda- 
 tions of the submarine, kept many of us awake until the small 
 hours, and in the morning we were tied up to a dock in Glasgow. 
 I was turned back at the gangplank by order prohibiting anyone 
 from leaving the ship and my most vivid recollection of Glasgow 
 
 THIS IS THE MOST I SAW OP GLASGOW, SCOTLAND 
 
 is of the filthy, stagnant water around the boat ; the whirls of 
 garbage stirred by a myriad of sea-gulls continuously diving at 
 it, and of other flocks of gulls pluming themselves on the ware- 
 house roofs until their turn came to make the garbage dives. 
 
 At noon or thereabouts, we marched a few blocks and 
 boarded the, to us, odd English cars more like children's toys 
 than real sure enough affairs. But as a Britisher asserted to a 
 slighting remark of one of our soldiers : "They do the work," 
 and before we were through with the trip of a day and 
 night which followed we were able and willing to agree with 
 him. The cars were comfortable — fully as much so as ours — we 
 traveled as fast, and the roadbeds were most excellent. We were 
 
 193 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 shown: a charming country, particularly in Scotland. Trim, neat, 
 weedless in the back as well as in the front, and evidently pros- 
 perous. The roads looked fine and one could feel that this would 
 be a paradise to journey leisurely through. 
 
 1 We arrived at the ancient town of Winchester just after day- 
 light on a Sunday morning, detrained and marched through its 
 crooked streets past Alfred-the-Great statue, and up the hill in 
 the rain to a camp four miles out. This is Wennel Downs- — 
 the camp in which the troops described in "The first One Hundred 
 Thousand" which I read on the Scandinavian, were trained 
 before going to France. We were accommodated in wooden 
 barracks and our brief stay here was pleasant to me because it 
 gave me the opportunity to explore perhaps the most interesting 
 city in England — Winchester. I cannot stop to describe all I 
 saw of interest there or I will not get this letter written, and 
 much has happenel here in France about which I must tell you. 
 One morning we were marched to Winchester and entrained 
 for Southhampton. There we boarded a boat and had the worst 
 water experience of all in a one night trip across the channel. We 
 landed at La Havre in another rain in the early morning; 
 marched through the complication of wharfs and docks, through 
 the narrow and crooked streets where the children seemed 
 trained to grab your hand and yell "penny," and halted for a 
 half-hour still in the rain in a somewhat better part of the city 
 where a gendarme chased a dozen women and girls away who 
 came among us to sell grapes because they were charging too 
 much. But our boys were glad to get them at any price, and 
 bought after the police passed on. This was on a street that 
 empties into a boulevard that runs between the bathing-beach and 
 the gambling places of LaHavre, from which we turned up a hill- 
 road running through the finer residential part of the city. 
 This, following the European custom, was a high-walled thor- 
 oughfare, but through the gate-ways and overrunning the tops 
 of the walls we caught glimpses that prompted me to trespass at 
 our next rest-period. We were opposite the villa of "La Rosa" 
 and just inside the elaborate entrance was the keeper's lodge 
 nearly buried in foliage. A French woman in the lodge door 
 beckoned me to continue, and following the winding road toward 
 the chateau or master's house, a man, probably the gardener, came 
 to us — Lieutenant Bill was with me — and showed us around. 
 
 194 
 
AT ST. GERMAIN DE AUVIAC 
 
 The gardens were terraced and had winding paths lined with 
 ancient trees and hedges of box, on the order of Washington's 
 garden at Mt. Vernon. There were pergolas and greenhouses ; 
 a sun dial and tennis court, and on a terrace above the latter a 
 rose-garden with a wonderful variety tied to labeled stakes in 
 full bud and bloom. The gardener cut a bud for each of us. At 
 the camp here we did not stay a day. The men were quartered 
 in camouflaged squad-tents and suggestively near were deep, 
 narrow trenches for refuge in case of air raids, while on all 
 sides were warning" signs. At seven that night I. was detailed to 
 take fifty men back to Havre by truck to load our heavy bag- 
 gage, and that night we entrained for Southern France. Com- 
 pany E and my company, F, were detailed to go with the 
 Sanitary Train under command of Lieutenant Colonel Fletcher 
 (you will remember Irma Flannady introduced him to us at the 
 Watterson). Captain Kelly, of F Company, was away on detail 
 leaving the senior first Lieutenant Johnson in command, and 
 much of the time Lieutenant J. was on special duty which left me 
 in command. We had more than our full quota of 250 men. It 
 fell to my lot to place them in their first French billets as the 
 quartering of troops in the houses of the inhabitants is called. 
 We detrained at St. Austaire, some seventy-five miles east of 
 Bordeaux, in the foothills of the Pyrenees on the Spanish boun- 
 dary. Herbert is at Pauillac, about twenty-five miles west of 
 Bordeaux, and for a month we were within one hundred miles 
 of each other but did not meet. I was directed to march my 
 company back off the railroad to the town of St. Germain de 
 Auviac and was put on the road by an officer who said, "That 
 is the way although I have never been there." But we found 
 it a half-hour before dark, and the town major billeted us at the 
 village of Aeuriac, a mile and a half over the hills from St. 
 Germain. It was pitch dark when we arrived, guided by a small 
 French boy, who was proud of the job, and it was a real job I 
 had, locating the particular cow-sheds and out-buildings which 
 our 250 men were to occupy. We had no candles, no supper, no 
 straw for beds, nor ability to dodge the ever-present manure piles. 
 Like on the ocean, there was water everywhere, but not a drop 
 to drink because people here are so unsanitary that the most 
 abundant water — it rains more or less gently every hour or two — 
 is unfit, and our men are prohibited from drinking it without 
 
 195 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 previous chlorination, a treatment that makes it nauseating. I 
 must pass briefly over our varied experiences here, interesting 
 because we came directly in contact with the people and were 
 
 AURIAC, FRANCE. WHERE F COMPANY WAS FIRST BIL- 
 LETED. THE COMPANY FORMED ON THIS ROAD FOR 
 REVEILLE AND RETREAT. WITH THE COMMANDING OF- 
 FICER IN THE FIELD AT THE LEFT 
 
 the first troops from America in that locality. They showed us 
 many touching evidences of friendship, but none more tender 
 than that shown in their exquisite way, for they are a more re- 
 fined people than we, for our dead. The Spanish influenza struck 
 ns here, and hit us hard we thought ; we blamed it on seem- 
 ingly unnecessary exposures and mismanagement, but the fatal- 
 ities were not so great in the end as we have since read about 
 with you back in the states. I was suddenly ordered at noon 
 conference, October 4, to take Company F to Neuvic for special 
 duty. We bad thirty sick, not then known to be with the "flu," 
 and all of them were hauled over there. Three days later we 
 were relieved and came back. These two moves made our sick 
 worse and brought our near-sick down so that our deaths, four, 
 were the greatest of any company in the regiment, and at one 
 time we had sixty on sick report. It fell to my lot to look after 
 the sick and to arrange for the burial of the dead. I had to detail 
 our men to make the coffins and dig graves, and had to arrange 
 with the mayor for the burial permits under the French laws. 
 It wrung my heart to hear the big strong-looking fellows with 
 whom it seemed to go the hardest, talk of mother and sweet- 
 heart and home in their delirium, to think of them coming so 
 far away to die without even the glory of battle, and to have to 
 leave them in a far-away grave-yard when our regiment left 
 there. But the first Sunday after we laid our six boys of the 
 
 196 
 
A TOUCH OF THE MUMPS 
 
 regiment in the little cemetery of St. Germain, their graves 
 were completely covered with a blanket of beautiful flowers by 
 the affectionate people of that commune, and we know the 
 grateful hearts of France will cherish those graves as their dear- 
 est souvenirs for all time. 
 
 I came down here with the mumps, to which a touch of the 
 influenza was added, and was marked "sick in quarters" and 
 came near being left when the regiment was ordered north to 
 St. Nazaire. But Captain Noonon, of D company, who was in 
 the same condition, and I, were carefully transported to the 
 entraining station in an ambulance and were afterwards as care- 
 fully looked after by Dr. Helfrich, on whose order we were 
 admitted to Base Hospital 101, at St. Nazaire. There I had the 
 first complete rest since joining the army while convalescing 
 during the remainder of the regulation sixteen days for mumps. 
 My orders to report to Langres as instructor in the army schools 
 came while in this hospital. 
 
 A few days after discharge from the hospital I started for 
 Langres, via Paris, and stayed as long in the latter city, a day and 
 a night, as the military police would permit. Langres is a walled 
 city on top of a high hill up which travelers from the railway 
 station are carried in a special train over a cogged road. The 
 town is a quaint one and furnished subjects for several sketches 
 that my limited time while waiting for transportation to Fort 
 Plesnoy, my destination, afforded. The river Marne flows 
 below the hill and the headwaters of the Meuse are in sight to the 
 southeast. The city is defended by a circle of forts of which 
 Plesnoy is one. Arriving at Fort Plesnoy I found that Lieu- 
 tenant Colonel Fulmer, whom I had served under at Camp Tay- 
 lor, was in command. He said he had asked for me in March 
 of this year, but headquarters replied that they had brought so 
 many officers from the states that they could not grant the re- 
 quest, but would have me detailed as soon as my division landed 
 in France, which accounts for the order that Colonel Bain noti- 
 fied me of as soon as we reached St. Germain, and to which he 
 replied, as I previously wrote you, that I was needed with my 
 regiment and company and could not be spared unless the re- 
 quirements of the service made it imperative. Had I gone to 
 Langres in March or early in October from St. Germain I would 
 have seen much more of the actual fighting, which has been my 
 
 197 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 great desire, and it will always be a matter of keenest regret that 
 I was unable to get to the front until the very last days. This 
 reminds me of my experience with the World's Fair at Chicago. 
 I wanted to go all summer long, and was constantly as close 
 as Indianapolis, but did not get to see the fair until the after- 
 noon of the last day — the same day that Mayor Carter Harri- 
 son was shot. And I could not go to the Centennial Exhibition 
 at Philadelphia in 1876, but saw the buildings at Fairmont Park 
 when I went to school at Chester the next fall. 
 
 Remembering my desire expressed to him at Camp Taylor to 
 see this war in the front lines, Colonel Fulmer told me at our 
 first interview that he had authority to send instructors from his 
 school ; that it was now between terms and a dozen of the in- 
 structors were at the front ; he could send me over if I cared to 
 go. Do you believe when the opportunity came I could not help 
 hesitating. What if I should be among those who were unlucky 
 enough not to come back^ It was easy to theorize on the small 
 
 IU'INS OF MONTFAUCON, LOOKINi'. KAST TOWARD VERDUN 
 
 percentage killed, but as thousands were killed I might be one 
 of that number. This and more came quickly, but I managed to 
 answer that such an opportunity was just what I wanted. I 
 have often wondered how I would act when the test came, and 
 am writing this after it is all over. So much has happened in so 
 short a time that my ideas are in a whirl of confusion. I have 
 neglected to keep a diary — in fact could not have gotten my 
 ideas together if I'd had the time, and while the greatest impres- 
 
 198 
 
A TRIP TO THE FRONT 
 
 sions of my life were made in a few days since that interview, it 
 will take years for it all to come back in full detail, and I shall 
 only attempt now to give incoherently what happened. 
 
 Colonel Fulmer stated that my work with him would be 
 largely the illustration of military pamphlets describing field 
 maneuvers in musketry and the support of troops by machine- 
 guns, trench mortars, tanks, v. bs., etc., and it was necessary for 
 the draftsman to see the real conditions in order to be able to 
 picture them correctly. 
 
 We left Ft. Plesnoy and passing several miles west of Verdun 
 intercepted United States motor transportation going up to the 
 front along the Meuse river east of Grand Pre, with ammu- 
 nition and supplies that night. I was transferred to an ambu- 
 lance which was returning for another load of our wounded and 
 by good luck got a seat with the driver. 1 supposed my uniform 
 and appearance allayed any doubt as to my right to proceed, but 
 the ambulance rion com. assured me it was easier to go forward 
 than to go back as there were so many trying to get out of the 
 danger zone. Soon after leaving the vicinity between Mont- 
 faucon and Verdun we could see the light from occasional flares, 
 and hear the noise of artillery, but not to as great an extent as I 
 had anticipated so close to the front line. I was assured, how- 
 ever, that the calm was probably momentary, and that we might 
 be hit or gassed at any moment. My outfit, by the way, was a 
 gas mask, steel helmet, haversack, messkit and rations, light pack 
 containing two bankets, revolver and belt with an issue of am- 
 munition, a towel and soap, and two extra pairs of socks. 
 
 I slept for two hours on the night of November 8 in a dug- 
 out, and nearly broke my neck by slipping on the steep wet stairs 
 after bumping against the low head-room just beyond the inner 
 gas curtain. My bunk was warm from the heat of the man who 
 had recently left it to go on duty. I had buttered toast for break- 
 fast but that was the last, as a chance shell knocked the cook's 
 field range out a few hours later. Met an officer of the Eighty- 
 fourth Division who told me the division had all been split to 
 pieces and practically abandoned about the time my regiment left 
 St. Germain, and the regiments scattered by companies through 
 other divisions, which had been depleted. That our General 
 Hale was in command of the Twenty-sixth Division. And this was 
 
 199 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 the fate of the Eighty-fourth, the pride of Louisville and of Ken- 
 tucky and Indiana. The officer, I have forgotten his name if he 
 told me, which I am not sure as he was one of my old students 
 at the Eighty-fourth Division Engineer School, asked if I 
 
 knew Captain C of his regiment. I inquired if he meant a 
 
 t>hort, chunky, pock-marked officer. He replied in the affirma- 
 tive and said he had been wounded ; that he got to drinking when 
 he came in contact with the abundant cognac and French wines, 
 and his colonel thought the best place for him was at the front. 
 
 I knew C well. You remember I introduced him to you at 
 
 the Sherman community-house. He was in the same training 
 camp with me at Fort Harrison before I was discharged for 
 over-age, and it was he who suggested that I go to Washington 
 and plead my re-enlistment. 
 
 The reason I did not sleep more than two hours, if that, is 
 I ecause I was awakened by an explosion that lifted me clear out 
 of the top bunk I was occupying. Some voice in the darkness, 
 said, "What the hell!" and another answered. "Well! if your 
 not dead, why worry? noise comes last!" Outside the fury was 
 .\ orse than any thunderstorm, — for, besides the roar of ex- 
 ploding shells, there were the devilish shrieks of those passing 
 o\ er. that made one feel, not so much like dodging, as like crawl- 
 ing into a deep hole that only stopped at the center of the earth. 
 We owned a dog on Illinois street once that shook and crawled 
 with fear at the noise of the giant firecrackers and other fire 
 works every Fourth of July night, and no amount of scolding 
 or beating could drive him out from under the bed. That was 
 t 1 e way I felt. But I was too scared to stay inside in the dark. 
 In our military training we had been warned that dug-outs were 
 no defense against howitzer shells and were often veritable gas 
 death-traps. At any rate, I pulled myself together, and finding 
 T was not bleeding and could walk, adjusted my gas-mask and 
 crept outside. It seemed our men were making a raid. Their bar- 
 rage was being answered, and the artillery of both sides were in 
 full operation. The flares and rockets which lit portions of the 
 outer darkness made the rest more intense. It was just before 
 dawn when the night is normally blackest that I groped along 
 our trench and put my hand at the turn of a traverse on some- 
 thing warm and soft and moist, near the edge of the parapet. 
 My horror was complete when a flash of light revealed that I 
 
 200 
 
OVER THE TOP 
 
 had put my hand on the uncovered brains of a shrapneled 
 soldier. 
 
 Then came a rush over our parapet and a dozen men were 
 pushed into the trench on both sides of me. They proved to be 
 German prisoners, who were followed with prodding bavonets 
 by our own boys who had made a hurried run back across No- 
 Man's-Land, and were in great haste to get under cover of our 
 trenches with their Bosch captives. 
 
 As I was there only as an observer I had no intention of 
 going over the top myself. I was quite satisfied to get my infor- 
 mation and impressions for that part of it at second hand be- 
 cause it called for 
 alertness of a man 
 in his prime and my 
 bayonet practice at 
 Sherman and 
 scouting drills at 
 Ft. Harrison had 
 sufficiently demon- 
 strated that at the 
 age of fifty-seven, 
 while I was equal 
 to the best on a 
 straight-away hike 
 and general endur- 
 ance, I was not as 
 light on my feet as 
 I once was, nor as most of my comrades who were less than half 
 my age. I did not feel that rashness on my part was indicative 
 of bravery, but more the sign of a lack of good sense. 
 
 During the following morning I was permitted to visit one 
 cf our outposts. Sniping was not practiced from there as it 
 would have led to an exposure of the position which was excel- 
 lent for seeing what was going on in Germany. At another part 
 of our line, however, I took a peep through one of the alternate 
 sniper's positions and had a shot at what I took to be a Bosch, 
 but the expert rifleman whose gun I used said I had not hit a 
 Dutchman for one very good reason that there was none where I 
 pointed the gun. On his advice we changed to another station, 
 because, he said, my shot had exposed that one. Our exit was 
 
 20 1 
 
 CHOW TIME IN THE TRENCHES. NOTE THE EN- 
 TRANCE TO A DUGOUT TO THE LEFT OF THE 
 MAN WHO IS WATCHING THROUGH A PERISCOPE 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 hurried a little by the hum of a bullet close to where I had rested 
 my piece for firing. 
 
 That afternoon I was back in the support and reserve and 
 recently recovered territory in an automobile with one of the 
 staff from general headquarters who was on a tour of inspec- 
 tion and liaison and I was particularly interested as you may be 
 sure in the camouflage. This was not carried out as thoroughly 
 as I had been led to expect and hope for, particularly since see- 
 ing the extensive use on guns and wagons for front area service 
 unloading" at St. Nazaire. Many of the roads, however, were 
 screened and many of the dumps camouflaged as we had taught 
 it, as were the vehicles and guns, and all of the artillery and 
 
 nachine-gun em- 
 placements were 
 carefully camou- 
 flaged, partic- 
 ularly against 
 overhead obser- 
 vation. 
 
 This reminds 
 me of what I 
 saw of aeroplane 
 maneuver. We 
 
 could hear the whirr and unmuffled pop-pop of the planes, 
 and I was surprised at how low those said to be German dared 
 to fly. Dozens of planes in squadrons and singly and in pairs 
 and threes passed back and forth at various elevations, but, on a 
 whole, not much more numerously than we saw overhead at 
 Camp Mills, and no aerial battles were fought while I was at 
 the front. 
 
 Today there were persistent rumors that an armistice would 
 be arranged with Germany on terms dictated by the Allies, with 
 envoys from Berlin now at General Foch's headquarters. The 
 Allies' advance, however, was not to be halted or abated. 
 
 November 10, 1918: This date is notable as that of the 
 last whole fighting day of the war, and to me was one of the most 
 varied and interesting. I awoke this morning east of the Meuse 
 river, somewhere in the open to the south of Stenay, and north 
 of Verdun. Have never had a well defined knowledge of just 
 where, and in fact it is the hardest thing for me to locate myself 
 
 202 
 
 TRANSPORTATION OF AMERICAN TROOPS BY 
 
 MOTOR TRUCK ON CAMOUFLAGED ROADS WEST 
 
 OF VERDUN, XOYEMBER 9, CMS 
 
THE AMERICAN RIFLEMAN 
 
 geographically in France unless some one points his finger at the 
 spot on the map. I do not understand the language, and the 
 names you hear spoken do not read on the map at all like they 
 sound. Then there are towns about every mile or two and they 
 all look alike. Wherever it was I slept, I know it was fearfully 
 cold, and on about the hardest ground I ever tried for a bed. 
 Fortunately, in all of my military experience now going on two 
 years, I have had reasonably good beds— even in the dug-out— I 
 slept on a bed-bottom of a double layer of chicken wire, and it 
 was not cold down there, though far from dry and sweet. I 
 was not unbearably miserable were it not for the infernal noises 
 of the bombardment and consequent fright. I feared that morn- 
 ing that my exposure was bound to give me a backset, as I was 
 barely over the mumps and influenza, and have had a nasty cold 
 in my head and bronchial tubes. I felt that I would hate like 
 thunder to live through all the horrors of war and die in France 
 of pneumonia. I have seen the ground strewn with the dead, 
 but for some reason the fate of those who died in battle is not 
 so unbearably sad to me as was the end of those of our boys who 
 died at St. Germain of the Spanish influenza, and whose bodies 
 were left in the grave-yard there. 
 
 What I saw this last day was not purely trench warfare. 
 The enemy was being pushed back so rapidly that it was a ques- 
 tion of flank movement ; of fighting much in the open, and the 
 seeking of all available cover. The superior marksmanship of 
 the American soldier and the usefulness of the rifle when prop- 
 erly handled against the machine-gun and in conjunction with 
 the tank, and Stokes and other mortars, and the little "37" was 
 practically demonstrated again and again. And this utility of 
 the rifle, so much neglected in the previous years of this war, 
 has been redemonstrated and that weapon resurrected, or rather, 
 re-enthroned by the soldiers such as have been particularly 
 trained at the Army Infantry Specialists' School with which I 
 am now identified. It is said that more than once the army of the 
 Allies was saved from annihilation and defeat by the American 
 soldier and his rifle. 
 
 The first offensive of today under my observation was by 
 infantry and tanks against the enemy machine-guns. With the 
 machine-gun the German soldier is particularly at home and ef- 
 ficient. Our scouts advanced in three columns; back of these 
 
 203 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 were four tanks — one on each flank and two between, and back 
 of the tanks the deployed troops. The scouts in the middle 
 drew machine fire from enemy concealment straight ahead and 
 sought cover at once by dropping to the ground, and while prone 
 they signalled to the tanks by placing their helmets on the muz- 
 zles of their rifles, pointed in the direction of the machine-gun 
 fire. The two middle tanks crept forward to the indicated 
 area and traveling right and left across it soon uncovered the 
 camouflaged Bosches and put them out of existence by opening 
 fire on or crushing them by running over them. While this was 
 taking place the scouts in the two side columns passed on and 
 drew the German fire still further in advance. 
 
 The tanks were again signalled to come on and wipe up the 
 new Bosch nests, and thus, step by step, but irresistably cer- 
 tain, the Americans advanced and the Germans became more 
 panicky. 
 
 I can not begin to remember in detail all that I saw that day 
 nor the order in which it happened, though I tried hard to do so 
 to be able to make some kind of a report to my superiors. I saw 
 the infantry advance by rushes and by crawling toward the 
 enemy ; I saw our men cruelly mowed down by German bullets. 
 It is sickening to recall it all, and makes one shudder at the reck- 
 less waste of human life — of our brave boys writhing in death — 
 for they do not all die easily ; and with their maimed and mangled 
 limbs and bodies, with their vitals dragging or protruding and 
 still instinct with life, they often prayed to God to be merciful and 
 let them live to go back to wife and children or to mother or 
 some sweetheart who would see them no more. 
 
 The picture of war may be painted royally to us, and as sub- 
 lime, but in reality there is often a lack of courage and resigna- 
 tion on the part of the helpless victim. He pleads and he curses 
 and sometimes but not nearly always he is the calm hero we like 
 to think he is and to read about. He is stricken in the prime of 
 life, he has not been weakened physically nor in will power by 
 slow disease, and the realization comes home to him suddenly and 
 with a shock that he — not some other remote individual, but that 
 he — must die, and he does not want to die ! 
 
 I saw them fall like leaves that day, but those who were un- 
 touched did not falter. They had been taught that thev must not 
 stop even to give relief to those, their most intimate friends, but 
 
 204 
 
THE AUTOMATIC RIFLE IN ACTION 
 
 must go on, "carry on," as they say it now, and they carried on 
 in a way that has surprised the world and makes every one of us 
 proud who was lucky enough to live through it. I saw the 
 American soldier unaided save by the fire of his rifle and his 
 skill with the bayonet wring victory from the German armed 
 with his favorite weapon, the machine-gun, and I saw the Amer- 
 ican soldier supported by comrades with the automatic rifle 
 
 AMERICAN INFANTRYMEN RESTING AFTER A SUCCESSFUL DRIVE. THE 
 
 DARK PATCHES ARE SHELL HOLES AND "FOX HOLE" SHELTERS 
 
 HASTILY DUG BY THE MEN IN THEIR ADVANCE 
 
 which two of them carried in their forward rushes displaying 
 marvelous feats of valor. One poor fellow who would have been 
 so entangled in the strap over his shoulder supporting the gun 
 as to have rendered the latter useless, exerted his last remaining 
 strength when shot to death, in removing the strap and immedi- 
 ately his substitute took his place and continued firing and ad- 
 vancing without any noticeable interruption. 
 
 Thus did I see real war. The last day of the great war, and 
 God grant, the last day of the Last War ! and near the close of 
 the last day I literally looked into the shadow of the Valley of 
 Death. Thousands of human beings were being marshaled be- 
 low me, and on them man's deadliest inventions were being op- 
 erated by experts. 
 
 Our troops in the lowlands below were being mowed down 
 by enemy bullets coming from somewhere not far up the oppo- 
 site slope; but the Americans had been unable to suppress them 
 with the rifle and automatics. A battery of mortars close to my 
 
 205 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 left had been belching explosive shells high into the air against the 
 enemy near the crest of a ridge nearly a mile away. At a sig- 
 nal from our troops below, the mortars were ranged on the indi- 
 cated patch across the valley where the enemy guns were supposed 
 to be. In a very few minutes the earth began to spout up in 
 clouds of smoke from bursting shells at intervals of seconds only 
 from one end of the suspected patch to the other, and it was 
 evident to us that no human being could remain alive there. The 
 enemy offensive was silenced and our men advanced without 
 further casualties from that direction. 
 
 Our right flank was being riddled by a nest of machine-guns 
 in the military crest of the ridge a half-mile further in that di- 
 rection. My attention was called to a party of men in triangular 
 formation advancing in front and to our right. A couple of men 
 at the outside angles were carrying heavy burdens which the 
 major who called attention to them said were the dismantled 
 parts of a small cannon — the little "37" or one pounder. The 
 men all presently dropped to the ground and gradually worked 
 themselves forward with their burdens borne on their prone 
 bodies. They reached a place where a ground-swell covered 
 them from the machine-gun fire of the enemy. They quickly 
 mounted the gun and fired shot after shot with marvelous accu- 
 racy into the spot on the distant hillcrest and as quickly that 
 Bosch machine-gun went out of business. 
 
 Our soldiers on the left were rushing a German trench in 
 the gathering twilight below. We could see them jump into and 
 disappear in the trenches after delivering a fusillade of grenades 
 which roared and smoked, and we could follow their progress by 
 the explosions of the hand grenades, which their scouts and mop- 
 pers-up continued to throw. The noise was deafening and in its 
 midst the major and I instinctively ducked when a vicious buzz 
 passing between us indicated how near an enemy bullet came to 
 having "one of our names on it" as the soldier fatalities say. 
 The view was being rapidly obscured by the smoke from phos- 
 phorous and other grenades thrown by the trench raiders and 
 the shells of the barrage by both contending armies. The 
 gathering gloom was illuminated by the myriad signals rock- 
 eted into the sky and born north by the wind from supporting 
 parachutes. There were single red, green and white lights ; 
 three-point rockets and six-point ones and the "catterpillars" 
 
 206 
 
NEWS OF THE ARMISTICE 
 
 which wiggled their myriad points in suspension as they drifted 
 with the wind. As a purely pyrotechnic display it was magnifi- 
 cent, and with all of its accompanying roar and realism can never 
 be duplicated except by the toll and terror which a world panic 
 such as we have been through can compel. It became apparent 
 that a general attack by our troops was in progress. The Ger- 
 man resistance soon broke, and another American advance was 
 consummated. 
 
 "REST." AMERICAN MACHINE GUNS AND SUPPLY WAGONS HALTED IN 
 
 A RUINED TOWN TO AWAIT THE COMMAND TO PRESS ON INTO 
 
 GERMANY 
 
 Monday, November n. 'Reliable information was received 
 early today that the Kaiser had abdicated, the crown prince and 
 others had relinquished all claim to the succession, and that an 
 armistice as dictated by the Allies would be signed by n a. m. 
 today. The terms of the armistice were not known to any with 
 whom I talked, but all were of the opinion that the war was 
 over. I took advantage of the opportunity of returning to 
 Langres by Government ambulance going on through to one of 
 the hospitals and was able to reach Fort Plesnoy in time for 
 supper. We passed Verdun and St. Mihiel of special interest. 
 Langres was making preparations to celebrate the signing of the 
 armistice that night, and Lieutenant Whidney just from Paris 
 on a three-day pass reported the greatest times ever known in 
 that city. At the fort I learned that all but three of the instruct- 
 ors who went to the front had returned. Of the three absen- 
 tees, two were afterwards reported wounded and in hospital 
 
 207 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 and the third, Lieutenant Charles B. Busey, killed. He was from 
 Urbana, 111., twenty miles from Tuscola, where I was reared. 
 
 I have just read over this long letter and note many mis- 
 spelled words which I shall not try to correct as I have no dic- 
 tionary. The machine I am using is an old one that hops and 
 skips around without any authority, and has a universal key- 
 board which I am not used to. This by way of apology if you 
 have trouble reading what I have written. I also note that I 
 said camouflage was not used as generally as I had expected to 
 see. On further reflection I have decided that I was mistaken 
 in that statement. Nearly everything was camouflaged but not 
 always in the manner I expected. Not so much brown, green 
 and yellow paint, for example, and in fact very little paint except 
 on Runs and wheeled vehicles finished that way when issued. 
 
 The observation 
 posts which we cul- 
 tivated too reli- 
 giously for our own 
 safety were all 
 camouflaged with 
 mud to match the 
 sod, stone, brush or 
 surroundings in a 
 manner too ordi- 
 nary and obvious 
 for special com- 
 ment, and yet ef- 
 fectively. Several 
 ox the gun emplacements were hid by hanging or laying jute cloth 
 over them. This cloth at this time of year harmonizes thoroughly 
 with the dry grass and leaves which predominate. A splendid 
 specimen of sniper's or scout's robe which I saw in use was made 
 of this jute or gunny sacking, made up in loose garments having 
 long frayed edges exposed at the seams and all over the head 
 dress. The soldier wearing this robe was absolutely indistin- 
 guishable at less than one hundred yards when lying down. 
 Another case which I now recall was of the relay men who sup- 
 plied ammunition to the one-pound cannon. 
 
 I have described how the dismounted cannon was moved out 
 to position across an exposed area. Relays of men at about fifty 
 yard intervals extended from the ammunition wagon to the gun. 
 
 208 
 
 A LULL, NOVEMBER 10, 1918, EAST OF THE 
 
 MEUSE. THE DRIVE HAD BEEN TOO FAST TO 
 
 STOP TO CAMOUFLAGE THE GUNS 
 
FORT DE PLESNOY 
 
 If where they could walk with safety, a man from a rear station 
 took a small hand-case of ammunition to the next forward sta- 
 tion, left it and brought back an empty. But in the exposed 
 places the relay men had to lay flat on the ground and they 
 pulled the cases from one to the other with ropes which they 
 first threw across. The men were smeared with mud and so 
 were the cases, and all were indistinguishable at two hundred 
 yards distance. I had to be told about it or would not have 
 seen them, or known what was going on. 
 
 Affectionately, your husband. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 LIFE IN A FRENCH FORT 
 
 One must cross the Marne, which here is a small stream, in 
 going from Langres to Fort de Plesnoy. The latter is on the 
 far side of another plateau which the wagon road ascends with 
 such an easy grade that the elevation is scarcely realized, until 
 the neck that the fort is on begins to narrow so we can see over 
 the edges into a valley on either side. Within a half-mile of the 
 fort we pass battery number one, where are wooden barracks 
 full of student soldiers, and there is no other sign of a fort until 
 our road, seemingly running into a low sodded bank, makes a 
 sharp turn and before we can say "Jack Robinson" we are 
 through the outer gate across a bridged moat and are halted in 
 an inside street that goes entirely around a heavy stone structure 
 the size of a city block, roofed with a hill of earth on which 
 grass and trees are growing. Two streets reached by under- 
 ground passages divide the middle of the block into three parts 
 and let light and air down the rows of long and narrow arched 
 vaults that serve as barracks for the officer-instructors of the 
 Army Infantry Specialists' School. My particular cell had twelve 
 cots on a side and those on one side had to move over to let me 
 in between Lieutenant "Jimmy" Byers and the stove. Lieu- 
 tenant Gaisser had a bunk at the end of my row, which he slept 
 in occasionally when he wasn't courting his girl at Langres, and 
 Stevens and Palmer and a score of other good fellows whom I 
 
 209 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 learned to know and love, played poker, joked and sang me to 
 sleep at night. I didn't object to thera, but I did to being so near 
 the stove, which the far fellows wanted kept red hot to dry the 
 moisture that soaked down through the mass of earth banked 
 over our arched roof. Eventually I was given a room to myself 
 in one of the French officers' cottages just outside of the fort 
 where the ranking officers of our school and our two Y. M. C. A. 
 women were quartered. 
 
 Our fort, now dismantled of its guns, which were doing more 
 
 AN AMERICAN OUTPOST CLOSE TO A GERMAN LINE NORTHEAST 
 OF VERDUN 
 
 needed service at the front, was defended by four other gunless 
 batteries and from the top of the artificial hill under which the 
 fort was buried the steeples of Langres and the houses of six- 
 nearer towns were in sight. The nearest was Plesnoy, at the 
 foot of our hill, and from which the fort was named. 
 
 The atelier of the art department of which I was put in 
 charge, was adjoining the private office of the commandant, who 
 had a laudible appreciation of the value of pictures for impart- 
 ing information. He wanted his artists at his elbow, and had 
 three of unusual ability at the time I arrived. Second Lieuten- 
 ant Whidney, promoted to a first lieutenancy a few days after 
 
 2IO 
 
AN OFFICERS' DINNER 
 
 my arrival, had been a commercial artist at Chicago. He entered 
 the army as a private after the United States declared war, and 
 won the prize for marksmanship in the British army to which he 
 was attached, over crack British shots, and was promoted from 
 the ranks. He was a very talented pen artist and particularly 
 excelled here in stencil drawing for mimeograph reproduction. 
 We thought at Camp Taylor that we were hard to beat, but 
 Lieutenant Whidney's work was uniformly better. Second 
 Lieutenant Charles Gaisser's talent amounted to genius ; but he 
 was moody, hard to understand and worked only when in the 
 humor, while Whidney, with possibly less talent, was always on 
 the job. Both of them had French sweethearts at Langres. 
 Whidney's rapture was abated somewhat by the knowledge 
 that his lady friend had a fiance in the French army, but Gais- 
 ser's sensitive soul was torn by a dread that he was not worthy 
 of the angel he courted and would wed, if she would have him. 
 Gaisser was from Alabama and had been in the army ever since 
 he was eighteen. He had been promoted from the ranks, had 
 been gassed, which still affected his lungs, and had lost a brother 
 in the Argonne. He had more worldly knowledge than he 
 needed on some subjects, and on others he had less — the value 
 of a dollar for example— but he married the little French girl 
 before I left France and the sensible way in which she started 
 with him in life makes me feel that she will make a great man of 
 him, for he has the ability. Whidney near died of pneumonia 
 at Langres, and was invalided back to the states, while Gaisser 
 and I continued together at Chaumont where I learned to know 
 him better, and to think as much of him as I could of a son of 
 my own. The third artist was Sergeant Baney, who had taught 
 drawing in the public schools of his native Michigan, but was 
 kept down by his ranking associates at sign painting and copy 
 work, which they passed to him until he mutinied and forced me 
 to file charges against him. The school closed before he was 
 brought to trial ; we were soon scattered and the case was 
 dropped, for which I am not sorry, as it was a matter of temper- 
 ment getting the better of judgment. 
 
 Then we had an orderly who was the only one about the fort 
 capable of coaxing a dilapidated mimeograph into doing good 
 work. He began to swear as soon as he started on a job, and 
 knew more cuss words than any man I ever met in the army. 
 
 211 
 
THE AMERICAN' SPIRIT 
 
 
 Hi 14 £M 
 
 
 I 
 
 212 
 
THANKSGIVING EVE DANCE 
 
 Only his infrequent pauses disturbed the placidity of our 
 thoughts enough to make us turn our heads to see if he had 
 fainted or the Lord had sent a merited judgment upon him. 
 
 Our studio or atelier had but a single window, through the 
 thick outer wall of the fort and looking into the moat. The 
 moat was fifty feet wide and nearly as deep, and our window 
 and those everywhere were heavily barred, I suppose to repel 
 invaders, but they were equally suggestive of a jail. Artificial 
 lights were needed all of the time and to additionally try our 
 eyes our coal stove would fill the room with smoke whenever the 
 sodded camouflage over us turned the wind down the stove 
 pipe as quite frequently happened. In general the surroundings 
 were dark, damp and dismal. Outside was beaucoup rain and 
 mud; inside we groped through unlighted tunnels that led to but 
 one cheerful place in the whole fort — the officers' mess hall. 
 This was large enough to comfortably seat the entire 150 of us 
 instructors, with room to spare, and the extra space was used as 
 a lounging and reading room. The ceiling of the hall was in 
 six groined arches, low springing but wide and high, giving a 
 feeling of spaciousness and strength that one never lost ; but 
 the hall was so dark that electric lights were needed for every 
 meal. Some philanthropist from the states had donated a plate- 
 rail and paneled wainscoting which added much to the cheerful- 
 ness of the place. This hall was festooned with autumn foliage 
 for a Thanksgiving eve dance in which real pumpkins and 
 shocks of corn helped to make round corners for the dancers 
 and screened retreats where a prodigality of mistletoe signaled 
 the zero hour for valiant assaults all evening on the defense- 
 less Red Cross and signal corps girls. Upon the insistance of 
 several of the bashful warriors a six-foot canvas separated the 
 males from the females at the beginning of the dance, and the 
 ladies had to pick their partners from appealing hands held over 
 a wall that hid the rest of every man except Captain Robbins, 
 whose six feet-six easily chinned it. 
 
 On Thanksgiving night a score of officers who had just been 
 promoted, gave a dinner to the rest of us in honor of themselves. 
 All the varieties of French wine flowed without stint after the 
 colonel and our two Y. M. C. A. girls had discreetly retired. 
 The rule was that each of the hosts was to dance, sing, or tell a 
 story, and when I quit after midnight the half who were not 
 
 213 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 under the table were denouncing the Central Powers and the 
 Allies alike for signing an armistice on the very day that they 
 were promoted. Of course some one told the "Oh, mother, 
 the nerve of Emily ! praying for peace when father's just been 
 made a captain," story and I remember a few of the others. 
 
 One who had been with a colored regiment at the front be- 
 fore he was detailed to this school told about a black infantryman 
 who claimed he wasn't afraid to go over the top on a raid, but 
 begged off because his shoes were too big for him, "An' ef I had 
 to run much ma shoes is so loose day'll hurt ma feet so I cain't 
 keep up a-tall an' because which I'll jes hole back the others a 
 waitin' foh me !" He continually shirked danger, was lazy, 
 slouchy and fit for nothing but to manage the kitchen mule. One 
 day he forgot to salute the colonel of another regiment. That 
 officer stopped him and said: "See here, my man, don't you 
 know enough to salute an officer?" "Yassah, I does sah ; but yo 
 see boss, I ain't a workin' fo' you !" Finally his major took him 
 personally in hand with the declaration that he would make him 
 a good soldier or a dead nigger. In a month or six weeks 
 the training was so efficient that Mose begged for a chance to 
 go over the top, and when a call came one day for volunteers he 
 went to his captain and asked : "Don' dis yah volunteerin' mean 
 yo kin go ef yo wants to ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, I wants to sore go, all right." 
 
 "Very well, Mose. See the corporal and he'll fix it so you 
 can." 
 
 "But, Cap'n I'se done saw de corporal 'bout it." 
 
 "Well, what did he say?" 
 
 "Why he des say to me : go 'long yo' Mose and quit yo' 
 kiddin'." 
 
 Another story was credited to Arthur Cobb as told by him in 
 the A. E. F. A negro soldier questioned by a black sergeant as 
 to his employment in civil life, said he was a lion tamer. 
 
 "Won't believe dat, nigger, less I sees yo' tame some lions." 
 
 "Cain't tame none heah when day ain't no lions heah to 
 tame, kin I ?" 
 
 But he went on to describe just how he tames them. Walks 
 into a cage of lions, whip in hand, picks out the lion he wants to 
 tame, drives it in a corner by itself, and all the other lions into 
 
 214 
 
JIMMY BYERS SOUNDS A KEYNOTE 
 
 another corner by themselves ; keeps his eye on his lion all the 
 time and as it goes to spring on him he grabs the lion's tongue 
 when it opens its mouth to bite him, gives the lion's tongue a 
 quick twist and that tames the lion right off. 
 
 "What dat name yo' done said yo' is?" 
 
 "Lion tamer." 
 
 "Lion tamer nothin' man, you is a lyin' nigger!" 
 
 A new lieutenant, known himself to be a gay Lothario — 
 
 "So daring in love and so dauntless in war, 
 
 Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?" 
 told the storv of a female in his native town of Michigan who 
 waited ten years for her lover to save enough money with which 
 to buy them a home, and then he married another girl. She was 
 so broken hearted that she threw herself away, becoming a pub- 
 lic character. Her name was Charlotte, and when she died the 
 men about town decided that she deserved some kind of a memo- 
 rial and raised a subscription for a tombstone. One of them, a 
 lawyer, was detailed to write the inscription, and the next morn- 
 ing he submitted the following : 
 
 "Here lie the bones of good old Charlotte, 
 
 Who was born a virgin and died a harlot : 
 
 For seventeen years she kept her virginity 
 
 Which isn't bad for this vicinity." 
 
 I was still sleeping in the big squad room in the fort. Too 
 much wine makes some men mean, others silly and many deter- 
 mined to tell all their secrets to the world. I didn't know which 
 class I might land in ; so slipped away in time and went to bed. 
 I am not a sound sleeper anyway and was awakened by my 
 nearest "bunkie," Jimmy Ryers, in his effort to steer himself to 
 bed by the light of a short candle that he stood up in its own 
 grease on the lid of my locker reached by him in a series of 
 hinges. The locker helped to make my French cot long enough 
 at the foot, and Jimmy's loudly expressed thoughts convinced me 
 that he was in the last class above mentioned and quite likely 
 to set me on fire. 
 
 "What'll I tell my father?" he demanded of the black and 
 seemingly empty space, "Me a fighting man and haven't seen a 
 battle or a front line trench — sent here three months as instruct- 
 or and kept here nine till the war's over ! What am I going to 
 say to my father about that ? Can't lie to him ! Can't tell my 
 
 215 
 
, THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 father- 1, s,aw fighting when I didn't. No, can't lie to my father: 
 but what'll I say to him and what'll he say to me? Me — a fight- 
 ing man, But. I can't help it ! Why should I care when I can't 
 help it ? I don't care ! Ask me ! ask me if I care !" 
 
 He paused for a reply to his challenge, but there was none 
 and he repeated still louder 
 
 "I can't help it! I don't care! Somebody ask me if I care!" 
 
 
 JIMMY BYERS: "I CAN'T HELP IT! I DON'T CARE! ASK ME!" 
 
 Still no answer. Then he stumbled down to the far end of the 
 room where a special chum lay snoring, with his clothes on. 
 Rousing him he demanded : 
 
 "What'll I tell my father about this war now it's over and I 
 wasn't in it, me, a fighting man — what'll I tell him? But I 
 can't help it ! Ask me if I can help it ! Ask me !" 
 
 "Can you help it, Jimmy?" was the accommodating inquiry. 
 
 "No! I can't help it, and I don't care! Ask me if I care! 
 Ask me!" 
 
 "Do you care, Jimmy?" 
 
 "No, I don't care! Why should I care? I can't help it! I 
 don't care !" 
 
 And he went out to hunt another drink leaving his short 
 piece of candle burning closer to the blankets over my feet. As 
 a matter of self-protection I crawled down and blew it out and 
 
 216 
 
THE ARMISTICE BROKE OUR MORALE 
 
 was just getting into another doze when his voice aroused me 
 with the demand : 
 
 "W-ho blew 'at can'le out? Dirty mean trick blow out my 
 can'le. Who blew 'at out?" 
 
 There was no answer. He stumbled through the door again 
 and after a while came back with a shorter lighted piece, which 
 he planted on my locker, where the first candle was, and fell into 
 bed with boots and spurs on, leaving it for me to again blow out 
 the candle. 
 
 Lieutenant Gaisser heard and saw the whole performance 
 from his bunk at the end of our row, and we afterwards com- 
 mented on the fact that Jimmy expressed the feeling of most of 
 us who would have preferred action at the front and were sorely 
 disappointed at the sudden and unsatisfactory termination of the 
 war. Jimmy's challenge, "I can't help it! I don't care! ask me!" 
 became a by-word with us while we were together later at 
 Chaumont. 
 
 The signing of the armistice broke the morale of the Amer- 
 ican army. Its civilian soldiers had been content to submit to 
 the rigor of army life as long as there was an enemy to conquer, 
 but when there wasn't they began to think of home, and those 
 overseas lost sight of the fact that it would take almost as long 
 to ship them back as it did to get them over; even if it were a 
 desirable thing to leave in a hurry. The more they thought of 
 home the more discontented, restless and homesick they grew. I 
 know full well because I was as unreasonable as any and took 
 the first opportunity to express my state of mind to my colonel. 
 In imagination my fame had spread all over France as a cam- 
 oufleur. I had put in operation the novel ideas developed at 
 Taylor and Sherman and had citations, medals, and fourragere 
 galore for helping the Allies to win the war. Perhaps I had 
 expressed some disappointment in being detailed to Fort Plesnoy 
 instead of Fort St. Menge, but Colonel Fulmer had promised to 
 send me over to study the camouflage school and the seductive 
 idea of sketching the great battlefields had done the rest toward 
 reconciling me to a fate I couldn't control anyway. I was as 
 helpless as Jimmy Byers, and then the armistice must come to 
 spoil everything! I reminded the colonel of his promises. The 
 camouflage school was still functioning and now was the excep- 
 tional opportunity to study the battlefields before time and the 
 
 217 
 
THE AMERICAN SIM KIT 
 
 ":lr ; V' :Ai 
 
 
 — "-.Uf 
 
 •^ .■ v - :-; 
 
WHY I STAID IN THE ARMY 
 
 hand of man had smoothed out the scars of war and while the 
 cessation of hostilities now made a study of the works of both 
 sides possible for the first time. He gave me an order to go 
 to Fort St. Menge in a side car next morning, and said he would 
 have to take up the battlefields trip with General Smith at army 
 schools headquarters. 
 
 "By the way," he continued, "there is an order out from G. 5 
 closing our school here on December 31. I am to report to G. 5 
 at Chaumont and want you to go with me." 
 
 "Thank you, Colonel, for the compliment, but what I want 
 most now is to be sent home for a discharge from the army." 
 
 "You can do some very valuable work yet along the line I 
 have been talking to you about, and will be more pleasantly sit- 
 uated at general headquarters." 
 
 "But, sir, the war's over now and I have no personal interest 
 in the army. I can't afford to work longer on a lieutenant's pay." 
 
 "You can't be paid more than your rank calls for. If you'd 
 gotten here sooner I could have made you a captain with these 
 last promotions and in time a major ; but since the armistice Sec- 
 retary Baker has ordered all promotions stopped. It caught me 
 by just a day on an approved recommendation for a full colon- 
 elcy. Those things can't be helped, but we should both have 
 pride and patriotism enough to be willing to help in giving the 
 experiences of the late war to our country in the best possible 
 form." 
 
 "That's a strong appeal, Colonel, but the army itself has 
 shown very little appreciation of the sacrifices I have made and 
 services I've rendered so far, and it can now find someone else 
 willing to work for a lieutenant's pay. It is no longer a question 
 of patriotism, for the Germans are whipped, otherwise I would 
 be willing to go on indefinitely for nothing. At present my first 
 duty is to my family and not to the army." 
 
 The colonel always had a quiet way of carrying his point and 
 he proceeded thus to convert me to his way of thinking: 
 
 "If you don't let me help you in this matter you'll probably be 
 sent back to your regiment. The engineers have to repair the 
 roads of France and will be the last to leave. I think it will suit 
 you better to help me finish the manuals ; I can help you to see a 
 lot of France and get you home ahead of your organization if 
 that's agreeable to you." 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE CAMOUFLAGE SCHOOL AT FT. ST. MENGE, FRANCE 
 
 A side car and man to drive it was at my disposal next morn- 
 ing. We went to Langres and from there to Fort St. Menge, 
 situated on a higher hill than ours at Plesnoy. The fort is dif- 
 ferently planned in that it incloses a large open interior for offi- 
 cers' dwellings and sundry buildings including a small stone 
 church. The camouflage school headquarters was in one of the 
 buildings within the fort, but the demonstration camp and field 
 were a quarter of a mile away on the plateau toward Langres. 
 When I introduced myself at headquarters the officer in charge 
 took the joy out of life by exclaiming : 
 
 "Oh, are you Lieutenant Minturn? Glad to meet you. We 
 tried to get you detailed as an instructor to this school, but Ples- 
 noy beat us at general headquarters !" — and then the speaker 
 introduced me to Lieutenant Rose and excused himself bv say- 
 ing his machine was waiting to take him to the railway station 
 on his way to the states for discharge. I did not get his name 
 but he said he was a portrait painter from New York City. 
 
 Lieutenant Rose was kind enough to put on a demonstration 
 for my benefit. As we headed from the fort for the outside camp 
 the first exhibition was of an overhead screen by a wood's edge 
 with laterals at each end along hedges in opposite directions. 
 The afternoon sun cast pronounced shadows to which I called 
 attention, but the lieutenant insisted that only noonday air pic- 
 tures were of value for observation purposes and then the shad- 
 ows were all under the screens. High lights were more sought 
 after than shadows and he told the story of a regimental head- 
 quarters in a carefully camouflaged position which was exposed 
 by the efforts of an orderly to do his duty well. The orderly 
 placed a number of brightly scoured wash-pans in a row on a 
 bench by headquarters for the convenience of his superior offi- 
 cers, and the highlights in a row were so out of the ordinary that 
 they attracted the attention of a Bosch airman who flew low to 
 investigate, and soon afterward the place was shelled. 
 
 220 
 
CAMOUFLAGE SCHOOL AT FT. ST. MENGE 
 
 Lieutenant Rose was at the front for several months — until 
 September, 1918. when he was brought down here as an instruct- 
 or because of his good work in camouflage. In answer to my 
 inquiry as to whether the old army officers did not regard cam- 
 ouflage lightly and as only applicable to the extraordinary pres- 
 ent and transient trench methods, he declared none were of that 
 opinion who had ever been at the front or exposed themselves; 
 that thousands of our men were needlessly slaughtered by rea- 
 son of ignorant neglect and scant use of camouflage and that in no 
 other way could men be protected against modern gun fire. He de- 
 clared the Germans were exceedingly expert in the use of cam- 
 ouflage and prepared it months ahead in the back areas. 
 
 We passed a woods very dense with small timber. In one 
 place was an overhead cover of chicken-wire, supported on 
 heavier wires strung from supporting trees. I saw much of this 
 afterward that had been put up by the Germans around St. 
 Mihiel during their four years of occupancy there. The chicken- 
 wire was interwoven with jute strips colored green and ends 
 [lapping. This one was an artillery emplacement, but I was in- 
 formed that guns were not placed in a woods during the last days 
 of the war because all woods were shelled and burned by one side 
 cr the other, making that too dangerous a location. 
 
 We passed a stone quarry by the side of the road where the 
 bluffs were covered with painted canvas much as we had worked 
 it out, and in another place with diagonal chicken-wire into which 
 jute strips were tied. At the extreme left were several tiers or 
 steps of horizontal screens made of chicken-wire in which were 
 more jute strips with fluttering ends, while to the right the 
 quarry-pit was covered with horizontal wire fabric to which 
 coarse cloth patterns like large leaves were rigidly attached and 
 colored green and ocher. My companion said the coloring was a 
 special French watercolor applied with a spraying pump in some 
 instances and in others dashed on with a wide brush ; that the 
 Americans found large numbers of such brushes abandoned by 
 the Germans and got the idea from them in that way. 
 
 Our walk led us across a drill field, where two enlisted men 
 called me by name and ran to greet me in that cordial manner 
 that always did my heart good to meet old friends in France. 
 They were two candidates at the Officers' Training Camp here 
 from the Three Hundred and Ninth Engineers. 
 
 221 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Passing on we came to three artillery guns with overhead 
 screens. The guns were sited close to a hedge over which they 
 were fired, the bushes being pulled aside by ropes at the moment. 
 One overhead screen was typically French, requiring the gun to 
 be run out from the cover to be discharged, whereas the Amer- 
 ican screen had flaps that were folded to each side away from 
 its muzzle at firing, and afterward closed. 
 
 These were the portable camouflage carried by the battery 
 from place to place. Very effective screens were improved from 
 growing brush, branches and vegitation found when the guns 
 were sited. 
 
 CAMOUFLAGED GUNS OP THE 86th FRENCH ARTILLERY 
 
 On the other side of the hedge were examples of camouflaged 
 trenches and parapets, particularly designed here to hide pro- 
 jectors and other shell-throwing trench pieces. The camouflage 
 was of the same wire cloth, supporting painted designs and the 
 coverings immediately over the projectors were folded back out 
 of the way when those pieces were fired. The German planes 
 flew exceedingly low and their aviators were bold in making ob- 
 servations. According to Lieutenant Rose, the Bosche always 
 1 ad air supremacy It was a trick of the enemy to leave a 
 1 souse in an abandoned town in good condition for occupancy by 
 our officers as a headquarters ; then blow it to pieces with guns 
 previously trained on the building, upon receiving a signal from 
 one of their planes. 
 
 Near the trench above mentioned was a shellhole connected 
 with a sap entering the hole through an opening closed by a 
 
BOSCH MACHINE GUN NESTS 
 
 jute-covered frame plastered with mud. Another shellhole on 
 the crest of the bluff overlooked an extensive valley and an ob- 
 servation station had been excavated just back of it ; the debris 
 being scattered like the explosion had left that, that came out of 
 the shellhole. The excavation was covered by a camouflage 
 roof having a trap door through which reliefs were changed at 
 night. The observation opening on the valley side of the shell- 
 hole was long and narrow and covered with wire mesh, having 
 an irregular top edge made by depending ears of painted tin.' 
 The shellholes made by artillery fire were converted into obser- 
 vation posts in a single night to avoid detection by the enemy, 
 who would otherwise observe what was being done. 
 
 Machine-gun emplacements were dug in the level ground or 
 on a small knoll and in one instance the emplacement was in 
 front of a hedge back and under which the removed earth was 
 hid. As these were common at the front and were quickly made, 
 it will be interesting to know that the roof cover was supported 
 en radial wooden strips like the stays or ribs of a flattened-out 
 umbrella top, with the ends of the strips lying loose upon the 
 ground, permitting the cover to be raised on any side for ma- 
 chine-gun fire. Over the stays were jute-covered chicken-wire 
 and mud so near like the surroundings as to be indistinguish- 
 able from the ground around them. I have seen two of these 
 working together ; one would open up on our boys who would 
 charge it with a 
 rush in deployed 
 
 or scattered for- '~^^,h^MiMM<Ly\l^i^^SL 
 
 mation and then ^,-^ ftdTAv^ 2 ».-. j\ V»* 
 
 -X^<4#Ȥ4 & *_*- 
 
 were enfiladed 
 
 by the other J^-^fJ ^__^ 
 
 opening up at v 
 
 one side and 
 
 vomiting leaden American soldiers rushing the bosch ma- 
 
 , .. . . CHINE GUN NEST TO THE LEFT. ARE SURPRISED 
 
 nail into them as by the one to the right, both were hid 
 , 11- under the raised covers near the hedge 
 
 the rush line 
 
 passed. It had been effective until the Americans came : the Ger- 
 mans said the Yanks didn't have sense enough to be afraid of it. 
 
 In the same hedge in the exhibition put on for me by Lieu- 
 tenant Rose, a camouflaged automatic rifle was operated by men 
 in camouflage robes consisting of gunny sacks drawn over their 
 
 223 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 bodies and heads loosely, and fringed at the seams. My escape 
 from death would have been impossible had they opened up on 
 me at such close range with real cartridges instead of blanks. 
 The entrances to the machine-gun emplacements above men- 
 tioned were back of the hedge and through covered saps. 
 
 We came to a trench in which a machine-gun or mortar em- 
 placement was dug in the level in front of the trench and covered 
 with raffia wire fixed to fold open for firing. This style of 
 hidden gun emplacement in the open was numerously illustrated. 
 Men sent ahead to demonstrate them were risinig out of the 
 ground unexpectedly at every turn and I do not wonder that 
 such traps were used by the Germans with telling effect against 
 our soldiers ; but instead of running away our boys rushed them 
 with fixed bayonets and yells that brought the quaking enemy 
 out of their holes calling "Komrad !" Lieutenant Rose called 
 attention to the irregular parapet and paradose of all of the 
 trenches as illustrating the best practice. There was a periscope 
 in a tree eight feet above the ground and another in a wire en- 
 tanglement post so much like one of Sergeant Kleesatell's pic- 
 tures that I called the lieutenant's attention to it when I showed 
 him a copy of our "Camouflage Notes" a little later. I was also 
 informed that the schools here at Fort St. Menge had representa- 
 tives at the front line trenches all of the time making examinations 
 and sketches, and I made tentative arrangements to go up in a 
 few days with their next detail. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 THE OLD FRONT RIGHT AFTER THE ARMISTICE 
 
 My pass to the old front came and, as stated in the last chap- 
 ter, I expected to join a party of observers going up from the 
 camouflage school at Fort St. Menge, where I arrived from 
 Fort Plesnoy by side car after the usual mishaps and delays with 
 our army transportation equipment — now in a bad state of repair. 
 The French roads were in as bad or worse condition with the 
 result that the right fender jolted loose and tangled itself in the 
 spokes of a wheel, almost stopping the journey before half way 
 
 224 
 
ON THE WAY TO THE OLD FRONT 
 
 to the above fort, but we took chances on a weak wheel and went 
 on. Arriving at Menge I was informed by Lieutenant Rose, 
 whom I found lecturing a class on aerial photography, that the 
 camouflage school had been ordered to close ten days sooner 
 than the schedule, and that no more details would be sent to the 
 front. That disarranged my plans, but I was determined to go 
 on anyway, and started back to Langres with the intention of 
 picking up any transportation that chanced to be going my way. 
 Three miles out of Langres the drive-chain of the side car broke 
 and I continued on foot, leaving the driver to get himself and 
 broken car back to Plesnoy the best way that he could. Fortu- 
 nately, I was soon picked up by a major in an automobile, and 
 was saved the breath and strength taxing exercise of climbing 
 the high hill on which Langres is situated. 
 
 Upon repeated inquiry at various transportation headquarters 
 — my orders did not authorize me to demand transportation — 
 I was advised to lay in wait at the gasoline station for possible 
 conveyance toward St. Mihiel and the battle front. There I found 
 the place closed and the notice, "No Gas," posted, but I interro- 
 gated numerous ambulance and truck drivers, who stopped to 
 read the sign, and found a truck-load of soldiers after a while 
 trying to get on to Chaumont "if they could get enough gas." 
 That was partly in my direction, besides being General Pershing's 
 headquarters, and I invited myself to a seat alongside the driver, 
 asserting my rank to evict a private who was riding there all 
 too comfortably. I felt that I was not a welcome passenger but 
 you get over any such qualms in the army. Off we went with 
 low gas-gauge, in a proverbial French rain, and no top over us. 
 
 Our road to Chaumont followed a ridge overlooking the 
 narrow Marne valley. We could see on both sides and also 
 follow the windings of the canal and a railroad in their suc- 
 cessful efforts to dodge the curves of the river. We could see 
 the red roofs of Poulonvy and the ever-dominating Catholic 
 cnurch dodging back into a little cove of its own on the far side 
 of the Marne, where the railroad twice crosses the canal and 
 and river. The canal is easily traced by tall poplars, evenly 
 spaced along each bank. We passed through, or in sight of 
 numerous farm villages, each house with a door opening into a 
 living-room situated between a window on one side and a big 
 barn door on the other. The latter has a smaller door for the 
 
 225 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 live stock and geese to pass through, and generally this smaller 
 door has a hole at the bottom for the convenience of the chick- 
 ens that mostly occupy themselves with scratching in the stable 
 cleanings in front of the house. The buildings are all of stone ; 
 some of which are architecturally fine in design, and many of 
 them have elaborate wrought-iron trimmings. Most of the win- 
 dows, opening out on a heap of fertilizer, have neat lace cur- 
 tains and healthy house plants displayed, and none of them are 
 commonplace. I have yet to see a French building that was not 
 more or less artistic. It seems easy to attain here what we so 
 often strive after and miss. Perhaps it is because of a lack of 
 neatness — of a prevailing moss-covered earthy blend over every- 
 thing, that the French buildings harmonize so well with their 
 surroundings. We passed through the larger towns of Luzy 
 and Verbiese and came suddenly on a gas filling station — one of 
 the many that Uncle Sam providentially provides wherever we 
 go in France — and had our needs supplied. 
 
 Fortunately I'm a good walker, and when I can't ride farther 
 I can walk, which I did a mile out from Chaumont, as was made 
 necessary by a broken steering knuckle. The break-down was 
 close to Base Hospital 15, located in extensive buildings nor- 
 mally used as a French artillery barracks. Here General Per- 
 shing visited the patients on Thanksgiving Day. 
 
 I hurried on to the railway station to make inquiry about 
 trains, and found one ready to pull out for Toul. My principal 
 recollection of Chaumont is of seeing a Frenchman on the viaduct 
 near the railway station with a load of poles on a wagon drawn 
 by a team of two horses and a camel. The latter had the abused 
 countenance of its species but was pulling its share of the load. 
 The indications are that I shall see much of Chaumont before I 
 leave France and will be able to make amends for undue haste 
 now. 
 
 We crossed the Meuse at Neufchateau, only twelve miles 
 from the birthplace of the Maid of Orleans, and had to change 
 cars there to one crowded with French and American soldiers. 
 From Neufchateau our road ran over and tunneled through the 
 ridge separating the valley of the Meuse from that of the Mo- 
 selle, and we arrived at Toul about 1 1 p. m. While I had a 
 first-class ticket I had to ride third-class on account of the crowds 
 cf French soldiers, and as no conductors or ticket-gatherers 
 
 226 
 
A NIGHT AT TOUL 
 
 came to collect fares I abandoned the practice of booking myself 
 and deadheaded thereafter. 
 
 Toul, like most of the border cities, is surrounded by a wall 
 and moat, and, as is generally the case, the railway station is 
 outside. Military police were at the station and principal street 
 crossings to direct the traffic. One of my companions on the car 
 was a young soldier with a distressing cough, discharged from 
 Base Hospital 15 that morning, and now trying to reach his 
 company near the front. He had been gassed two months before 
 and had been in a hospital since for treatment, and was worried 
 over the possibility of being unable to find a comfortable bed. 
 
 Toul was pitch dark ; absence of street and house lights was 
 our first reminder that we were now at the front where all lights 
 had been prohibited for months, and the recent armistice had 
 not yet changed the habit. The feeble light of a lantern marked 
 the too infrequent military police posts, from one to the other of 
 which we gradually worked our way into the walled city, past 
 the marble statue and down a narrow and winding street to 
 the left to the headquarters office in a vain quest for a night's 
 lodging. "Couchee finir" was the pass-word. We came to a 
 handsome, brightly illuminated house which we afterward found 
 was next door to the headquarters we were seeking, and turned 
 in across an inside court and up a stately stair through an oppo- 
 site door to find a colored soldier sorting bottles. He didn't 
 know much of anything except that this was not the place we 
 were looking for, but we soon found it. A major and two cap- 
 tains were standing at attention while the lieutenant in charge 
 holding a telephone receiver to his ear with one hand and mak- 
 ing clever cartoons on his desk pad of Kaiser William with the 
 other, was carrying on a conversation with the commanding 
 officer of Base Hospital 45, urging the latter to have a heart 
 &nd provide certain waiting officers with beds for the night. 
 The party at the other end of the wire was insisting that his 
 institution was not a hotel; but after it was explained to him that 
 Toul was fuller than usual with transient officers so there was 
 no other place for the overflow to go, a reluctant invitation was 
 extended, and in another half-hour we had climbed the hill out- 
 side the city walls and were stowing" ourselves away for the 
 balance of the night in cots in a receiving tent outside of the 
 stone hospital buildings. These were the same tents where sus- 
 
 227 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 pects fresh from the trenches were cared for before being 
 deloused. I dreamed of cootie parades and guard mounts and 
 as I dozed off I could hear the poor gassed patients coughing 
 their lives away in the numerous wards of the hospital. Many 
 were sad cases because a thoroughly gassed soldier's heart is 
 liable to stop on him without notice, so I was better off than 
 they. No charge was made here for lodging and breakfast ; in 
 fact I found that to be the universal treatment of transient sol- 
 diers at all army camps and stations. Base hospital 45 was a 
 large one, located in several four-story buildings previously 
 u.«ed by the French for artillery barracks, the size and frequency 
 of which structures impressed us with the great military prepar- 
 edness of our Allies. I made a sketch of the place in the morn- 
 
 THE RIDGE AT DEAUXNOUDS WAS LINED WITH GERMAN DUGOUTS 
 
 ing and waited around until nearly 10 o'clock on the chance of 
 getting an ambulance going to St. Mihiel. Fifty nurses left for 
 Metz and I could have gone there, but that was not where I 
 wanted to go just then. 
 
 As every French village has its Catholic church which tow- 
 ers above and dominates all the other architecture, so each French 
 city has its cathedral ; gigantic, grim, crasse and gothic ; so stern 
 and impressive that God would hesitate to enter, with its clump 
 of high-backed chairs lost in the extensive floor space of the 
 i-.ave, and a lone woman in black saying her prayers on one of 
 them ; with a myriad of alcoves leading off from the aisles on 
 
 228 
 
FROM TOUL TO LEROUVILLE 
 
 both sides of the church each dedicated to a saint and embel- 
 lished with all the bizarre arts and curios that centuries of fanat- 
 icism can consecrate, and each with its individual alms box ap- 
 pealing' to the regular or casual visitor. I have often noticed 
 obscure doors and passages leading off and have explored some 
 with about the same feeling and amazing results that attended 
 my exploration of Wyandott cave. As places of worship I think 
 destruction by German shells would not cause much loss, but as 
 unique piles of art they are invaluable because the spirit and 
 feeling that created them have died with the centuries in which 
 they were built. Toul has one of these cathedrals damaged by 
 the war which I visited. 
 
 After exploring the principal ones of the narrow and crooked 
 streets of Toul studded at every turn with picturesque gems, I 
 found my way to the railway station and the office of the rail- 
 way transportation officer, where I learned that I could go by 
 train toward St. Mihiel as far as Lerouville. The only train out 
 that afternoon was a freight with a few third-class passenger 
 cars attached. In the compartment I entered were two gassed 
 United States soldiers from Hospital 83, and a casual, a private, 
 who had been detained in hospital at Bordeaux, and for a month 
 since his discharge from the hospital had been trying to over- 
 take his company, but, like Evangeline, always reaching the new 
 station a little too late. Our passenger cars were cut off at 
 Sorcy so we had to finish the trip in box-cars with a lot of French 
 soldiers. The casual above mentioned was sound alsleep and 
 would have been left in the passenger-car had we not awakened 
 rrlm. He got off at Commercy to interview the military police 
 there about the possibility of his company being somewhere in 
 that part of France and left his gas mask with a half-loaf of 
 French bread tied to it and his pack for us to keep an eye on for 
 him. The train pulled out and left him and we had to throw his 
 thing's off for him to pick up at his leisure. We dashed through 
 the French scenery almost as fast as one could walk, but it was 
 not quite so tiresome as walking with a pack, and we were 
 housed from the rain. All of this country along the Marne and 
 Meuse is broken by ridges similar to those of Brown county, and 
 ?bout as high, averaging some three hundred feet. Military 
 camps and supplies were everywhere in evidence. Freight cars 
 and engines were painted in brown, buff and green patches, and 
 
 229 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 trucks and ambulances were similarly treated. At Commercy we 
 began to see buildings wrecked by German shells, and at a stop 
 just before our passenger-cars were cut off, a train load of Ger- 
 man prisoners stood on a track next to us. They immediately 
 began clamoring for tobacco and were willing to trade their 
 caps, buttons, blouses, anything they had in fact, for a taste of 
 the weed. We got several little trinkets and were preparing to 
 get more when a French sergeant and a private soldier came 
 tearing along and ordered all traffic stopped. They reinforced 
 their orders with fixed bayonets — those shivery needle kind of 
 theirs — and handled them so recklessly in their excitable way 
 that we were afraid they might hurt somebody and gave up the 
 idea of acquiring a "Gott mit uns" belt buckle just at that time. 
 German prisoners aggravated a Frenchman more then than they 
 did later after becoming more common. It had been too much 
 the other way. As illustrating this feeling the story was cur- 
 rent of a French general who saw a squad of German soldiers 
 as he was passing. He got out of his car scowling, gave the order 
 like Von Hindenburg, calling them to "Attention !" in German, to 
 which they responded like automatons. Then he walked behind 
 and gave each prisoner a good swift kick and continued his 
 journey a happier man. 
 
 There were perhaps two dozen French soldiers in the box- 
 car with us four Americans. They tried to be sociable and one 
 little fellow exhibited several photographs, showing himself in a 
 group with a woman and child, and as he danced and sang he 
 gave us to understand that he was going to "le maison, chez soi" 
 — the house of onesself — which is the nearest the Frenchman 
 can come to saying home. It made me feel a bit homesick the 
 way he kept admiring and exhibiting the pictures. French pop- 
 ular airs, by the way, are jokes ; the tunes could easily be played 
 on a one-string fiddle. They boast of their superiority, of course, 
 but I notice they take kindly to our songs and "Hail! hail! the 
 gang's all here," is a favorite. 
 
 The enlisted man carries his travel rations with him. The 
 French soldiers ate theirs and it wasn't much. Then the Amer- 
 ican boys got out their beans and "bully beef" and generously 
 offered me a share. But I had been so fed up on such delicacies 
 that I declined with thanks, albeit I had had nothing since break- 
 last. I marvel at the appetite of the soldier. He will eat a gen- 
 
 230 
 
FROM ST. MIHIEL TO DEAUXNOUDS 
 
 erous helping of canned beans, tomatoes and corned beef and 
 come back hungry for "seconds" and "thirds" while I simply 
 can't go it. 
 
 We arrived at Lerouville just before dark; still raining. The 
 military police directed me to the traffic officer three blocks 
 down, who would stop a truck going through to St. Mihiel, and I 
 secured passage in this way with Wagoner Glenn Hayes, One 
 Hundred and Tenth Engineers, Twenty-fifth Division,— an 
 Arkansas boy and very accommodating. He invited me to go on 
 through St. Mihiel to his camp at Deauxnouds, which I accepted 
 on his assurance that there were interesting German military 
 works near there. 
 
 It was still light when we passed through St. Mihiel ; the road 
 from Lerouville being camouflaged on both sides with a screen 
 of reeds and switches, supported by horizontal wires strung on 
 posts. The south approach to the river Meuse, on which St. 
 Mihiel is situated, is across a level bottom which was thick with 
 trenches and wire entanglements. The Germans held the oppo- 
 site bank ; a high, steep bluff, where they were so fully fortified 
 and entrenched as to successfully resist French frontal attacks 
 by fifteen divisions two years ago when thirty thousand French 
 soldiers were slaughtered in vain.* The Americans took the 
 town about the middle of last September with nine divisions — 
 the first American army to fight under American command on 
 European soil — by flank movements in the neighborhood of 
 Deauxnouds and below St. Mihiel, aided by an artillery fire, 
 which reduced several blocks of the city to complete ruin. We 
 saw the ruined portions as we rode through the town and ob- 
 served, furthermore, that all portions were considerably dam- 
 aged. I was now on territory occupied by the Germans until 
 recently and which was still in the condition that the ravages of 
 war had left it. 
 
 We followed the main road north toward Verdun for about 
 three miles, then turned to the northeast through Spada, Lamor- 
 ville and Lavigneville to Deauxnouds, some nine miles from St. 
 Mihiel. It appears the rule that motormen help others in trou- 
 ble. At any rate we were delayed when a mile out by stopping 
 to extricate a truck mired to the hubs, which was drawing a 75- 
 
 * American Legion Weekly, issue of September 10, 1920. 
 231 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 millimeter French canon, that had been forced off the road by a 
 tractor moving a large field gun. It finally required ours and 
 another truck to haul the mired one out. This, the driver told 
 me, was a frequent occurrence while the war was on and the 
 roads were more congested w r ith urgent transportation, all mov- 
 ing without lights of any kind. The wagon road where the 
 above incident occurred was between a high bluff on the east and 
 the Marne canal three or four feet below on the west. Both 
 sides were bristling with wire entanglements and chevaux-de- 
 frise. Shortly after that we turned to the right and before we 
 1 cached Spada we passed a large searchlight which the fleeing 
 
 A LARGE SEARCHLIGHT WHICH THE FLEEING GERMANS LEFT 
 IN GOOD CONDITION 
 
 Germans in their haste left in good condition. The country 
 here is free from trees and is not so rugged. A hill where the 
 searchlight was located commanded the Meuse valley for many 
 miles around. 
 
 Spada and all the villages above named are desolate, hope- 
 less ruins. No description can be overdrawn because words fail 
 to adequately express the reality. The west ridge, forming the 
 valley in which Deauxnouds was situated, was lined with Ger- 
 
 232 
 
ELABORATE GERMAN DUGOUTS 
 
 man dugouts and elaborately finished and furnished houses 
 communicating with them. I slept in one of the dugouts that 
 Tuesday night on a bed of wrapping paper. The engineers had 
 been living in them, and had about finished moving to Lerou- 
 ville from where they expected to go to Germany. 
 
 I had beans, cooked from the raw, not the canned variety, 
 and potatoes for supper and was hungry enough for seconds. 
 I bunked that night with the regimental dental officer and his 
 assistant. We were not disturbed except by the rat patrols, 
 which put their sentinels out early and changed them often, 
 judging by the frequent squals and skurrying noises. The 
 engineer company ate before daylight so I missed breakfast with 
 the exception of a cup of chocolate made by the dentist. Then 
 7 put in the morning inspecting a part of the German works 
 which were too extensive to visit in detail. 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. occupied a beautiful stone bungalow back 
 of a small terraced yard set out with dwarf evergreens. Back 
 doors of this and of all of the houses opened into dugouts ex- 
 tending on into the hills. 
 
 I was told of a general's headquarters more elaborate than 
 any and set out to find it. Incidentally I ran upon a German 
 graveyard with many permanent-looking headstones, and while 
 contemplating the cemetery sought cover from the rain and 
 opened a small can of sardines. Before I had finished them a 
 young soldier came out of an adjoining shed and asked if I 
 wanted some hot pancakes. As you may guess, the answer was 
 "Yes." So he invited me into his shack ; mussy and all but clean, 
 ladeled some batter out of a washpan into a long-handled frying 
 pan, flipped it with a jerk when ready to turn, and with ample 
 apology served it pipinig hot on a plate he had just eaten from, 
 and that probably had never been washed since it left the potter's 
 kiln. We had 'Karo and bacon-grease to garnish with, and I 
 staid with that soldier until the batter was gone. 
 
 The general's house was hid among the trees high up on the 
 ridge, and was camouflaged with raffia-wire stretched horizon- 
 tally on heavy wires supported by the trees. Nearby was a 
 tower for the leading-in wires of telephone and telegraph instru- 
 ments. The house was of stone, plastered in and out, roofed 
 with tile, and had a terrace in front large enough to play croquet 
 on where were convenient tables and little shelves below for 
 
 233 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 |[ 
 
 stines. Inside were four rooms and a kitchen, all elegantly fur- 
 nished ; a Dutch oven, canopy bed, wardrobe and center-table in 
 the front room, the floor of which was carpeted with a handsome 
 rug; piano, sideboard and complete equipment in the beam-ceil- 
 inged and high-wainscoted dining-room, etc. The rooms men- 
 tioned had ea*ch a back door leading into a common dugout, the 
 main contents of which was a stack of beer bottles — all empty. 
 The fact that these places were left in such good condition last 
 September shows plainly in what precipitate haste their first 
 occupants had to vacate. 
 
 I made a number of sketches here at Deauxnouds and sal- 
 vaged three pairs of window curtains and a picture at the gen- 
 eral's cottage, which I still have. Then I returned by truck to 
 St. Mihiel in what I thought would be ample time to find a place 
 to sleep. I saw the Provost Marshal's sign and interviewed him 
 only to be shunted off to the town major in a remote quarter. 
 There a wild French soldier tried to tell me something in French 
 and by gesture, which an American enlisted man who found us 
 wrestling together on the sidewalk said was to the effect that I 
 v-ould have to go down to army headquarters at the mayor's of- 
 fice. I found that to be opposite an open square which I had 
 passed before, where an American army band was playing to a 
 crowd of soldiers. A captain guided me through considerable 
 ruins to a room where the town major was just moving in. 
 He had the floors scrubbed and they were not yet dry. He said 
 I would have to see the French sergeant at so-and-so, and 
 described the place from which I had just come. When I made 
 that fact plain to him he volunteered to go with me. Back we 
 went to the same sergeant, and together they worked out an ad- 
 dress where they assured me I could get a billet for the night. 
 I started with my little piece of paper in French, and promptly 
 got lost in the crooked streets, and finally offered a countryman 
 a franc to lead me to my destination. We arrived at the written 
 address, but the woman answering the knock, was inclined to be 
 angry at the suggestion. She finally led us up a dark, damp 
 stairs into a desolate room where the most I could see was a 
 pile of cabbage. She and my guide entered into another word- 
 and-sign fest in which it appeared to me he was arguing that my 
 ticket entitled me to associate for the night with the cabbage, 
 while she was protesting that she was a lone widow. They tried 
 
 234 
 
BILLETING IMPOSSIBLE AT ST. MIHIEL 
 
 to explain to me in turn, but it was "je ne comprends pas" for 
 me. Finally she took me by the hand and led me down into 
 the street and we began a zigzag travel in the thoroughfares of 
 St. Mihiel, from one American officer and soldier to another, in 
 a vain effort to find somebody who understood both languages — 
 she leading me and waiving the order for the billet in her free 
 hand ; my Frenchman at our heels. I thought we were aiming 
 for the Provost Marshal's office, but we caromed and missed it. 
 Then I firmly withdrew my hand and supposed I had politely 
 dismissed both of them with many "mercis," but not so the 
 madame. While I was getting the direction to the railway sta- 
 tion from the nearest military police she came back, and thinking 
 she had found what she was hunting for, I went with her again. 
 We entered another gloomy abode where there was an elderly 
 woman. Immediately I asked, "Do you speak English?" and 
 she threw up both hands saying: "Je ne parle pas anglais." I 
 knew of courses what parle meant and the use of pas right after 
 parle meant a negative, and was wondering what I was there for, 
 when my first love grabbed my baggage and dashed upstairs, 
 beckoning me to follow. We halted in a room where there 
 wasn't a chair or a bed — not anything but a small sheet-iron 
 stove. There I was, perspiring from over-exertion, and those 
 two women making signs to know if I didn't want them to build 
 a fire in the stove. 
 
 "No !" I shouted, "I'm not cold — I'm looking for a place in 
 which to sleep tonight — I want a bed, not a stove — where's your 
 bed— b-e-d— B-E-D ?" 
 
 If I'd known enough to say lit or couchcc perhaps I'd have 
 had better luck; but I was becoming exasperated and made up 
 my mind to get out of there and out of the town if I had to walk 
 all night. 
 
 My haversack was between me and the door. I made a grab 
 for it and was down the stairs and out before the women could 
 stop me, and walked in the direction of the railway station, which 
 is on the opposite side of the river from the main town. I met 
 a French soldier on the approach to the old bridge and asked 
 him if one could cross there. "Wee" he replied without under- 
 standing me, for I found half of the bridge entirely gone and 
 could only have crossed there by swimming. This bridge was 
 demolished by the Americans at the taking of St. Mihiel last 
 
 235 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 September, and our engineers had built a temporary structure 
 a block below which I used. I stopped on the way over to make 
 a sketch of the old bridge and shelled neighborhood and for 
 greater freedom took off my pack and leaned it against a rail of 
 the bridge, — then stepped away to get a better perspective. Upon 
 glancing back I saw a bunch of French soldiers making off with 
 my pack. 
 
 "Hey! you there! that's mine!" and I dashed after them in a 
 fashion that they knew what I meant, whereupon they dropped 
 my personal property and trotted off sheepishly. 
 
 The railway station, a large two-story building, had the roof 
 and second flour smashed in by shells and littering the waiting- 
 
 THE REGULARLY LAID OUT GRAVES AND SUBSTANTIAL STONES 
 THOUSAND GERMAN SOLDIERS AT ST. MIHIEL 
 
 room and lower floor in a mass of rubbish. In a wooden shed 
 outside was a French sergeant, who spoke a little English, and 
 succeeded in imparting the information that there would be no 
 train toward Verdun until some time the next day, and then it 
 would not go clear through. Upon learning this, I returned to 
 the nearest military police and asked him to stop a motor-con- 
 veyance of some kind going north. It was now almost dark and 
 many vehicles passed without heeding his signal ; but finally an 
 automobile with an empty rear seat was halted and in this con- 
 
 236 
 
THE GERMAN CEMETERY AT ST. MIHIEL 
 
 veyance I passed for the third time the hill looking down on 
 St. Mihiel from the north, on the slope of which is graveyard- 
 evidence that the Germans came into this part of France, not 
 temporarily as has been declared by them, but to stay. 
 
 They have here buried thousands of their dead with all of 
 the care of permanency, and over the prominent ones have built 
 elaborate monuments in marble. Reaching from the road on 
 which we passed, to a large iron cross on a slab at the top of the 
 hill, are the regularly-laid-out graves of six thousand German 
 soldiers, each with a mausoleum or a modest stone marked 
 with some loving tribute or with praise for the gallantry and 
 devotion of the deceased to the fatherland. In one corner of the 
 burying-ground is a colossal lion rearing his head some twenty- 
 five feet, with his paw raised toward unconquered France in a 
 spirit of defiance and intended possession. This cemetery has 
 been a challenge to every Frenchman who has seen or heard 
 about it — and the story of its insolence was told me long before 
 I dreamed that I would see it. 
 
 The sky cleared for a while and a half-moon showed that we 
 were passing along a heavily camouflaged road ; but when the 
 car turned off considerably south of Verdun, I asked to get out 
 of the machine, and continued my way afoot on the main high- 
 way. It was lonesome there between the high raffia screens 
 and beneath the swiftly moving clouds playing hide-and-seek 
 with the moon, surrounding one in this strange death-land with 
 dodging shadows to startle even a skeptic on the subject of 
 ghosts. But a half-hour later a motor-truck overtook me, and 
 climbing in at the canvas-covered rear, I found myself in the 
 company of a squad of colored service troops in charge of a 
 negro second lieutenant. They were full of jokes and melody 
 that drove away all spookiness as we bumped along. 
 
 "Did yo all see 'at Jerry plane To dahk?" one black fellow 
 inquired. 
 
 "Yassah, but hits no Jerry — hits a uncle !" 
 
 "How come uncle?' 
 
 "Uncle Sammy — 'at's how come. Didn'yo all see urn red, 
 white an' blue spots?" 
 
 "He not yo uncle, no how !" 
 
 "How come not my uncle? I's geneine Merican bahn, isn't 
 I?" 
 
 237 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "Reckon so — but 'at ain't no a'gument. Uncle Sammy white 
 man — you jes a black niggah wo'kin' fo' 'im — at how come." 
 
 "Hits de haht — not de skin Uncle Sammy look at. Ala haht 
 not black as yo' is !" 
 
 "Don' yo say ma haht black, niggah !" and I feared there was 
 going to be more war, but the troubled waters calmed as a yellow 
 boy led and all joined in a more fitting finale, the earnestness of 
 which bore evidence that these soldiers with black skins, buffeted 
 around so far from home, had true American hearts and were 
 just as homesick as their white comrades. 
 
 Way down upon the Suwanee river, far, far away, 
 
 There's where my heart is turning ever, 
 
 There's where the old folks stay. 
 
 All up and down the whole creation, sadly I roam, 
 
 Still longing for the old plantation, 
 
 And for the old folks at home. 
 
 All the world am sad and dreary, everywhere I roam, 
 
 Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary. 
 
 Far from the old folks at home. 
 
 There was no second verse hut a long silence which meant 
 that in thought twelve black souls had laughed at distance and 
 were spiritually back with "the old folks at home." 
 
 "At old U. S. A. sho some good place to be at !" finally broke 
 the spell and everybody agreed : 
 
 "Hit sho am !" 
 
 At the end of a couple of miles they too left the Verdun road, 
 and I again dismounted and continued afoot. The sky was 
 clouded over now, and I had not gone far when drops of rain 
 warned of an approaching shower. Ahead to the left, and below 
 the wagon road were lighted buildings, from which a couple of 
 soldiers climbed to my level as I came opposite. Upon inquiry 
 they said I could probably get a bed for the night at their bar- 
 racks ; so I accompanied them higher up the hill along a path 
 that was getting wet and correspondingly slippery. At the bar- 
 racks no extra blankets were available, but one of the soldiers 
 offered to guide me to a supply officer, where I could be sup- 
 plied. That was much farther up the hill by a path so slick that 
 I could barely stand, because my shoes were not hob-nailed. I 
 could imagine myself trying to get back with a load of blankets ; 
 but the supply sergeant was good, and gave me a cot in his own 
 
 238 
 
WHERE ACCOUNTABILITY WAS DROPPED 
 
 shack where I slept with four others. Furthermore, he brought 
 me a supper of "gold fish" and "corn Willie" that tasted splen- 
 didly, as I had not eaten since my breakfast of hot cakes at 
 Deauxnouds. Aside from the fact that half-a-dozen soldiers sat 
 on the edges of the cots and played poker and joked until mid- 
 night, and a couple of pet cats insisted on sleeping on my face 
 the rest of it, I had a good time. 
 
 I learned that I was the guest of a detachment of the Fif- 
 teenth Engineers, and that the lighted buildings below the wagon 
 road were shops near the station of Ratattoul, where the engines 
 and cars of the steam road between St. Mihiel and Verdun were 
 being repaired by the above detachment. The place was some 
 ten miles south of Verdun near where the Bosch pinchers in 1916 
 had tried to pinch off the U-shaped strip that joined Verdun to 
 the rest of unconquered France. 
 
 As I was traveling "light" I did not have a change of under- 
 wear, and was acommodated by the supply sergeant the next 
 morning, who would take no pay because all Clothing at the 
 front then was expendable and "dropped" from the records as 
 fast as issued. Day revealed the camp well up the side of a 
 lidge, with the wagon road, a railroad, and a canal below, in 
 the order named. 
 
 The shack that I had slept in was close to the mouth of an 
 extensive dug-out built into the hill by the French army which 
 had occupied all of this territory and held back the German 
 hordes for nearly four- years before we arrived. Up to the 
 signing of the armistice this dug-out was a haven of refuge 
 against shells for all who were close enough to get into it when- 
 ever the frequent bombardments started. 
 
 Several machines passed me as I walked toward Verdun 
 from Rattattoul, and would not stop, but I was picked up after 
 an hour by a truck load of soldiers who were transferring to 
 another station, and who took me nearly to the gates of the war- 
 famed city. Our route followed the canal nearly all the way. 
 Many boats, all more or less submerged, were in evidence. The 
 Germans in control of both ends had let the water out of the 
 canal during the war, causing the boats collected in this French- 
 held strip, to become dry and almost ruined. To the left, or 
 west of the canal as I traveled, the country was flat and gen- 
 erally marshy, and bounded in the distance by a fringe of hills 
 
 239 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 from beyond which the Germans were wont to fire their heavy 
 artillery against the low ridges at my right, which were honey- 
 combed with dug-outs and traced by a connecting web of 
 trenches. Wire entanglements were everywhere, and the mouths 
 of dug-outs which were as fantastically scrapped out of corru- 
 gated scrap-iron, sod, and stone, as the shacks of a negro set- 
 tlement, and camouflaged against aerial observation, generally 
 by the use of chicken-wire interlaced with raffia and burlap 
 strips. These muddy, inconvenient places were the homes of 
 the French soldiers since 1914, and many of them lining the 
 highways had facetious signs like "Golden Hour Club," "Sunny 
 Side," "Paradise," "Cooties Parade," and the like as near as I 
 could translate. Tall poplar trees lined the canal banks, and 
 were the supporting posts for a camouflage screen of wire and 
 reeds from the adjacent swamps ; and at frequent intervals there 
 were screened emplacements where the Allied artillery had 
 answered the Bosch. We passed a train of cars all camouflaged 
 in the irregular patches of brown, yellow, and green which met 
 our approval because exactly as we had practiced the art at 
 Camp Taylor, except that the black lines separating the patches 
 were larger than our regulation half-inch, and a great deal more 
 black was used — often in large patches of that color. The en- 
 gines were also similarly treated, and nearly every truck and 
 ambulance had the same crazy-patches of color. I repeatedly 
 asked what this was for — remarking that the strange patterns 
 made the objects more conspicuous instead of hiding them, and 
 was told the purpose was not to render the objects invisible but 
 to prevent the enemy from making direct hits, because it was 
 extremely difficult for a gunner to gauge the distance and hit a 
 camouflaged object. We passed a stone bridge with the same 
 fanciful decorations and nearly all of the shacks at the dug-outs 
 were smeared with paint in the crudest of patterns. At one 
 place we passed a scaffold-bridge such as the engineers hastily 
 construct, extending for miles across the swampy bottoms. 
 
 240 
 
APPROACHING VERDUN 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 VERDUN THE HEROIC CITY 
 
 It was with a feeling of veneration and awe that I approached 
 Verdun. In my imagination I saw the heroic French soldiers of 
 1916, saying "They shall not pass," as they obeyed the command 
 of General Petain to hold the Hun. Captain Henri, who was in 
 the fight, told us at Camp Taylor how his machine-gun detach- 
 ment held a shell-hole for forty-eight hours, and only he and 
 another were left alive. These men were fighting for France, 
 but they were also fighting a foe who would have been at our 
 throats before we were ready, had he not been held at bay by 
 our brave Allies. All of this ground I was traversing around 
 Verdun was sacred ; more so by the glorious part that the Amer- 
 icans were permitted to take in the final drive against the bar- 
 barians in 1918. Verdun lies in the path that invading armies of 
 all ages have taken. The physical conditions make it the logical 
 way through, and no very vivid imagination is needed to picture 
 the hosts, from the stone age to the time of Mr. Hohenzollern, 
 who fought and died here within the circle of my horizon. 
 
 Verdun, like Langres and most of the larger cities next to the 
 German frontier, is a walled and strongly fortified town. In 
 addition to the citadel or fortress within its walls, it is defended 
 by a ring of nearly a dozen forts, from three to ten miles out- 
 side — depending upon the terrain. These forts are in turn 
 ringed around by smaller fortifications, manned by a battalion 
 or more of troops. 
 
 The river Meuse flows north nearly through the middle of 
 the city, and at the center of the latter a side channel rejoins 
 the main river. The ground to the east slopes gradually to the 
 stream, but to the west and north of the junction of the two 
 channels the terrain rises to a low hill half-way up which is the 
 market-house, as high and larger than the shed at the Indian- 
 apolis terminal station ; and above that is the cathedral, the two 
 
 241 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 square towers of which have made good targets for Jerry's guns, 
 but are still practically intact, although the main structure of 
 the church is badly damaged. The town clock in the cathedral 
 tower was keeping time and the chimes rang out the quarter- 
 hours and the hours during the while I was in the neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 On the spur of the hill is the wonderful citadel, or fort ; 
 three stories high, the top story being on the ground level, and 
 the other two below that, making an underground city, where 
 the people got their supplies during the siege, and the mysteries 
 of which are guarded carefully by the French, even against the 
 curiosity of their American "brothers." By the side of the cathe- 
 dral, which is a quarter of a mile from the citadel, is a vast 
 shell-hole that opens into an underground road large enough to 
 permit a big covered truck to be driven through without near 
 touching the roof, and which is said to start from the fort and 
 lead to an exit beyond the walls of the city. The existence of 
 this underground way was not even suspected by our army until 
 it was exposed by an accidental German shell ; but it yawns big 
 now at the bottom of a slide of debris down which one is apt to 
 slip if he is not careful. 
 
 Verdun is protected by massive double walls that are sep- 
 arated by a wide and deep moat. Outside of the outer wall is 
 another moat and both of these were lined with wire entangle- 
 ments that blanketed much of the land around the outside of the 
 town and extended thence, according to the mysteries of military 
 engineering, over the valley of the Meuse, up the ridges on each 
 side of tbe valley and along these ridges and their ramifications 
 to the edges of that vast No-Man's-Land, where the Bosch was 
 taught to keep his distance. 
 
 I approached the city from the south, or side opposite the 
 citadel, entering through port St. Victor. My first act was to 
 sketch the outer gate. Passing the inner gate a stuttering Amer- 
 ican sentinel found as much difficulty in making himself under- 
 stood as he would had he been a Frenchman trying to talk to 
 me ; but the substance of his reply to my inquiry for the Head- 
 quarters of the Military Police was that I should keep on down 
 the main street, and as that appeared to be the only way open I 
 continued. The houses were deserted. The only life was an 
 occasional French or American soldier; and while nearly every 
 
 242 
 
AT BEAUREPAIRE BRIDGE 
 
 building had a shell-hole in wall or roof their repair seemed to be 
 within the reasonable bounds of possibility. Many of the build- 
 ings were barricaded with stone paving blocks, and everywhere 
 that a street could be enfiladed a small fortress of paving-blacks 
 had been erected. 
 
 It commenced to rain — my, how easily the weather man does 
 that here — so I stepped under cover and incidentally made 
 another sketch showing the church near St. Victor's gate — maybe 
 it was his church — that, I do not know ; but I do know it was 
 badly shot full of holes. I included the street to the first crook 
 which was not far, and in the distance over the housetops the 
 two towers of the cathedral. The street led me to Beaurepaire 
 bridge, where I made sketches from both ends. For one sketch 
 1 took cover from the rain under a porch of a ruined building 
 bearing a large sign of the Singer Sewing Machine. Here the 
 store-room in front was filled waist high with paving stones 
 and on the wall back of this breastwork was a military telephone. 
 On the tiled floor were the chared remains of a camp fire and 
 empty bean and beef cans. Nobody came to question my 
 intrusion. 
 
 Diagonally across the bridge were the ruins of what appar- 
 ently had been the public library, but now roofless and gutted. 
 The entrance was through a small fort of paving-blocks built 
 across the sidewalk. I wound through its turns to take cover 
 from the moisture, but found the buildings open to the sky. 
 
 From the library north, the damage to buildings rapidly 
 increased. In many cases whole fronts were knocked down; a 
 little farther and only the fragments of walls at corners or chim- 
 neys, where the bracing was stronger, remained like tottering 
 obelisks, and beyond appeared larger areas which had been closely 
 built city blocks ; now leveled to the very foundations. Irreg- 
 ular heaps of stone, brick, and mortar, pulverized by high ex- 
 plosives, were often overgrown with grass and weeds that told 
 how the damage had largely begun back in the seige of 1916. 
 With only the streets cleared for passage these piles marked the 
 sites of once beautiful homes, now uninhabited save in some 
 instances by French soldiers, who had burrowed into the cel- 
 lars to make dug-outs under the rubbish for refuge against 
 German shells, which were fired regularly into Verdun every 
 
 243 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 PART OF SHELL-RUINED VERDUN. NOTE THE 
 
 SOLDIER PEEPING OUT OP THE DUG-OUT IN THE 
 
 MIDDLE FOREGROUND 
 
 day for four years. I did not see a civilian while I was there. 
 They had become refugees months before, and had not ventured 
 
 back to the damp, 
 bone-aching des- 
 olation that was 
 awaiting them. I 
 was two nights 
 and part of three 
 days in Verdun, 
 and returned on 
 the last day to 
 make a sketch of 
 the worst dam- 
 aged portion of 
 the city. Climbing over the pulverized remnants of a once 
 elegant residence at the corner of Rue St. Pierre and Da La 
 Belle Virge to get a better view, I noticed the nearby openings 
 to two dug-outs, from the closer of which the gaunt, unkempt 
 head of a little French soldier furtively appeared and cuatiously 
 examined the intrusion, ready to dodge back like a rat in its hole 
 at any overt act. I thought of the lines and how he fitted them 
 so completely : 
 
 "You're a funny fellow, poilu, in your dusky little cap, 
 
 And your war-worn, faded uniform of blue, 
 
 With your multitude of haversacks abulge from heel to flap, 
 
 And your rifle that is most as big as you. 
 
 You were made for love and laughter, for good wine and merry 
 
 song, 
 Now your sunlit world has sadly gone astray, 
 And the road today you travel stretches rough, and red, and long. 
 Yet you make it, petit soldat, brave and gay. 
 Though you live within the shadow, fagged and hungry half the 
 
 while, 
 And your days and nights are racking in the line, 
 There is nothing under heaven that can take away your smile, 
 Oh, so wistful and so patient and so fine." 
 
 Nice sentiment that! "Bonjour monsieur," I greeted him in 
 my best French, and was taken by surprise with his "Good morn- 
 ing, Sir," in very good English. This, however, is no uncommon 
 experience. 
 
 "Oh," I exclaimed in delight at the prospect, "so you speak 
 English." 
 
 244 
 
AT THE MARKET PLACE, VERDUN 
 
 "No, monsieur, only American." 
 
 '•And did you learn American in the states?" was the next 
 question. 
 
 "No, monsieur, in ze army of France wiz ze soldat of ze great 
 President Wielson." 
 
 "How do you like Americans?" 
 
 "Oh. ze grand brave Jean de Arc Americans! Zay do so 
 much for France! When ze poilu (the French like 'poilu' 
 meaning hairy, strong,) so discourage and fatigue wiz ze long 
 fight zen ze Americans come quick and brave and chase ze— 
 w hat you call— damn Bosh like hell— so he say 'Kamerad' to ze 
 world. France ees mos gratified to ze Americans who have done 
 so much for she." 
 
 Then he approached, twiddling a cigar-lighter between his 
 fingers that he handed for inspection, exclaiming, "Souvenir!" 
 said he made it himself out of two of Jerry's "Gott Mit Uns" 
 belt-buckles and would part with it to his beloved American 
 brother for thirty francs. 
 
 Thus was my idol shattered: my sympathy gone to waste. 
 That little frog was trying to bunco me into buying a bogus 
 souvenir at an exorbitant price; for I saw dozens just like his 
 cigar-lighter for sale by street-fakers in Paris for one-third his 
 figure soon after. In fact the French factories are said to be 
 running night shifts now on German war souvenirs for the 
 American trade. 
 
 Ascending the hill from Beaurepaire bridge on my first morn- 
 ing there, I passed the market-house, so like a huge hangar for 
 dirigibles, with shell holes in roof and sides large enough for 
 the passage of fair sized Zeppelins, and noted the crowding 
 American trucks and soldiers in it without understanding that 
 it had been appropriated as a parking place and stable for our 
 transportation and as convenient messing places where a half- 
 dozen company kitchens were set up and were serving food 
 twice daily (at 7 a. m. and 4 p. m. only) to long lines of soldiers 
 bringing in their own mess kits. Nor did I then know that there 
 was where my own subsistance in Verdun would be similarly 
 ladled out to me. I climbed the steep slope to the citadel and 
 finally halted under a roofed portion of the theological seminary 
 to sketch the nearby cathedral. Most of the several large three- 
 story seminary buildings were only broken walls, with rain- 
 
 245 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 clouds for covering, and their surfaces mottled like crazy quilts 
 with patches of interior decorations as varied as the rooms were 
 numerous which the walls had once helped to enclose. While I 
 was there a detail of soldiers came with buckets and brooms and 
 cleaned out the roofed portion where I stood, preparatory to 
 spreading their blankets there for the night. This reminded me 
 that I had no blankets nor even a shelter engaged. 
 
 The doors of the cathedral were locked, but, hearing voices 
 within, I began circuiting the immense structure to find an en- 
 trance. The way around led to a dilapidated cloister, the vine- 
 covered porticos of which were balancing in many places ready 
 to topple over. Once it had enclosed a well-kept garden, with 
 trees for shade and plants around a middle fountain, but long 
 months of neglect and the vandalism of friend and foe left 
 only a sorry reminder. 
 
 Diagonally of this garden was a passage as dark and drippy 
 as the old Illinois street tunnel at Indianapolis, and I would have 
 turned away had I not seen a Y. M. C. A. woman coming out. 
 To a question she replied that the passage led to a cross-street ; 
 but a first turn to the left, then up two flights of steps and 
 through an L-shaped room where carpenters were at work, 
 would lead to a corridor which opened into the church. As a 
 result of her directions I wandered through more subterranean 
 passages, into more blind alleys, more barren and comfortless 
 bedchambers, and through other rooms and windings — part of 
 the great cathedral, then any modern master of mazes could con- 
 jure up. I met one or two stray souls meandering like myself 
 in the darkness, but finally came to a door-way into one of the 
 main aisles. It was barricaded so I had to get down on all fours 
 and crawl through. The obvious purpose was to keep inquisitive 
 and curious people like myself out. The shot-riddled roof tim- 
 bers had fallen or were threatening to come down in places. The 
 plastering was hanging ready to fall in patches, and the tiled 
 floor of the utterly denuded interior of the church was littered 
 with rubbish that had dropped. The usual booths in the side 
 aisles dedicated to the saints, the organ, the pulpits, in fact every- 
 thing but the altar had been removed. The latter stood dam- 
 aged and bare on a raised platform of marble under a golden 
 canopy, supported at the top of the nave by four darkly mottled, 
 tall, spiral columns like those at the tomb of Napoleon. While 
 
 246 
 
THE Y. M. C. A. AT THE FRONT 
 
 RUINED INTERIOR OF VERDUN CATHEDRAL. 
 [S JOAN OF ARC BURIED UNDER THAT ALTAR?" 
 
 I was trving to sketch this, and the shell-riddled interior, a 
 French soldier cautioned me to move, pointing up to the roof 
 over me where a section several yards square was just ready to 
 drop, and as I was well on with the drawing from a safer position 
 an American soldier sidled up hesitatingly to ask : 
 
 "Excuse me, sir, but is it true that the body of Joan of Arc 
 lies buried under that altar?" 
 
 Joan and France are synonomous terms with our boys who 
 have sung so 
 much about her 
 that they expect 
 to find her 
 charred remains 
 or other relics of 
 her sacred exis- 
 tence at every 
 billeting place in 
 France. 
 
 Down hill from 
 the cathedral in a 
 narrow winding street, was the army Y. M. C. A., where I called 
 and learned of an Officers' Glub to which I was directed for pos- 
 sible sleeping accommodations, there being no hotels or habitable 
 houses. The inadequate rooms jambed to suffocation with sol- 
 diers were presided over by two American women : one handing 
 out free writing material and hot chocolate and the other selling 
 candies, cakes and tobacco at low quartermaster prices. The sol- 
 dier has a craving for candy and smokes. 
 
 Much criticism has been directed against the army 
 Y. M. C. A., but my vote is all in its favor. I have seen it op- 
 erate all the way from Camp Taylor, Kentucky, to the front line 
 trenches of France. It has been wherever the army was— the 
 one bright spot— the brightest always anywhere in the vicinity, 
 providing a place where the soldier could go for healthy relax- 
 ation, and was welcome. The men in charge have been courte- 
 ously human as distinguished from those sanctimonious saints 
 who are shocked at soldier cuss- words— for our boys use the 
 English as vigorously as they fight, and vice-versa— and the 
 Y. M. C. A. women with their cheerful and helpful— often 
 needle-and-thread, and button-sewing, helpful ways— have re- 
 
 247 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 minded many a rough doughboy of mother or sister back home. 
 
 The ladies, "God bless 'em," are in the war wearing other 
 insignia than the Y. M. C. A. triangle. There are the hello 
 girls with the two flags of the signal corps; nurses with the 
 sign of the Red Cross ; entertainers with no outward designa- 
 tion more than a music roll or an instrument box, and here I 
 glimpsed a rarer specimen — the female war-correspondent, whom 
 I was permitted to make a closer study of at the Officers' Club 
 that night. She was Mrs. Wilson, of the Baltimore Daily Sun. 
 She was a small nubbin when shucked, but as I first saw her in 
 her fur coat and arctics she looked formidable enough, and her 
 feet were monsters. 
 
 The Officers' Club at Verdun owed its existence to the enter- 
 prise of one of the companies from Maryland, stationed there 
 since the armistice, and to the foraging ability of the sergeant 
 non com. to whom the details were entrusted. 
 
 The room was among the very few with a whole roof over 
 it, at the end of a long, narrow passagt in from the narrow and 
 crooked street which I had passed along, near B-bridge. Its 
 two wide windows with lace curtains salvaged from some Ger- 
 man headquarters where a piano was also obtained, overlooked 
 a small garden on the bank of the Meuse. 
 
 The room was of good size and wainscoted in panels to the 
 ceiling so that with hardwood floors and an elaborate marble fire- 
 place with beveled mirror above, it was not hard to furnish. 
 
 A couple of park benches from the garden and a short sofa 
 with arms helped out the seating accommodations by day and 
 served as beds for those guests at night who did not prefer to 
 sleep on the floor. Several rough tables had covers that had 
 been issued as O. D. blankets by the quartermaster and were 
 still used for their original purpose by the guests aforesaid. A 
 notice stated that vin blanc, vin rouge and cognac were to be 
 had at prevailing prices. Chairs in the rough, several decks of 
 cards, and such reading material as the officers of the club 
 brought there and left, about completed the inventory. But it 
 was a jovial meeting place for its regular supporters, and a 
 God-send to many transient officers like rhyself. I found it in 
 time to be directed to the town-hydrant to wash my face and 
 hands, and then to the company messes in the market-house for 
 my supper, and made reservations for one of the park benches 
 
 248 
 
MRS. WILSON, BALTIMORE WAR CORRESPONDENT 
 
 as a bed for the night. Later a party, comprising a major, a 
 captain, and three lieutenants, arrived and as none of us could 
 retire until the membership dispersed about midnight I came 
 near losing my reservation through usurpation by the major 
 and his party. 
 
 The regimental band was billed for a concert at the club, and 
 as the regiment was largely comprised of Maryland officers and 
 soldiers, Mrs. Wilson, the war correspondent from Baltimore, 
 was anxious to meet them, and they to meet her ; so a committee 
 with flash-lights to illuminate the way — there being no street 
 lights — waited on the lady at 7:30 and conducted her to the 
 club. After all of her coverings were removed she appeared 
 rather diminutive, with normal feet, but full of gaiety, and always 
 alive to any item of news which she immediately jotted in her 
 note-book with the remark that her memory was treacherous. 
 
 Yes, she would join them in a glass of wine and a cigarette ; 
 and she swapped war stories with the oldest veterans, for she 
 had arrived a year 
 before America 
 declared war and 
 had been where- 
 ever the excite- 
 ment was greatest. 
 Never knew what 
 was going to hap- 
 pen next, but at 
 the end of every 
 day, so far, she 
 found it so near 
 perfect that a good French dinner and bed were always waiting 
 for her. It may at first seem strange that it is not the American 
 women over here, who are homesick — they are in no hurry to get 
 back — but it is our soldier-boys who can hardly wait for the day 
 to come when they can leave France forever. The women are 
 receiving so much attention wherever they go that they are hav- 
 ing the times of their lives. 
 
 One of the stories told here that made an impression on me, 
 was by an officer who said he had stooped to pick up an excep- 
 tionally well camouflaged Bosch helmet, but found it contained 
 
 249 
 
 MRS. WILSON AT THE OFFICERS' CLUB IN 
 VERDUN, 1918 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 the gruesome head of its owner which had been neatly decapi- 
 tated, but was held by the chin-strap from coming out. 
 
 Next morning the major and his party were worrying about 
 how they could get out to the old German front lines. They 
 were unable to find transportation. I suggested my plan — to 
 start hiking in the desired direction, and ask for a ride from 
 any conveyance that overtook me ; but that seemed too hazardous 
 for them. 
 
 I was not particularly anxious to ride for a while any way, 
 as one can study the country better afoot ; so I set out to the 
 northeast through Belleville, and along the ridge where Fort 
 Belleville, Ft. Michael, Ft. Javannes, Ft. Souville, Ft. Vaux, and 
 Ft. Dovanmont, every mile or so a fort — so desperately and suc- 
 cessfully disputed the progress of the Hun in 1916. The low 
 hills are all waste now, with very few trees, and are so planted 
 with high explosives that many years will probably elapse before 
 the plowman will venture to disturb the soil. The numerous 
 villages named on the maps are in many instances located with 
 more certainty there than they can be on the actual ground. All 
 of them are ruined beyond any hope of repair, and not even 
 traces are left of some. I had to be told more than once or 
 should not have known that I was then on a town-site, so thor- 
 oughly churned up were the debris and ground. The town of 
 Yaux is one of these, and here, and everywhere that the oppos- 
 ing armies faced each* other for a considerable period, the de- 
 struction is intense and complete, or at least nothing is standing 
 erect more than a few feet above the ground. 
 
 A published statement shows that in the Meuse fifty-nine 
 towns were damaged with about 1,800 buildings completely de- 
 stroyed and nearly 700 partially. In the Marne, 258 towns 
 were damaged, including 3,500 buildings entirely destroyed, and 
 nearly 12,000 partially. In the Vosges fifty-three towns were 
 damaged, with a total loss of 1,256 buildings completely destroyed 
 and nearly 200 partially. This makes a belt of about 150 miles 
 long, where the destroyed area is anywhere from five to ten 
 miles wide. 
 
 In France, as the farm houses are not isolated as with us, 
 but are collected in villages and towns, the latter are conse- 
 quently but a mile or two apart and very numerous. The dev- 
 astated French area is estimated at about six hundred square 
 
 250 
 
THE GREAT BATTLE OF VERDUN 
 
 miles, or about two per cent, of France, with a total population 
 in this area of nearly two million people. When we grumble at 
 our high war taxes we should try to visualize the condition of 
 these people who took the blow that was just as certainly aimed 
 at us. It is only by traveling day after day through village after 
 village in utter ruins, that one can begin to comprehend what 
 the stupendous destruction of this war was. I have tried to give 
 you some idea, but realize that my powers are all too weak for 
 much success. 
 
 In working back to the main wagon road up the Meuse val- 
 ley toward Stenay, which I had departed from I passed the 
 shell-torn road to Deaths Valley, which you have read about, 
 where the line of communication for supplies to the front was 
 under direct German fire. But there was no other way, and day 
 after day, the drivers bravely took the chance, and just as cer- 
 tainlv each day some of them were killed. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 FROM VERDUN TO DAMVILLIERS 
 
 I got my last glimpse of Verdun for that morning before 
 climbing the spur toward Consenvoye, which town until the mid- 
 dle of September, 1918, was in territory occupied by the Huns. 
 From the ridge road Verdun appeared to be on quite low ground, 
 but was easily located by St. Victor's Gate Church at one end, 
 and the cathedral at the other, and from there the river Meuse, 
 paralleled by the canal, reached toward us like crooked threads 
 which wound into our imagination and tied us there while in 
 memory we reviewed the first great battle. 
 
 "We are going to take Verdun, the greatest fortress of 
 France. Then it will be peace. There is going to be a struggle 
 the like of which the world has never seen," wrote a German 
 infantryman, whose letter was found on his dead body. The 
 great offensive against Verdun began on the morning of Feb- 
 ruary 21, 1 916. The battle was decisive, but peace did not 
 come until the Americans fought the second battle of Verdun. 
 The first battle decided the issue. This region was selected by 
 
 251 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 the Germans for purely tactical reasons ; by military despotism 
 for its contest with Democracy, and if France had lost here she 
 would have lest the war, and we Americans instead of helping 
 today [this v\as written in France on February 24, 1919], to 
 celebrate the third anniversary as an A. E. F., would have been 
 fighting for our own country's salvation, perhaps, on our own 
 soil. 
 
 "There is a destiny which shapes our lives" and also of na- 
 tions. Can anybody doubt it who stops to think how the seeds 
 of Democracy . after germinating and smothering for centuries 
 in the Old World, were transplanted to a new one with a more 
 fertile and we.dless soil, and grew strong and fruitful enough to 
 rescue all the world at the critical moment? It was glorious for 
 America to come in as she did and save the day. It began to 
 dawn at Ballou Woods and Chauteau-Thierry ; it carried on 
 through the Argonne Forest and at St. Mihiel, where the Yanks 
 smashed the Germans; but the last act was appropriately here at 
 the second battle of Verdun. I bewailed the fate that held me 
 tor months at Camp Taylor and "crabbed" when our first move 
 took us no further than Camp Sherman, Ohio. I was enter- 
 tained if not satisfied when my regiment finally sailed, and wan- 
 dered for many days over the British Isles and through France; 
 but even to be here now is a matter to be thankful for. 
 
 Before reaching Consenvoye I was picked up by an ambulance 
 returning from Verdun to its station near Damvilliers. The 
 roads along which we passed were camouflaged bv transverse 
 drops to obstruct the view from elevated stations straight ahead, 
 and by parallel side-scresns against lateral observation, and at 
 several dumps or filling stations, where vehicles were wont to 
 be loaded and unloaded, large areas were screened horizontally 
 with chicken-wire and raffia or canvas, to prevent observa- 
 tion- from above by airmen. All around us was No-Man's-Land, 
 with its trenches, dug-outs, and desolation only broken in its 
 monotony by occasional squads of colored service troops en- 
 gaged in repairing the roads and removing the camouflage 
 screens. 
 
 We turned off to the right at Consenvoye and began to climb 
 a long and much rougher and steeper road, which brought us to 
 the top of the ridge. There we passed to the opposite slope 
 through the Consenvoye woods, beyond which the road ran 
 
 252 
 
ETRAYES AND DAMVILLIERS 
 
 nearly straight for a considerable distance between the forest 
 on the left and a cleared and rolling country to the right. For 
 some distance I had passed occasional objects that looked famil- 
 iar, and as soon as we reached the road by the edge of the woods 
 I knew for a certainty that I had traveled that way, in a reverse 
 direction, a month before, and had seen it lined then with un- 
 buried German dead. I had come out that way on my return to 
 Langres, through the valley from Etrayes and Damvilliers. 
 
 The narrow valley which we soon turned into was unmis- 
 takable with its narrow-gauge tram-road below and innumerable 
 Bosch huts lining the steep slopes on either side. Vast quanti- 
 ties of German artillery shells and other ammunition were 
 stacked at frequent intervals in the open along the railroad, 
 which the original owners had to abandon in their haste. This 
 road which ran through to Metz was the main artery of supply 
 
 DINNKR WAS NEARLY RKADY 
 
 for the Army of Invasion in the Verdun sector. Numerous 
 signs in German still stood where their writers had planted them 
 to direct the way to the large number of depots and headquarters. 
 The valley, beginning to widen at Etrayes, spread out into 
 the great plain of the Woevre in which, a mile or two out, Dam- 
 villiers was located. The quarters of the sanitary train of the 
 One Hundred and Fifty-eighth regiment where my conveyance 
 
 253 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 belonged, was between Etrayes and Damvilliers. The sanitary 
 train was occupying dilapidated surface structures captured 
 from the enemy. As dinner was nearly ready, and rain was 
 again falling, it did not take much urging to get me to stop. We 
 were huddled around a field-range, under a dripping roof., when 
 a non-commissioned officer announced that the colonel was mak- 
 ing inspections that morning and they had all better jump into it 
 and police up. 
 
 There was immediate activity, which I am frank to say, was 
 needed — in fact cleanliness and order were here also conspicu- 
 ously absent. 
 
 I was invited to wait in a portion of the building that was 
 partitioned off for sleeping quarters. There was barely room 
 for an improvised table between two bunks which served as 
 seats, and the remainder of the room was crowded with bunks of 
 the double-deck variety. I suggested that they had no room for 
 guests. 
 
 "Oh, we always manage somehow," was the reply. "Last 
 night a Belgian refugee and his wife and three children stayed 
 with us, and we have lots of company. We make it a rule to 
 never turn anybody away in a God-forsaken country like this." 
 
 And such is the spirit of the enlisted men in France. I 
 learned that those boys took up a collection for the Belgians 
 before allowing them to depart. I would rather take a chance 
 on courteous treatment at the hands of the common soldier than 
 trom his officers. I have always found him willing to share 
 the best he had and to go out of his way to do a favor. He may 
 seem "hard-boiled" at times, but under his O. D. shirt there 
 beats a warm and true heart that the French girls are keen to 
 capture, and if the American army does not demobilize with 
 large French reinforcements in petticoats it will only be because 
 "Barcus" is not "willing." 
 
 I sat and talked with these men about their part in the last 
 drive over hills and levels, woods and fields right at hand. 
 Down the very road we had come over they had carried head- 
 . less and otherwise mutilated bodies of their fellowmen, who had 
 met with violent deaths. They had gathered them in heaps and 
 buried them in rows — often in trenches already dug — in the 
 extemporized grave-yards which we frequently noted, marked by 
 long rows of wooden crosses. On many of them one of the lit— 
 
 254 
 
VALOR OF THE SEVENTY-NINTH DIVISION 
 
 tie tags that soldiers are required to wear, was tacked for 
 identification. 
 
 I was told with what difficulty they had searched out the 
 dead Huns in the thick woods, in their concealed machine-gun 
 nests where they had been bombed, shot and bayoneted. Of 
 how expert the doughboys were with such things, particularly 
 those of their own division and train. How skillfully they 
 stalked the enemy machine-gun nests and sniping posts, or car- 
 ried those places by impetuous assault, garnished with invectives 
 calling down the wrath of Heaven. Some might have mistaken 
 the war-cries for profanity, but their authors meant every word 
 of it; for these veterans of Ballou Woods, St. Mihiel. and the 
 Argonne had seen their comrades shot down under signals of 
 surrender, and otherwise treacherously slaughtered, and were 
 properly vindictive and vengeful. 
 
 One lad told me how he had stooped to pick up an excep- 
 tionally camouflaged Bosch helmet and found it had the severed 
 head of its owner in it, retained by the chin-strap. I was sorry 
 when he told me that, because it would have shown better taste 
 not to have mentioned it. 
 
 I copy the following note, made in my diary at the time, from 
 information given me by the men of the sanitary train. 
 
 "Hill 378, near Damvilliers, high, bald ridge, dominating the 
 plains to the west and north, east of the Meuse, held by Germans. 
 Attacked twice by the One hundred and Fifty-eighth brigade 
 under Brigadier-General Johnson, assisted by the One Hun- 
 dred and Fifty-seventh brigade, took hill and villages of Etrays, 
 Reveille, and Wavrille ; Nicholson, commanding One Hundred 
 and Fifty-seventh brigade, Seventy-ninth division, Hills 328-319 
 all or in part, in possession of Seventy-ninth division, after stub- 
 born fighting, stopping only at 11 a. m. November 11, 1918." 
 
 After dinner I continued on foot toward Damvilliers. Near 
 the wagon-road were hundreds of surface structures, some of 
 wood, others of corrugated metal, arched like the bowed top of 
 a moving-wagon, often sodded over and always camouflaged. 
 Half way up the ridges above mentioned were concrete dug-outs, 
 generally with a pile of ragged clothes at their entrance ; stacks 
 of Bosch hand-grenades with handles resembling a potato masher 
 by which name our soldiers knew them, broken rifles and gashed 
 helmets that four weeks of exposure to hourly rains had ren- 
 
 255 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 dered unattractive as souvenirs to the Americans who had plenty 
 of better ones to select from. 
 
 The houses on the one principal and very crooked street of 
 Pamvilliers were hid from my view by the gradual slope of a 
 small rise, above which the tower of the town church was visible. 
 The little tram-road curved under the slope to my left, while the 
 wagon-road went a bit in the opposite direction and to save 
 walking I steered a middle course toward the church over what 
 aopeared smooth grass land. I was surprised to find, on reach- 
 ing the low crest, that it was an elaborate Bosche stronghold, with 
 C( n crcte machine-gun emplacements connected by winding 
 trenches. Camouflage here on the ground level, took the form 
 of horizontal chicken-wire, through the meshes of which long 
 1 urlap strips about two inches wide, and separated from each 
 n' her the same distance, were crossed in two directions. 
 
 1 hese were wicked hornets nests for our boys to stumble 
 upon. I nearly fell in one before I saw it, and to think of ma- 
 chine-gun fire on top of such a surprise! Then these were not 
 the only ones. There were dozens more perhaps that I did not 
 find, and I found others. One was two or three hundred yards 
 closer to the church, by the edge of a sunken garden where 
 |( rrv evidently raised his onions and cabbage and fanned himself 
 in ;he shade of its fruit trees during the weary summer months 
 v lii'e he waited for "Deutschland uber alles" to materialize. 
 
 1 was told that the Crown Prince and his father watched the 
 progress of the battle of Verdun, February, 1916, from the tower 
 of this church at Damvillers. We were told the same story 
 a! out a house at Montfaucon, but wherever it was what he saw 
 n ust not have looked good to the 'Kaiser, who had promised to 
 a e the son a field-marshal in captured Verdun, for he went 
 I to Germany without performing the promised ceremony. 
 
 I went on through Juvigny toward Stenay, and made several 
 sketches. Only a few miles beyond Stenay is Sedan, from which 
 the Americans held back on purpose to give the French army 
 tl e satisfaction of taking it, for it was at the battle of Sedan 
 that France lost to Germany in 1870. 
 
 As near as I could determine it was between Damvilliers and 
 Juvigny that I saw the fight, November 10, 1918, as described 
 in my Thanksgiving Day letter to my wife, and I need not elab- 
 orate on what I said there. 
 
 256 
 
COLONEL ROSENTHAL'S EXPERIENCES 
 
 On my return a Colonel Rosenthal, of the medical corps, in 
 his high power machine, overtook me and inviting me to ride with 
 him brought me back to the gates of Verdun. He was on duty 
 with the Seventy-ninth division during the last fighting, and he 
 
 WAITING 
 
 related many incidents that occurred in the territory through 
 which we were then traveling. He pointed out a spot where he 
 found five German bodies in a single heap, and near Verdun 
 where one shell killed nine men and thirty-two horses. At bri- 
 gade headquarters, still in a camouflaged semi-dug-out where 
 we stopped while he made his report for the day, he and another 
 officer were watching an approaching shell just before the 
 armistice that wobbled and made a peculiar screeching noise as 
 it passed over quite near them. 
 
 "That shell's got a loose band" his companion drawled. 
 Soon another fell close in front of them. 
 
 "Say, Doc, they're shooting at us. We'd better duck," and 
 they ducked into a dug-out just in time to avoid a hit squarely 
 where they had been standing. 
 
 One day, he said, he stooped to pick up an exceptionally fine 
 camouflaged helmet and found it had the severed head of a 
 German in it. Something about this story seemed familiar to 
 
 257 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 me, but I didn't say anything — our soldiers had the habit of cut- 
 ting heads off, apparently. 
 
 I slept at the Officers' Club again on a park seat and had for 
 company an engineer captain out of luck. He was touring the 
 old front in a side-car with a colored striker as his driver, but 
 without a pass. During the evening his driver announced that 
 the side-car had just burnt up. Some joy-riders slipped it out 
 and had a gasoline explosion, and as a result, the captain would 
 have to account for the car and also for his being in Verdun 
 without authority. 
 
 Saturday morning I took advantage of a rare opportunity 
 to ride west of the Meuse to Cheppy in the Argonne forest and 
 back and made several sketches and returned by noon. I left 
 Verdun at i 130 p. m. on the narrow-gauge, road. Third class 
 cars only were provided. The train was slow, dirty and uncom- 
 fortable. There was no ticket agent at the station, no conductor 
 on the train, and no fare to pay. The country on the way was 
 thick with dug-outs, trenches, wire entanglements, ammunition 
 dumps, and camps including aviation. The surface was mostly 
 hilly, wooded in places, but deserted and ruined. This railroad 
 for some reason was not destroyed — probably because it was so 
 small, while the broad-gauge road out of Verdun was destroyed. 
 The narrow-gauge was the communication that saved Verdun. 
 
 One of the American soldiers on the train had a ( ierman offi- 
 cer's beautifully spiked helmet that he had bought in Verdun from 
 an ambulance driver, who hauled in a load of them from Metz. 
 The price in Verdun was seventy-five francs, which seemed ex- 
 cessive to me, but I have seen them sell elsewhere in France 
 since then for two hundred. Another soldier was a good corn- 
 median — evidently had been on the stage- — from his extended 
 repertoire and furnished us with an all-afternoon entertainment ; 
 but no amount of singing and noisy conversation by the soldiers 
 could drown the high-pitched voices of two French dames whose 
 siren vocals carried across the car to each other above the din. 
 
 Our train barely crept along, but finally brought us to Bar- 
 le-duc, a distance of twenty-seven miles from Verdun, in seven 
 hours. 
 
 There I was required for the first time to show my travel- 
 order, and while waiting to get it stamped, Lieutenant Rochelle. 
 one of my officer students at Camp Taylor, hailed me. We 
 
 258 
 
GREAT CROWDS GOING TO SEE PRESIDENT WILSON 
 
 lunched together at a French Red Cross counter for two francs 
 each, where the lieutenant told me he was attached to the One 
 Hundred and Tenth regiment. Thirty-fifth division, when the 
 Eighty-fourth division was disbanded, and had two weeks of 
 front-line service before the signing" of the armistice. One of 
 his experiences was stalking a German sniper camouflaged in a 
 tree so as to look like a bunch of mistletoe, a common parasite in 
 the trees of this part of France. He was east of Verdun about 
 Etain. He stopped one day to pick up a fine camouflaged Bosch 
 helmet and found a German head in it ! OH, BOY ! 
 
 My train from Chateau-Thierry, due at 1 1 130 that night, 
 was an hour late, and pulled in full to overflowing. All of the 
 dozen or more cars seemed too full to get a foothold in, and I 
 let them go by, but jumped on the last one anyway in spite of 
 the loud protests by French soldiers, who filled every seat and 
 aisle. The train started with me in the door and my pack lodged, 
 seeing which, the half-dozen nearest soldiers pulled and squeezed 
 me on in until the door (the doors were in the sides of the cars) 
 would close. Unbalanced on one foot, ready to fall into the laps 
 of poilus sitting in the aisle had I not braced against the car with 
 my arms, I could not stand the strain, and by sheer force, re- 
 gardless of a chorus of howls, made a clearing of legs and bag- 
 gage under me big enough to stand on with both feet. The train 
 was going to Paris where the newly arrived President Wilson 
 was the attraction. I could not see out and was afraid of being 
 carried past my station, and also afraid to inquire of the French 
 — there were none on the car with me but French— lest they 
 should tell me wrong to get rid of me. At every stop crowds 
 were waiting to get aboard, and three or four did jamb them- 
 selves in at the other door, over the protests of all of us. 
 
 Arriving at Chateau-Thierry at 5 130 a. m. there was no 
 chance for a bed, so I stretched out on a seat in the R. T. O. 
 office at the railway station. It was near 8 a. m. when I awoke, 
 and by signs, was directed to a French Red Cross restaurant 
 where I had a good breakfast for three francs, and an amusing 
 preliminary experience in making the woman attendant under- 
 stand that I wanted to wash my face and hands. I went through 
 all the motions for her, at which she looked with an expression 
 of alarm at first, then a light broke and exclaiming "wee lavage," 
 led me to a wash-stand in another building and brought a towel. 
 
 259 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 I expected to meet Lieutenant Powers, of our Infantry 
 Specialists' School, here, but we failed to connect. He was 
 coming by way of Paris to locate the grave of a brother killed 
 in the fight here last June. 
 
 The German offensive, which was to capture Paris and end 
 the war, started early and electrified the world with its rapid 
 advance. The English gave way in the north and at the south 
 the French were staggering under the blow of the great German 
 army, and all hope of stopping it seemed lost. 
 
 CHATEAU-THIERRY. WEST BRIDGE BLOWN UP BY THE FRENCH TO STOP 
 THE GERMAN ADVANCE, JUNE 2, 1918, ABOUT 11 P. M. See Page 271. 
 
 The Americans had only been trusted to assist the Allies in 
 holding comparatively quiet sectors. Their courage and fight- 
 ing qualities, in such a warfare as had developed in the past 
 three years were unknown. The Fifth and Sixth U. S. Marines 
 were at Verdun on the critical night of May 30, where they had 
 been for several months assisting the French there. They were 
 ordered to Chateau-Thierry, where the break in the line oc- 
 curred. Eight thousand of them were loaded into trucks, and 
 all that night and next day were hurried forward without stop- 
 ping to eat or sleep. They, with other troops, were thrown into 
 
 260 
 
THE FIGHT AT BALLOU WOODS 
 
 the fight to help the machine-gun battalions of the Third divi- 
 sion, which had checked the German advance, as related in a 
 following chapter. Of the eight thousand marines who went 
 into the fight, six thousand were killed or wounded. Our troops, 
 including all arms of the service, were opposed by sixty thou- 
 sand of the famous Prussian Guard — the finest in the world — 
 flushed with victory. Cut the Prussians went up against a new- 
 experience ; the deadly fire of the American sharp-shooters, with 
 months of careful rifle-range practice back of them. Our sol- 
 diers picked off the Hun officers first, and then at the rate of 
 ten shots each per minute, went after the Bosch soldiers. A 
 German fell at every American shot with a bullet in his head or 
 tnrough his breast — dead, not wounded. The Prussian soldier 
 was not used to that kind of fighting and it finally overwhelmed 
 him so that he turned and ran. The Americans were just as 
 good with the bayonet. A few weeks later they chased the Ger- 
 man army through the Argonne Forest, across the Meuse, and 
 but for the armistice, would have run him back into Berlin. 
 
 The American engineers were given guns at Chateau-Thierry 
 and sent into the fight. Lieutenant Powers' brother, an engi- 
 neer, was killed at Ballou Woods ten minutes after he was given 
 a rifle. 
 
 Captain Robbins, from Worcester, Mass., a fellow-instructor 
 at the Infantry Specialists' School and my mess-mate there, was 
 with his battalion, part of the celebrated "Yankee Division," in 
 this fight at Ballou Woods. His men were at Soissons for three 
 months previously and had been sent back for a rest in one of 
 the shell-ruined villages, but the Bosch kept shelling them and 
 killed more men than they had lost at the front. When his bat- 
 talion evacuated for Chateau-Thierry Hun aeroplanes followed 
 and bombed it. At Ballou Woods Captain Robbins told me there 
 was no opportunity to bury the dead, and the stench was unen- 
 durable. Burial-parties were sent out but they were so badly 
 shot up bv the Germans that more men were killed than the 
 number of bodies they were sent out to bury, and burial efforts 
 were abandoned. The weather was hot, and putrefaction set in 
 earlv. All water came in wagons from the rear. If the wagons 
 got through safely there was a canteenful a day per man, but if 
 not the one canteenful had to last over ; washing, shaving and all 
 use of water except for drinking and cooking purposes was pro- 
 
 261 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 hibited. The big naval guns brought up and used there, shook 
 the earth when they were fired, and made a flash that was blind- 
 ing. There was one continual roar, whiz-bang and buzz of bul- 
 lets, and at night the sky was illuminated by the flash of artillery- 
 fire on both sides. One day he stopped to pick up a camouflaged 
 German helmet and found the head of a German soldier in it ! 
 
 Chateau-Thierry is only fifty miles from Paris, by automo- 
 bile or rail. Partly because of the nearness, but more because of 
 its historical fascination, Chateau-Thierry is now visited by 
 countless Americans, and will be a Mecca for our future pa- 
 triots. Unless my perspective is wrong Chateau-Thierry and 
 Verdun will go down in American history as our two greatest 
 battlefields in the World war. The Argonne Forest and St. 
 Mihiel are strong connecting links, but they do not possess the 
 same dramatic interest. 
 
 I made a sketch of what was left of the old stone bridge, 
 built in 1621, and destroyed by the engineers to halt the German 
 advance. I passed through the damaged part of the town — bad 
 enough but nothing to compare with the wreck of Verdun — and 
 climbed the hill-stairs back of the imposing jnodern Mairie, or 
 city hall, to the ruins of the Chateau and fort built in 730. The 
 English captured it in 1411, the Spanish in 1501, Diaries V. in 
 1544, and Prussian cannon damaged it in 1814, when Napoleon 
 licked fifty thousand with less than half that number. 
 
 At the very top, within the walls of the fort, is a new grave 
 to the "unknown dead." Ballou Woods, still full of shell-holes, 
 
 is about five miles out past 
 
 hill number 204. A splen- 
 did view in their direction, 
 and of the town and river 
 and of the encircling hills to 
 the westward can be had 
 from the fort. 
 
 I journeyed back to Lan- 
 gres from here by rail, where 
 I arrived after midnight on 
 Sunday. I had to climb the steep hill with my pack on and up to 
 the fourth floor of the army hospital before I could get into bed. 
 The hotels of the town were all full. 
 
 My earliest recollection late next morning was of hearing a 
 262 
 
 WALLS OF FORT AT CHATEAU- 
 THIERRY, BUILT IN 730 
 
GOING AFTER THE COOTIES 
 
 soldier talking" to his "bunkie" so close to where I lay that I 
 could have reached out and touched him. 
 
 "Oh, boy, I feel fine now ; just had a bath and got rid of all 
 my cooties ; salvaged all my old clothes too." 
 
 I had been so exposed throughout my trip that I began to 
 scratch at once and really feared I had 'em. 
 
 "Say," I called, "what's your name?" 
 
 "Private Smith, Sir !" 
 
 "Well, Private Smith, were you ever in a battle?" 
 
 "Yes, St. Mihiel and the Argonne." 
 
 "Did you ever try to pick up a camouflaged German helmet 
 and find a decapitated Bosch head in it, held in by the chin- 
 strap ?" 
 
 "No. Why?" 
 
 "Just wanted to verify your story about getting rid of all 
 your cooties. If you were in a battle, and say you never picked 
 up a German helmet with a human head in it — I'll believe any- 
 thing you say. Tell me where to go to get rid of my collection 
 of cooties." 
 
 As my eyes had been troubling me on account of unfavorable 
 working conditions at Ft. Plesnoy, I visited the Army Optician 
 at Langres, and he gave them an examination and treatment, 
 and a wash to take with me. After some trouble I secured an 
 automobile to take me to the fort, where I found I might have 
 remained longer and come home by way of Paris. But I was 
 tired and glad to get back to my own quarters. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THE AMERICAN BATTLE OF CHATEAU-THIERRY, JUNE, I918 
 
 I had been sent to the front several times while stationed at 
 Fort Plesnoy, near Langres, and, as stated in the preceding pages 
 the last one of these trips extended as far west as Chateau- 
 Thierry, where I made sketches of the town itself and of Hill 
 204, and Ballou Woods, which are visible from the old fort-hill 
 below which the town is built. The army schools at Langres, 
 and the circle of forts around it, where the last word in the 
 
 263 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 special training for the Great War was imparted to picked offi- 
 cers and men, had just closed on account of the signing of the 
 armistice, and I was transferred to General Pershing's headquar- 
 ters at Chaumont about two hours distance by Cadillac 8 from 
 Langres. I was attached to G-5, the educational section of the 
 general staff, and. at the time I write, February, 1919, was work- 
 ing on a musketry manual embodying the teachings of the war. 
 General Pershing's office was directly under ours, and from our 
 windows, we could see him come and go, and, incidentally, wit- 
 ness reviews for royalty and the great military personages who 
 came to pay their respects to our general. We were also enter- 
 tained and amused with several cheek-kissing ceremonies where- 
 at the French and Belgian decorations were pinned to the brave 
 breasts of many of our warriors. 
 
 I was billeted in the house of an estimable old widow, Mme. 
 Chenolt, at 36 Carriere Roullot, who insisted on polishing my 
 shoes and leather "puts" each night, and, as she lived a mile or 
 more from the American headquarters, and on the other side of 
 Chaumont, I had to travel the narrow and crooked streets of the 
 quaint old town at least twice a day. 
 
 I stopped once to sketch the cathedral and its approaches, 
 from a turn in the thoroughfare, and sat on a stone block by an 
 entrance through the high wall, at right angles to that part of the 
 street in front of me. I asked a small French boy of six who 
 was trying to shoot me with a wooden gun, if he could "parle-voo 
 Americana?" He shook his head but said his brother could. 
 Presently his brother — a lad of seventeen — came and looked over 
 my shoulder. He could talk very good English and said he had 
 won a scholarship for Williams College and was coming to 
 school in America in the fall. He called my attention to a num- 
 ber, "33," with the figure of the cross below, on the gate post 
 near my head, which meant that thirty-three people were killed in 
 the house at the massacre of St. Bartholomew. He told me 
 further that his father was a captain in the French Army ; that 
 his mother and children lived near Chateau-Thierry, at the little 
 town of Mezy until last July, but their home, and everything they 
 had, was destroyed by the Germans and they fled here as ref- 
 ugees—glad to save their lives. 
 
 I had heard so many discussions by G. H. Q. officers about 
 the fight at Chateau-Thierry and vicinity last summer (1918), 
 
 264 
 
MAJOR JOHN R. MENDENHALL 
 
 when the German drive had broken through the British lines to 
 the north, and bent the French back within fifty miles of Paris 
 to the point of despair, that I confessedly eavesdropped while a 
 young major, with a deep scar from eyebrow to hair across the 
 right forehead, described to Colonel Fulmer, my immediate su- 
 perior, his experience as captain of one of the machine-gun com- 
 panies that saved the day for the Allies and started the Bosch 
 back through the Argonne and to his final defeat. 
 
 "That youngster's had a great experience, Minturn. I must 
 get the General to send him with you so you can make drawings 
 of the battle for our manual." A few days later the official order 
 came from General Pershing. We had a chauffeur and a Cadillac 
 8, at our disposal and as this tour of duty covers the same terri- 
 tory by travel from Chateau-Thierry to Verdun, but in a reverse 
 direction from the one just described, and supplements the latter 
 in so many ways, I will give the experience here instead of 
 chronologically as it happened to me. 
 
 Major John R. Mendenhall, then only twenty-five years of 
 age, was a graduate of West Point, as his father and grandfather 
 before him had been, and it will be of interest to Indianians that 
 the grandfather lived at Westfield, Ind., when he received his 
 appointment to West Point, and the family still owns property in 
 that Indiana town. 
 
 We left Chaumont by the Paris road, which winds three 
 times under the high stone arches of the great railway viaduct, 
 and were kept busy saluting the colored American soldiers, who 
 were everywhere — remaking the once beautiful roads — now full 
 of chuck holes developed by the heavy trucking of the war. The 
 easy grades of the highways of France, here winding along or 
 across the high hills and ridges, are splendid examples of engi- 
 neering developed through centuries, reaching back to Caesar's 
 time, and they can be located as far as the eye can see by double 
 rows of high poplars and other trees, aged, moss-covered, and 
 full of mistletoe. The moss, in fact, is everywhere. Its velvet of 
 golden green is a mantle to the ground, to the stone walls and 
 houses, to the tiles on the roofs, and almost to the people who 
 live so slowly and so far behind the times — blending everything 
 into that restful harmony which is the special charm of France. 
 
 "We arrived in France about April 15, 1918," said the major 
 as we drove along. "I was captain of B Company, Seventh 
 
 265 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Machine Gun Battalion, Third Division. The division was bil- 
 leted in the training area around Chateauvillian, and our bat- 
 talion was at La Ferte-Sur-Aube. We'll go there first and then 
 follow the same roads we took when ordered to Chateau-Thierry. 
 Our organization was the machine gun battalion of the division 
 and had two companies with twenty-four active and eight reserve 
 guns ; twenty-four officers and 353 men. Our motor equipment 
 was not received until May 20, when we got twenty-four half-ton 
 Ford trucks and two Ford touring cars for each company, and 
 six trucks and one touring car for battalion headquarters. We 
 began at once to teach the men how to drive the cars. Our 
 other training schedule called for two months of preliminary 
 training — followed by a short period of trench-duty in some quiet 
 sector of the front. This should have put us on trench-dutv 
 about July 1, 1918. 
 
 "An Hind 10 a. m. of May 30 — Decoration day at home — an 
 order came to our major. Edward G. Taylor, to go at once on 
 our own transportation to Conde-en-Brie, and report to the 
 French officer commanding that sector. Speed was urged be- 
 cause the German drive was forcing back the French and the 
 British troops and all reserves must be thrown in at once to stop 
 the enemy and save Paris." 
 
 The major and I had reached La-Ferte and were crossing the 
 bridge over a small stream on which was a large mill : 
 
 "Here is where we started to train," he pointed, "and where 
 we received the hurry-up-order to go to the front. When loaded 
 we found that our cars had on three times their capacity, but 
 the battalion left La-Ferte at 2 155 p. m. in good order. The 
 major went ahead, followed by A Company and then by B, after 
 which came several three-ton trucks with extra ammunition, gas- 
 oline and equipment." 
 
 "We had difficulty right away in making the steep grades on 
 account of unavoidable overloading. In many cases the rear 
 springs touched the axles, and blow-outs were frequent because 
 the tires could not stand the extra pressure ; we were soon badly 
 strung out along the road. 
 
 "We made no stop for supper and reached Arces-Sur-Aube 
 by 8:30 p. m. We were out of gasoline and hoped to get some 
 there, but could not, and had to wait for our three-ton trucks 
 which came in near midnight. Our route was by Mer-Sur-Seine. 
 
 266 
 
ROADS BLOCKED WITH FRENCH REFUGEES 
 
 Anglure, Sezanne, Montmort, and Orbays. We came out of Se- 
 zanne on this road we're on now about 5 a. m. of May 31. It was 
 blocked with refugees with household goods, babies, old women, 
 i'.nd children crowded and piled on carts to which cows and don- 
 keys were hitched, which they goaded and pulled, or perhaps 
 pulled the carts themselves. Loaded wheelbarrows and dog-carts 
 were in the jamb with men and women carrying their heavy 
 loads and frightened children clinging to what they could to keep 
 themselves from being trodden down or lost. The expressions on 
 the faces of the refugees was most pitiful and we began for the 
 
 FRENCH FAMILIES FLEEING FROM THE GERMANS, ON THE ROAD OUT 
 OF SEZANNE, MAY 31, 191S 
 
 first time to realize something of the real meaning of war. Fur- 
 ther on, spaces between carts were forced and filled by small de- 
 tachments of French and British troops, all looking thoroughly 
 demoralized and discouraged. Following these came artillery 
 blocking the road entirely at times, the faces of the men showing 
 signs of great fatigue and many sleepless nights. Some of the 
 light batteries were going into position there on the south slopes 
 of these hills and were firing vigorously, which added to the 
 confusion and frightfulness. One cannot look at the road now 
 and imagine what I can but faintly describe. 
 
 267 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "This appalling jamb of terrified traffic made it impossobk 
 for us to keep our train intact, and as a result, our arrival at 
 Conde-en-Brie was very fragmentary. Great credit is due the 
 individual man, and especially the drivers for the way they han- 
 dled the cars and for their untiring efforts to keep them moving 
 and on the proper roads to reach our destination." 
 
 The major and I reached Conde-en-Brie, built on a hill. Its 
 many shell-shattered buildings told us that we were getting into 
 the battle-scourged area. We negotiated the steep hill easily 
 with our powerful car, to the Mairie at the center of the town, 
 and inquired where we could purchase some post-cards. A shell 
 had demolished all but the sign of the village book store, but in 
 a kitchen in the rear we found the proprietress, who sold us out 
 of a scant remnant of her stock. 
 
 "By 2 p. m. the entire battalion except the three-ton trucks 
 had arrived here at Conde," the major explained, "again almost 
 out of gasoline and our major reported to General Marchand, of 
 the French army at Janvier Ferme. We were told the enemy 
 was expected to begin shelling Conde at any time, and were 
 ordered to evacuate to Janvier Ferme. Our gas-tanks were so 
 nearly empty that our Fords would not pull the hill southwest 
 of the town, so, filling a few tanks by emptying gasoline from 
 the others, we moved what part of our companies we could and 
 the remainder marched on foot carrying their guns, equipment, 
 and packs. They were later picked up by the cars which had 
 filled their tanks upon arrival of the three-ton trucks." 
 
 "A French courier, greatly excited, met us here," the major 
 pointed to a part of the road by which we were leaving Conde, 
 "and urged us to hurry or all would be lost ! A full regiment of 
 French cavalry was apparently waiting orders in yonder field, 
 and numberless detachments of French and British soldiers were 
 hurrying across fields in every direction, in what seemed to be 
 the greatest confusion." 
 
 We were on a ridge-road and approaching Nesles, a suburb 
 of Chateau-Thierry, when Major Mendenhall stopped the car 
 and we dismounted. 
 
 "Our Major Taylor, with our two company commanders, pre- 
 ceded the battalion from Conde to this point above Nesles," he 
 continued, "where he reported to a French general commanding 
 a colonial division. This officer, after outlining the scheme of 
 
 268 
 
SEVENTH MACHINE GUN BATTALION 
 
 defense, instructed the company commanders to report to a French 
 lieutenant-colonel then in the town of Chateau-Thierry, who 
 would indicate the positions we were to occupy. We left instruc- 
 tions for our battalion to rendezvous in Nesles, and, proceeding 
 to Giateau-Thierry by automobile, found the lieutenant-colonel 
 had crossed to the north side of the river Marne where he had 
 been captured by a German patrol. The officer, a French cap- 
 tain who gave us this information, urged us to bring our troops 
 into the town with all speed to prevent the enemy crossing the 
 bridge to the south side of the river. 
 
 "When we got back to Nesles about half of each company 
 had arrived from Conde-en-Brie, and, assembling gunsquads as 
 quickly as possible, we transported them hurriedly in what cars 
 were still in running condition, to Chateau-Thierry, where we 
 reported to Major Taylor in the Place Carnot (see accompany- 
 ing map). By 6 p. m. about six gunsquads from each company 
 were available and were assigned positions which roughly di- 
 vided the town into two sectors — Company A on the west toward 
 the cathedral and Hill 204 ; Company B the east toward the sugar 
 factory and Brasles, each being responsible, for the defense of a 
 bridge, the local river margin, and one flank. 
 
 MAP OF CHATEAU-THIERRY BATTI.KFIKLD. JUNE 1, 191S 
 
 "Second Lieutenant Cobbey, of Company B, had a machine 
 gun in a two-story brick house (D) on the bank of the river, 
 ready to fire from a lower window and cover the river bank 
 from the bridge east, and one in a shed on the east of this build- 
 ing with range to the northeast. Second Lieutenant Paul T. 
 
 269 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Funkhauser had three guns in a wooded peninsula (E) six hun- 
 dred yards to the east of the bridge we were defending ; two guns 
 ranging west along the river, and one east. Two guns under 
 First Lieutenant Charles Montgomery were in a sunken garden 
 (A), two hundred yards south of the bridge, which also enfi- 
 laded it. The other guns of Company B were held at battalion 
 headquarters as a reserve. My post of command was established 
 under the railroad bank (W) giving me a covered line of com- 
 munication to all my guns and to the battalion post of command 
 located in a house near Place Carnot. This arrangement was 
 completed by 3 a. m. June 1. 
 
 "About 4 a. m. just as daylight was getting strong, a column 
 of German infantry was observed marching west from the town 
 of Brasles along the road paralleling the river, toward Chateau- 
 Thierry. They apparently did not know they were in danger, 
 in fact, we afterward learned that they believed the French had 
 abandoned the town and they expected to march through and 
 cross the river, halting for the night at Montmort. The guns un- 
 der Lieutenants Cobbey and Funkhauser opened fire when the 
 enemy got to a slight bend in the road. The German discipline 
 was such that the troops continued to advance until our positions 
 were apparently located, when they deployed into the wheat fields 
 between the road and the river. The grain stood waist high so 
 the men were lost to view. However, our men whipped the field 
 continuously with machine-gun fire, causing heavy casualties to 
 the enemy. At 5 a. m., or within an hour, our guns on the pen- 
 insula were located and fired upon by enemy machine-guns, 
 wounding a man and forcing the rest to withdraw. Our other 
 guns continued their effective fire. Making a rapid reconnais- 
 sance with First Lieutenant J. W. Ransdall, I placed him with 
 two guns near some small buildings where the railroad crosses 
 the Crezancy highway (F). By this time the enemy machine-gun 
 fire was much heavier, coming apparently from the high ridge in 
 the north distance across the Marne from us. A call by phone to 
 the French artillery brought a response within just two minutes, 
 in the form of a '75' barrage on the north, or opposite side 
 of the Marne, and extending from the railroad bridge we were 
 defending, five hundred yards east toward Brasles, and creep- 
 ing thence north for five hundred yards toward the long ridge 
 there. It was the prettiest job you ever saw from our point of 
 view, and practically cleaned the wheat fields of all Germans. A 
 
 270 
 
THE FIGHT AT THE RAILROAD BRIDGE 
 
 general artillery duel now commenced which lasted through the 
 next three days. This shelling made it advisable to move Lieu- 
 tenants Montgomery's and Cobbey's guns. 
 
 "At nightfall of June 2 the enemy machine-gun and artillery 
 fire increased tremendously, and we increased ours in the same 
 proportion, keeping at least one gun firing on the bridge at all 
 times. About 1 1 o'clock that night I heard a terrific explosion, 
 shortly after which all of my guns ceased firing, and after a while 
 Lieutenant Bissel, of Company A, came to my post of command 
 with several wounded men belonging to his company. He said 
 he had taken part in a counter-attack by the French and got left 
 on the north bank of the river ; that the French had blown up the 
 west bridge to keep the Germans from following them and this 
 had cut off his retreat, forcing him to make a run for the rail- 
 
 VIEW OF CHATEAU-THIERRY, LOOKING SOUTHEAST FROM THE FORT. 
 
 THE NEAR TOWER IS THAT OF THE CITY HALL, WHERE THE GERMANS 
 
 HAD A MACHINE GUN. THE EAST RAILROAD BRIDGE IS SHOWN A HALF 
 
 INCH TO THE LEFT OF THE TOP OF THIS TOWER 
 
 road bridge we were defending. Lieutenant Cobbey controlled 
 the fire of our guns on the railroad bridge, but knew the < Ger- 
 mans had enfilading fire from their side of the river. He heard 
 Lieutenant Bissel's call for Company B to hold its fire ; that some 
 of Company A were about to cross. But not being satisfied with 
 holding his fire Lieutenant Cobbey unhesitatingly crossed the 
 bridge in the face of the enemy fire, found Lieutenant Bissel 
 with his men preparing to swim the river, and dissuading them, 
 led them back over the bridge to safety. This act of heroism 
 was characteristic of all of our men. 
 
 271 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "Fearing that enemy troops had followed Lieutenant Bissel's 
 party across the bridge, and were hiding for a surprise attack, 
 Major Taylor sent me four of the battalion reserve guns, which 
 I placed as best I could, but except for heavy gas-shelling, noth- 
 ing further occurred during the night. 
 
 "On the morning of June 3 we dug a pit (M) in an open field 
 as a better position for one of the four extra guns, but the enemy 
 air scouts saw us and we put the gun in a building (N) near the 
 wagon-road. Just a few minutes after we abandoned the pit, 
 v/hich we camouflaged before leaving, a German shell was 
 dropped almost into it and would have killed our men had they 
 been there. There was a French passenger coach on a switch in 
 the yard near the bridge, under which car our men who were in 
 the open would duck for cover from aerial observation. During 
 the morning Lieutenant Montgomery, leaving his former guns 
 under Lieutenant Funkhauser, took those having no overhead 
 cover to positions (01) where he covered the railroad track, and 
 to a house (02), from the second floor of which he did effective 
 long-range firing at the enemy groups on the long ridge across 
 the river. After the slaughter on the level road near the wheat 
 field the enemy worked toward Chateau-Thierry on the ridge 
 where they could be seen by the aid of our field glasses. For sev- 
 eral days our men tried out their machine-gun theory by practice 
 on human targets. 
 
 "We were supported by French Colonial troops, among them 
 the Senagalese sharpshooters — wild, fierce, dark-skinned, silent 
 iellows, who gave you constant thrills at night by unexpectedly 
 challenging at the point of a wicked-looking bayonet. By day also 
 their conduct excited my curiosity. A group would be sitting 
 silently under cover when, without any command, one of them 
 would get up at intervals, face the enemy ridge across the Marne, 
 gaze intently for a minute or two, raise his rifle and fire — then 
 go back and sit down. After some observation with my glasses 
 I learned what they were doing. They could see incredibly far, 
 and when they located a gap in a far-away hedge, back of which 
 the Germans were moving, up came a rifle and down dropped a 
 German !" 
 
 "We were relieved at 3 a. m. on June 4 by Lieutenant Hose 
 and Company A, Ninth Machine-gun Battalion, Third division. 
 My company left town for the woods south of Fontenelle, in 
 
 272 
 
WON BY THE 7th and 9th MACHINE GUN BATTALIONS 
 
 three large trucks, over a road being constantly shelled. The 
 firing was so heavy during the early part of the night that it was 
 necessary to change the guns under Lieutenant Cobbey for cool 
 
 THE EAST (RAILROAD) BRIDGE DEPENDED BY THE SEVENTH MACHINE 
 
 GUN COMPANY, UNDER CAPTAIN MENDENHALL, JUNE 1, 1918. IT WAS 
 
 AFTERWARDS BLOWN UP BY THE FRENCH. I MADE SKETCHES FROM 
 
 FIRST TOWER TO LEFT OF THE TALL SMOKE STACK OF SUGAR 
 
 REFINERY 
 
 ones, and these fresh guns became so hot after a couple of hours 
 of firing that they could not be dismounted, and were left with 
 the relieving company. 
 
 "Our Seventh Machine-gun Batallion was assembled near 
 Fontenelle by 5 a. m., on June 4, and proceeded to billets at Cour- 
 bon, where we were met in person and congratulated by Major- 
 General J. T. Dickman, at that time commanding the Third 
 division. 
 
 "Our losses throughout the entire engagement were rela- 
 tively small — being one officer. First Lieutenant Thomas God- 
 dard, Company B, and four enlisted men killed, and thirty-two 
 men wounded — in nearly all cases from shell fire. No American 
 troops except these two machine-gun battalions of the Third 
 division were at any time engaged in the town of Chateau- 
 Thierry itself, this town being in a French sector throughout the 
 second and third battles of the Marne with the Second division 
 sector on the west, and the sector of the Third division on the 
 east." 
 
 This is the story of the opening engagement of the battle of 
 Chateau-Thierry as gathered from the officer in command at the 
 critical hours and at the places where the German pressure was 
 most intense. It was not told at one time, but on several occa- 
 sions, as we visited the spots referred to. 
 
 273 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "Too much credit cannot be given the men of the battalion; 
 their action throughout was cool and courageous," was the clos- 
 ing declaration by Major Mendenhall to a class of generals and 
 high army officials escorted by General Crookshank, who hap- 
 pened to be at Chateau-Thierry on a tour of the front when we 
 arrived, and who pressed the major into service to explain what 
 he witnessed here and at Mezy while history was in the making. 
 ''Our men did their duty and carried out orders or used their 
 initiative where orders were not at hand, absolutely regardless of 
 personal danger. Coming fresh from the United States without 
 the opportunity afforded the earlier arrivals for completing their 
 training, they were rushed practically overnight into a battle 
 upon the outcome of which depended in a great measure the 
 success of the Allied cause. Had the enemy succeeded in cross- 
 ing the Marne at Chateau-Thierry on that June first there was 
 i.othing to hinder their advance to Montmirail and Sezanne, as 
 they had done in 1914, and threatening, if not actually capturing 
 Paris herself." 
 
 *Most of this chapter was printed by permission in The Indian- 
 apolis News of November 1, 1919. 
 
 274 
 
THE BATTLE OF MEZY 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 FROM CHATEAU-THIERRY TO THE ARGONNE 
 
 Intermittent fighting continued through June in the vi- 
 cinity of Chateau-Thierry, as at Hill 204 and Ballou Woods, 
 which have been so widely written about. Reinforcements had 
 been brought up by both sides and the Germans made their last 
 determined effort to pass the Marne near the middle of July. 
 Indeed the enemy crossed in several places but were driven back. 
 One of the engagements which particularly interested the class 
 of generals referred to above, was on the Marne at Mezy about 
 two hours' run by machine from Chateau-Thierry. Mezy was 
 where the French refugee lad at Chaumont was driven from and 
 is the same distance east of Chateau-Thierry that Ballou Woods 
 is west. Part of the Third division was in the fight particularly 
 memorable because a single company — G — of the Thirty-eighth 
 infantry, defeated two crack German regiments; the Fifth and 
 Sixth Prussian Guards. 
 
 The railroad from Paris and Chateau-Thierry' runs east 
 through the town, parallelling the Marne, which flows a kilo- 
 meter or two away between the railroad and a bald ridge at the 
 base of which is a wagon-road, running into the village of Char- 
 treves, almost a continuation of Mezy, past the Catholic cathedral 
 to the north. Cultivated fields extend up the river banks from 
 both sides, and the river from the level of the railroad track is 
 only definable by two hedge-like fringes. The fields between 
 the railroad and the river are drained and separated by hedge- 
 bordered ditches, one of which paralleling the track, was in di- 
 rect alignment with the Cathedral. 
 
 German artillery was planted somewhere out of sight on the 
 far side of the ridge, and the German infantry was crossing the 
 Marne and approaching the railroad which occupies an embank- 
 ment of several feet and which branches here just a few yards 
 east of the Mezy station. The branch follows a valley to the 
 
 275 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 south occupied andcontrolled 
 in July, 19 1 8, by the Amer- 
 ican Third Division. The 
 mouth of this valley, down 
 which our troops advanced to 
 repel the Germans on that 
 15th of July, was flat and 
 open next to the railroad 
 and for a half-mile or more 
 down the valley. The branch 
 road was on a high embank- 
 ment, which afforded good 
 cover when reached, but to 
 get to it, our troops had to 
 cross an open valley then be- 
 ing heavily shelled by the 
 German artillery. This bar- 
 rage so increased that only 
 G company, Thirty-eighth 
 infantry got over, but they 
 •nade a heroic stand and were 
 watched from the ridge to 
 the rear by their Colonel 
 McAlexander and Major 
 Howe, unable to reinforce 
 them. The fields between 
 the railroad and the Marne 
 were strewn with Germaji 
 dead and the graveyard close 
 by where our boys fought, 
 with its near two hundred 
 wooden crosses, speaks elo- 
 quently of the tribute Amer- 
 ica paid to the cause of free- 
 dom. The hedge-ditch in 
 line with the cathedral pre- 
 viously referred to, was 
 elbow-to-elbow thick with 
 German machine gunners, 
 who raked the railroads so 
 it was fatal for a G com- 
 
A NIGHT AT CHARLEY 
 
 pany man to attempt to look over at the enemy. One of the sec- 
 ond lieutenants suggested that he could lead a platoon of men 
 through Mezy to the cathedral by crawling under cover of the 
 railway-grade and making a dash for it, and his captain gave his 
 consent to try. This proved successful. The platoon in reaching 
 the cathedral were in position to beautifully enfilade the ditch and 
 raked it so thoroughly with rifle-fire that every Bosche machine- 
 gun was not only silenced but abandoned, and the enemy driven 
 back across the Marne. The cathedral was badly shelled. 
 
 "Dead Germans lay so thick in that ditch," said Major Men- 
 denhall "that when we went to bury them next morning we could 
 not step without pushing a body away to get foot room. 
 
 "Many of the machine-guns were loaded and aimed, ready to 
 vomit a stream of bullets by pressing a trigger but the trigger 
 was not pressed again because the gunner lay dead at his 
 machine." 
 
 The dramatic interest to Americans in Chateau-Thierry and 
 vicinity is so great, and they are so close to Paris — fifty miles by 
 automobile — and easily accessible that Chateau-Thierry at once 
 became a Mecca for sightseers, army and otherwise, then in 
 Europe. A large part of the west section of the town adjacent 
 the base of the old fortified hill, was badly shelled and rendered 
 uninhabitable, so that the congestion from tourists, added to by the 
 class of thirty or more generals and high army officers who hap- 
 pened to be at Chateau-Thierry on that Saturday night when 
 Major Mendenhall and I arrived from Chaumont, made it impos- 
 sible for us to find a place to sleep. Learning this, and with a 
 car at our disposal, we thought to run out to one of the neighbor- 
 ing towns for the night, and the major suggested the consider- 
 able town of Charley, ten or twelve miles distant, where he had 
 billeted with his company and had defended it for several days 
 during the troublous times of last summer ; but upon arriving 
 there all hotel space was taken or "finee" as the word uttered by 
 every Boniface sounded to me. We had dropped into a sale of 
 British army horses at this town. The mayor's office was dark, 
 but a dim light across the street led us to an acquaintance with a 
 gendarme who had been in America and talked fluent English, 
 or rather American. The gendarme took us in the direction of 
 the mayor's house, near where we picked up one of his deputies 
 who helped us rout out the mayor and impress him with our 
 
 277 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 pathetic situation. The mayor went into deep study. Troubled 
 thought chased back-and-forth over his candle-lit visage with no 
 apparent results until, we noted increasinig agony, irresolution, 
 and final resolve. Then he gave voluminous instructions to his 
 deputy who grew timid and argumentative, but the mayor was 
 firm, and we were given to understand that we were to follow 
 the deputy. Outside we thanked the gendarme, and, by the aid 
 of a couple of francs, succeeded in dismissing him. 
 
 We were led through the dark to the aristocratic part of 
 Charley, and after the deputy had sufficiently braced himself, he 
 rang the porter's bell in a high iron fence below a four-story 
 chateau. We were admitted and led past a fountain in a front 
 yard, through a spacious hall, into a living room considerably 
 above the average of the always tastefully furnished French 
 houses, to the presence of an old woman who had the evening 
 Paris paper opened out before her on a center-table. She listened 
 to the petition as presented by the deputy for sleeping quarters 
 for the night for two American officers who had been unable to 
 find accommodations elsewhere — then she rose from her chair 
 and replied in words that I could not understand, but with tones 
 and gestures that told me our petition was being vigorously de- 
 nied. Major Mendenhall's appeal — that he had been in com- 
 mand of troops only a few weeks before who had saved her prop- 
 erty from pillage and destruction by the Germans had no soften- 
 ing effect on that woman. "No! No! No!" she cried, "I've been 
 bothered enough with soldiers now. No ! no ! no !" 
 
 As we left with the prospects of sleeping in our machine the 
 major declared, "That is the meanest woman in France ! I wish 
 1 had known her when I was here with my men — we'd have set 
 up the company kitchen in her parlor." 
 
 We were invited to his own house by the deputy, where he put 
 us in a room stored with his 'daughter's furniture. This he 
 moved enough to let us into a very good bed, which he did not 
 want to take compensation for the next morning. For the next 
 two nights we slept two in a bed in an attic located for us in 
 Chateau-Thierry by the town major, for which privilege we 
 paid a landlady ten francs each, and decided we would both 
 return to that bananza town and start a rooming-house after our 
 honorable discharges from the army. 
 
 From Chateau-Thierrv we drove to Reims over roads 
 278 
 
ON THE ROAD TO REIMS 
 
 flanked as far as the eye could see on both sides by trenches, par- 
 alleled by rows of posts, which were connected by mazes of 
 barbed-wire, forming entanglements that kept the invaders across 
 No-Man's-Land from too easy an entrance. Along our road 
 were stacks of cheval-de-frise, the many radial arms of which 
 were supports for wire-entanglements wont to be laid in emer- 
 gencies across the road to block the traffic of the enemy. At 
 many places were great tiers of loaded German artillery-shells 
 in round wicker baskets, or the shorter shells of the trench- 
 mortars nested in double rows inside of rectangular baskets; or 
 perhaps strings of machine-gun cartridges in closed tin boxes, or 
 half emptied from open ones, and mud-covered. Reims, like 
 most French cities of any size, is easy enough to get into, but 
 hard to get out of on a particular road, by reason of a labyrinth 
 of narrow, crooked streets which lead to nowhere, or bring you 
 back to where you started from. Consequently we did not de- 
 part from there after we drove around the ruined cathedral just 
 as we had intended. We steered largely by compass, which 
 brought us into a section that no human being would voluntarily 
 travel through for pleasure. When our Taride road-map called 
 for a road going apparently toward our destination we found 
 only a trace of one between two deep trenches, the dirt from 
 which had partly buried the road in land-slides from little hills 
 and mountains, thrown over by the soldiers, which rocked the 
 machine like a boat in trouble. Connecting trenches crossed the 
 road at intervals of the length of a city block or two, and these 
 crossings were roughly bridged with poles the jolt of one of which 
 jambed me against the top bow till my neck near cracked, and 
 kept me afterward holdinig to my seat for fear I'd miss a bow 
 and keep on going up. Before the war each side of the road 
 was lined with a row of tall trees, but these were gone, save an 
 occasional stump or trunk of a tree every kilometer or two with 
 nailed-on cleats by which observers reached the top to look over 
 into the enemy's country. Trenches, lined with barren heaps of 
 dirt like the furrows of gigantic plows, criss-crossed for miles to 
 right and left where fields and villages had been. These trenches 
 once ran to dug-outs and strong points in military order but all 
 were now shot together by powerful enemy explosives until the 
 pock-marks on the man in the moon carry as much pattern as 
 these things originally laid out by engineers. The roots and 
 
 279 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 seeds of weeds and other plants were turned too deep to sprout, 
 and during the four years of struggle here between the giants 
 the patrol 'of death from the bowels of the earth 10 as high as the 
 eagle soars drove away every living creature except rats and men. 
 It soothes and calms with hope of better days to read how the 
 birds sing and flowers bloom on battle-fields where death was 
 
 TRENCHES LINED WITH BARREN HEAPS OF DIRT LIKE THE FURROWS 
 
 OF GIGANTIC PLOWS, CRISS-CROSSED FOR MILES WHERE FIELDS AND 
 
 VILLAGES HAD BEEN 
 
 yesterday supreme, but here were miles of despair worse than 
 anything either of us who had traveled the old front extensively, 
 had seen or dreamed of. It was off the beaten track. We got 
 into it by taking the wrong road from Reims, and the fear of being 
 caught there by approaching night made us risk a break-down 
 and endure the torture of a higher speed than was safe. 
 
 We saw little parallel tram-ways running to ammunition and 
 subsistence "dumps" some with French and others further on 
 with German signs, from which we knew that both contestants 
 were close together here ; and after we began to fear that we 
 were traveling the Hindenburg Line lengthwise we came out of 
 the worst of it toward Montfaucon. We began to pass thou- 
 sands of German prisoners whom the French, in poetic justice, 
 were compelling to gather and stack the unused ammunition, and 
 to shovel back the dirt and fill the shell-holes and trenches. 
 Slowly' a more normal surface appearance was being restored. 
 
 Before our artillery helped to shoot it to pieces, Montfaucon 
 280 
 
CUNEL BATTLEFIELD 
 
 was a town of goodly size on the top of a mountainous ridge 
 south and east of the Argonne. It was a German stronghold and 
 place of excellent observation toward the Meuse till the Amer- 
 icans took it away from them. The Germans left one good house 
 in Montfaucon ; said to have been used by the Crown Prince as 
 his observatory. It was probably left undestroyed for the artil- 
 lery to get the range by, but our soldiers feared it was a trap and 
 kept out of it. Near it are immense shell-craters caused by shells 
 dropped by aeroplanes endeavoring to blow up the house. Men- 
 denhall, who had been promoted to a majority for gallantry at 
 Chateau-Thierry, was in the fight here and called attention to the 
 innumerable shallow ditches on the sides of the ridges leading 
 to the town, each the length of a man, called "fox-holes," which 
 the individual soldier dug for himself and dropped into for pro- 
 tection. From there we drove to Madelaine Farm near the 
 Cunel Woods in the Argonne north of Montfaucon, a strong 
 position from which the Germans were driven in October, 1918, 
 after hard fighting by the Sixth brigade of the Third division, to 
 which Mendenhall had been transferred after his promotion. 
 
 The Americans used the farm-building as a first-aid station, 
 where our wounded soldiers were laid on the floors in double 
 rows as there were so many of them. We found the spot where 
 Major Mendenhall was laid after being brought wounded from 
 nearby Cunel Woods. We crossed the open fields to the Ma- 
 melle trenches, bare five hundred yards from Cunel Woods, 
 where the Thirtieth infantry, Third division, was ordered from 
 to the attack, and succeeded only under cover of night after six- 
 teen hours of wicked fighting in which they were caught between 
 frontal and machine-gun fire from both flanks. I picked up a 
 German rifle here which I brought home as a souvenir, and was 
 
 281 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 about to pick up a Bosch helmet when the major exclaimed, 
 "That's covering a dead man's face. Don't you see his feet 
 sticking out of the ground behind you?" I had not noticed them, 
 but found it true and left that helmet for a later collector. 
 
 From Cunel we drove to Cheppy and Vayennes ; the latter a 
 base for the Third army corps during the Meuse-Argonne of r 
 fensive. There we replenished our gas supply at a filling sta- 
 tion and repair shop that our boys had improvised in the ruined 
 walls of the cathedral. We passed many abandoned German 
 camps evidencing the enemy thoroughness by splendid barracks 
 built of concrete. We crossed to the east of the Meuse at Con- 
 senvoye, followed the river road down to Verdun, and returned 
 to Chaumont through Domremey, the birthplace of Joan of Arc, 
 through Neufchateau, and other places of interest, but which will 
 furnish backgrounds for stories of their own. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 THE CLOSING OF FORT PLESNOY SCHOOL 
 
 First lieutenant o'brien was concededly proficient as an 
 officer and instructor in the one-pound cannon, but he was not 
 included among those who were promoted in November, 1918, 
 for the reason, it was rumored, that he had gone A. W. O. L. to 
 visit his French sweetheart; but as a majority of the 150 officer- 
 instructors at Ft. Plesnoy were similarly smitten by reason of 
 their zeal in learning the language of the country from individual 
 instructresses, there was a feeling of sympathy and condolence, 
 and when the colonel took O'Brien with him on a duty-tour to 
 Paris and London everybody approved. All overseas men were 
 eligible to a seven-day leave after four months of service if they 
 could get it, and Lieutenant Widney took his to Nice and the 
 Riviera, while Lieutenant Gaisser billeted himself in Langres and 
 laid formal seige to the heart of his princess. All of the above 
 was transpiring while I was entour of the old front immediately 
 after the armistice and we all returned to duty at the fort at 
 about the same time. 
 
 The coloned and O'Brien brought back a valuable assortment 
 of secret information, so they claimed, that they had gum-shoed 
 
 282 
 
A DINNER WITH LT. WHIDNEY 
 
 WE OFTEN WALKED TO ONE OP THE 
 
 VILLAGES FOR OUR HEALTH AS AN 
 
 ANTEDOTE TO CONFINEMENT IN THE 
 
 DARK AND STUFFY OLD FORT 
 
 out of the French and British military, and they desired to make 
 
 report thereon to general headquarters, with copious illustrations 
 
 that it was the art department's business to produce. 
 
 Whidney made a quick trip to Paris for special material and 
 
 the second night after his return asked me to walk out with him, 
 
 which was nothing unusual. The colonel, in fact, urged us to go 
 
 every day as an antedote to our confinement in the dark and 
 
 stuffy old fort. We took 
 
 the road toward Nuilly, 
 
 passing several musketry 
 
 platoons on their way in 
 
 from the training fields. 
 
 Our road wound gradually 
 
 down the hill under bat- °££"" 
 
 tery No. 2, and crossed a 
 
 railroad in the valley where 
 
 the gates were tended, as 
 
 at every such crossing, by 
 
 a family living in the 
 
 stereotyped, two-story brick building. 
 
 Instead of continuing to Nuilly we turned to the right and 
 were on the highway toward Toul and Nancy, which followed 
 the railroad to a station five kilometers by wagon-road from the 
 
 fort. The single cafe and restaurant was full of Twenty-sixth 
 Division soldiers, then billeted in our area, and French, but the 
 landlady led us through the kitchen into a small dining-room 
 which we had to ourselves, and soon a splendid dinner was being 
 served in courses. 
 
 "I brought you here to talk to you, Lieutenant. I don't know 
 what to do," Whidney said as he lit a Fatima and replenished 
 our glasses. 
 
 "I've told you about the girl I've been going with at Langres. 
 I've known her for some time- — before our school moved out here 
 from Terraine Barracks in fact,— and I thought once that I 
 couldn't be happy unless I married her, but when she told me 
 she was engaged to a French officer who was at the front, I 
 weaned myself and we've just been good friends with a perfect 
 understanding since and now I don't know that I'd care to marry 
 her at all." 
 
 "Well, don't then — I see nothing in that to worry about." 
 283 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "Yes, but when I returned from my leave to Nice and didn't 
 bring her anything she cried about it and said she hoped we'd 
 been close enough friends that I'd have brought her a little 
 something just to show that I thought about her while away." 
 
 "That was thoughtless of you, Whidney. You knew these 
 French people have the refinements of life worked out nicer 
 than we, but she'll get over it, and set you down for the selfish, 
 tactless American that you are." 
 
 "But that isn't the worst," he continued. "When I was in 
 Paris day before yesterday I saw a dandy bunch of violets. 
 They cost a week's wages nearly, but I bought them and gave 
 them to her to square myself." 
 
 "Fine ! that's great, Whidney ! you've let her know that Amer- 
 icans are not pikers." 
 
 "Yes, but now she wants to give up her French fiance and 
 marry me. What am I going to do about that?" 
 
 Half of the men detailed to attend the Army Infantry Special- 
 ists' School in that last term in December, 191 8, failed to report 
 and Lieutenant Hann, the efficient detail officer, gave up in de- 
 spair. As Christmas approached most of the instructors found 
 themselves marking time until orders detailing them for duty 
 elsewhere arrived. A wave of home-made vaudeville swept over 
 the A. E. F. and all who had any gift as entertainers, or thought 
 they had, began rehearsing and organizing troupes, which they 
 hoped would be detailed to tour France and help in entertaining 
 the millions of enlisted men who were waiting for ships to carry 
 them home. 
 
 Fort Plesnoy officers planned an all-star bill that was rich in 
 original scenic effects in keeping with an Army Specialists School. 
 
 Our talent gave the first performance on Christmas night in 
 the Y. M. C. A. hut. Lieutenants Silverbrand and O'Brien pre- 
 sented a tragedy-farce on Carranza's Army, in which threatened 
 blood and gore turned to harmless water ; Whidney as lightning 
 sketch artist, illustrated a doughboy's very proper letter home, 
 with blackboard pictures of just the opposite to illustrate what 
 actually happened ; Gaisser gave a monologue in humorous 
 French-English of the functions of a liaison officer and a carrier 
 pigeon ; Delano rendered a piccalo solo that met with as much 
 appreciation as "Blackie" Daw's best ; Lieutenant Leonard B. 
 Fowler sang and the show ended with a thrilling act in which a 
 
 284 
 
FORT PLESNOY VAUDEVILLE 
 
 profligate second son of English nobility conspired with three 
 common sailor comrades to rob a Hindoo idol of its sacred jewel. 
 The Indian priests followed them to London, mysteriously fer- 
 reted them out of every hiding place, sought to regain the jewel, 
 and were all killed in the scrimmage by the sailor crowd. Then 
 the malignant god himself appeared, called each of the four out 
 to their doom against any effort on their part to resist, and we 
 heard the shrieks that told the finish of each "good and able 
 seaman," including Toffy, the last and leader. The curtain 
 went down with the jewel flashing on the forehead of the gigan- 
 tic and horrible avenging god, and everybody voted that we had 
 the best show in the whole A. E. F. without waiting to see any of 
 the rival performances, none of which had come to our fort for the 
 reason that there had not been time enough for them to get 
 started and for the farther reason that our Y. M. C. A. building 
 had just been completed. 
 
 This was repeated at Terraine Barracks, and again at the 
 Y. M. C. A. hut at Langres, where, at Whidney's urging, I rode 
 over from the fort in an open and crowded truck against a raw 
 wind, to pass judgment on the entertainment. 
 
 I was favored before the performance with an introduction 
 to the young French girl of whom Whidney had spoken. She 
 was small, like most of her country-women, nice to look at, and 
 helped to make the family living in a souvenir and post-card 
 shop on Diderot street. I pronounced the show exceptionally 
 good as a whole and complimented each individual performer 
 and in turn was declared a gentleman and scholar and a fine 
 judge of cognac. 
 
 It was more than disagreeable riding a crowded truck, loaded 
 with actors and stage property back to Ft. Plesnoy after mid- 
 night, and on this trip Whidney added to a cold already bother- 
 ing him ; he was far from well a few nights later when the per- 
 formance was given at the Tank school. The weather on this 
 night turned from a rain to a sleet so that the trucks were unable 
 to negotiate the slippery hills, and from the exposure he de- 
 veloped the "flu" and double pneumonia. The first time I called 
 at the army hospital at Langres he appeared on the road to re- 
 covery, but when I saw him a week later on my way to Nice 
 where I too had a seven-day leave, he was unconscious and gasp- 
 ing for air by the side of an open window. He did not die, but 
 
 285 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 MAIN STREET OF PLESNOY VILLAGE. 
 NOTE THE MANURE PILES IN FRONT 
 OF EACH HOUSE. THE VILLAGERS 
 WATERED THEIR STOCK AND DIPPED 
 THEIR OWN DRINKING WATER FROM 
 THE TOWN TROUGH. NOTE THE FORT 
 ON THE HILL 
 
 was sent home as soon as he could stand the travel, and all I 
 know further about his French sweetheart is from conjecture ; 
 
 that she had something to 
 do with a bunch of violets 
 on the medicine-stand at 
 the head of his bed at the 
 time of my last visit. 
 
 The Plesnoy stars gave 
 one more performance — 
 before general headquar- 
 ters at Chaumont — and for 
 some reason the fires of 
 genius were smothered like 
 as happened to many other 
 would-be entertainers in the A. E. F. 
 
 On Christmas day the quartermaster issued three boxes of 
 chocolate candy to each of us and the knowledge of this got 
 abroad among the children of the neighboring villages. I was at 
 work in the afternoon at my quarters outside the fort; the door 
 was open and I saw a group of youngsters of assorted sizes whis- 
 pering together. Presently they filed in with a little tacker 
 pushed to the front, who bashfully asked: 
 "Chocolat, Messier?" 
 
 "Oui petite," and I handed her one of my boxes. 
 They thanked me in chorus, retired to divide, and a few mo- 
 ments later filed in with many "tres beins" and "beaucoup 
 mercies" and pleas for more that so flattered me to think I could 
 understand them, that I contributed a second box. There seemed 
 to be a larger crowd to divide with and they had the impudence 
 to come back a third time and jolly me with their profuse thanks, 
 appreciations and requests for more. I noticed the big girls put 
 the little ones forward ; but they were all so polite and nice about 
 it that they got my last box, but returned no more when I an- 
 nounced emphatically "chocolat finir." 
 
 My best Christmas gifts were a cablegram from home saying : 
 "All well. Holiday greetings, Miami and Lucy," and one of the 
 Red Cross boxes that they were permitted to send us. I had 
 changed stations so often that my mail had for weeks been un- 
 •able to catch up, so I did not know what was transpiring at home 
 and can't but wonder how the Christmas box found me. 
 
 286 
 
A WILL-'O-THE-WISP PROMOTION 
 
 The day after Christmas an orderly presented a summons for 
 a half-dozen officers to appear forthwith before the commandant. 
 My name was on the list with Lieutenants O'Brien, Buchanan, 
 Hann and others, and after we were lined up before Colonel 
 Fulmer he handed each of us a recommendation for promotion, 
 with the statement that they were not effective because of an 
 order by the secretary of war against all A. E. F. promotions 
 since the signing of the armistice. But he wanted to express his 
 own appreciation and make the recommendations of record he 
 said. It is hard to comment impassionately upon such a Will-'o- 
 the-Wisp situation, and I shall content myself by presenting this 
 unique Christmas gift in "words, letters and figures," as follows : 
 
 "Army Infantry Specialists' School, 
 "Army Schools, 
 
 "A. E. F. 
 "December 26, 191 8. 
 "From : Director, Army Infantry Specialists' School, 
 To : The Commanding General, American Expeditionary Forces. 
 Subject: Promotion. 
 
 "1 It is recommended that the following promotion be made 
 a matter of record. 
 
 "2. This officer has been on duty at these schools since 
 spring, notwithstanding his great desire to join a combat division, 
 and has performed important work in a very creditable, able, and 
 loyal manner. The carrying out of the policy of uniform training 
 with energy and initiative was so productive of splendid results 
 that the promotion as indicated is strongly recommended. 
 
 "3. This recommendation is made without favor, there exist- 
 ing no business or family relations. 
 
 "First Lieut. Joseph A. Minturn, Engineers, U. S. A., to grade 
 of Captain. 
 
 "I. J. FULMER, 
 "Lieut. Colonel U. S. A." 
 
 Perhaps I have said so much about the attractiveness of 
 French girls that the reader may think I am partial to them, but 
 I am not. American girls on duty in France were handicapped 
 with the regulation uniforms of their service, which were de- 
 signed for use as well as beauty, and were not always the most 
 becoming attire, whereas the French feminines had no such limi- 
 tations, and were notably adept in selecting and wearing their 
 clothes. 
 
 I had not particularly noticed the two women who had 
 287 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 charge of the Y. M. C. A. work at our fort. They came and went 
 in arctics and rain coats, ate at the staff table, and were but ordi- 
 nary mortals in their regulation uniforms. But on New Year's 
 eve the younger of the two came to dinner all in white and a 
 hundred and fifty of her countrymen suddenly realized that she 
 was a beautiful woman. Those who were familiar enough 
 pressed forward to speak to her, and those who were not, circled 
 around and told each other to look at that "dream" that "vision" 
 that "angel in white." 
 
 "Did you ever see anything so pretty?" Gaisser confided to 
 me. "I'd like to hug her — I just can't resist a beautiful woman." 
 And his artistic soul for a fleeting moment deserted its French 
 shrine. 
 
 "Come out of that," I insisted. "You're neither Turk nor 
 Mormon. Learn to leave your heart where it belongs, like the 
 rest of us married men do," at which he blushed and moth-like 
 I moved closer to the burning flame. 
 
 I had never spoken to the young lady, when a day or two 
 after the above appearance in white, she singled me out and 
 asked who I knew at Tuscola, 111. It developed that her home 
 was at Newman in the same county. She was Miss Mclntire, 
 and had seen the Tuscola post-mark on one of my letters in the 
 incoming mail. Singular that she, Lieut. Charles Busey and I, 
 all reared in the same neighborhood should come to a fort in 
 eastern France to learn about our mutual existence. But poor 
 Busey w r as the one instructor who went to the front from our 
 school and was killed in action. 
 
 On the morning of the sixth of January, Colonel Fulmer left 
 for Chaumont and told me he would get orders there for Gaisser 
 and me to follow him. He approved my application for a seven- 
 day leave to Nice, beginning on January 8. Everybody was 
 leaving and when the pass arrived from headquarters I planned 
 to take my suitcase, locker and bed-roll to Langres and store 
 them at the railway station to be picked up at the end of my 
 leave. It appeared for a while that I would be detained at the 
 fort for lack of transportation, but I luckily caught Lieutenant 
 Stevens as he was starting for Chatillon with a load of ordnance 
 and coaxed him to go out of his way and take me and my bag- 
 gage to le gare de Langres. I didn't have time to sign out prop- 
 erly at Fort Plesnoy, which accounts for- the alarm I found 
 
 288 
 
DIJON 
 
 Colonel Fulmer in when I met him at Chaumont on January 23. 
 My leave was for seven days from January 8 and I had learned 
 the custom of counting- the leave-days as exclusive of reasonable 
 time for going and coming, besides, my pass was from Langres to 
 Nice and back to Langres, not Chaumont, and it's a long way 
 from Langres to Paris and thence to Nice and return, taking 
 much time, as everybody knows, with war-train service. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX II 
 
 A SOLDIER'S VACATION, THE FRENCH ALPS 
 
 Did you know that Mont Blanc, one of the high peaks of the 
 Alps, the snow-capped summit of which is nearly three miles 
 above sea level, is in France? I didn't either. P>ut it is. I dis- 
 covered it. Indications pointed to a previous discovery by sev- 
 eral hundred thousand people, but that does not detract from the 
 genuineness of my exploit. A young R. T. O. (Railway Trans- 
 portation Officer) at Dijon said he thought I could get into 
 Switzerland at Geneva, and the inventions of so many of my 
 clients had been anticipated by Swiss patents in my civil practice 
 that I hold the ingenuity of the Swiss in high esteem and longed 
 to get a peep at them in their native valleys where water-power is 
 almost as cheap as their pure mountain air. So I acted on the 
 suggestion of the R. T. O. and discovered Mont Blanc, just in- 
 side of the boundary line between France and Switzerland, south- 
 vest from Geneva. 
 
 Dijon is the native town of the sculptor, F. Rude. Like all 
 great Frenchmen he did his greatest work at Paris, but Dijon, 
 outdoors has his charming children-and-frog fountain. It also 
 has the poet, Piron, bust and fountain, and other fountains and 
 statuary of note, besides a splendid art gallery, not only rich in 
 Rude, but containing innumerable paintings by Dijon artists, all 
 of which indicate an art-center here. There were two pictures 
 by Rubens that I do recall, and a host more by others that are 
 now only a hazy recollection. The gallery is in the old palace 
 of the Duke of Burgundy, or whichever one of the Robber Ba- 
 rons it was that rendezvoused in the Middle Ages in this town, 
 
 280 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 and the guide was more insistent on showing us the ancient 
 kitchen with its four mammoth fire-places, where were spits to 
 roast an ox on, and the elaborate tombs the deceased erected for 
 themselves in a chapel-annex, then he was in showing the paint- 
 ings and statuary. 
 
 I left Dijon at 2 p. m. for Geneva, via Macon, Bourges and 
 one other now forgotten town, at all of which I had to change 
 cars by under-track tunnel, or in a complication of traffic that I 
 had to thank a young French woman for helping me through. 
 The express from Paris to Lyons and the Mediterranean — I re- 
 member the road because the seat-gimps, the arm-loops, and 
 many other ornamental accessories repeated the initial letters in 
 endless puzzles — were crowded with the soldiers of all Allied 
 countries, and as many civilians as had the courage to push in. 
 Three American non corns, in one compartment squeezed to- 
 gether and let me wedge between them, and then we all squeezed 
 some more to let a pretty French girl with ear-rolls, turban, fur 
 collar, and up-to-date gear, in by my side. She was very proper 
 and repellent when one of the non corns, tried to exercise his 
 French for 1 her benefit. She passed up the cigarettes when they 
 came to her, and seemed quite beyond all informal approach 
 until one of our boys who was one of those favored mortals, a 
 
 quartermaster sergeant, 
 opened a can of Low- 
 ney's chocolates and 
 handed them around. 
 
 Now, chocolates and 
 all candies, had been 
 scarce in our army and 
 the French did not have 
 any. These were nice 
 ones ; more tempting 
 than the apples of 
 Eden, and Mme. Madeline, of 38 rue Central, Lyons, capitulated, 
 became the life of our party, and when she learned that I was 
 going to "Genev" was delighted (in French), because she was 
 going there too, and would have the pleasure of "papa's'' com- 
 pany. That is how I happened to have somebody's arm to hold in 
 making the changes. 
 
 It was raining outside and darkness coming on apace ; quite a 
 rapid pace on the ninth of January. I really don't know what 
 
 290 
 
MY LADY ESCORT 
 
 I'd have done without her. True, she couldn't speak English, 
 and I couldn't speak French, but she could talk her language 
 like a whirl-wind, to the great satisfaction of both of us in mak- 
 ing those bone-headed "frogs" around railroad stations under- 
 stand. They always said "wee" to everything I asked them when 
 traveling alone. She wore an American engineer's castle, which 
 additionally pleased and assured both of us. 
 
 Leaving Bourges we were in a compartment in which a 
 French medical captain sat opposite, and with whom my com- 
 panion entered into conversation. Finally the captain told me 
 in very good English that the young lady informed him I was 
 going to Geneva, and asked if I had a passport. When he learned 
 that I had not, he assured me the regulations of neutrality were 
 strictly enforced, and it would be impossible to pass the guards 
 in my uniform, and if I did succeed I would quite surely be 
 arrested later on. He had practiced medicine at one of the re- 
 sorts where the guests were largely English and had been with 
 the British army, which accounted for his proficiency in our 
 language. After further talk with my chaperone he informed 
 me that the young lady had a plan by which I could get into 
 Switzerland, if at all — that she knew an American engineer cap- 
 tain where she would stop for the night, who was in charge of 
 a detail cutting fire-wood across the line, and would take me to 
 him. He assured me that I was fortunate in being in such safe 
 and resourceful hands as my young lady escort, and, changing 
 cars at the next stop for Aix-le-Bain, the kindly captain passed 
 out of my life. 
 
 All this began to appear quite novel and thrilling and I tried 
 to imagine what the sensation of a smuggler might be ; to feel my 
 clothes for concealed diamonds or opium bricks, or to realize the 
 sensations of a Chinaman trying to slip into the United States 
 from Mexico or Canada like I was attempting to get into 
 Switzerland. 
 
 At the next change of cars the train was waiting. We climbed 
 on the running-board, and through the side door into a third- 
 class compartment crowded with soldiers. By some magic of 
 forensic art my companion accomplished the unheard-of thing of 
 causing two Frenchmen to stand and give up their seat in spite 
 of profuse protests and "Mercis" from us. The soldiers seemed 
 to be interested in us — a big American and a very little French 
 
 291 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 woman. They engaged in a wordy exchange that was all blank 
 to me, and the most I could do was to smile and act glad when- 
 ever they did. My girl snuggled up to me like a daughter, patted 
 my hand, pointed to our castle-insignias, smoothed my gray 
 hair, and said a whole lot with her face turned up to mine to 
 which I replied : 
 
 "My dear child, I don't understand a word you've been say- 
 ing to me, but you remind me of my own daughters, and I am 
 leady to give you a fatherly kiss before all of these soldiers to 
 let them know we don't give a bob for any of them." 
 
 I detrained under orders from my petite commandant about 
 two hours after dark. We hurried into a hotel near the station, 
 where I was somewhat embarrassed by the fact that my guide 
 embraced (he two women who seemed to be in charge, and my 
 uncertainty as to whether I was to do everything she did. But 
 the barrage stopped before I reached its cone of fire, and the 
 only distinction accorded me was the privilege, soon after, of 
 washing my hands in a pan at the kitchen sink. As usual this 
 hotel had a nicely furnished private dining-room off from a pub- 
 lic eating place, where diner pour deux was served on order of 
 my generalissimo, and I had trouble afterward in keeping her 
 from paying her half. 
 
 After we had passed "foumage" I fished my Picart's Eng- 
 lish-French dictionary from my musette bag and we talked as 
 friends for an hour ; I turning to a word in English and permit- 
 ting her to read the French for it; she replying by using the 
 French end of the dictionary, and both of us laughing heartily 
 at our blunders. She was traveling for a merchande de modes 
 and offering the latest styles in chapeaux. The American, Cap- 
 tain Spencer, roomed at this hotel and I could see him in the 
 morning. Then she wrote her name and address for me, said 
 "Adieu Chevalier," and she too passed out of my life like scores 
 of other very delightful French people whom I cannot forget. 
 
 I was up at a quarter of six the next morning on the theory 
 that the early bird gets the worm ; in other words, that Captain 
 Spencer might stand reveille at that regulation hour and then 
 disappear. I shadowed his door until the chamber-maid put a 
 pitcher of eau chaud outside and tapped on la porte at seven ; 
 then after she had gone I also tapped like Ala Baba in the Forty 
 Thieves, and was finally summoned in. The captain was in bed. 
 
 292 
 
LA CLUSE AND VICINITY 
 
 He listened to my story, then informed me that I was out of 
 luck by nearly a week. He had broken camp in Switzerland 
 under orders and the last truck-load from there was back. 
 
 I found, when it grew light enough outside to read the signs, 
 that I was at the town of La Cluse. As long as it was light 
 enough to distinguish the scenery yesterday, we were passing 
 through a country of hills and broad valleys similar to that around 
 Langres, with much flooded low-land along the streams. But 
 we had run into the mountains after dark and La Cluse was on a 
 lake between high peaks that frowned so unexpectedly I almost 
 forgot the disappointment of Captain Spencer's interview, and 
 walking down into the town, which huddled together as if ifi 
 fear of the overhanging rocks, came upon a cow market in a 
 slight widening of the street which 1 suppose was the nearest ap- 
 proach possible to a public square. Here were farmers dressed 
 in the long black dusters that the French boys wear to keep their 
 clothes clean,. each leading a cow or critically inspecting another 
 man's. There were women too, and great gesticulation and 
 noi$e for a while ; 
 then the crowd 
 broke and scattered 
 in groups of which 
 a cow was the cen- 
 tral figure of each. 
 There was no 
 train out until late 
 that afternoon, so 
 I had time to ex- 
 plore the lake 
 which is evidently 
 a summer resort. It is about three miles long and narrow, with 
 shores as rugged as those of Lake George. A town is at the other 
 end from La Cluse, and along each shore is a boulevard and walk 
 with a stone ballustrade and convenient benches. 
 
 I arrived at Bellegarde, a port of entry between France and 
 Switzerland, after dark, and was so numerously and rigidly in- 
 spected by heartless customs officers that hope of getting over 
 the line into Switzerland grew smaller. I stopped here at 
 Le Grande Hotel de la Poste, a favorite name apparently, and 
 left at 6 a. m. by rail for Annamassa. the closest French point to 
 Geneva, and with which it is connected by trolley. Here I hunted 
 
 293 
 
 THE COW MARKET AT LA CLUSE 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 up the trolley line, gave the guard a package of cigarettes while 
 waiting, showed him my pass to Nice, which he only glanced at, 
 and was aboard for Switzerland. But alas, I have found to my 
 sorrow that they make their most rigid inspection when one tries 
 to quit riding on their funny little cars in Europe. We passed 
 the line — we were in Geneva, and as I stepped my foot on its 
 sacred soil, my passport was demanded by a guard who spoke 
 English. He examined my pass critically and said I was travel- 
 ing in the wrong direction to get to Nice. I suggested, as there 
 was no prescribed route, it was my desire to go by way of Swit- 
 zerland and Italy. I slipped him a package of cigarettes which he 
 took, but insisted that I would have to go with him to headquar- 
 ters or take the next train back. He was polite but very firm, 
 and I asked his permission to go back if he felt perfectly sat- 
 isfied my pass to Nice was not good straight ahead. Back I 
 \.ent and thus was the neutrality of Switzerland kept inviolate. 
 '"What," I thought on my way back, "if France should refuse to 
 let me in there without a passport. Would I be doomed forever 
 to shuttle back and forth between Geneva and Annamassa?" 
 
 But I soon had evidence that France welcomed the American 
 and that her sons are truly our brothers. The guard who had 
 looked me over first smiled his recognition and did not appear at 
 all surprised to see me back so quickly. He passed me on with- 
 out a challenge and very soon thereafter I was riding in a steam- 
 driven car going in a southerly direction ; to' just where, I did not 
 know or care. There were high mountains to our left with white 
 tops and streaks of lower snow; but soon a fog blew over and 
 shut out the view which gave me time to size up an odd little 
 fellow in a big overcoat, with spats and monocle, sitting across 
 the way. We were the only occupants of our compartment. I 
 couldn't decide on his nationality, and to try him out in the only 
 language I knew, I inquired : 
 
 "Were you ever in Geneva, Sir?" 
 
 "Ouah yaas — in fa-w-ct I'm just from th-a-ah," he drawled 
 in real English. 
 
 "How fortunate — I've just come from trying to get in, but 
 the guard wouldn't let me ; and I'm very much disappointed." 
 
 Then I drew out of him all about the beauty of the city on 
 the lake ; that he was a Frenchman ; had traveled much, and had 
 lived in London for many years. 
 
 294 
 
THE CAPUCINS OF LA ROCHE 
 
 "Owah, do-ah you-ah know-ah Lon-on" he inquired, and 
 when I admitted that I had never been there he took pity on me 
 a« a real tender-foot; made himself unusually agreeable and en- 
 tertaining ; got out his railroad guides and time-tables and wrote 
 cut a complete itinerary that was of the greatest value to me 
 throughout the rest of the trip. He told me what there was to 
 see, where to find it, and how to get there. To reach Mont 
 Blanc, I must change at La Roche while this train we were on 
 would take him in another direction to his destination at Annecy. 
 He insisted on getting off with me at La Roche to show me a 
 good restaurant he knew of, where I ate an excellent dinner be- 
 fore my train left. We parted as brothers and I think the little 
 men of France are just as fine as the little women. 
 
 I had to wait two or three hours at La Roche and passed the 
 time in looking it over and in trying to find why it was so named. 
 It was walled about with high mountains where rock-a-plentv 
 predominates ; but it is built around a little peak of its own, which 
 the waters of time could not level off, a pinnacle of which is 
 crowned with a ruined tower variously called the Tower of the 
 Capucins, and the Tower of Augustus. I walked in a narrow 
 little alley of a street around the perpendicular walls of this gi- 
 gantic monolith 
 to find a stairway 
 and came bang 
 into the iron gate 
 of a monastery. 
 History and tra- 
 dition say that the 
 founder of the 
 capucins saw a 
 vision of St tower op the capucins at la roche, francf 
 
 Francis wearing a square-cut pyramidal hood and made one for 
 himself, the wearing of which caused him to be blamed and per- 
 secuted. This, of course, brought him followers like anything 
 new in religion does in our day, and the "little hooded fellows," 
 as their name means, went off to live like hermits in wild, deso- 
 late places, to go barefoot and to wear beards. Many of them 
 took refuge in Switzerland, of which this territory of La Roche 
 was then a part. 
 
 I met three American officers at the railway station, who 
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THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 were going my way, and joined their party. They were Major 
 !'». Fredericks and his In-other, Captain A. Fredericks, of Nor- 
 folk, Ya., and Lieutenant Van Etten, of Chicago. They had 
 been to Nice on leave and were returning by the mountain route 
 to Paris. Our road was up-grade through a valley lined with 
 mountains that grew higher and came closer. The snow line 
 kept moving down until its mantle of white covered over our 
 level. The snow piles at the stations where we halted grew in 
 depth from inches to feet, then knee-deep, waist-high and finally 
 came up to the shoulders of the people outside, and within, the 
 heatless third-class cars made us uncomfortable from the cold. 
 The major and the captain disappeared hut at the end of an hour 
 reappeared to say they had been riding on the engine, and ad- 
 vised Van Etten and me to try it in order to warm ourselves and 
 get the best view of the w r onderful scenery. We were not slow r 
 in acting on the suggestion. The engineer, or "mechanician," as 
 he called himself, was a good-natured Swiss and said he would 
 drop the cars at St. Germain, where w^e would change to an 
 electric road ; then he would run his engine into a round-house 
 in Switzerland fur the night. 
 
 The architecture hereabouts had changed to the Swiss chalet 
 style of wide projecting roofs, open-ended gables and projecting 
 upper stories with paneled walls, so familiar in theater-drops and 
 chromes, and in unexpected places we ran into isolated factories 
 that made an extensive showing, electrically illuminated as they 
 were in the early gathering darkness of the valley. 
 
 Chamonix. so named for the wild mountain sheep of the 
 Alps, was our destination. A good view is said to be obtainable 
 from the windows of the high-climbing cars that carried us ; but 
 the trips up and down are made so late and early each way that 
 one has not light enough at this time of year to see the scenerv. 
 
 We stepped out of the station into real winter. Sleighs were 
 there to meet the train, but we preferred to walk. The snow 
 creaked at every step; the breath froze into a white mist, and we 
 had to swing our arms and warm our ears early to keep from 
 being frostbitten. 
 
 The town is seemingly more compact than there is need for. 
 The streets are narrow and the buildings which are all hotels are 
 six and eight and ten stories high, in competition apparently with 
 the Alps that tower above them. We'd been recommended to the 
 
 296 
 
CLIMBING MOUNT BLANC 
 
 Grand Hotel des Alps, and kept hunting until we found it. It 
 was comfortable, even luxurious in our estimation, and the charge 
 from Saturday supper to Monday, breakfast inclusive, was but 
 forty francs for the four of us, including five francs for tips. 
 
 Chamonix is at the foot of Mont Blanc between the Mur and 
 Bosson glaciers. A cogged road in summer carries passengers 
 to Hotel Montenvers, far up toward the source of that frozen 
 river called Mur-de-glace, but now the road is snow-bound and 
 the hotel is deserted. 
 
 Nothing daunted, however, the four of us inquired if there 
 were a guide in town who could show us the way. One was 
 found in the person of Joseph Couttet, of the Alpine Chasseurs. 
 He would take us up for three francs each, and we hired him ; 
 also, we hired alpine stocks and ice-creepers. A mile up we 
 threaded our way between the close houses of a typical Swiss 
 village ; then we followed a trail left by a mule and sled after 
 fire-wood, and beyond that the snow drifts were only broken by 
 cross-tracks of the mountain sheep. 
 
 We reached the jagged blocks of the Mur-de-glace. To our 
 right so straight down that it gave one the cringy feeling of look- 
 ing from the edge of the Woolworth building, was the valley and 
 Chamonix like an ant-hill, while above us to the left, the perpen- 
 dicular walls of Mont Blanc seemed to rise higher and steeper 
 than before we started. Not being a human fly, I made excuse 
 to sit on a bare rock to sketch, while the rest went on to their 
 fuller satisfaction. But in less than an hour they came slipping 
 and sliding back and we all returned with more speed and less 
 safety than we came. I had thought of stopping at the Swiss 
 village for a sketch, but we slid past it as fast as the Knicker- 
 bocker Special to New York goes though the little towns enroute. 
 
 I like good sport but don't think mountain climbing qualifies 
 as such. When I play with Death as my opponent there must be 
 more reward than the mere satisfaction of scaling a hazardous 
 wall of rock and snow. The man who goes over Niagara in a 
 barrel has his thrills and can afterwards exhibit himself if he lives, 
 but there is not even demand in vaudeville for a mountain climber. 
 
 At the edge of town a skieing carnival was being staged. The 
 three others of our party had skied a little the night before and 
 we all now went appropriately crazy with skie-enthusiasm. We 
 wished some of those high- jumpers, who seemed unable to get 
 
 297 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 enough, had been where we had just come from. We could safely 
 give a written guarantee for thrills and distance enough from 
 there. 
 
 Came many ladies out in bloomers and knit pants, sweaters 
 and prismatic colors, some skieing and more in handsome sleighs 
 and all trimmed with gay ribbons and softly gingling bells. 
 
 At night the major and his brother took part in a skating 
 carnival, while I went shopping with Lieutenant Van Etten. The 
 town had been almost deserted, but Chamonix was lately selected 
 by our army as a leave-area for enlisted men, and ten thousand 
 of them were expected within a week. We were the advance 
 guard. The stores were full of pretty things, particularly Swiss, 
 on which prices had not been much inflated. Among other pur- 
 chases Van Etten decided on a work cabinet with a concealed 
 music box that played a tune every time the lid was raised. He 
 said that would encourage his wife to spend more time in darn- 
 ing his socks. Then he became enamored of a clock, represent- 
 ing an elaborate Swiss chalet, that played twelve different tunes ; 
 one for each hour, so, if the "Marsellaise" woke him at six, 
 Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" would soothe him back at seven, 
 and "Where Do We Go From Here, Boys?" would mean that it 
 was then 8 o'clock. 
 
 The merchant permitted him to trade the work-box in, as 
 the price of the clock was more than double, and we adjourned 
 to the Hotel des Alps in triumph and to a rehearsal. By taking 
 the pendulum off the clock would run down rapidly and play all 
 the pieces in quick-time. I was sorry I didn't have one like it ; 
 but Van Etten got all there was, and besides I couldn't very 
 well carry a clock all over the Riviera to Paris, Langres, Chau- 
 mont and the other points of France at the rate I'd been going. 
 
 The next day we changed cars at Annecy and had an hour 
 and a half between trains. This is a port of entry. We were all 
 lined up for inspection by the customs officers and all got by 
 except Van Etten, who was the fourth man. It was 12 noon 
 and he was about to be passed when the clock started the 
 "YVacht am Rhein." The whole show stopped right there. Van 
 Etten couldn't explain and they dragged him out of line and 
 into a private room. W r e lost nearly a half-hour on that music 
 box, and Van Etten was out a stiff tip in squaring himself. 
 
 298 
 
A STOP-OFF AT ANNECY 
 
 FROM THE FOOT OF MUR GLACIER, HALF WAY 
 
 UP MONT BLANC, I SKETCHED THE VALLEY AND 
 
 CHAMON1X LIKE AN ANT HILL 
 
 Then we rushed 
 over to get a 
 glimpse of An- 
 necy Lake, the 
 largest lake in 
 France, and back 
 through the ar- 
 cades of Rue 
 Saint Claire to 
 a popular restau- 
 rant where we de- 
 posited seven 
 francs each before we could seat ourselves for dinner. We tried 
 to explain that we wanted everything brought in at once instead 
 of in courses, because we were in a hurry. We waited until there 
 was barely time left in which to make the train, when the waiter 
 came with nothing but soup, and realizing that it was impossible 
 to speed up the French at mealtime or to change them from their 
 habit of serving food in courses, and also realizing that we were 
 out-of-pocket seven francs each, we tossed a few choice English 
 words to the head of the establishment and ran for the train. 
 
 We were told that Annecy had been a concentration point for 
 German prisoners to be exchanged through Switzerland, and 
 was not opened to Americans until two or three weeks before we 
 arrived ; that there were many historical and other worthwhile 
 things to see, but, thanks to Van Etten's music box and French 
 long-drawn-out meal service we didn't even get a glimpse of any 
 of them except the curious monument to Eugene Sue, which we 
 passed in going to the lake. 
 
 This monument is as sensational as Sue's "Mysteries of 
 Paris" and "The Wandering Jew." He died here in exile six 
 years after the coup d'etat of 1851. 
 
 I had to change again at Aix-les-Bain while the three others 
 went on west. Here are hot sulphur springs that made Aix a 
 famous bathing place in the time of the Romans, and has kept 
 it so down until the interruption by the World war ; and now its 
 magnificent casino and many of its palatial hotels are filled with 
 recuperating American buck-privates. A Roman arch, badly dis- 
 figured by the centuries, was a favorite lounging place for them, 
 and numerous other ancient remains bear testimony to the long 
 
 299 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 prominence of the place, which is one of the beauty spots of the 
 world. 
 
 The train was so crowded that I had to stand going from 
 Aix-les-Bain to Chambrey, where the one to which I transferred 
 was in waiting. I arrived after a long, cold journey consider- 
 ably after dark at Grenoble, a city of seventy thousand inhab- 
 itants, beautifully situated near the head of navigation on the 
 river Rhone. Here the Dauphin created the parliament of Gre- 
 noble in 1453, that did more than the king's army to quiet these 
 restless and dissatisfied provinces so far from Paris. 
 
 As I was having my pass stamped at the railway station three 
 former sergeants of the Three Hundred and Ninth Engineers, 
 who had transferred to Major Tanner's service-battalion and 
 came to France before we did, called me to one side and renewed 
 old acquaintance. They were on leave to Aix-les-Bain, but, like 
 the rest of us, desiring to see more of France and particularly of 
 the Mediterranean, were slipping through. I didn't handicap 
 them in any way as they gratefully admitted, and because the 
 train I wanted out of Grenoble departed at six in the morning I 
 left them at the first hotel we came to. There I asked for ac- 
 commodations for the night, but the clerk did not understand. 
 He couldn't get by by saying "wee" because he knew I was or- 
 dering something, so he did the next most obvious thing: brought 
 me a bottle of wine and a glass. I don't know that I would have 
 retired at all that night had not an elderly French gentleman 
 who would have had to go a block away to keep from overhear- 
 ing our conversation, intervened. He could talk English and 
 soon had me climbing stairs to a shivery room on the fifth floor 
 that cost nine francs. 
 
 When the sun came up the next morning and blew his icy 
 breath across the mountains he found me and another sorry- 
 looking passenger in a railway compartment, moving rapidly 
 along the sky-line and dancing to keep our feet from freezing. 
 To our left the country spread out like a gigantic fluted bowl. 
 We were circling its rim in the clouds where the eagles might 
 soar if they could stand a temperature that frosted one of my 
 feet. Within the bowl I counted nine towns ; all visible at one 
 time, and as we curved about and shot through tunneled prom- 
 ontories by which the bowl was fluted, the changes were 
 grandly kaleidoscopic and picturesque. 
 
 300 
 
I AM THE BIG SHOW AT VEYNES 
 
 My next stop in this Alpine country was at a railway junc- 
 tion near Veynes. The town is a mile away, where its crooked 
 and narrow main street has been little trod by the American sol- 
 dier, one would conclude from the curiosity my pilgrimage 
 through it excited. The school children gaped and followed me 
 in crowds until I realized how annoyed the elephant must feel in 
 a circus-day parade. 
 
 I took refuge in a restaurant and cafe where the bar-maid 
 drove my tormenters out ; then brought me the customary good 
 dinner in courses with a whole quart of vin rough — all for five 
 francs. It was a queer place with low ceiling, walls frescoed 
 with crude pictures of the sea, sawdust floors, and a mastiff that 
 eyed my every mouthful and held his cavernous jaws open level 
 with the top of the table ready for me to throw in the scraps. 
 
 Several trains came in together at the junction when I left. 
 and as mine was pulling out I caught a glimpse of my old Three 
 Hundred and Ninth Engineer friend. Dr. Davis, on the rear 
 platform of another train, but could not get his attention. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 MARSEILLE AND NICE 
 
 I detrained at Marseille near midnight. Marseille, the an- 
 cient, the big, the beautiful, and also the wicked. A rival to 
 Paris in many ways, and full of "wild women," so bad that they 
 are said to carry skeleton keys and burglar's kits, by which to 
 break in and rob American soldiers of their virtue. So bad that 
 soldiers must not stop off except to change cars, and then only 
 to take the next train out. One section of the city was particu- 
 larly famed for practicing all of the iniquities of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah, and there Uncle Sam's troops who successfully 
 evaded the military police swarmed thickest ; hired guides that 
 they might not miss any of the attractions, and paid out good 
 money for a chance to peep through holes and cracks! While I 
 was not exactly like the old maid who looked under the bed 
 
 301 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 every night in hopes of finding a man, I was not particularly 
 afraid of wild women, and decided to stay over a while too. 
 There were no trains until morning; so I asked the American 
 military police where I could find a reasonable hotel. This pre- 
 caution was because rumor had it that not only were the women 
 wild but the others were such Princes at profiteering that none 
 but a Morgan or Rockefeller could stand their prices. The 
 military police recommended the Hotel Splendide and turned me 
 over to a little man, who would take me to it. Before register- 
 ing I asked what my room would probably cost. "Thirty francs." 
 the night clerk graciously replied, and I realized that one rumor 
 at least was coming true. Deciding that thirty francs was too 
 much for me to pay, I bowed out as graciously as a piker could, 
 and only walked a block further to an army Red Cross Inn, 
 where I slept on a cot for four francs and ate breakfast next 
 morning for three more. As I was not advised that there was a 
 Red Cross Inn, I am afraid that the particular guard who sent 
 me to the Splendide either had a stand-in and was trying to work 
 his country-men-at-arms, or meant to compliment me by assum- 
 ing that six dollars was what a first lieutenant was in the habit 
 of paying for a place in which to sleep. 
 
 At breakfast I was agreeably surprised to meet Lieutenant 
 Orinitz, who had come overseas with the Five Hundred and Fif- 
 teenth Service battalion under Major Van Deventer. These offi- 
 cers had been quartered with the Three Hundred and Ninth En- 
 gineers at Camp Taylor while their battalion was forming. He 
 said Major Van Deventer, who had jokingly issued us embossed 
 membership cards to the Krockadero Club at Paris, where he said 
 he would meet us if we ever got over, had been made a lieuten- 
 ant-colonel, and was personnel officer at Engineers' Headquar- 
 ters at Tours. With us at breakfast at Marseille was a Lieu- 
 tenant Whitecotton, whose faculty of suggestion beat anything 
 I know of in cubism and impressionist's art. He was always 
 seeing faces, animals, birds, and everything but money in coffee- 
 stains, water-splashes, dirty floors, and windows, and on the 
 sight-seeing ride we took that day he repeatedly distracted us 
 from things of real moment to look at a camel shaped by a mass 
 of foliage ; a woman in the clouds, or the face of President Wil- 
 son outlined in the horizon by the distant Alps. A man with his 
 
 302 
 
SIGHTSEEING AT MARSEILLE 
 
 happy faculty should get all the sights he needed without the 
 bother and expense of travel. 
 
 A half-dozen of us had paid the ten-francs charge apiece for 
 a sight-seeing trip by automobile and were waiting for our turn. 
 Discussion was on the points of interest, tradition, and history 
 of the city when Lieutenant Whitecotton, who had been studying 
 a muddy foot-print on the clean tile, exclaimed : 
 
 "Excuse me for interrupting, but did any of you ever see a 
 more perfect picture of Martha Washington?" 
 
 We turned to admire, but to us it was but an offending blot, 
 and the ever-present funny man of every crowd winked at me as 
 he demanded : 
 
 "What kind of an eye-opener did you take this morning, any- 
 way, Lieutenant?" 
 
 At last we were off with two more crowded in on boxes for 
 seats. We saw the outside of St. Victor, the oldest church, built 
 around a grotto that tradition says was inhabited by Lazarus, 
 the brother of Mary and Martha, who was the first preacher 
 here of Christianity to the Roman conquerors of the Greeks. 
 The latter colonized and owned Marseille until Julius Csesar took 
 it away from them in 49 B. C. Then it had the usual checkered 
 experience with' the Visigoths, the Franks, the Arelate, and the 
 Saracens, who destroyed it after the fall of Rome. We saw the 
 Arch of Triumph ; drove down President Wilson street, and saw 
 the statue to the memory of Bishop Belsunce, whose heroic 
 work in the terrible plague of 1721 helped to save the city from 
 destruction. This monument was near the two pillars of the 
 temple of Diana, but our most impressive experience was at 
 Notre Dame-de-la-Garde, a church at the top of a hill so high 
 that we had to take the "ascenseurs" or elevator to get up. It 
 has ever been a place of pilgrimage where the faithful did ample 
 penance crawling up those awful heights. A modern church 
 with a high belfry and Lequesne's gilded statue of the virgin, 
 covers the old chapel, and within the church suspended by wires 
 from its vaulted ceiling are scores of wooden ships which have 
 been hung there as votive offerings from the sailor-men of Mar- 
 seille who have known God mid the terrors of the relentless 
 ocean, and have given this expression to their piety and thank- 
 fulness. To many, these myriad ships sailing through airy space 
 
 303 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 were humorous ; but to anyone who appreciates the sentiment 
 and story back of them, they are serious. 
 
 A splendid panorama is obtained from this hill which is a 
 peninsula extending from a ring of hills that surround the city 
 on three sides, while on the third is the sea with its three islands, 
 and the shipping in it of one of the great commercial ports of the 
 world. On one of the islands is the Chateau dTf, from the dun- 
 geon of which Dumas allowed the Count of Monte Christo to 
 escape by being cast into the sea in a sack as a dead prisoner. 
 
 The group of us were surveying the circle of hills — 
 
 "Those, I suppose, are the snow-capped peaks of the Alps," 
 one of the party remarked. 
 
 "Yes, and how plainly you can see Joan of Arc in robes of 
 white, bearing aloft her banner and flaming sword, on her snow- 
 white charger in yon aerie' dale!" exclaimed Lieutenant White- 
 cotton in an ecstacy of emotion. 
 
 "Avaunt ! my hearty," broke in our comedian, "That's neither 
 the maid of Orleans nor an Ayerdale — it's nothing but a bank of 
 snow you're looking at !" 
 
 "Now you're both wrong;" insisted the practical Ornitz. 
 "What you see is not snow ; what you call mountains are only 
 high hills, too low here at sea-level to have snow on them in this 
 climate — those white patches are the same out-cropping of white 
 rock that shmv close here where you can easily tell it's not snow." 
 
 Camp Covington, where four months later I spent a week 
 waiting for a ship to carry me home, was across the city on the 
 landside. I learned while at the camp that the irrigation ditches 
 and means for flooding the fields so extensively practiced, had 
 been in use for more than a thousand years and alone changed the 
 vast arid slopes of that country into the orchards and gardens 
 that appeared so attractive and natural as distantly viewed by our 
 party from the hill of Notre Dame-de-la-Garde. 
 
 A few minutes later we were looking out at sea — that gateway 
 through the Suez to the Orient, southward to Africa and through 
 Gibraltar to all the continent of America. We were being told 
 that the Chateau d'lf was now in use as a prison for German 
 officers, and a larger and bleaker island as a prison for common 
 soldiers of the enemy, and were commenting on what barren 
 rocks they were when Lieutenant Whitecotton exploded with : 
 
 304 
 
A MILITARY FUNERAL AT MARSEILLE 
 
 "Gentlemen, do look at the Goddess of Liberty beyond there 
 in the sea ; the hand with the torch ; the head, the flowing robes, 
 the pedestal, all 
 there ; most per- 
 fect, wonderful!" 
 and he pointed to 
 a column of 
 smoke rising up 
 from the funnels 
 of a distant in- 
 coming steamer. 
 
 "The men of chateau dtp on one of the islands of 
 
 , , MARSEILLE BAY. "DO SEE THE GODDESS OF 
 
 vour company d liberty beyond there in the sea!" cried 
 
 . T . lt. whitecotton 
 
 mutiny. Lieuten- 
 ant, if you tried to palm off that smoke of a steamer on them for 
 the Miss Liberty of their dreams," remarked the funny man, at 
 v/hich the rest of us smiled and turned to quit the place by what I 
 suppose the French must consistently call the "decenseurs." 
 
 After return and dismissal of our chauffeur we strolled into 
 Cannebiere street (Can 'o beer, the Americans called it), and 
 down to Vieux Pont at its foot to a restaurant, "column left," 
 where we ordered a dinner of "bouillabaisse" that "combination 
 of fish boiled in oil and white wine and seasoned with saffron, 
 onions, bay, garlic, orange-juice, parsley and cloves," that all 
 since the days of Thackeray, who have been to Marseille, must 
 partake of. Mine wasn't extra, but perhaps that was the cook's 
 day off, and the waiter prepared it — he looked capable of any- 
 thing atrocious and appeared particularly cross because White- 
 cotton called attention to a skull and crossbones on his soiled apron 
 caused by long wear and too intimate acquaintance with smut and 
 grease. Acting on the suggestion, one of our party dubbed him a 
 pirate ; the funny man changed it to the Black Hand and Mafia, 
 and the merriment at the waiter's expense continued until he ex- 
 ploded in English with the retort that he "had supposed American 
 officers were gentlemen !" 
 
 We learned that the funeral procession of a dead French 
 general was to pass through Cannebiere street, so hastened to 
 find chairs under the awnings where we could sit and sip with 
 the multitude and study the very cosmopolitan throng that was 
 always passing. This street is so much the distinction and pride 
 
 305 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 of the place that the Marseillens exult with each other and go so 
 far as to say loud enough for Parisians to hear, "If Paris had a 
 Cannebiere it would be a small Marseille." 
 
 All manner of people passed in review ; Spaniards, Italians, 
 Turks, Arabs, Africans, and many whom we could imagine be- 
 longed to the blood-thirsty lower types of Marseille, whose an- 
 cestors marched to Paris to help in the attack on the Tuilleries 
 in the days of the French Revolution and popularized and named 
 "the Marseillaise" by first using that Strausburg composition as 
 their marching son ;. 
 
 After while the guard of honor for the dead general passed. 
 It was led by a French detachment of soldiers which was fol- 
 lowed by one of P>ritish ; all fine fellows, but when our American 
 boys swung into view there was a feeling of pride, by compari- 
 son, in the breasts of each of us that would have expressed itself 
 in appreciative applause in which the multitude would have joined 
 I am sure had not the occasion forbidden it. Just as our thrill of 
 exultation was at its highest Whitecotton demanded our attention 
 to a picture of the ex-Kaiser wearing a plumed helmet and his 
 distinctive mustache which he found in the damaged stucco under 
 the second window of the third story of a building opposite. 
 
 "Kaiser, nix," corrected our comedian, "you don't see 
 straight, Whitecotton, that's the American spread eagle! What 
 you call a plume is the eagle's head ; the helmet is the neck ; the 
 Kaiser's face is the shield ; his shoulder-straps are its legs and 
 those long stains on each side are its outstretched wings, I'm sur- 
 prised at your lack of perception, Whitecotton !" 
 
 "By jove — I see it too — I believe you're right," was the un- 
 offended reply of one who would rather be right than president. 
 
 I missed the fast train for Nice and had to take an accommo- 
 dation at 4 p. m., which put me into Nice at 4 a. m., tired and 
 sleepy. The night man at Hotel Atlantic gave me a ten-franc 
 rate for a room, but the elaborately itemized bill presented next 
 morning was for 13.50 franc?, which I refused to pay and finally 
 settled at the contract price with an- added hotel tax of one franc. 
 
 I secured very good accommodations at six francs per night 
 for the rest of my stay in Nice ; took sittings for Friday with an 
 automobile party going East from Nice to Monte Carlo, and into 
 Italy for thirty-two francs, and another Saturday, west from 
 Nice through Cannes to Grasse for forty francs. 
 
 306 
 

 THE CHILDREN WELCOME ME AT NICE 
 
 My stroll down the "promenade des Anglais" of Nice which 
 compared favor- r- 
 ably with the J 
 board-walk of 
 Atlantic City, 
 was greatly in- 
 terrupted b y 
 crowds of 
 French children. 
 They gathered 
 like a pack of 
 wolves at the 
 cry of "Amer- 
 icana" by the first lad who saw me and nearly tore me to pieces 
 in their demands for "cigarettes," "cheming-gum," and "pen- 
 nies.'* I was headed toward the beautiful casino, built out over 
 the water on piles and now used as Y. M. C. A. rest and recrea- 
 tion rooms exclusively for enlisted men. Then I was directed to 
 an officers' Y. M. C. A., back in the town on a third floor, and 
 while good and comfortable, not nearly so attractive as the other. 
 1 note this because it has been said that the officers were favored 
 over the men, which I have not found to be true. 
 
 AX AMERICAN SOLDIER'S WET/'OJIE AT 
 "PENNY! CIGARETTE! CHEWING-GUM! 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 IN THE RIVIERA 
 
 Nice is full of prosperous-looking people and beggars. It 
 has Chateau-Hill in the middle of the town, with an ancient 
 cemetery half-way up the easy slope, and a cascade and most 
 remarkable display of flowers and landscape gardening on the 
 opposite nearly vertical side toward the heart of a city built for 
 pleasure, and as attractive as the lay-out of a World's Fair at 
 Chicago. 
 
 At the Y. M. C. A. Officers' Club I met Major Tanner, who 
 was on the look-out for me by reason of a report by the men of 
 his detachment who met me at Grenoble. He had been to the 
 Engineers Headquarters at Tours to learn when his battalion 
 could go home, but Lieutenant Colonel Vandeventer in charge 
 
 307 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT , 
 
 there did not know because all engineer troops in France were 
 being held awaiting decision as to whether the United States 
 was to put the French roads in repair. He met Lieutenant Col- 
 onel Elliott and Major Hess, of the Three Hundred and Ninth 
 Engineers there on the same fruitless mission ; then extended his 
 tour of duty some hundreds of miles to Nice for a few days more 
 rest in this great war. 
 
 The members of our first motor party, comprising one cap- 
 tain, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, and two signal 
 corps girls from St. Nazaire, met each other for the first time 
 on the morning of January 17, 191 9, at the casino, and started 
 for Monte Carlo and Mentone. The route going was close by 
 the seashore on a road lined with elaborate villas vieing with one 
 another in architecture and ornament. There were walls, tow- 
 ers, minarets, elaborate iron fences and gateways ; pergolas, 
 arches, flying buttresses and terraces crowded and garnished 
 with vines, overtopping palms, orange and olive trees. Many 
 of the trees were loaded with yellow oranges and the walls were 
 moss-covered and festooned with ivy, roses and geraniums, the 
 latter two in full bloom. The villas are resorts to attract the 
 transient visitor and millions have been expended for generations 
 to add artificial beauty to the great natural attractiveness of the 
 high rock-bound shore of the blue Mediterranean. The innu- 
 merable coves and bold projections add to the fascination as we 
 explore their recesses or come perilously near falling into the 
 white caps of the sea in rounding a promontory, unless we tun- 
 nel through it to avoid the danger, as we frequently do. We 
 pass Monaco where the palace of its prince is located, and hurry 
 on to nearby Monte Carlo in order to glimpse the interior of the 
 Casino before 9:30 a. m., when the gambling commences ; for sol- 
 diers and sailors are prohibited from entering while the play is 
 on. We arrive a little too soon — the attendants have not fin- 
 ished covering the roulette tables from our view with the green 
 shrouds that everywhere saved us from the corrupting influences 
 when finally permitted to hurry through. At the suggestion of 
 the master of ceremonies — from his uniform and decorations he 
 must have been a full general — who bade us wait a little while, 
 we occupied the interval in viewing the tapestries and interior 
 elegance of an adjoining palace-cafe, which cost me five francs 
 
 308 
 
THE CASINO AT MONTE CARLO 
 
 to the uniformed bell-hop. We were afraid to order food or 
 drink lest the cost too seriously imperil our exchequers. 
 
 By this time we were permitted to follow a small army of 
 mixed troops of all ranks and sexes which was herded and hur- 
 ried through the princely gambling halls where thousands had 
 tried to beat the game and had left their millions to keep up the 
 magnificence of the place, and of those connected with it. We 
 were permitted to stand in the music hall and to lift the curtains 
 that protected the gilding and tapestries on ordinary occasions; 
 but we were not admitted to the rooms above that were reached 
 by halls and stairways rich in settings protected by covers which 
 we were not allowed to raise. It was with evident relief that the 
 polite but ever-watchful attendants dismissed us on the opposite 
 or sea-side of the building from whence we entered. We drove 
 from there to Monaco and the ancient palace of its Prince, the 
 battlements of which are protected by obsolete cannon. Then 
 we each paid a franc for admission to the museum and aquarium 
 founded by the Prince of Monaco, father of the present holder 
 of that title, and containing what was recommended to us as a 
 remarkable collection of ocean products gathered without regard 
 to expense by the founder whose hobby was oceanography. We 
 are inclined to agree that the claims for this exhibit are not 
 exaggerated. The Prince had his own steam yacht and every 
 facility to work with, and on his voyages to the remotest parts 
 took his artist along — Louis Tinayre — whose numerous paint- 
 ings and wash drawings are an interesting part of the exhibit. 
 
 We rode on through Mentone to the Italian line, where the 
 machines were stopped and the dismounted passengers permitted 
 to walk a half-mile into Italy on a road bounded by rocks moun- 
 tain high on the left, and by the sea on the right. An American 
 military police told us where to stop, and there Italian girls sold 
 oranges and post-cards to the crowd. Many who bought the 
 latter addressed them on the coping of the sea-wall and mailed 
 them here in Italy to friends at home ; but I made a sketch in- 
 stead and hurried back to find the rest of my party waiting for 
 me. Then we drove back to Mentone and had dinner at a pleasant 
 shore inn for ten francs each plus a bottle of wine. The recent 
 occupants of our table in the crowded room left a half-bottle of 
 vin rough which the captain hid and afterward divided among 
 our party. We filled our glasses up with water, which the wine 
 
 309 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 colored red, to the mystification of the waitress, who called the 
 head waiter ; they discovered the empty bottle and charged us for 
 a full quart. There was a long lobby here with a music room at 
 the sea-end where the captain entertained us artistically at a piano 
 while our party rested for an hour. 
 
 Our way back to Nice lay along the mountains — high above 
 the shore-road on which we had come. Here we had vast 
 panoramic views of the coast and the sea beyond on the one 
 hand, and of the snow-capped Alps on the other. The slopes on 
 the sunny sides of the mountains below us were terraced every 
 few feet with stone walls to provide narrow level strips that 
 were planted to gardens. 
 
 We passed through several mountain villages and dismounted 
 at La Turbie to walk around the remains of the tower of Augus- 
 tus on the Aurelian way, ending in a terrace that overhangs 
 Monte Carlo. Part of the base and several columns of the tower 
 are still standing, surrounded by fallen blocks of stone and nearly 
 as ancient hovels inhabited by peasants, goats, and donkeys. An 
 old woman came out of one in the shadow of the ruins of Impe- 
 rial Rome and declared to one of our 
 signal corps girls, who spoke French, 
 that the Posch shot the Augustine 
 monument down in 1870. Of course 
 that was not true because the Ger- 
 mans were not anywhere near La 
 Turbie in 1870; but the way of the 
 transgressor is hard and the Ger- 
 mans must expect to bear the blame 
 for all they did and much they did not 
 do. Half of the streets of this lit- 
 tle town are tunnels and stairways 
 quite too crooked and narrow to 
 drive a cart through even if level 
 enough. They gave us a close-up 
 idea though of the construction of 
 the numerous little villages to be 
 seen perched like eagles' nests on the mountain-tops of this coun- 
 try, and reached by muleteer paths that suggest the kind of con- 
 veyance which does thread their steep and tortuous streets. 
 
 While waiting at Nice next morning for passengers enough 
 to fill a car, one of the Y. M. C. A. officials described to us a 
 
 310 
 
 GATEWAY A XI' I >X 
 
 MAIN STREETS 
 
 TURBIE 
 
WE GO TO GRASSE 
 
 storm of two weeks ago that dashed waves across the quay 
 against the hotel on the other side and nearly raised the Casino 
 off the piles that supported it over the water ; then he cautioned 
 us to see to it that our chauffeur took us through the gorge in- 
 stead of turning back, as many did, after we gave him his dinner 
 at Pont de Loup. 
 
 Nice was full of colored French soldiers from Algiers and 
 the African colonies — the blackest of black men — without a trace 
 of that white blood which corrupts the American negro and the 
 absence of which here helped mightily to remove the question 
 mark so commonly associated with French morals. These Afri- 
 cans have been brought here to winter during the war because 
 they could not stand the cold of the north of France. 
 
 A few kilometers out from Nice we crossed the Var river, 
 which was the eastern boundary line of France prior to i860, 
 when Nice was an Italian city. Our driver was an Italian guide, 
 who spoke English fluently and said he had owned a fine car 
 before the war but it was requisitioned by the Government at 
 half-price. I was interested to get his version of why Italy gave 
 Nice and the surrounding country to France. He declared it 
 was only put up as a pledge to secure a loan by Italy in her de- 
 fense against Austrian invasion in 1859, an d tne French had 
 unjustly retained it after the loan was paid. But Duruy, the 
 French historian, says that but for Napoleon III leading his 
 army into Italy and winning the battle of June 4, and of Sol- 
 ferino, June 24, 1859, against Francis Joseph's army, Italy would 
 have been reduced to a dependency of Austria ; that Savoy and 
 Nice were ceded to Napoleon by the treaty of Turin, March 24, 
 i860, as the price of the assistance he had given. So Nice is not 
 a pawn, but was absolutely acquired, as this historian says, "not 
 by force or surprises, but as a natural result of great services 
 rendered to a friendly nation, by pacific agreement, and by a 
 solemn vote on the part of the population of the departments in 
 question." Perhaps our guide had been confused in his ideas of 
 justice by America's failure to help herself to a slice of Europe 
 "as a natural result of great services rendered to a friendly 
 nation." 
 
 At Golfe-Juan is a small cottage where the first Napoleon 
 spent the night of the first of March, 181 5, after landing from 
 the Island of Elba, and between that and Cannes is Yallauris, 
 
 3ii 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 where are many Roman reminders and a ceramic pottery works 
 with a well-stocked salesroom, and attendants that were hard to 
 break away from without the purchase of some sort of vase or 
 crock. But our strategy was too deep for them ; we broke 
 through their lines and made a dash for Cannes, in the perfume 
 district, and a resort extensively patronized by Queen Victoria 
 and Edward VII, to whom the French have gratefully erected 
 statutes. Near Cannes are the Lerins Islands, on the larger of 
 which is a citadel with a dungeon in which the mysterious "Man 
 of the Iron Mask" was confined. How much more real are the 
 stories of history after one has visited the "exact spot" where it 
 all is said to have happened. 
 
 About Cannes and Grasse are the greatest flower garden 
 areas in the world. The terraced farms instead of being planted 
 to olives and garlic are laid out in countless rows of jasmine, 
 migonette, tuberose, cassia, violet, and orange, for bloom, the 
 flowers from which are used in supplying attars to the renowned 
 perfume factories at the towns named. We were conducted 
 through two of the laboratories at Grasse where we were treated 
 to free smells' of all of the varieties of olfactory-ticklers known 
 to man from pure essence to the bouquets. The French girl who 
 guided us would shake the contents of the various demijohns of 
 precious oils and let us smell the cork. Oh, the rapture of it ! 
 Doctor Septimus Piesse has compared fragrance to music and 
 runs the scale from sharp smells like santal corresponding with 
 high notes, to heavy smells like camphor with low. Our guide 
 did more — she played olfactory operas and sonatas from andante 
 to quick finale in rondo with those corks and our noses. I asked 
 her how they transferred the incomparable jasmine and the in- 
 toxicating delicacy of the mignonette blooms to those bottles 
 and was so persistent that she finally turned me over to the head 
 chemist who was no cork-artist like herself, but gave me a story 
 that I believe because I have since verified it in the Encyclopedia 
 Brittanica. 
 
 "Some perfumes," or attars as he called them, "are obtained 
 by distilling the flowers or part of the plant with water, a few by 
 squeezing in a hydraulic press, but the attars of certain flowers 
 of which the jasmine is a good example because its peculiar odor 
 has never been imitated by the chemist, can only be obtained by 
 inflowering or absorption. That depends upon the remarkable 
 
 312 
 
GATHERING PERFUME FROM FLOWERS 
 
 property which fats and oils have of absorbing odors. The glass 
 bottoms of wooden trays are spread over with refined lard a half 
 inch thick and in ridges to increase the surface. These are 
 sprinkled with freshly gathered flowers which are renewed every 
 morning during the whole time — from July to the end of Octo- 
 ber — that the plants remain in blossom ; the trays are piled in 
 stacks to prevent evaporation of the aroma, and finally the pom- 
 ade is scraped off the glass, melted at a low temperature and 
 strained." 
 
 He led us into a room stored with carefully covered slabs of 
 lard which he said were very valuable because of the attars stored 
 in them, and which would be extracted when needed by steeping 
 the slabs in rectified spirits of wine. Jasmine, tuberose, mignon- 
 ette, violet, cassia, and orange flower were among the odors that 
 had to be secured by inflowering. 
 
 At these factories we saw them making perfumed soap, oil 
 cf almonds and face cream. We were supposed to purchase per- 
 fume at the salesrooms where our tours ended, at the rate of five 
 dollars the tablespoonful, and I believe all of us did. The fac- 
 tories were on the hill-side so the entrances we drove up to were 
 on the fourth floor. 
 
 In the town of Grasse we visited a cathedral built in the 
 thirteenth century. A Sister in white bonnet, and a crippled boy 
 with a swollen jaw welcomed us and rolled up the curtains which 
 covered three large paintings by Rubens, presented to the church 
 in 1823— "Saint Helena at the Exaltation of the Holy Cross," 
 "The Crowning with Thorns" and "The Crucifixion." These 
 paintings were smoothly done and dark — just the opposite of 
 the present vogue in art. The colors were not faded and the 
 drapery and patterns were worked out in minute detail. On the 
 opposite side of the church was a grotto representing the Child 
 in the Manger. It was a veritable toy exhibition. The Christ- 
 child was a big doll, three feet long, and a donkey the size of his 
 foot, was eating hay by his side. Dozens of Wise Men, angels, 
 people, camels, goats and a general collection of Noah's ark 
 creatures were coming from all directions — down mountain 
 paths and in the valleys, as well as through the air ; and in a cel- 
 lar below the manger there was a flock of sheep two inches high. 
 I saw a similar representation in the great Notre Dame Cathe- 
 dral at Paris, later, but gotten up in better proportion and I pre- 
 
 313 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 sume these were displays made last Christmas for the children. 
 
 As we had been warned, the chauffeur after dinner at Pont 
 de Loup, wanted to turn back without going through the gorge, 
 or charge us thirty-two francs extra ; but when we told him we 
 had been warned, he was deeply hurt, and said he would take us 
 at his own expense for gasoline, but that we had been misin- 
 formed. We let him take us, promising, however, to help him 
 impeach the wicked Y. M. C. A. officer who had told us wrong 
 if he wanted us to upon our return to Nice — but he proudly de- 
 clined our offered help. 
 
 The gorge is what its name implies — a deep canyon several 
 hundred feet down and several miles long, between whose steep 
 and rugged sides a turbulent stream monopolizes all the room in 
 its frantic efforts to dash the channel deeper ; but pausing at 
 places to spring at our roadway that men have chiseled in the 
 solid rock above it, as if challenging that right of way. 
 
 "It's some gorge and raging waters we might have missed," 
 said one lieuey to anotber. 
 
 "I'll say it is !" was the reply. 
 
 On top of a very high mountain in sight of our dining-room 
 at Pont de Loup, is the village of Gourdon, which some roman- 
 cer in our party declared had been bought by an American au- 
 thoress for $30,000. It commands a magnificent view of the sea 
 and the Maritime Alps anyway. 
 
 The ride back to Nice was on a high mountain road that gave 
 us a splendid view of the coast and- villages below. The snow- 
 capped Alps were off toward the interior and the blue Mediter- 
 ranean in the opposite direction to the south. [The reader will 
 note that when I do not say "Maritime Alps" I say "snow- 
 capped." Unless you use a geographical adjective good form 
 requires the use of "snow-capped" in mentioning the Alps, and 
 "blue" always in speaking of the Mediterranean.] This region 
 is not so lavishly improved as toward Monte Carlo, but shows 
 the native country with its terraced gardens under intensive 
 cultivation. 
 
 I left Nice Sunday morning at seven, via the P. L. M. for 
 Paris. My last impression was of pity for the palm trees and 
 tropical foliage that were forced to bear false witness to the 
 climate at this time of year. American and French soldiers 
 so filled the aisles and every inch of space that I was afraid to 
 
 314 
 
I SAT IN CLEMENCEAU'S SEAT 
 
 leave my seat for even a moment. Otherwise I should have 
 stepped off at Tarascon, a little beyond Marseille, to inquire 
 about the health of Tartarin, chief of the cap-hunters ; to ask if 
 his camel were there or at the zoo at Marseille, and what had 
 been done with the skin of the blind lion? all so delightfully men- 
 tioned in Alphonse Daudet's romance. I had a cramp in my 
 legs when the train reached Paris Monday morning at nine, and 
 a feeling of foreboding in my heart, because of repeated warn- 
 ings from fellow-officers throughout my trip not to venture into 
 Paris. General headquarters orders were out prohibiting it, I 
 was told, because the Peace Conference crowds and all-Allied 
 armies on leave, were over-congesting it. The story was that 
 our military police would meet all trains and impound all offi- 
 cers and men coming in without express authority, and to be 
 impounded brought up visions of the dog-pound at Indianapolis 
 where mongrel curs were starved and abused until the dog-killer 
 came. Rumor said the latter's name was "Hard-boiled" Smith 
 who'd treat 'em rough regardless of rank in Paris. But I de- 
 cided to take the chance and as a result remained two days and a 
 night in Paris without any trouble at all. Registered at the 
 Hotel Richmond just in time to join an automobile party to the 
 main points of the city ; sat in the seat of Clemenceau, in the 
 Chamber of Deputies, which was not in session, and in the after- 
 noon joined a walking party under a Y. M. C. A. guide to Ver- 
 sailles via subway and trolley. Next day I saw the great pano- 
 rama of the war at the Pantheon and was allowed behind the 
 scenes where the artists were at work on celebrities, who gave 
 sittings when they came to Paris, as they all do sooner or later, 
 and then their likenesses are transferred to the big picture. 
 I booked myself for Langres on train leaving Paris at 8:30 p. m. 
 then walked around to look at the changes that had come over 
 Paris since my first visit before the armistice. The sand-bags 
 and all evidences of war were gone, except that captured enemy 
 artillery of all kinds and sizes was parked by the tens of hun- 
 dreds in the Place de la Concorde, and from there to the Arch 
 of Napoleon on Champs d'Elysee. On the way to my train at 
 7 p. m. at which hour it was dark save for the street lights, a 
 French grisette took me by the elbow saying: 
 
 "You go wiz me — I give you nice time." 
 
 But my time in Paris had more than expired on this leave. 
 315 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 1 was in Paris twice afterward, the last for several days, when I 
 sat at the feet of the real Venus de Milo and other great art at 
 the Louvre, and made the trip by boat of the entire Paris front 
 of the Seine, which I regard as my most comprehensive and in- 
 structive Parisian experience. I could fill a book with all of my 
 incidents and impressions, but so much has been abler said by 
 others who know this wonderful city better, that I shall shorten 
 the story by referring the reader to them. 
 
 I arrived at Langres station at 4:30 a. m. Wednesday, Jan- 
 uary 22, and remembering my difficulty in getting a bed on re- 
 turn from one of my trips at the front, I tried the casual barracks 
 where I was the only guest and nearly froze. I reported from 
 my leave at the Army School Headquarters where no questions 
 were asked, and upon telephoning out to Fort Plesnoy I learned 
 that orders had been there some time for me to report to G. 5 at 
 C'haumont; that nobody knew where I was. That afternoon at 
 Chaumont Colonel Fulmer greeted me with : 
 
 "Where on earth have you been, Lieutenant? I've been try- 
 ing to get you by wire everywhere I could think of." 
 
 "On leave to Nice, that you signed for me at Plesnoy." 
 
 "What made you stay so long? We need you. How did 
 you square yourself with the School Headquarters at Langres?" 
 
 "Why, I had a seven-day leave to Nice from there, beginning 
 January 8, and it was only the 22nd when I reported back yes- 
 terday. Major Ashley told me at Plesnoy that time going and 
 coming wasn't counted against the days of a leave, and I'm well 
 within the rule. That's why School Headquarters at Langres 
 didn't say a word when I signed in, I suppose." 
 
 "All right, then," was the colonel's answer. "You've always 
 got an alibi, and if it was good at Langres it is good here. But 
 we've rush orders to revise our Musketry Manual and there's 
 lots of work for you to do." 
 
 316 
 
G. H. Q., A. E. F., CHAUMONT 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 CHAUMONT AND GENERAL HEADQUARTERS 
 
 Chaumont, Haute Marne, as I have seen it from an aero- 
 plane, is built on a spur that extends in the shape of a beaver's 
 tail from a broad ridge or plateau. The railroad from Paris 
 crosses a valley on a long high viaduct that is a celebrated work 
 of engineering, and the railroad dismembers the tail by a deep cut 
 over which the streets of Chaumont are bridged. My billet was 
 on that side of the railroad-cut where the beaver's body would 
 naturally be ; but my work was at general headquarters, on the 
 tail-side of the railroad in the extensive French barracks near the 
 end of the tail and nearly two miles from where I slept. The 
 principal business section of the city extends from the railroad 
 half-way to the barracks, the devious ways through which af- 
 forded ample variety of interesting studies in architecture from 
 the thirteenth century to the present, and compelled us to meet 
 the people in their daily life and moods. Every two or three 
 blocks appeared sign-boards saying : "Cave 50," "Cave 300," 
 and the like, marking bomb-proof cellars where people to the 
 number stated could take refuge during German aerial raids on 
 the town. 
 
 The guide books say Chaumont has a theater. It has. We 
 passed it every day, and our engineers' mess made up parties reg- 
 ularly to patronize it whenever there was a troupe of players in 
 town. It was built before the first Empire, up a narrow street 
 like an alley, and hasn't changed inside or out, or in the character 
 of plays and acting in it since it was built. We couldn't under- 
 stand a word, but felt well repaid by attending. 
 
 Around the corner a jolly little dwarf sold newspapers and 
 always saluted in military fashion. Then it was down hill for a 
 block, a quick turn to the left and down further to a favorite 
 corner for the town-crier, who blew his horn to summons the 
 people — then read them the latest proclamation. Here we turned 
 
 317 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 to the right and had to climb a steeper hill than we came down 
 past a public collector of bad debts near whose place there was 
 always a smell of limburger or worse, which Gaisser attributed 
 to the condition of some of his bad accounts. 
 
 At the top of this hill is the Chaumont cathedral. Saint Jean 
 Baptiste of the thirteenth century, and one of the monuments of 
 Prance. Out of our way to the left is the ancient castle-tower of 
 the Counts of Champagne — in fact the surroundings here carry 
 back for nearly a thousand years, and a by-pass to our right 
 brings us to a modern building, in comparison, in which the 
 treaty of 1814 was signed by England, Austria, Russia, and Prus- 
 sia, in an alliance or League of Nations against Napoleon at a 
 time when that gentleman was making a world-menace of him- 
 self. The building is now used as an Army Officers' Club, for 
 the upkeep of which we were regularly assessed by general head- 
 quarters, whether we patronize it or not. 
 
 Regardless of the way we go, past the cathedral or by taking 
 the by-pass, we come out anyway at the museum opposite the 
 narrow arched entrance to the "Street of the Three Kings;" 
 then to the left we pass the "Lycee," and a block further on we 
 must take the middle of the street to get around a line of women 
 with pitchers and buckets waiting to be served at a milk store — 
 the serving of milk in individual quart and pint bottles being ap- 
 parently unknown in France. Always there was a great Dane 
 dog in line, with a bucket in his mouth, waiting his turn. 
 
 We pass the court house and community school, then go 
 through the park and past the kid glove factory of international 
 fame, the Officers' Y. M. C. A. hut, the army auditorium where 
 the stamp of approval was sparingly applied to ambitious enter- 
 tainers, and enter the avenue of the United States. At this 
 point we almost invariably met a very small French woman push- 
 ing a very large cart load of bread up a hill road that led to our 
 nearest aviation field. 
 
 The avenue of the United States does ample justice to its 
 name. It extends along the middle and to the end of the beaver's 
 tail and has a wide promenade and ample drive- ways on each 
 side separated from it by grass-plots in which are splendid elms, 
 whose branches meet and arch the way. The promenade afford- 
 ed excellent opportunitv to study and practice the hand-salute, 
 
 3i8 
 
EXTENSIVE BUILDINGS OCCUPIED 
 
 and we all snapped to attention and held it when a certain limou- 
 sine decorated by four white stars on a red field came along. 
 Opposite the high iron gates and fence connecting the two guard- 
 houses at the entrance to headquarters were the garages for the 
 
 LA CASERNE DAMREMONT— USED AS GENERAL STAFF HEADQUARTERS. 
 AT CHAUMONT. GEN. PERSHING'S OFFICE WAS IN THE MIDDLE BUILD- 
 ING IN THE BACKGROUND. G. 5 OFFICES WERE ON THE 4TH FLOOR 
 OF THE SAME BUILDING 
 
 scores and hundreds of high-power cars for generals and col- 
 onels ; medium ones for lieutenant colonels and majors, and Fords 
 for the captains and lieutenants. These were used in preference 
 to railroad trains for all of the extensive travel from here. 
 
 Within the headquarters gates three four-story buildings of 
 great length helped the high street-walls extending from the two 
 guard-houses, to enclose a huge square for reviews and military 
 formations, that was bordered by a double row of trees. There 
 was a square pavilion under the trees near the middle building 
 where famous generals and royal people exhibited themselves on 
 occasion, and where "Pershing's Own" military band gave frequent 
 concerts. Every morning there was formal guard-mount in this 
 square led by a half -hundred buglers, and as many drummers, 
 who electrified the air with their clarion notes, and dazzled the 
 eyes of beholders with the quick flourishes of their polished 
 bugles in excellent imitations of the French. 
 
 General Pershing's private offices were on the second floor 
 of the middle building back of the grand-stand. His particular 
 den was lighted by two double French windows recessed by the 
 thick walls of the building, and he sat at a sanitary desk between 
 
 319 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 them with his back to the light. The floors were not carpeted, 
 but a green rug of ample capacity spread in front of the desk 
 where offenders brought before him on it would have the light 
 from both windows full in their faces, while his would be in the 
 shadow. I had opportunity to note that the green carpet was 
 well worn, but the most tracks were from the desk to a huge map 
 of Europe on rollers against the wall to his left, where the 
 changes of battle-front were lined off with pins and tape, and 
 where military positions were numerously marked. 
 
 GENERAL PERSHING'S PRIVATE OFFICE AT G. H. Q., CHAUMONT, FRANCE. 
 ONE HAD TO GO THROUGH TWO OTHER ROOMS TO REACH THIS ROOM. 
 
 Back of the long buildings on each side of the square were 
 other similar stone ones, but all quite inadequate to furnish 
 enough office room for the big General Staff Organization of a 
 great army, and the overflow was taken care of in acres of 
 wooden structures in the neighborhood. 
 
 One day while I was a member of general headquarters Gen- 
 eral Pershing reviewed the organization, and he was surprised 
 at the number of us, judging from the hesitant and embarrassed 
 address he made. We filled the big parade ground and numbered 
 well into the thousands. 
 
 Such an organization had not previously existed in our army. 
 There was not even a manual of instructions, and it all had to be 
 worked out by selecting features from the French and P>ritish 
 
 320 
 
DETAILS OF G. H. Q. ORGANIZATION 
 
 general staffs and developing as our own needs and experience 
 dictated. 
 
 On General Pershing rested the responsibility of organizing 
 and co-ordinating the gigantic efforts which our Nation was 
 ready to put forth, and which was required to match the immense 
 strength of the Central Powers at the time we entered the war. 
 To him is due the credit for the intelligent direction of our 
 country's efforts that followed his dictation. 
 
 The five groups making up the General Staff were G. I, in 
 charge of organization and equipment of troops, the replacement 
 of those that became disabled, order of convoys overseas, and 
 control of K. of C., Y. M. C. A. and other auxiliary welfare work; 
 G. 2, censorship, enemy intelligence, gathering and distributing 
 information necessary for the conduct of the war, preparation of 
 maps, and the like ; G. 3, the development of war-strategy and 
 plans, troop movements and maneuvers, and the supervision of 
 combat operations ; G. 4, of co-ordinating supply, construction, 
 transport arrangements for combat, and of the operations of the 
 service of supply, of hospitals and movements of the sick and 
 wounded, and G. 5, the department to which I was attacehd, had 
 supervision over the various schools of the A. E. F., and general 
 direction and co-ordination of army education and training. 
 
 As the aeroplane was the eye of our army, so the General 
 Staff was the brain. Each of the five sections had its head, who 
 were assistants to a Chief of Staff — Major General James W. 
 McAndrews after May, 1918, and took their orders immediately 
 from General Pershing. These orders were detailed and ampli- 
 fied by numerous subordinates, transcribed by thousands of 
 field-clerks, and each order bore on its face that it was issued 
 "By command of General Pershing." 
 
 The general did not see the vast number of orders published 
 over his name, so vast indeed that it required the efforts of sev- 
 eral cylinder presses to print them ; but his was all the respon- 
 sibility, and also the credit for an organization functioning as 
 smoothly as this did, and those who failed to do what was ex- 
 pected of them soon found themselves before the general on that 
 green carpet. 
 
 Several other presses in an up-to-date plant in the General 
 Staff building were running off the latest dispatches by wire- 
 less, courier, carrier pigeon, and all of the known means of 
 
 321 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 communication, translated, edited, arranged, and delivered in 
 confidential bulletins to our military "four hundred" so the 
 General Staff of the A. E. F. was kept constantly advised of 
 everything of importance transpiring throughout the world. We 
 knew when and where the Liberty Loans were dragging at 
 home; about the meatless, wheatless, and sugarless days; about 
 the mailing of infernal machines to the high officials of our 
 Government ; what Lenine and Trotzky were stirring up in 
 Russia ; of Paderewski's and Poland's disappointment at the Peace 
 Conference ; of President Wilson's appeal to Italy ; of Orlando's 
 pique and withdrawal ; what Japan, Jerusalem or Caranza were 
 agitating, and all of the other world incidents as soon as they 
 happened. 
 
 G. 5, Section occupied the fourth floor of the middle building 
 above the offices of the commanding general. Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral H. B. Fiske, chief of the section, was an able and tireless 
 executive of the Colonel William Guthrie type ; he who sacri- 
 ficed himself for the Three Hundred and Ninth Engineers. 
 They both had the fear of God, and their superior officers in 
 their hearts to which General Fiske added a fear of Mrs. Mary 
 Roberts Rinehart and split infinitives. Queer what an influence 
 Mrs. Rinehart had on our army. Hers was the last word on any 
 subject. It was rumored that she had vigorously criticised a 
 book because of its split infinitives and composition by Gen- 
 eral Fiske. As a result he was over-cautious, and my immediate 
 superiors. Colonels McNabb and Fulmer, found the general so 
 critical about the text they wrote that they were afraid to ex- 
 press themselves naturally and vigorously and roasted each other 
 when their manuscripts came back blue-penciled. They got even 
 by lambasting the field clerks who had transcribed and typed 
 their dictation until those poor fellows almost jumped out of the 
 iourth-story windows when the signal bell from our office rang. 
 "It's Alkali Pete !" — their nickname for Colonel McNabb — 
 they would say to each other with blanched faces. "He's threat- 
 ened to kill me, already — you go !" and while they were hesitat- 
 ing and urging each other, the colonel's wrath was increasing. 
 But after he had blown off steam for a few minutes, he was 
 normal and so human that even the field-clerks liked and ad- 
 mired him. 
 
 As previously stated in this history, Colonel McNabb was an 
 322 
 
COLONELS McNABB AND FULMER 
 
 authority on rifle and pistol practice and marksmanship, while 
 Colonel Fulmer was the same on target designation, range-find- 
 ing, control of fire by combat units, and that collective use of the 
 rifle in war technically called musketry. Now their duties were 
 to tell all they knew in manuals for the use of the army, and 
 Gaisser and I worked like dick-nailers making pictures of what 
 they found words inadequate to express. Their specialties inter- 
 lapped so that they consulted each other constantly, and as often 
 quarreled over minute shades of meaning. 
 
 Fulmer's tendency was to assume some intelligence on the 
 part of the soldier-student ; but McNabb's experience had taught 
 him that the average person hadn't any, or was too careless to 
 use it, and unless every detail was minutely explained the student 
 with seeming joy would take advantage of the opportunity to go 
 wrong. McNabb kept his Smith and Wesson revolver — he pre- 
 ferred that to an automatic — in the drawer of his desk and sev- 
 eral times a day took it out and practised the trigger-squeeze. 
 
 ■ "It's the trigger-squeeze that makes the marksman," was his 
 insistence. His hand was too small for his thumb to reach the 
 hammer in the first part of the operation of cocking the piece 
 but he brought the hammer part way back by pressing the trig- 
 ger as for automatic firing, and when the hammer came within 
 reach finished cocking it with his thumb. 
 
 We had an arsenal of small fire-arms; rifles of all nations, 
 Mid some that had not been adopted by any. The inventors 
 would submit them to our ordinance department and the latter 
 would send them to our experts here for an opinion. One of 
 these was a beautifully made Swiss rifle with some novel mech- 
 anism that attracted much favorable comment from the numerous 
 high officers, who called out of curiosity to see what was going 
 on in our place. 
 
 Colonel McNabb thought the Swiss gun a wonder for rapid 
 fire. He said it would beat anything heard of where the marks- 
 man was in a prone position, and to demonstrate this he flopped 
 down on the office floor on his stomach and pulled the trigger 
 while Colonel Fulmer held a stop-watch on him and I counted 
 the number of shots he made per minute. It was dignity to the 
 winds with Colonel McNabb when the demonstration of a theory 
 or a principle was at stake. 
 
 One day, about February 12, we watched twenty-two mem- 
 323 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 bers of our General Staff, — generals (and colonels — their secre- 
 taries), receive the decoration of the Order of Leopold from the 
 Belgian government. The ceremony was on the parade ground 
 in front of our building and reminded me of "officers front and 
 center" in our regimental parades at Camp Sherman. 
 
 Those to be decorated formed a line, marched to the front, 
 and saluted the representatives of King Alfred; then the latter 
 passed down the line, saluted each officer in turn, pinned on the 
 decoration, saluted again, shook hands with the recipient, and 
 then saluted him a third time. Colonel McNabb was standing 
 at my side looking out of our fourth-story window and remarked 
 before the ceremony began that he would give a hundred dol- 
 lars to see the Belgians kiss General Fiske. It appears the French 
 custom on similar occasions to kiss the recipient of the decora- 
 tion on both cheeks — but the Belgians here only shook hands and 
 saluted. 
 
 Later the king and queen of Belgium were the guests of 
 General Pershing, and inspected a part of our building, but were 
 not Alpine-climbers enough to reach our floor, although frail 
 and delicate looking French girls carried two buckets of coal at 
 once up those four high flights of stairs daily to feed the stoves 
 that kept the acres of offices warm. How they were able to do 
 such things that I know our more vigorous girls at home would 
 be ruined by, is a question. 
 
 The royalty of Belgium reviewed us from the gaily-decorated 
 band-stand, and a show of American horses followed that no 
 doubt surprised me more than it did the king and queen, because 
 I didn't know we had 'em in Europe ; whereas they were pre- 
 pared to expect anything of the American army. After the 
 show was over, I helped myself to a Belgian flag that floated 
 over the royal pair and brought it home as a souvenir. 
 
 About this time of 1919, General Pershing was away from 
 Chaumont on occasions of ceremony with the Allies much of the 
 time. Then came return entertainments at the beautiful Cha- 
 teau Val Des Echoliers, about four miles out of Chaumont on 
 the road to Langres, where the general was billeted. I spent 
 a day there and can truly speak of its marble halls, for my chief 
 recollection is of alabaster mantels, carved and generous, set in 
 translucent walls merging into groined arches with which all of 
 the ceilings were fashioned. 
 
 324 
 
MEETING THE PRINCE OF WALES 
 
 Generals Haig, Petain, Foch and others came, and oh the 
 sixteenth of February, I had the pleasure of meeting- his Royal 
 Highness, Edward, Prince of Wales. It had been rumored that 
 
 THE MARBLE DINING ROOM AT CHATEAU VAL DES ECHOLIERS 
 
 WHERE GENERAL PERSHING ENTERTAINED THE GREAT 
 
 GENERALS AND RULERS OF THE WORLD 
 
 he was to be the guest of General Pershing, and soon after I 
 reached our offices that morning Colonel Wilson, secretary to 
 our General Fiske, came in and announced : "The Prince of 
 Wales will be in General Fiske's office in ten minutes ; he will 
 be preceded by his orderly." In ten minutes I peeped out and 
 saw General Fiske and Colonel Wilson waiting in the corridor 
 for the guest, while the general's office across the hall was 
 crowded with officers, and I was told to go on in. 
 
 Presently the secretary signaled that the Prince was in sight, 
 and we all came to attention and saluted as General Fiske ush- 
 ered in a yellow-haired boy. He is said to be twenty-five years 
 old, but doesn't look it. He is very blonde and pop-eyed, rather 
 backward in demeanor, and I thought a little nervous and em- 
 barrassed. His orderly was a big-nosed English nobleman with 
 a recerding chin, resembling the pictures of a typical "Lord'' 
 chewing the end of his walking-stick and saying: "It's bally 
 rotten — don't chew know !" But the Prince decidedly took the 
 fancy of us all, and I was quite pleased to be introduced and to 
 shake hands with him. Colonel McNabb remarked later that he 
 met him with the U. S. army of occupation at Coblentz, where, 
 when he tried to dance, the young American officers kept 
 
 325 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "breaking in" and taking his girl away just to be able to boast 
 that they had cut out the Prince of Wales. 
 
 After the armistice, the matter of keeping our homesick sol- 
 diers profitably employed until the ships could carry them home, 
 was a difficult one, and the plan of sending them to schools for 
 ether than military education was adopted. Many were sent to 
 the universities and established schools of France and England, 
 and thousands of Americans were offered three or four months' 
 training abroad that they could not otherwise have obtained. I 
 was anxious that Gaisser be sent to study art in Paris, and urged 
 it with Colonel Fulmer, who readily acquiesced "when the book 
 was done." A big rifle competition with problems in musketry 
 was planned to be staged at Le Mans, and the work we were on 
 must be distributed to our several armies in time for use in train- 
 ing the teams. We were up to our ears on this when a letter 
 came from Colonel Elliott, of the Three Hundred and Ninth 
 Engineers, saying the regiment had been put in charge of im- 
 portant work on the roads of France ; they wanted all the offi- 
 cers back, and asked when I would return for duty. "Well, tell 
 him you are needed here on more important work for the whole 
 American army than patching the roads of France, and you'll 
 not be back at all !" was Colonel Fulmer's curt instructions when 
 I showed him the letter. At his own suggestion Colonel Ful- 
 mer sent the following recommendation to the commander-in- 
 chief under date of March n, 19 19: 
 
 "1. The following promotion is recommended: 
 
 First Lieut. Joseph A. Minturn, Engineers U. S. A., to the 
 grade of captain." 
 
 "A copy of recommendation made in December is attached 
 hereto : 
 
 "3. This officer has been on duty at these headquarters since 
 January, engaged in the important duty of illustrating training 
 bulletins." 
 
 The very next morning he sent me down to section G. 2, 
 'vhich did our lithographing, to look after our work, and the 
 officer in charge there offered me a position at Paris with Mr. 
 Hoover on the Peace Commission as artist. I was tempted to 
 accept but that it would have kept me in France indefinitely 
 when I had been promised an order sending me home April 1. I 
 told Colonel Alexander, of G. 2, that I did not care to make a 
 
 326 
 
OFFERED A POSITION WITH HOOVER 
 
 change or go to Paris for that reason, and reported to Colonel 
 Fulmer, in the presence of Lieutenant Gaisser, that I had just 
 been offered another job, but had turned it down because I had 
 his promise to go home on the first of April. 
 
 Without saying anything to Colonel Fulmer, Gaisser went 
 down to see Colonel Alexander a half-hour later, and in the 
 meantime I was out on another errand. Upon my return Colonel 
 Fulmer charged with : 
 
 "Minturn, on your statement about a job in Paris, Lieutenant 
 Gaisser went to see Colonel Alexander without my permission. 
 Don't you know that none of you can take other employment 
 without the consent of General Fiske of G. 5?" 
 
 "But I didn't solicit the job, and didn't accept it when it was 
 offered — I turned it down !" 
 
 "Oh, but you got Gaisser started," and he seemed awfully 
 provoked — right on top of that application for promotion too. 
 
 Inasmuch as I had the ice broken and was apparently in for 
 indefinite employment with the army anyway, I made bold to 
 suggest that in all justice to Gaisser — a young man of great ar- 
 tistic talent, who had grown up in the army in fact — it was as 
 little as the army could do to send him to the great art schools 
 of Paris while the opportunity offered; and if that were done I 
 would remain as long as was necessary to finish the book. The 
 colonel declared he intended to send Gaisser to school at Paris, 
 and took him forthwith to the officer in charge to make the pre- 
 liminary arrangements. 
 
 Some time in April, following, Gaisser did go to Paris, and I 
 received my promotion and started home in May. The world 
 will join in saying that the colonel was all right, but that his two 
 artists were a bit temperamental and hasty. 
 
 On Washington's birthday all general headquarters and other 
 American forces within a hundred miles of Bar-Sur-Aube, met 
 there to witness the great football contest between the First and 
 Third Armies. We found the streets of Bar-Sur-Aube lined with 
 close rows of evergreens, reminding one of an unusually long 
 display of Christmas trees for sale at home. They were the 
 aftermath of decorations in honor of the Belgian king and queen 
 who had recently been the honored guests at a game. The score 
 today was a tie when a rain stopped it. We accommodated an 
 officer by delivering him at his station at Chatillon, which sug- 
 
 32/ 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 gested to Gaisser that he would like to visit his girl at Langres. 
 The two colonels comprising the rest of our party said that was 
 all right with them if Langres wasn't much out of the way. Now 
 Bar-Sur-Aube is about forty miles west of Chaumont, while 
 Langres is approximately as far in the opposite or eastern direc- 
 tion, and our chauffeur came near "spilling the beans" about it, 
 when Gaisser declaring he didn't seem to know the way took the 
 wheel to show him. The result was that we swung half-way 
 around a circle centering at Chaumont, rode well into the night 
 before we reached Langres. and it was after midnight before the 
 rest of us beside Gaisser, at Langres, were in our beds. But 
 "everybody loves a lover," and the colonels took it good naturedly. 
 Soon after that the young lady went to visit an uncle, seventy- 
 five miles or more south of Chatillon, which reminded Gaisser 
 
 THE CHATEAU YAL DES ECHOLIERS, NEAR CHAUMONT, FRANCE, 
 
 OCCUPIED AS A BILLET BY THE COMMANDER OF THE AMERICAN 
 
 EXPEDITIONARY FORCES 
 
 that an officer stationed at Chatillon had borrowed one of our 
 T-squares, or a triangle or something, and he got a travel-order 
 including a chauffeur and automobile, to go after it. I think he 
 had to make three separate trips before he was satisfied that the 
 Government property could not be recovered. 
 
 Just to illustrate how earnestly the American soldier in France 
 endeavored to make the best of his surroundings and opportu- 
 nities, Gaisser related upon his return from one of these trips 
 that the uncle of his fiance, at whose house he stopped on the 
 way to Chatillon, came in chuckling to himself fifteen minutes 
 
 328 
 
A PERSONAL LETTER FROM GENERAL PERSHING 
 
 after their arrival and deciared he had found the chauffeur kiss- 
 ing the hired girl. Gaisser was properly indignant and was for 
 immediately disciplining the fellow, but the uncle said: "No! 
 they are both young and can only be young once," and took a 
 position that completely tied Gaisser's hands in the matter. 
 
 r*ersonal. 
 
 AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES 
 OFFICE OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 
 
 April 6, 1919. 
 
 Lieut. Joseph A. Minturn, 
 G-5, G. H. Q. 
 
 Dear Lieut. Minturn: 
 
 Allow me to express my sin- 
 
 oere thanks and appreciation for 
 
 the charming "book of sketches of 
 
 my office and the Chateau Val des 
 
 Escholiers which you have made 
 
 and presented to me. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 A^LQf^uUu^f 
 
 FACSIMILIE OP A PERSONAL LETTER OP THANKS AND APPRECIA- 
 TION FROM GENERAL PERSHING 
 
 Gaisser had his young lady persuaded to marry him , only to 
 find in France that the rest of the family had as much or more to 
 329 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 say about it ; and after he had her folks lined up there were so 
 many requirements of the law to be met, such as the production 
 0/ strict documentary proof that he was born, and like matters 
 of the highest importance, that he made a trip to Paris and paid 
 a hundred francs to an expert to untangle the red tape for him. 
 Finally the banns were published, and while he was waiting for 
 his wedding day he was a hard man to hold. 
 
 Lieutenant Brooks, of our mess, was engaged to marry a girl 
 from Holland, and he and Gaisser spent hours together in praise 
 meetings. 
 
 "I tell you a French girl is the prettiest girl there is — such 
 cheeks ! such soulful brown eyes ! ! such a waist ! ! ! and such an- 
 kles ! ! ! !" and Gaisser's eyes would roll until they came near 
 being permanently walled and crossed. 
 
 "Ah, but such golden hair ! such heavenly blue eyes ! ! so rosy 
 and plump all over ! ! ! such beautiful arms and legs and eye- 
 lashes!!!! so amiable and so wise!!!!!" and Lieutenant Brooks 
 neither crossed nor walled his eyes, but rolled them straight up 
 in beatification. 
 
 The two grooms-to-be planned to spend their honeymoons 
 together in the Riviera — likewise all the money they had. But 
 they didn't, because their brides had the last say, and they were 
 both sensible. 
 
 I must tell you more about our engineers' mess. It was in- 
 tended to be exclusively for engineers, but wasn't, although it 
 was necessarily limited to nine plates. Gaisser and I were not 
 regularly taken into it, but, rather, we took it in. and Gaisser 
 was such a mixer and all-around good fellow that they didn't 
 have the heart to throw him out ; so we both staid and helped to 
 turn down later applicants. 
 
 Captain Poorman had been the ranking member so long 
 that when Captain Mannear was promoted to a majority, the 
 cook was so in the habit of taking orders from Poorman that we 
 couldn't change her. Besides, Poorman had been a Purdue Uni- 
 versity professor in civil life, and was a very positive man ; also 
 a very well informed man, as was evidenced by the fact that he 
 was the only one of our mess able to give the definition of the 
 word "meticulous" without consulting the dictionary. His hobby 
 was a slide-rule with more scales than a fish, that he had cut by 
 hand, and consequently it was an instrument of great value if his 
 time on it were figured at a captain's pay with commutation of 
 
 330 
 
SOME OF MY MESSMATES 
 
 quarters and overseas allowances added. 
 
 Major Mannear and Captain Bruce had worked together 
 until they were inseparable. Bruce got his commission because 
 of his expert knowledge of forestry, having been a professor of 
 that science in one of the great California universities. He was 
 a captain of engineers. His part in the war was to mark the 
 trees, pointed out to him by the State Forester of France, to be 
 cut for firewood, while Mannear's job as a quartermaster offi- 
 cer was to stand by as the tree fell and claim it as the property 
 of the quartermaster corps ; much as Columbus and the early dis- 
 coverers took formal possession of islands and continents. As 
 he was promoted for gallantry in action I can see the doughty 
 quartermaster-captain asserting the proprietorship of his corps 
 on the Hindenburg Line as the trees come down by German shot 
 and shell. 
 
 Mannear and Bruce were ever contending over the ravishing 
 beauty of the Georgian slaves; whether they were to be properly 
 classed as Armenians, or were a distinct race of Southwest 
 Russia that had lived in the shadow of Mt. Ararat since a son 
 of Noah stepped out of the ark and became their ancestor. 
 Bruce came home before I did, but I left Mannear in France 
 insisting that he wanted to be sent to Russia to make the ac- 
 quaintance of the Georgian slaves. 
 
 There was another captain from G. 4, where Brooks worked, 
 but he was away so much settling up French claims against our 
 army that I have forgotten his name. 
 
 The French citizens filed all manner of claims for damages. 
 One in particular that I heard discussed was for two gallons of 
 milk taken from a cow. The cow was in a barn accessible 
 only through a window in the loft, and the owner declared that 
 one of our colored soldiers got in that way and milked the cow 
 "because no white man would have done such a trick." 
 
 We had a daughter and her mother for our cooks, and together 
 they furnished us with most excellent meals in the French way. 
 Gaisser wanted hot cakes and gave them the recipe. The first 
 lot came on the table looking like little muffins and so hard they 
 had to be broken with a hammer; then he tried to tell the cooks 
 how to fry them and the product came on as stringy wafers 
 which we found were produced by stirring the batter with a fork 
 in the pan ; finally the cooks were shown how by a personal dem- 
 onstration, and they learned to make very good "crepes" indeed. 
 
 33i 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 A LOOK INTO GERMANY 
 
 One night after dinner was over, after Gaisser and Brooks 
 had sighed themselves silent and sleepy, after Lieutenant Land- 
 man, our efficient mess officer, for the tenth time had reported 
 the soldier-husband and relatives of the cook in the kitchen eating 
 up our supplies, and after the head eunuch of the seraglio had 
 consigned the Georgian slaves to the harem keep. Captain Bruce 
 brought out a new meerschaum pipe with long briar stem and 
 fancy tassel, which he proceeded to christen, remarking that he 
 had bought it while in Germany the day before. 
 
 "How did you get to 
 Germany? You've just 
 been to Italy on a vaca- 
 tion !" we demanded. 
 
 "As special courier to 
 General Pershing," he 
 declared ; but finally 
 told how officers were 
 sent every night with 
 army orders and the 
 mail, for which service 
 he had volunteered for 
 the sake of the trip. 
 
 Colonel Fulmer had 
 promised to take me 
 along on a tour of the 
 Army of Occupation, 
 and I was disappointed 
 that he went while I 
 was at Chateau-Thierry. 
 This might be an oppor- 
 tunity to go anyway, I 
 thought. Upon investigation it developed that most any officer 
 could make the trip whose, superior would spare him for a day, 
 
 332 
 
 GENERAL, FOCH AND GENERAL PERSHING 
 
 AT CHATEAU VAL DES ECHOLIERS, NEAR 
 
 CHAUMONT 
 
A TRIP INTO GERMANY 
 
 and who was willing to ride in an automobile all night going, 
 and all the next night coming back. 
 
 The route was through Toul, which I had visited before, and 
 Metz, the capital of Lorrain, famed as one of the strongest for- 
 tified cities of Europe. Metz had resisted the siege by the armies 
 cf Charles V. of Germany in 1552, when that monarch under- 
 took to regain the province lost to him the year before by treach- 
 ery, according to his version, or by strategy according to the 
 French. Previous to 1870, when the fortress of Metz, after a 
 siege of ten weeks, capitulated to the Germans without a shot 
 being fired, it had never succumbed to an enemy. Since 1870 
 Germany spared neither time nor money to make Metz and 
 Strasburg the two great bulwarks of her western frontier, and 
 but for the armistice it would have been besieged and taken by 
 the Allies with the aid of our American army. 
 
 My orders were to proceed to Treves, a city which claims to 
 be the oldest town in Germany, and to contain more important 
 Poman remains than any other place in northern Europe. 
 
 Captain Bruce said he could have made the trip on to Cob- 
 lentz and the Rhine if he had been able to pass the military 
 police at the railway station, and I made up my mind I would 
 fmd some way to follow the beautiful Moselle sixty miles further 
 from Treves to the Rhine. 
 
 When the formal order came it read as follows : 
 
 General Headquarters American Expeditionary Forces. 
 Special order No. 92 France, April 2, 1919. 
 
 Extract. 
 
 Paragraph 52, First Lieutenant J. A. Minturn, Corps of En- 
 gineers, will proceed from these headquarters to Treves, Germany, 
 on courier duty, upon completion of which he will return to these 
 headquarters. 
 
 Travel by automobile is authorized. 
 The travel directed is necessary in the military service. 
 ***** 
 
 Official. By Command of General Pershing. 
 
 Robert C. Davis, James W. McAndrew, 
 
 Adjutant General. Chief of Staff. 
 
 I showed this to Colonel Fulmer in the presence of Lieuten- 
 ant Colonel Flohl, our G. 5, aviation expert. 
 
 "Oh," he declared, "that puts you on duty officially with the 
 333 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Army of Occupation and will entitle you to whatever decorations 
 and medals that service brings to its participants." 
 
 I knew it entitled me to travel-pay of four cents a mile for 
 four hundred miles, and I have also preserved the original to 
 claim any decoration or medals that might be released, but up to 
 the time of writing this there hasn't been any to my knowledge. 
 
 We had a Dodge car with Rex-Sedan top, and the two sol- 
 dier-chauffeurs on the front seat, who took turns at the wheel, 
 made a better average than twenty-five miles an hour for eight 
 hours. I was on the rear seat with the bag of mail I had signed 
 tor at my feet, and shared the accommodations with a Colonel 
 Palmer, who was hurrying back to his regiment at Coblentz, 
 with travel-orders taking him at once to America, where a cable- 
 gram said his daughter was critically ill. 
 
 P>\ special favor we officers were permitted to buy dough- 
 nuts and coffee at a Red Cross hut at Toul, which was crowded 
 with enlisted men under travel-orders ; later we wound through 
 the quaint and irregular town of Metz, under the castellated 
 Porte d'Allemagne which still bears traces of the siege of Charles 
 V. through a naturally fertile, but now war-scourged region 
 which must have been worse in Charles' time. 
 
 "Whatever direction one looked.*' says the historian after that 
 siege, "one saw nothing but dead soldiers or those who had a 
 little life left in them lying in heaps of dung: or others seated on 
 i;reat stones, their limbs frostbitten to the knees, unable to rise 
 and crying out for mercy , for some one to put them out of their 
 misery." 
 
 The horrors of war have not abated much. On each side of 
 every town, we were halted by armed guards who demanded to 
 see our travel-orders, and at the German line the road was barri- 
 caded with a pole that stopped us until a French patrol were 
 fully satisfied. We were too tired and sleepy when we arrived 
 at Treves at 5 a. m. to care for the Roman amphitheater, even if 
 Constantine did butcher several thousand prisoners of war in it 
 for the public amusement, or to care for antiquities of any kind, 
 including the "holy coat of Treves." All we asked for was a 
 hotel and a bed. 
 
 Many times in the army we had sung of the castle we intended 
 to occupy on the river Rhine, of hanging our pants on the Hin- 
 denburg line, and of a German butler at the door, etc., but I was 
 
 334 
 
TREVES, GERMANY 
 
 taken aback somewhat when our chauffeur after delivering our 
 mail-bag, delivered us at a swell-looking place to which we were 
 admitted by that German butler in all his livery, and who con- 
 ducted us over velvet carpets to splendidly furnished separate 
 rooms* with delightfully clean and ample linen on beds even 
 softer than those of France. 
 
 "This," I thought, "will set me back at least ten dollars ; but 
 who cares- — ask me — I don't," and was quickly asleep but only 
 after instructions to his highness the butler to call me at 7 130 in 
 time for the early train to Coblentz. 
 
 The next morning after breakfast of coffee, bacon, eggs, and 
 hot cakes, I called for my bill. It was three francs. 
 
 "You've overlooked that I occupied a room here," I timidly 
 explained. 
 
 "Oh, there's no charge for that. The American army has 
 requisitioned this hotel, and officers are billeted here free. The 
 commissary only charges cost for what you eat." 
 
 Well, I soon found that the American army helped itself to 
 the best there was in Germany. Also that there was none better 
 to be had anvwhere else in the world. 
 
 GENERAL PERSHING INSPECTING THE ENGINEERS' MOBILE ENGRAV- 
 ING AND PRINTING PLANT, PARKED IN THE AVENUE OP THE 
 UNITED STATES IN FRONT OP G. H. Q., CHAUMONT 
 
 According to medieval story Treves was founded 1,300 years 
 before the she-wolf suckled the founders of Rome. Certain it 
 was, very visible evidence of ancient Roman occupancy of this 
 place reared itself conspicuously directly across the street from 
 
 335 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 my hotel, in the huge fortified gateway known as the Porta 
 Nigra, over a hundred feet long and nearly as high, and in very 
 good state of preservation considering that it was built about 
 the beginning of the Christian era. 
 
 Colonel Palmer was my savior and friend in passing the 
 guard at the railroad station. I had observed that a colonel's 
 5-ilver eagle exempted him from rigid inquiry as to his right to 
 pass the guards, so I kept close at his heels. The guard let him 
 by with a salute and was about to inspect a paper that I fore- 
 flushed on him, when the colonel saved the day by saying: "The 
 h'eutenant is with me/' 
 
 An important line in the history of Metz, of Treves, and of all 
 these ancient towns in this part of Europe, is that their inhab- 
 itants were massacred and their houses completely destroyed by 
 Atilla the Hun. What a fierce creature that Atilla was whom 
 the Kaiser set before his troops as a model ! And Atilla's sol- 
 diers were not at all lazy to do all of the demolition-work 
 charged to them without T. N. T., or even gun-power to aid 
 them. Their engineers must have been as resourceful and as 
 hard worked as ours. No wonder that the robber-barons who 
 came into power later picked out the highest and most inacces- 
 sible peaks to build their castles on after that visit of Atilla. 
 Now, however, their castles are only interesting ruins to be 
 pointed at as we swing past them in comfortable steam-cars that 
 follow the windings of the Moselle, — a river as beautiful as the 
 Rhine. 
 
 The hills grew higher and steeper until the women and girls 
 carrying buckets of water, fertilizer, or whatever there was in 
 them, to the vines on sky-line terraces, appeared to be climbing 
 ladders. Everything was clean and in order. No moss grew on 
 the walls and roofs of the pretty and innumerable spotless towns, 
 as it did in France ; but they shone in bright yellows and reds like 
 scoured crocks. The buildings, the gardens, and the walls with 
 oramental gates, were all so well kept up that there were no 
 ravages of war, and the ravages of time were scarcely to be 
 seen. Here was a complete change of atmosphere — the electri- 
 fication of life and vigor — that told even the wayfaring man 
 why Germany had been so able to astonish the world. Coming 
 out of battle-scarred France into this, can it be wondered at that 
 our soldiers were delighted and easily convinced at first that 
 
 336 
 
COBLENTZ AND EHRENBREITSTEIN 
 
 German "Kultur" deserved to win? But later came the realiza- 
 tion that this was the fruit of that pillage of France which was 
 the Modern Hun's first step toward looting the world. 
 
 It was at Coblentz that the three sons of Charlemagne met in 
 843 and divided the empire, left them by their father, into France, 
 Germany, and Italy. This part has been German territory 
 mostly since. The French had it in the time of Napoleon, the 
 Russians took it from Napoleon in 1814, and it was assigned to 
 Prussia by the Vienna Congress. 
 
 Coblentz is an extensively fortified triangle in the point be- 
 tween the two rivers, and is connected by a bridge of boats with 
 the great fortress of Ehrenbreitstein on the other side of the 
 Rhine, where now the stars and stripes were flying above the 
 fortress, as well as from an observation-balloon anchored near 
 the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle. 
 
 While with the engineers at Camp Sherman I had much prac- 
 tice with "balk" and "chess" and pontoon bridge-building for 
 temporary use, but here at Coblentz was a permanent pontoon 
 bridge across the Rhine that had been nothing else for genera- 
 tions. Sections of it had boats with power-driven propellers by 
 which these sections were regularly swung at right angles to 
 the main structure to form an opening for the passage of river 
 traffic. As a result there was alternate congestion of pedestrains 
 and vehicles halted by the gap when the bridge was open, and of 
 freight boats, tugs and barges when the gap was closed. 
 
 The bridge opened and one of these human jams formed 
 around me while sketching Fortress Ehrenbreitstein and I had 
 fin excellent opportunity to study the people who gathered. 
 
 "Vas der offiseer bleased mit our vort?" asked a voice at my 
 shoulder. 
 
 "Yes — particularly with the American flag flying over it," 
 and turning to see a German soldier in half-citizen's clothes, I 
 added : "Don't you like it ?" 
 
 "Yaw — sehr goot. Ich bin vrom Chicago und vas meinself 
 some American." 
 
 Then he told me he had lived ten years in the states before 
 the war started. His wife and children were there now. He 
 was a German reservist and went back to fight for the Father- 
 land before the United States declared war. 
 
 "I vouldn't ov done it already oder I know den vat now iss." 
 337 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 "When are you going back home?" I inquired. 
 
 "Ach, Gott mit Himmel ! Ich kenna nicht. Ich bin sehr 
 krank zu heim gahen." Then pleadingly looking at the red, 
 white and blue circle on my coat-sleeve recognized in all Europe 
 as the insignia of our general headquarters : 
 
 "Blease, Mr. Officer, vil you nod pe mein freund und help me 
 i,ee mein frau und kinder? Ach, mein kleine leiblich kinder." 
 
 We had quite a talk together until I had to go — in which he 
 stated, on account of the censorship against Germany, he had not 
 heard from his wife and family for nearly two years. He inquired 
 how bad the "flu" had been in the states, and wondered if his 
 people there were alive. As to Germany, she was sore at America 
 for getting into the war against them, and her people were dis- 
 appointed that the war had failed this time, but had faith yet in 
 German superiority and future success. They boasted that their 
 valor had kept their own land free from invasion, and were now 
 
 GERMAN FORTRESS EHRENRREITSTEIN, ACROSS THE RHINE FROM 
 
 COBLENTZ, OVER WHICH THE STARS AND STRIPES WERE FLYING. 
 
 "VAS DER OFFISEER BLEASED MIT OUR VORT ?" ASKED A VOICE AT MY 
 
 SHOULDER 
 
 turning to Russia and the East with propaganda and intrigue. 
 Germany, he could not keep from boasting in spite of his family 
 ties in America, will control Russia and then let the world look 
 out! 
 
 338 
 
GERMANS MORE LIKE HOME FOLKS 
 
 "How about Lenine and Trotzky, Bolshevism and Sovietism?" 
 I asked. 
 
 "Raus mit 'em vor fools und tools like Kaminski vas, ven Ger- 
 many gets done mit 'em !" was his answer. 
 
 Just then a couple of plump madchens nearly pushed us over 
 to get by, and in the conversation between them one emitted a 
 "Y-A-W" to rhyme with ratv, so coarse that it jarred in compari- 
 son with the sound of our "yes" or the French "Wie, ,wie," and 
 clinched the suspicion that there was something inherently harsh 
 in Germany. 
 
 What surprised me here was to see the ease with which I 
 could understand these people, and make myself understood by 
 them. The surroundings seemed more familiar and homelike 
 than in France. This was the testimony of our army generally, 
 and shows how nearly were Germanized. The German language 
 taught in most of our public schools, the numerous musical, ath- 
 letic, and social German societies, German population and commu- 
 nities among us in America, all retaining the thought and cus T 
 toms of the fatherland, had brought us in closer touch with Ger- 
 many than with any other non-English speaking people. 
 
 The wonder is that our Nation was able to see the right side 
 and take it in this war, and that our soldiers in the Army of 
 Occupation were able after the first few weeks to make the same 
 correct estimate of the situation. The German people did not look 
 ragged or starved to me. Our soldiers played with the children, 
 and flirted with the girls, or did chores for the haus-fraus the 
 same as in France, and were as cordially received to all appear- 
 ances. But we all agreed then that Germany was only tempora- 
 rily checked — not conquered. The smartest thing she did was to 
 give up when she did on the theory that "He who fights and runs 
 away, will live to fight another day." 
 
 Those who have seen France and Germany since the World 
 war will not blame France for being afraid. She has cause to 
 be afraid of that people. 
 
 339 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 BILLETING AT CHAUMONT, AND A REQUEST FROM COMPANY F. 
 
 Mme. chenolt lived in a stone cottage with shed roof like 
 that of the house where Joan of Arc was born. It was against 
 the right wall of her garden as one entered. The garden was 
 enclosed on the two street sides at the corner of a block by a stone 
 wall far too high for pedestrians to look over, and on the fourth 
 or side opposite the elaborate iron gate, her married daughter and 
 son-in-law lived in a more pretentious stone house of two stories. 
 She had a little grandchild, Julie, whose English was limited to 
 the word "good-by" which she greeted me with and kept repeat- 
 ing at intervals until it was appropriate. I won the grandchild 
 with candy from our quartermaster's store, and incidentally the 
 mother and grandmother. The last two showed their regard in 
 many ways, but their ideas of the acme of the American soldier's 
 cravings was for doughnuts and pie. Perhaps Jaques Chenolt, 
 a red-whiskered soldier-son and brother, just back from the war. 
 told them that, and Jacque's mother was so proud of him that she 
 believed everything he said. 
 
 By taking plenty of time to il 1 could work out a note to 
 them in French, by the aid of my polyglot dictionary, that they 
 understood, and they tried to reply in French, but used so many 
 shades and refinements of grammar not in my book, that I gen- 
 erally had to call on Gaisser to translate for me. One in partic- 
 ular kept me guessing all evening and as near as I could make it 
 out, the women were saying [ would be sick (malad) if I didn't 
 do something, and I decided it must be if I didn't buy some more 
 fire-wood for the grate in my room. 
 
 To make sure, however, [ showed the note to Gaisser, who 
 said I'd guessed wrong. It was the old lady who was sick and the 
 doctor had prescribed a liberal diet of prunes which she could not 
 get at the French stores, and would I be so kind as to buy them 
 for her at the U. S. quartermaster ? So I bought her prunes ; also 
 
 34° 
 
INVITED TO CONTRIBUTE TO HISTORY OF F. CO. 
 
 sugar, rice, soap, coal-oil, and many other things that were very 
 scarce and high then in France, with the result that my home- 
 coming was very often greeted with a plate of doughnuts or pie. 
 
 One of the perquisites of the landladies where we were bil- 
 leted at Chaumont was pay for shining the puttees and shoes of 
 their officer-boarders ; and this was charged on the bill whether 
 we accepted the service or not. In spite of the interminable 
 "pluey" as she called it, and mud, Mme. Chenolt kept me shined 
 to perfection ; brought me my "eau chaud" for shaving with the 
 regularity of clock-work, and always had a wood fire going 
 brightly in the fire-place of my room when I came home in the 
 evening. The French fire-places invariably had a plate or blower 
 that could be pushed up out of sight or let down any desired dis- 
 tance to regulate the draft ; but, like all fire-places, they were more 
 wasteful of heat than a stove, and considering the scarcity of fuel 
 2nd the frugality of the people, it is to be wondered that such a 
 primitive and wasteful device was so popular. I can account for 
 it only on the theory that it is impossible for them to get out of 
 any rut their forefathers traveled in, just as it is impossible to 
 break an Englishman of his habit of diving head first into his 
 shirt, instead of putting it on American style, like a coat. The 
 madame lived, cooked, and ate all in the same room, and she slept 
 in a little alcove just big enough for a bed curtained off in one cor- 
 ner. As a result of insufficient ventilation, she was subject to 
 colds, and when she had one she imagined everybody else similarly 
 afflicted. She drank copiously at such times of a hot herb tea 
 that she brewed, and brought in bowls of it to me to drink as a 
 precaution. I suppose, as I was remarkably free from colds over 
 there. Altogether, they took the best of care of me ; looked after 
 my laundry and mending, and were so exceedingly generous and 
 kind that I shall always remember them as real friends. 
 
 About this time I was flattered beyond measure by receiving 
 notice from the enlisted men of Company F, Three Hundred and 
 Ninth Engineers, that they were arranging to publish a history < 1 
 the company and wanted the contribution of a story, poem, or 
 anything from me, whom they still cherished as one of their offi- 
 cers. Of course I did my best, and sent it to Corporal Phillips 
 chairman of their publication committee. In due course, I re- 
 ceived the following acknowledgment which made me smile with 
 tears in my eyes at the military third-person style of its kindh 
 
 34i 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 sentiments. Those boys will always have a warm spot in my 
 heart. 
 
 "Received the lieutenant's contribution for Company F history 
 pbout a week ago, and wish to thank the lieutenant very much. 
 We can hardly express our appreciation for the co-operation the 
 lieutenant has given us in sending the poems and sketch. Cer- 
 tainly what we wanted but weren't able to get our ideas linked 
 together. 
 
 "I read the poems to the company in the mess hall the same 
 day I received them, and then the letter. I only wish the lieu- 
 tenant could have been somewhere nearby, and I feel sure that the 
 heutenant would not regret spending his entire time, for life, on 
 such work. 
 
 "This may seem worded a little strong, nevertheless it is true. 
 One can hardly imagine how attached a body of men become to 
 £.n officer who is fair to them while in the army and away from 
 home." 
 
 One of my contributions, an illustrated memorial to "Our 
 Comrades of Germain," whom we buried there, is reproduced 
 elsewhere in these pages*, and the other was the following attempt 
 to be humorous over the hard luck of our organization in that it 
 was trained to exhaustion in the states and only got to France 
 after the war was over : 
 
 S. O. L. 
 (Sure Out of Luck.) 
 When Woodrow said it was a sin 
 To let the Central Powers win. 
 His drag-net caught us in the draft — 
 For many moons we have not laughed. 
 Not that we were afraid to fight 
 But that he overtrained us, quite. 
 "Squads East and West" with all their frills, 
 And rigid engineering drills, 
 Were forced on us as we were told, 
 To make us fit ; but we were sold, 
 Because raw men who never shot 
 A rifle, came while we were not 
 Allowed to shed our khaki pants, 
 And sail away to sunless France 
 In time to get a single lick 
 In on the Boche with gun or pick. 
 
 *See page 172. 
 
 342 
 
AN AUTOMOBILE TRIP TO PARIS AND LE MANS 
 
 No desp'rate deeds mark our advance 
 
 Because we never had a chance ! 
 
 No medals bright nor gay fourragere 
 
 Hang on our breasts or anywhere 
 
 About these clothes that we are made 
 
 To keep so spotless for parade. 
 
 It gives our pride an ugly cut 
 
 To see those newer fellows strut 
 
 With wound and service stripes galore, 
 
 When it was luck — and nothing more — 
 
 As fickle as a summer's breeze 
 
 That took them early overseas. 
 
 One consolation we can claim — 
 
 We are not dead, nor gassed, nor lame — 
 
 For with such luck as ours to date 
 
 All casualties had been our fate, 
 
 Had we along the front been lined 
 
 Before the Armistice was sigfned. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 A PROMOTION AND AN EVENING OUT 
 
 The book was so nearly done by the middle of April, that 
 Colonel Fulmer allowed other officers of G. 5, to take part of our 
 time, and I was making illustrations of aerial movements for 
 Colonel Hohl, battalion and regimental operations for Colonel 
 Lynch, and medical charts and diagrams for Colonel Shockley. 
 Colonels McNabb and Fulmer left for Le Mans to make final ar- 
 rangements there for the shooting tournament, and I went with 
 them, — nearly three hundred miles by automobile via Paris and 
 historic France — and after a day at Le Mans, of interest to Amer- 
 icans as the place where Wilbur Wright taught Europe to fly in 
 1908, I returned alone by steam-cars and spent several days at 
 sightseeing in Paris. 
 
 343 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 I had written home for kid glove sizes, and preferred colors, 
 
 for all of my fe- 
 rn a 1 e relatives 
 that I might take 
 them souvenirs 
 from the great 
 glove factory of 
 Chaumont, and a 
 letter was await- 
 ing me giving all 
 the information 
 asked for except- 
 ing as to my sis- 
 ter Kate. The omission annoyed me because Kate was the 
 youngest of our family and the only sister, and I didn't want to 
 disappoint her. But another letter came from her husband ; the 
 rest had left it to him to tell me that Kate was dead ; that she had 
 died of the "flu" three months before. Such shocks are hard to 
 bear alone. She so much younger, with everything to live for and 
 thus to be taken ! 
 
 That recommendation for a captaincy was returned disap- 
 proved for the reason that no promotions would now be made ex- 
 cept to fill a specific vacancy. General Fiske and his secretary, 
 Colonel Wilson, next took the matter in hand ; they found a va- 
 cancy and renewed the recommendation. 
 
 Every soldier in France was required to wear a couple of metal 
 plates bearing his nam5, rank, and organization, tied around his 
 neck like a dog check ; an officer of the grade of captain and under 
 must also carry a small record book, giving his- military history, 
 with remarks by his commanding officer, and he must have with 
 him an identification card bearing his photograph and signature 
 properly certified. Colonel Wilson as G. 5 executive officer, made 
 the following endorsement in my Officer's Record Book : 
 "G. 5, G. H. O., A. E. F., April 27, 1919. 
 
 "Because of his unusual ability in landscape sketching and 
 free-hand drawing this officer was sent, immediately upon arrival 
 in the A. E. F., to the Army Schools as an instructor. While 
 there he rendered excellent service. Because of his special ability 
 he was sent to the front several times, and made a large number 
 of sketches and drawings of great military value and excellence. 
 "Upon the closing of the Army Schools this officer was 
 brought to this section to assist in the preparation of musketry 
 
 344 
 
PROMOTED TO RANK OF CAPTAIN OF ENGINEERS 
 
 and other manuals embodying- some of the lessons learned in this 
 war. His work of illustrating' these manuals is excellent and his 
 treatment of his subjects displays a military knowledge unusual 
 in an officer of his short length of service. 
 
 "He has been several times recommended for promotion to the 
 grade of captain, and his promotion is now under consideration. 
 
 "WM. H. WILSON, 
 (Official Stamp) "Colonel General Staff, 
 
 Executive Officer." 
 
 On May 2, 1920, I was promoted to the rank of Captain of 
 Engineers, G. H. Q., medically examined and sworn in. 
 
 That night I was the guest of honor at General Fiske's mess. 
 There I was seated between two generals, with colonels and lieu- 
 tenant colonels of decreasing rank on each side of them. Strange 
 to say, they were just as human, jolly, and companionable as 
 ordinary soldiers. I think they must have taken their dignity 
 and rank off with their trench coats (all self-respecting officers 
 wore trench coats in France) and overshoes for they were like a 
 lot of boys together, and after the meal tossed pennies to see who 
 would pay for the wine that all had been served with. 
 
 Then we adjourned across the hall to a lounging and smok- 
 ing room, Where everybody had to tell a story. 
 
 I had been flying with Colonel Hohl, as had most of the 
 officers present, and he was known to be a fearless and almost 
 reckless aviator. 
 
 "Could you always find a good field and rise against tbe 
 wind during the war, Colonel ?" somebody asked him. 
 
 "Oh, we tried, but I remember once I didn't have the right 
 conditions. I was flying low over a Bosch line when a chance 
 shot from them crippled my control-gear, and when the earth 
 seemed to swing up by the side of me and I had to look up next 
 to see it, I knew I must right myself quickly and land to fix the 
 gear. I got down on a level spot on top of a hill and was nearly 
 ready to go up again when the bullets began to spit and buzz 
 around, and I saw the Jerry's coming. My only chance was in 
 the opposite direction, regardless of the wind. I commenced to 
 hit the high places when one of my ground-wheels collapsed, 
 and the plane took a dive to the right into the top of a tree, 
 growing some distance below in a steep drop of the hill. I 
 ' thought that tree-top was my finish ; but slid out of its branches 
 and continued in a low glide across the valley that gave me a 
 chance to get the control again and head against the wind. 
 
 345 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Soon I was all right, but it was a mighty close call." 
 
 "McNabb ought to be here to tell us how he checkmated the 
 sharpers who tried to swindle his Indian squaw out of her oil- 
 land. I noticed by a Herald item she has just come into a few 
 millions, and Sandy should have a handsome commission com- 
 ing," one of McNabb's many admirers remarked : "What have 
 you to offer here tonight, Shockley?" 
 
 "Well," replied Colonel Shockley, "the presence of Captain 
 Minturn reminds me of the health-charts that he has been mak- 
 ing under my direction. 
 
 "You see the army now in Germany has been wanting to go 
 home and the men have been fooling the medical staff into the 
 belief that on account of their hard service before the armistice, 
 and consequent run-down condition, they are not able to stand 
 the Rhine climate. These charts we've been working out from 
 the sick reports of all troops in the A. E. F. for the past four 
 months show that that army is actually the healthiest of our or- 
 ganizations now overseas. It's wonderful what comparisons 
 can be made with a few crooked lines on a chart, — absolutely 
 reliable because the organizations can't go back on their own 
 sick-reports that they have been furnishing us at headquarters 
 for months before this came up." 
 
 So I had unwittingly been helping to keep a whole army of 
 homesick soldiers from going home ! 
 
 "Just had a taste of my own medicine," Colonel Wilson volun- 
 teered. "As one of the general staff executive officers I've been 
 issuing orders to the rest of the army and have been going around 
 to see that they were enforced without much regard to the re- 
 quirement of travel orders to check the sight-seeing craze of our 
 officers and men here in Europe. Last week the guard refused to 
 let me leave Bar-le-Duc without proper papers. "I don't need 
 any," I expostulated. "Can't you tell my rank and that I'm a gen- 
 eral staff officer from my insignia?" "Yes, sir," he replied, "but 
 my orders don't excuse anybody." Then I got mad and tried to 
 pass anyway. He called his corporal and the corporal sided with 
 him ; said I must get orders from his Colonel before 1 could leave." 
 
 "You did that, of course," somebody who knew his fiery dis- 
 position suggested. "Of course I did not. I gave them both to 
 understand that I ranked their Colonel and wasn't taking orders 
 from a subordinate and warned them against further interference 
 
 346 
 
SOME AFTER DINNER STORIES 
 
 "GLAD TO MEET YOU, PRINCE!" GENERAL, FISKE 
 INTRODUCING LT. MINTURN TO THE PRINCE OF 
 WALES AT CHAUMONT, FEB. 16, 1919- See Page 325. 
 
 with an officer in his line of duty and I left them staring at each 
 other and came on home." 
 
 I was called on to repeat the story of how I succeeded in get- 
 ting into the army, and briefly related the manner in which I had 
 been discharged at Harrison for over-age ; how I went to Wash- 
 ington and saw the adjutant-general, the vice-president of the 
 United States, 
 and the secre- 
 tary of war, and 
 was reinstated 
 and finally 
 transferred to 
 (the Engineers 
 and just now 
 promoted. 
 
 "You have 
 earned your 
 spurs, Captain," 
 Colonel Wilson 
 declared, to which they all agreed, and as they were regular army 
 men, with one exception beside myself, and had relaxed from the 
 "iron rigid discipline" which I had previously supposed impossi- 
 ble, I reversed my judgment that evening in a manner quite favor- 
 favorable to West Point and its graduates. 
 
 The other exception was First Lieutenant Blain, who man- 
 aged G. 5 library with fine diplomacy. He was a member of the 
 Staff Mess and that he could hob-nob with generals and colonels 
 so constantly as he did without being spoiled speaks volumes for 
 his mental poise and good sense. He was custodian of the tons 
 of bulletins and manuals used in training our overseas army and 
 was responsible for the proper delivery of this literature all over 
 France and to the Army of Occupation in Germany by truck, au- 
 tomobile, and side-car. The G. 5 library carried a large and 
 varied assortment of books, and what it didn't have Lieutenant 
 Blain would go to Paris and get. He was in Paris so often that 
 he kept a billet there as well as at Chaumont. He early declared 
 against the League of Nations, and Captain Poorman, of the 
 Engineers' mess, was as vehemently in favor of it. 
 
 "We are false to the principles that took us into this war ; 
 false to our Allies and to the world, and we shall lose all we 
 have been fighting for if we don't join the League of Nations. 
 
 347 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 The American colonies had the same baseless fear of a union of 
 states, but the union proved our salvation," the captain said. 
 
 "We sacrifice our national independence, the traditions of 
 the founders of our Government and chance for usefulness in 
 the future if we do ! The American colonies were all English, 
 they had common interests that had brought them together for 
 a century ; they were not plotting and envious like the Old World 
 is ; Europe will hang to us like leeches, or use us as a cat's paw," 
 replied the lieutenant, and very early in a controversy that has 
 spread to the United States and become a political issue, I had 
 to declare for the League of the Treaty with reservations, in 
 order to keep my friends. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 DOMREMY, THE BIRTHPLACE OF JOAN OF ARC 
 
 I passed through Domremv on my way to and from Germany 
 and had been within a few hours' ride of the place for several 
 months ; so I felt it would not do to quit France without a close- 
 up view of the home and country of the maid whose inspiration 
 gave France her superb valor at Verdun, whose voice called the 
 American soldier to later victory, and who represented the soul 
 and achievement of the French people whose love of liberty has 
 enlightened other nations and taught us so much. 
 
 Before my trip to Le Mans with Colonel Fulmer I asked him 
 for leave to visit Domremv. 
 
 "How long will you be away?" he questioned. 
 
 "A couple of days, perhaps." 
 
 "Why don't you get on the train and go? You don't need a 
 travel order," he said. 
 
 "How will I get past the guards at the railway station?" 
 
 "Just as you've been doing, — you don't seem to have trouble." 
 
 "Very well, Sir, I take it the colonel authorizes me to go. I'll 
 start in the morning. If arrested, I'll send for the Colonel." 
 
 Wearing my barracks cap, which has no insignia of rank, 
 and trench coat from which my bars were discretely removed, I 
 approached the militarv police at the Chaumont station early 
 
 348 
 
 
AT NEUFCHATEAU 
 
 next morning". He was studying me closely to determine if I 
 were an antiquated field-clerk, a Y. M. C. A. manager, or a gen- 
 eral who had carelessly forgotten his stars, when I gave him my 
 severest "Why don't you salute?" look. Then he knew for a 
 certainty that I was a general, and up came his hand in a salute 
 which I returned, and passed on about my business. 
 
 Domremy is off the railroad several miles. Between Chau- 
 mont and Neufchatean where I left the train, the switches and 
 sidings along the way were full of freight-cars, and they were 
 filled with American soldiers crowding the side doors with the 
 legs of those sitting on the sills hanging down outside, and with 
 the opening above and the one little window on each side full of 
 glad faces. It was the Thirty-second division on their way from 
 Germany to the seaboard ; glad and hilarious because they were 
 going home. Arthur Minturn, my brother Sam's boy, belonged 
 with the Thirty-second, and was among them somewhere, but 
 impossible for me to find in that congestion of trains and men. 
 
 At Neufchateau, where there is a public square named after* 
 the heroine who often visited there, I was directed to the army 
 transportation office out at the edge of town. A sergeant was 
 in charge while his superior officer was at dinner, but he could 
 be gotten by phone. At my direction he called up with the infor- 
 mation that a "general headquarters officer is here, and wants 
 a car to take him to Domremy," — and the word came back to 
 take him out in the best they had. So a few minutes later a 
 genial driver whom his companions called "Tex" had me in an 
 automobile on the rest of the twelve miles to Domremy. Tex, 
 like most of our young soldiers, had picked up a fair smattering 
 of French. It was useful when we arrived, in locating a sleep- 
 ing place. We canvassed the score of houses comprising the vil- 
 lage in less than a half-hour. 
 
 The old Roman road from Langres to Verdun crosses the 
 river Meuse and divides at once in a curve in front of the Arc 
 homestead into one main street of the town, the north end of 
 which, to make the most out of little, is called Rue Grande, while 
 the south end is called by a name which translated means Mill 
 street. Perhaps there is an acre of ground enclosed with the 
 cottage by a high iron fence in front and a stone wall the rest of 
 the way, and through this yard the famous brook of the Three 
 Fountains that divided the territory of Champagne from that of 
 
 349 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Lorraine, takes its course. So, small as the town is and smaller 
 the yard, they are also made to go as far as possible by being 
 divided between two provinces. 
 
 THE CHURCH AT DOMRE.MY WHERE JOAN-OF-ARC WORSHIPPED. 
 
 TO THE LEFT OF THE CHURCH. IN THE FENCED INCLOSURE. IS HER 
 
 BIRTHPLACE, AND IN THE DISTANCE IS THE MEMORIAL CHURCH 
 
 WHERE THE MAID COMMUNED WITH THE "VOICES" 
 
 Across a narrow way now called "Passage Jeanne" is the 
 church which one enters over the very slabs of stone on which 
 Joan kneeled to pray that France be delivered from her invaders. 
 
 Two buildings up Grand street bore hotel signs, but the 
 places were not functioning as such, and with Tex to do the talk- 
 ing for me we looked further. As a last hope we were referred 
 to the village schoolmaster, who offered me a bed over a stable. 
 That was no particular distinction though, for most of the dwell- 
 ings were stable annexes, and the only way by which I could 
 identify my boarding house was by counting the manure piles. 
 Mine was across the way at the seventh pile from the church on 
 Grand street. 
 
 Many French and American soldiers, nurses, signal service 
 and Y. M. C. A. girls were among the pilgrims who made hasty 
 stops during the parts of the two days that I remained in Dom- 
 remy. I followed them out Mill street and far away to the 
 memorial church, built on the site of a hermitage and small 
 chapel to which the maid would steal to commune with the 
 "voices" and pray to her three saints while her little mates were 
 playing under the tree of the fairies near by. 
 
 I bought souvenirs in the loggia of the basilique from the 
 smiling priest, admired the bronze figures of the paternal and 
 
 350 
 
JOAN-OF-ARC BASILIQUE 
 
 maternal Arcs that guard the portals of this sublime memorial to 
 their sainted daughter, and admired Lorin's mural masterpieces 
 telling the story of Joan's life, with which the interior walls are 
 decorated ; was turned back from climbing the tower by a door 
 that was locked, gazed upon the carved figures of Joan and her 
 angels, and then settled down at some distance across the road 
 to make a pen sketch of the structure. This proceeded slowly on 
 account of the wealth of architectual detail, and my lingering 
 must have made the good fathers in charge a bit nervous. They 
 looked across at me and talked among themselves as one con- 
 veyance full after another of sightseers came and departed while 
 I stayed on. Perhaps they feared I had sinister designs on their 
 church, but instead of coming directly to see about it, one of the 
 reverend fathers began pacing the gravel walk with an open 
 book held as though he were deeply engaged in memorizing its 
 pages. But at each turn he came closer, and finally circled 
 around so he could look over my shoulder. Then I held my 
 drawing for him to see. "Ah, tres bein !" he politely exclaimed, 
 and apparently satisfied that I was not planting a mine to blow 
 up the sacred edifice directly returned to the church and 
 disappeared. 
 
 The way back was down the same long hill past the tree of 
 the fairies, the tree of the dames, and the charm tree of the 
 fairy of Bourlemont, and in spite of the fact that trees do not 
 live forever and it has been nearly five hundred years since 
 Joan-of-Arc played under them, those, said to be the identical 
 ones, are pointed out now to the visitor. But their legends are 
 ever fresh and the same magnificent view of the wide meadows 
 bordering the winding Meuse, the Vosges hills, and the red- 
 roofed villages that Joan saw, are there today with perhaps little 
 or no change. 
 
 The next problem was to get something to eat as the sun's 
 last rays shone over the cow-sheds of Domremy. I took out 
 my "French for Fighters" that has an excellent assortment of 
 English-French sentences, and after practicing a few times until 
 1 could repeat it, made this demand on the landlady of one of the 
 buildings labeled "Hotel:" 
 
 "Veuillez me donner quelque chose a manger, s'il vous plait," 
 which in English was "Please give me something to eat." I 
 suppose she thought I wanted a Delmonico spread or something 
 
 351 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 for nothing and refused me, and from experience I insisted with- 
 out my guide book : 
 
 "S'il vous plait, Madame, un sandwich au jambon, sardines, 
 oeuf s, foumage, pain — quelque choose ! combein ?" 
 
 "Wee, wee," she promptly answered, and seating me at an 
 oil-cloth covered table, I watched her open a small box of sar- 
 dines and get together a fair meal for which she presented a bill 
 that I have preserved and copy as follows : 
 
 Sardine et beurre 3.75 
 
 Vin 2.10 
 
 3 oeuf s 2.25 
 
 foumage 50 
 
 pain 50 
 
 service 50 
 
 9.60 
 
 The Instituteur's (village schoolmaster's) wife was large, 
 plump and motherly. She demanded if I had had supper, where 
 I got it, and what it was, and when I showed her my itemized 
 bill she was indignant. Why didn't I come home to eat? No 
 soup, no salad, no vegetables, and no meat except sardines and 
 oeufs. It was "poof" on all I got — and for nine francs and sixty 
 centimes ! She would get me something more — I must be 
 starved ! It was with great difficulty that I convinced her and 
 her husband that I wanted nothing more — then. 
 
 I spent an enjoyable evening with them; the good wife pro- 
 ducing a bottle of clear yellow liquor, a "distilasiong de prueno," 
 she called it with a kick like its half-brother, the American "white 
 mule." She was "abstinang" herself, but the little gray-whis- 
 kered schoolmaster helped me to a thimbleful and kept me com- 
 pany. They both knew as much English as I did French — the 
 husband more ; but they were educated people and a surprisingly 
 large number of words in both languages have a like meaning, 
 and enough similarity in pronunciation to be recognized when 
 enunciated distinctly and slowly. My host said it was because 
 of their common Latin origin that so many words were alike. 
 
 My hostess wanted to know if I was "marie," and then 
 "combein les enfants?" and when she learned that I was a 
 "granpear" and had five grandchildren she hunted up some 
 
 352 
 
TALK WITH THE SCHOOLMASTER OF DOMREMY 
 
 Joan-of-Arc souvenirs for them. She was interested in the 
 various trinkets that I had bought from the priest at the basilique ; 
 shook her head at the prices Americans would pay ; then tied 
 them all up in a better package for me. 
 
 Mine host asked me during the evening what I candidly 
 thought of Joan-of-Arc as a character, and without knowing if 
 he could understand me I replied that there were a great many 
 patients today in our insane asylums who saw visions and heard 
 voices that called them to do extravagant things, and if Joan 
 lived in our age, instead of making her a saint, the authorities 
 would hold a sanity inquest and send her to an insane asylum. 
 He understood what I said very well and replied that I must 
 judge her by the age in which she lived — that he had studied her 
 character from every angle and had come to the conclusion that 
 she was an exceptional character and would have been so re- 
 garded in any age. 
 
 I thought of Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, General Booth, Alexan- 
 der Dowie, Pastor Rus- 
 sell, Joe Smith, and 
 others of no very an- 
 cient period whom 
 some would have sent 
 to a lunatic asylum, and 
 was curious to get his 
 slant on the character 
 of Joan-of-Arc. By 
 hard work and perse- 
 verance this, in sub- 
 stance, is what he told 
 me: 
 
 During the childhood 
 of Joan the English, by 
 an alliance with Philip 
 
 of Burgundy — he who had the palace at Dijon now used as an art 
 gallery which I saw on my trip to Nice — had extended their con- 
 quest over the whole of north France ; Isabella, the Dauphin's 
 mother, had disinherited her son in favor of her son-in-law, 
 Henry V. of England. The prophet, Merlin, had long before 
 said that calamities would fall on France through the depravity 
 of a woman, and would be removed by the efforts of a chaste 
 virgin ; and the tradition was that the virgin would come out 
 
 353 
 
 A SORREL COLT LOOKED INTO MY ROOM AT 
 
 DOMREMY FROM THE TOP OP A PILE OF 
 
 FERTILIZER 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 of the forests of Domremy, where Joan tended her father's 
 sheep. The people of that day were more war-torn and 
 harassed than they now are, because the different provinces of 
 France, then independent sovereignties, were constantly at war 
 with each other. The people of Domremy had often to flee to 
 the hills or to the larger towns for refuge, and only five or six 
 miles away was a Burgundian town with whose inhabitants the 
 people of Domremy, as followers of the Count d'Armagnac, 
 fought every time they met. Joan heard stories of war at the 
 family fire-side and* saw her brothers come home bloody and 
 torn from encounters with the villagers of Marey. Too, it was 
 no uncommon thing for women to go to war with their lovers 
 and husbands as pages and esquires, and the masses then were 
 more prone to believe in prophecy and omen than they perhaps 
 are today ; although they are not yet entirely free from the influ- 
 ence of the strange and the supernatural. 
 
 Joan never learned to read or write. Her mother was a de- 
 \out Catholic who had gone on a pilgrimage to Rome and was 
 more or less religiously fanatical. She taught her daughter to 
 recite the Pater Noster, the Ave Maria, and the Credo. Joan 
 was temperamentally inclined to be deeply impressed with love 
 of church, country and home. She was noted for her abound- 
 ing physical energy ; but her vivacity was not coarse or unfem- 
 mine, ft was the result of intense natural activity, imagination, 
 and an abnormally sensitive nervous temperament. She was 
 unselfishly kind to every living person and creature. She was 
 the village favorite easily excelling in household work and skill 
 with the needle, and she was so much annoyed by the young men 
 of her acquaintance that she had to resort to the authorities in 
 at least one recorded instance, to free her from the attentions of 
 a determined suitor. 
 
 She knew she was different from all of her associates — so 
 keen and sensitive that she lived intensely what others heard 
 with inattention and soon forgot. 
 
 It was easy and natural, under all of the conditions, that she 
 should sympathize with the unfortunate Dauphin, and in her 
 intense patriotism wish that she might do something to help him. 
 
 Her mind turned to the prophecy of Merlin, and to the tra- 
 dition that the savior of France was to be a virgin from Dom- 
 remy. Of her prayers, of the answering voices, of her persever- 
 
 354 
 
THE VILLAGE OF DOMREMY 
 
 ance under many rebuffs, of her actual achievements and tragic 
 end, all the world now know. 
 
 "After five hundred years she stands as the embodiment of 
 liberty ; the personification of an ideal which Frenchmen of all 
 classes see as a beautiful, fine, young woman — pure, aloof, in- 
 vincibly strong — the incarnation of a la belle France." 
 
 It was impressive in that plain, low-ceilinged cottage of 
 Joan's native Domremy, to witness the exaltation of the village 
 schoolmaster, and to listen to this closing inspiration in his 
 broken English. 
 
 I awoke the next morning in the presence of the unusual — 
 real sun rays streaming" in through holes in the closed wooden 
 window-blinds, and as I hastened to let its full light in before 
 the gathering canopy of clouds hid it for the day I beheld another 
 novelty across the street. It was the finest sorrel colt, nearly a 
 year old, surveying his world from the top of a huge pile of fer- 
 tilizer, and he looked at me and into my room in a quizzically 
 friendly way that almost said he would like to come over and 
 play awhile. 
 
 I breakfasted with my hosts and said good-by with regret 
 and a realization that the finest people do not always live in the 
 finest houses. 
 
 The little village seemed vastly more interesting today. I 
 sketched the homestead with the church to the right and the 
 basilique on the other side on the far distant ridge ; then walked 
 back through Passage Jeanne, which crosses a part of the orig- 
 inal garden, of which the historian relates : 
 
 "One day, in 1423, in the summer and on a fast-day, the young 
 girl was in the garden near the church at midday when she sud- 
 denly saw a great light, and from the midst of this light heard a 
 voice saying : 'Joan, good and wise child, go often to church !' 
 On another occasion she saw in this light beautiful figures, one 
 of whom was winged, said to her : 'Joan, go and deliver the 
 King of France and restore the kingdom to him !' She trembled 
 greatly and answered, 'Sir, I am but a poor maid ; I know not 
 how to lead men-at-arms.' The voice replied : 'St. Catherine 
 and St. Margaret will assist you.' She saw again the archangel 
 and the two saints and heard the voices ; she heard them for four 
 years, then it was time to obey them." 
 
 355 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 Passage Jeanne leads into an alley-like thoroughfare half oc- 
 cupied by the brook of the Three Fountains, which washes the 
 foundation of a stone wall topped with sloping red tile that 
 
 -Gcsr/rr/or- 
 
 JOAN-OF-ARC'S BIRTHPLACE (MIDDLE BUILDING WITH THE SHED- 
 
 ROOF) AS SEEN FROM THE REAR. THE DUCKS ARK SWIMMING IN 
 
 THE BROOK OF THE THREE FOUNTAINS 
 
 defines that side of the old garden. The brook dives under a 
 culvert at the corner and then goes under the wall of the Arc 
 homestead and flows through the yard by the old house. A row 
 of stable-yards drain into the brook before it reaches the culvert, 
 and ducks were paddling opposite a hole in the old garden wall 
 provided with steps to the water's edge, down which a woman 
 came and dipped a bucket of water from the brook. 
 
 Then I sat on a bench under one of the great pine trees and 
 sketched in water-colors the house in which the maid was born. 
 Sightseers, showers of rain, and venders of souvenirs came often 
 to bother me. One little girl of about the age of Joan when she 
 first saw the vision in the garden, was particularly interested, 
 and my imagination easily pictured her as the original maid. 
 She was of "a strong body but an anxious mind," as Joan's con- 
 temporaries said of her, and most too "simple, sweet and timid" 
 tor a good salesgirl. She could talk a delightful mixture of 
 French and English but told a sad story of the loss of "fazzer," 
 "muzzer," and "bruzzer" in the war. She had drifted here and 
 taken employment offering souvenirs for sale to tourists for 
 some people of Domremy. 
 
 356 
 
CONCENTRATION CAMP AT ST. AIGNAN 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND 
 
 Early in May the order came starting me toward home. It 
 only took me as far as the concentration camp at St. Aignan, 
 twenty-five miles east of Tours. Tours, Chaumont, and Lan- 
 gres, as stated elsewhere, are the three cities of chief interest to 
 Americans overseas. Tours, because it was the headquarters of 
 our service of supply. St. Aignan is between fifty and sixty 
 miles south-by-west from Orleans, made famous by Joan-of-Arc, 
 and about 130 miles in the same direction from Paris. There I 
 remained a week as a casual with nothing to do but fret and 
 "crab" and wait, like thousands of others, for orders to a sea- 
 board camp where I would be required to wait some more for 
 orders to embark. 
 
 At St. Aignan newly commissioned second lieutenants dec- 
 orated with brand new gold-washed bars swarmed like yellow 
 butterflies in fall time; thousands of them, who had graduated 
 after the armistice from the last officers' training-camps, and 
 would never have any harder task now than to draw their pay 
 and wait for orders home for honorable discharge. Among 
 them were a dozen from the Three Hundred and Ninth En- 
 gineers who were sent to school while the regiment was at 
 St. Germain. 
 
 I made the acquaintance of an old army chaplain, Major Tay- 
 lor, who, when he learned that I was a Mason, found some way 
 1o get me on the list for Marseille and homeward bound via 
 Gibraltar, the very next day. 
 
 At Camp Covington, in Marseille, Colonel E. B. Martindale, 
 from Indianapolis, was in command and extended pass-privi- 
 leges that enabled me to see more of the city and its historic 
 neighborhood than I otherwise would, and at the end of a week 
 a ship-load of us were ordered aboard the small Italian steamer, 
 Argentina, of eight thousand tons, a confiscated Austrian ship, 
 
 357 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 AT GIBRALTAR. 
 
 SKETCH 
 
 now from Trieste, and began a three weeks voyage that took us 
 past the Majorica Islands of the Spanish Mediterranean coast 
 
 and into the 
 
 harbor of Gib- 
 raltar where we 
 lay by two days 
 to coal. 
 
 We went 
 sightseeing in 
 their uncomfort- 
 able two-seated 
 cabs each drawn 
 by a most delib- 
 erate horse; 
 watched the pa- 
 rade of nations through the main street, where we also went shop- 
 ping and were swindled in regulation tourists' style by the East 
 Indian pirates who keep those holes-in-the-walls and ask three 
 times what they accept rather than let one depart without buying. 
 I made a sketch of houses in rows of steps up the giant rock to 
 the old Moorish Castle and started another of the narrow main 
 street crowded with curiously garbed men and loaded donkeys 
 when a British guard said I must get a permit from the Governor 
 or quit. I chose the latter as post cards of everything worth 
 seeing were on sale. 
 
 It developed on the Mediterranean part of our trip, that Ave 
 away aboard in the person of I 'ere Goriot, a diminu- 
 tive [2-year-old boy. who had been orphaned in Flanders in the 
 early days of the war. and had been put out by the authorities to 
 a fanner to rear who set him to herding goats. But Pere did 
 not do well at that because he would blindfold them so they 
 couldn't stray, leaving him free to bird-nest and play in the brook. 
 Finally he ran away from agricultural life to. the armies, and, 
 drifting into an American camp, was adopted as a mascot by a 
 western regiment. A company tailor cut down a second-hand 
 uniform for him, and at one time his dress had been a neat reg- 
 ulation khaki, but when he was hauled out of the hold of our 
 boat for inspection it was soiled and worn and his little terhinder 
 shone through dog-eared tears in the seat of his diminutive pants. 
 But this was the least of Pere's very limited assortment of cares. 
 His greatest worry was that he had not been allowed to follow 
 
 358 
 
A FRENCH BOY STOW AWAY 
 
 his hero. Sergeant Bliss, of Chicago, on the transport that left 
 Marseille ahead of us. He had initiative enough though to 
 smuggle himself aboard the Argentina much to the present worry 
 of the captain of the ship, who hadn't been able so far to lay his 
 hands on the lad. This was because Pere had the sympathy and 
 covert assistance of every American soldier on board, and the 
 agility of a monkey to keep out of the way. He sprang past me 
 as I was hurrying on board before the ship hauled her plank in 
 al < ribraltar, just in time to miss the clutches of an officer, and 
 was soon doing stunts in the rigging that nobody cared to follow. 
 
 He was on board when we sailed out between the Pillars of 
 1 Sercules and also when we passed the Azores, and in the latter 
 neighborhood the transport carrying Sergeant Bliss was spoken 
 to by wireless, but apparently the sergeant did not care to assume 
 the responsibility of introducinig Pere to his own home and 
 family. For while Pere could talk American, it was of a kind 
 that needed much polishing and pruning before it would be ac- 
 ceptable in polite society. 
 
 That left Pere subject to adoption by somebody before we 
 landed who would be responsible for his future. As a prelim- 
 inary a collection was taken, and a purse of several hundred dol- 
 lars was easily made up for him ; but nobody volunteered to take 
 the boy until Dr. Barnes, ex-mayor of Barncsville. X. Y., said 
 lie would be glad to take him to rear with his own two boys if 
 nobody without children wanted him. 
 
 "Any human being," the doctor declared, "who had the ini- 
 tiative and intelligence that Pere had demonstrated was bound to 
 succeed, and be a credit to those who befriended him." So Dr. 
 Barnes got Pere and I am sure that Pere now has a good second 
 father. 
 
 I must make an honest confession before closing these pages. 
 My early training had been by a religious, almost Puritanical 
 mother, who accepted the divinity of the Bible and of Christ 
 without a question ; but my acceptance had always been with 
 mental reservations. 
 
 The limited library on board the Argentina had a few pop- 
 ular novels that the younger army officers aboard appropriated 
 and passed to each other in a manner that prevented anybody 
 not of their circle from getting them. That left such books as 
 Josephus, a translation of Heroditus, Plato, Plutarch's lives and 
 
 359 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 FOR PEACE IS LOVE, OR, RATHER, IS THAT STATE MADE MANIFEST TO 
 OUTWARD SENSE, BY LOVE.— WHERE INHUMANITY OF MAN TO MAN 
 IS CHANGED BY LOVE TO FELLOWSHIP AND PEACE. AS EARTH HER 
 •^X ER ~ PI ' ANI ' :TS - AN,) THE SUN TO'AKD HERCULES BY SLOW DEGREES 
 ARE MOVED, SO. SLOW BUT EVER ONWARD TO THAT GOAL OF PE4.CE 
 THE BROAD'NING THOUGHTS OF MEN ARE DRAWN. 
 
 —THE RENAISSANCE OF PEACE, BY MINTURN. 
 360 
 
KIDD'S SCIENCE OF POWER 
 
 the like, which all know of by heresay, but few by personal con- 
 tact, and I browsed among them until I came to a late book en- 
 titled the "Science of Power," by Benjamin Kidd, that had been 
 passed up on suspicion by the others. 
 
 The writer argued that the influence of the ideal was greater 
 than reason or any other force in the world ; that Darwin's theory 
 of the survival of the fittest applied only to the individual, and 
 not to the community or society ; that the doctrine of love and 
 the principles of the Golden Rule first taught by Christ are 
 directly antagonistic to Darwin's theory ; that the world through 
 countless ages has developed on Darwin's theory, which means 
 that A must kill B before B kills A ; and that we, because we 
 are the descendants of 
 A are here because we 
 are the best fighters 
 and have killed the de- 
 scendants of B ; that 
 this fighting instinct 
 dominates the world 
 and particularly the 
 male part of it which 
 lives only for self and 
 the present ; that 
 
 women who sacrifice 
 
 themselves for their we were all rigidly inspected for 
 uienibeive^ iui uicn .. VERMIN AND contagious disease- be- 
 
 children and can vis- fore embarking at Marseille 
 
 ualize the future are the only hope — men by their very nature can- 
 not be counted on to grasp the essential ideal and work for the 
 betterment of unborn generations. The teachings of Christ were 
 accepted protestingly by Europe for centuries — they were a mis- 
 fit — so opposed to the inborn fighting instincts of the dominating 
 males of the human race that when Darwin, along in the fifties 
 of the last century, announced his theory, it fitted into the male's 
 conception of life, and for that reason spread with remarkable 
 rapidity ; but nowhere so rapidly and so far as in Germany. The 
 Germans assumed that, of all the world, they were the fittest 
 and the World war was the logical outcome of the Darwinian 
 theory as applied to a nation. 
 
 I read this book over twice, and gave it to several officers of 
 near my own age on board — mostly doctors — and we argued 
 and discussed its principles until I soon found myself contending 
 
 361 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 that the hope of the world was not the League of Nations, but 
 the old-fashioned teachings of Christ, the Prince of Peace, who 
 alone could change the hearts of men that their dreams of glory 
 would not be to kill, but to do only good to their fellow-men. I 
 found myself insisting that such a doctrine was divine and could 
 only have been presented to a world like ours by one who was 
 more than mortal; that the controlling American influence is an 
 idealism which we even try to hide from ourselves, and that the 
 German philosophy of Kultur which the world was disposed to 
 
 , I TO OUR SURPRISE WE LANDED SAFEL iOKEN 
 
 before the war and whic ed upon the Darwinian 
 
 applied to society, has failed; while America with her 
 
 jtic philosoph) grounded on the teachings of Christ, is left 
 
 the most powerful nation on the globe; the one hereafter that 
 
 successful nations must try to emulate. 
 
 In one of the ship's library book, a facetious reader had in- 
 
 ! , "Property of the good ship, Argentina, otherwise known 
 
 as the Ducking Broncho." A day or two after we passed Cadiz 
 
 rtinency of this came home to us and continued to b 
 tinent until we had passed the Azores and reached the gulf 
 stream a few days out from New York. We held fast to the rail- 
 
 362 
 
HONORABLY DISCHARGED JUNE 5, 1919 
 
 ing to keep from being thrown into the sea ; the boat rolled and 
 jumped and bucked so we couldn't read, and with no news by 
 wireless and no ships that passed, we were reduced to the ex- 
 tremity of betting for entertainment on the number of days the 
 ship would be able to keep afloat. One of the enlisted men said 
 be didn't know there was so much water in the world, and like 
 the sailors with Columbus when he first made the trip, wanted to 
 turn back. 
 
 Much to our surprise we landed safely at Hoboken on the 
 2d of June. I was ordered to report to the chief of engineers at 
 Washington, D. C, for my discharge. There I was quartered on 
 a cot in the attic of the old Blaine residence on Dupont Circle, 
 a«id finally after several days of paper-work and orders to report 
 here and there for this and that, I asked the last man before 
 whom I had signed in a dozen places what I should do next. 
 
 "Whatever you please," he answered. 
 
 "Now, don't joke." I cautioned, "I want to get through with 
 this and go home. It's serious with me." 
 
 "Go on home if you want to." 
 
 "Do you mean to say that I am out of the army?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "That I can go where I please and do as I please without 
 reporting to anybody or asking permission?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, I'll " and I walked out without remembering to 
 
 salute or say good-by. 
 
 That was the 5th of June, 1919, and I arrived in Indianapolis 
 June 7 — just two years and twenty-six days from the time of 
 entering the service. 
 
 In all of this time I had not earned a congressional medal, a 
 citation, nor any of the numerous foreign decorations. Para- 
 phrasing the song of the engineers — 
 
 "I tried to do my duty, and tried to do it well, 
 But the captain and the sergeant and the corporal gave 
 me !" 
 
 I was gratified though to receive a letter from Colonel Ful- 
 mer as chief of the Motor Transport corps, Washington, under 
 date of May n, 1920, from which I extract the following: 
 
 "Along last fall I made a trip through the southwest and 
 363 
 
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT 
 
 upon my return was presented a sketch of old Fort Plesnoy. I 
 at once knew the place and the author of such a splendid sketch. 
 
 "I appreciate very much your sending me this drawing, Min- 
 turn, and it might be of considerable interest and satisfaction to 
 you to know that your drawings not only helped out the training 
 of two million men in the A. E. F., but the pamphlet which was 
 later adopted tentatively in this country is the only thing we have 
 at present along these lines. 
 
 "I have often wondered what became of our officers, and 
 what they are doing and where they are. Frequently I hear 
 from some, telling me of the work upon which they are engaged, 
 and recalling many incidents of the strenuous period on the hill 
 overlooking Plesnoy. 
 
 "Let me hear from you and accept my deep appreciation for 
 your efforts and your capable and loyal assistance." 
 
 The End 
 
 364