Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XII DURING THE GERMAN ADVANCE 'I DEGREESHE houses along the railroad near Compiegne were only shells of what they had been the last time we made this trip. There were large shell-holes in the street leading to the hotel, now occupied by the American Red Cross. The hotel had lost its inside walls and had no running water, electric light, or servants. Only soldiers and war workers were to be seen. With no mail service, not even a newspaper, and the civilians gone, the town was in a pathetic state of dilapidation. But it was not quite empty of its civilian population. Here and there would be a dog, guarding faithfully the door of a crumbling, roofless house, or some starving cats would cry in the abandoned streets like lost children. 199 We were appointed various tasks as waitresses and housemaids in the hotel, and chauffeurs to collect refugees, wounded, and supplies. A few of us were sent to care for the wounded at the station and in an abandoned hospital. I went to the canteen kitchen near the station and crossroads to give coffee, crackers, chocolate, and cigarettes to the troops passing through on foot or driving the big guns and supplywagons. Sometimes we would gather up a handful of chocolate and cigarettes and run into the road among the confusion of guns, heavy wheels, and horses' hoofs to throw something to the drivers who were unable to rejoin the line around the kitchen on wheels and its surrounding baskets. Usually I would stand all day, giving cigarettes with one hand and chocolate with the other to fill the endless line of outstretched hands. I had to stop sometimes to remind some one that he had returned too many times, and was cheating others of their share. They liked to see how often they could come back without be