Blog number 284 **** 22 February 2009
These vignettes also* come from a book called, Over There, by Byron Farwell. It's about WW I.
For those in France the YMCA published a pamphlet with such helpful French expressions as, "I should like very much to see the periscope of a submarine," "Do not stick your head above the trench," and "I have pawned my watch."
When the American military authorities demanded that French brothels be closed, the French chief of missions attached to the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) assured the Americans that unlicensed prostitutes would be relentlessly suppressed, but "a careful distinction must be made between professional debauchery and passing shortcomings and efforts must always tend to safeguard family honor." A young woman who wished to earn a few extra francs should not be exposed as a harlot by the forced issuance of a license.
* See Blog number 283 below.
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