Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 237, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1918 — TREAT YANKS AS ONE OF FAMILY [ARTICLE]

TREAT YANKS AS ONE OF FAMILY

Somewhere in France. Many American slldlers are having the unique opportunity, as well as the pleasant experience, of learning French customs and seeing French homelife by being billeted right in the houses of their Gallic hosts and host- ■*' 1 . In one of the villages of centra! France, high up among the hills, where one can get a magnificent view of the surrounding “peaks,” the valley pnd the winding river below is billeted a regiment of American artillery lads. Most of them are from California, others are from North Dakota, Montana, and. other states of the Coming up the road from the" fallway station one crosses the mill race with Its ancient stone bridge, passes the- “moulin noir” and entering the -village after “recall,” sees the soldiers lolling about In the houses or seated •about- the tables in front of tiie wine =shops talking to their French friends whose guests they are.; * From one of the village streets •clear through the town the houses are marked with the number of Americans billeted there. One place may have painted at the side of the •doer, “24 men” and another' “2 officers, 14 men.” Down In the narrow side streets are more billets and from -these winding passageways the sdl■dlers come in scores after the evening mess to wander along the “main •drag” and visit billets of their friends In other batteries. No Formality There. Life Is very informal in this village since the Americans came. The •doors and windows of the home-bll-lets, opening right Into the streets, - reveal the soldiers’ beds made up In ship-shape military manner, the -floord scrubbed spotlessly clean and everything as neat and tidy as a home might be expected to be. 11 In many places, sanitation, crude in most French towns, at least,' from an American’s standpoint,’ has been Improved and living conditions Improved not •only for the soldiers but for the civilian natives as well. “How do you like living In billets?” was asked a raw-boned gunner who said his home had ben in Idaho. “All right now,” came the response. ■“We did not think much of it at first; we had to go too far for mess. The cook shack is away up there on the hill in the square behind the •church. And In our billet we had to •climb a ladder to get into the haymow. I’d rather live In a tent, especially in the summer. But we all say, like the French, ‘C’est la guerre’ and let It go at that. “But we’re learning a' lot about the French, getting a lot of insight into -their lives which we could not get ■otherwise. We’re learning to sympathize with them more than ever. I believe It makes us better soldiers. I know for sure that It makes us heenef to fight the Germans when we heftr some of the facts the French people tell us. Why, In our house alone the old man and old woman who live there have lost three sons In the war and another Is a prisoner of the Germans. “Oh, we get along all right The

women do our washing and - mending and they’re always anxious to do a lot of extra things for us. We sure will miss these people when we move from here. It will be like leaving home again.” Music and Craps. The black troops are bringing America’s folk songs to Europe. Whether he is in*the overalls of the stevedore or the olive drab of the fighting man going over the top, the American negro sings just as he does in the cotton fields of the sunny Southland or the dock along the shores of the Great Lakes. The nearness of the war, the whizz of the bullets and the roar of the cannon fall to mar the eternal nonworrying attitude of Xhe American negro. -- Their barracks at night are alive with music. At least one man in every squad has managed to bring a banjo along or made enough shooting craps to buy one in France. Speaking of craps, it’s the great barrack room sport of the negroes the., first day after payday. And every, "niche they can get In out of sight of their white Officers sees a crap game going. Then when one or in the regiment have got all. the’money in camp they go back to singing the old-time songs and playing them on their" banjos until another payday rolls around. If morale follows In the footsteps of music, then the colored troops must' be “jess fun of it, boss I”