A DIFFERENT TIME

Blog number 283 **** 20 February 2009

These vignettes come from a book called, Over There, by Byron Farwell. It's about WW I.

Considering conscripts in the early nineteen hundreds in America; "It came as a surprise to army recreational directors that so many young men did not know how to play any game; some did not even understand the concept of play."

Can you imagine this? It must have been work work work from dawn to dusk for many men in America in those days. All work and no play - you know what they say.

American soldiers were sent to France to fight for France. Not only that, but America was charged for the transportation to get there aboard French and English troop ships.

"The French made an attempt to charge for every man sent to fight for them as if they were a prewar passenger on a liner instead of a human sardine on a troopship. When the Americans refused to be gouged the price was reduced from $150 per man to $81.75."

What chutzpah!

Captain George C, Marshall aboard the Tenadores "noticed that his lifeboat, if launched, would pass over a section of the lower deck quartering several hundred black stevedores who in an emergency were expected to use such rafts as might be found in the water. Marshall was not surprised when at the first submarine alert they swarmed onto the upper deck to commandeer lifeboats."

On board the President Grant, "the heads backed up and fresh water was in such short supply that unconscionable sailors sold it to the soldiers."

"The attempt at secrecy [concerning General Pershing's boarding of the liner Baltic in route to Europe] was a failure, much to General Pershing's annoyance. For two days boxes plainly marked "General Pershing's Headquarters" sat on Pier 60 in New York for all to see, and now, as they were leaving, an artillery salute was fired from Governor's Island."

Loose lips sink ships.