Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1919 — Doughboy Thought He Saw Boche Taunting Him While Washing His Stolen Shirt [ARTICLE]

Doughboy Thought He Saw Boche Taunting Him While Washing His Stolen Shirt

.Near a hrldg*>hp>id on the Moselle river. which marks the border of Rhenish Prussia and along the banks of which the American uvrmy rested Jfor_ a few days preparatory to its peaceful invasion of Germany, there sat a doughboy on guard duty. His assignment of two hours’ watch was nearly up, but his eyes never left the bank on the other side to glance up the road to see whether the relief squad wa,s in sight. He inuttered and growled occasionally to himself and his eves took' on-a-fierce gleam as he watched the other side of the river. His whole attention was focussed on a .Gerii!an soldier calmly washing an undershirt at the river edge. The German rubbed and scrubbed, held the shirt up. wrung it opt and then rubbed some more. He paid not the slightest attention to the tense American doughboy on the nthpr «(<lp——— The doughboy looked over his rifle every few minutes and fingered the trigger meditatively. Then along came a Red Cross car with cigarettes and other comforts following the troops into invaded territory. “What's the trouble.” inquired the Red Cross man noting the doughboy’s attentiveness to the figure on the opposite side. “Well, I tell you,” said the doughboy. “In the Chateau-Thlerry fighting I took off my undershirt during a short rest to hunt for several cooties that were bothering me. The Boche. made a counter-attack and took the place before - T had'time to put on my shirt. Onb of the Germans stole it. I just got a hunchthat'that guy on the other side of the river was the bird that took it, and I think he’s washing it over there to tease me. He’s been washing that shirt for half an hour now. And here I stand with a loaded gun and can’t shoot. The war is hell, but this armistice stuff —”