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Show Hvav lETl My First Sound j By secant j ? orses tor ranee tftheoun, I rrss ' Newspaper Syndicate.) My Chance. 1 1 was 1114. a n .1 t b c gr ea t w orld 's war was on, and hero was I in the United states and neutral. For thirteen years I had boon soldiering, but bad never boon under fire, In my imagination imagina-tion I could hear the puns booming on the -western front. T admit I was a Trifle afraid: nevertheless I liad a great desire to get into the misup. How could T get over? I planned out many ways, but none of them were practical. One day while walking down Greenwich Green-wich street, New York, 1 passed an employment em-ployment agency. Stariug mo in the face was a great flaring sign, "Horses for France." Under this "Men Wanted. Want-ed. ' ' Here was my chance. Upon returning to my office I immediately imme-diately got in touch over the telephone with two prominent men in New York whom I knew to be distinctly pro-ally. After outlining my desire, an appointment appoint-ment was made for me to meet a certain cer-tain gentleman at tiie Hotel Astor at 4 o 'clock tbat afternoon. J met him. He introduced me to a .Frenchman. At that time in my eyes a Frenchman was a hero, a man to be looked up to, a man fighting in the gre'at cause. Hut now a. Frenchman to me is more than a hero. After being introduced I went up into the Frenchman's room and Talked over the matter of horses for France for about Twenty minutes. Upon leaving the Frenchman I was tnid to report to him three days later, at the same time and place. I left, bubbling over with enthusiasm and an-tieipai an-tieipai ion. Ihiring this interval of three days I mapped out a story of my life to present pre-sent to him upon our second interview. The eventful day at last came, and once more I was closeted with him. I started in to tell him my story. He interrupted me by waving his right hand to the right and left. It "reminded "re-minded me of the butts on a target range during rifle practice, when the man marking the target wigwags a miss to the firing line. My heart sank. Then he spoke, and I was carried from despondency to the greatest hcicht of expectation, nis words: "Pardon me, monsier, I already know vour life," and in an amazingly short time he told me more than I knew about myself. I had been carefully investigated. in-vestigated. My instructions received from him are confidential, so I will not go into them. Anyway, he handed me an envelope en-velope and told me to follow out carefully care-fully all details as contained therein. I immediately went back to my office, of-fice, opened tne envelope and on a typewritten sheet I read: "Report at (Goldsmith's employment agency, No. Greenwich street. Ship as an ordinary horseman and during voyage carefully follow the verbal instructions received bv you during our interview, making careful note of all details immediately After happening. Be cautious in doing this. Upon landing in France report to the Prelect of Police, Bordeaux, and to the letter obey his instructions. Good lock.'' T went home and put on mv oldest clothes; an old black suit. o':ive drab shirt, a heavy pair of army shoes and a woolen cap. I had let my beard prow and certainly looked rough. Jn passing through City Hall park. New York, one eees many derelicts of the human race sitting on the benches. J sat down between twq of these wrecks of humanity and engaged them in convocation, con-vocation, trying to blend into their Etmosphere. About ten minutes later p policeman came past and told the three of to move on. I slouched away with the other two. Telling thera I was coing out panhandling," I took my feave, but not hpfore one of them made fin appealing and successful touch for a nickel. The method used by him in securing that nie.el would have done credit to the greatest financiers in the country in putting through a deal involving in-volving million?. Going down Greenwich street, slouching slouch-ing along, looking at the ground, I ran plump into a young ladv of my acquaintance. ac-quaintance. I had a feeling of affection affec-tion for this particular young lady, but it soon died out upon hearing her remark as I collided with her, "If you cannot look where you are going, I will have you arrested.' Of course, she did not rec o gn i me an d T took no pains to argue the matter with her. J was glad enough to slink by. When T came to the agency there was a long line of bums, two and three deep, trying to ship as horsemen for Prance. It would be impossible to get a rougher and more unkempt gathering or' men. It looked as if some huge giant had taken a fine comb and carefully care-fully combed the gutters of New York city. T fell into this Hne And waited ray turn. Upon arriving at the desk, in j front of me sat a little fat, greasy j Jew. To describe his manner el handling han-dling the men as being impolite would be a great exaggeration. The way he handled that line of human cattle would do the kaiser's heart good. Tt camo my turn, and this conversation conversa-tion ensued: '"What do you know about horses" I answered: ' Six vcara in the U. S. cavalry." The agent: "What regiments?'' "Eleventh and Twelfth." "You're, a liar. You never saw the cavalry. I felt like punching him on the nose, but did not do so. I wanted to ship as a horseman. I showed him my discharges. dis-charges. He said: "They 're faked. What did you do, desert or were you kicked out?" 1 was getting sore and answered : "Deserted' the Twelfth; kicked out of the Eleventh." 'What's vour name?" "Arthur (ruy Empev. " "You're a German.' This was too much even for me. and T answered: "You're a damned liar." I saw my chances of shipping vanishing in smoke. The Jew grinned and rubbed his hands and said: ''You're all right. Go into that room and get a card made out, and come back at 2 o'clock." I received a card and weut to a beanrry across the street and had a wonderful meal of corned beef hash, muddy coffee and huge slices of bread, minus butter. This cost roe j cents. At 2 o'clock I reported back, and with seventy-two others was herded like cattle, and in a oog, straggling line, flanked by three of the employees ot the agency, we marched to the ferry and landed "somewhere in New Jersey." Jer-sey." On Board. The ship, a huge three-stacker, was lying alongside. YTe were shoved iDto single file, ready to ffO up the gangplank. gang-plank. Then our real examination took place. At the foot of the gangplank were a group of men axonnd a long table. They certainly put ns through a third degree to find out if there wa-s any German blood in ns. Several men were turned down. Lnckilv T got through and signed for the voyage, and went on board. At the head of the ganzplank stood the toughest specimen of humanity I have ever seen. He looked like a huge, gorilla-, and had a big. crrsrent-shape 1. livid scar running from his left ear under un-der his chin up to his Tight eve. Evenr time he Fpoke the edge of the p'-ar seemed to grow white. Hi? noe was broken and he had hug sbagpv evp-brows. evp-brows. His hand was resting on the rail of the ship. Jt looked like a ham, and inwardly I figured out what would happen hap-pen to me if that ham-like fist ever came in contact with the point of my jaw. A s vp passed him he showered us with a few eomplinTMitarv remark, such as "Of all the lousv nim J havo eea, this bunch of lubbers is the wor-t. and this is what they givn me to take thirteen hundred hnrsp.s over to tor-deaux. tor-deaux. " Later on I found this individual individ-ual w-as foreman of the horp gang. We werp ordered aft and sat on the after hatch. The fellow on my right was a huge, blue-gummed negro. He was continually q,"ra tuning himself. I u !Konr-ioi:;-ly ea-ed awa v from him and bumped into th fellow sitting on my rft. After a good bjok at him T pd bacV. again in th1 direction of tho ngro. I don "t thin!; that hp hf d taken a bath sine reaping rmni the i crad'e. Flight Iheit nv uppermost' thought wru hn?- J ro-iM r -'. t h' trip to T"r;incp. The rneral onverya- . ! iif'ii ,inioTig the Ivrp. gang was: When do we rat ? ' ' j Wo mut hflvp sat ther about fwpntv minutes, when the second forf man errp 1 aft. T took fifteen giirueq at his nn-(tionality. nn-(tionality. and at la-;t cnrrip, to the, eon-i eon-i elusion that he v a a cross bet worn a i h i n a man and a Me-iran. Hp wan thin, about fix fpet tall, and wore h huge sombrero. His si: in was tanned the color of leather. F.verv time, he smiled 1 had the impression that, the next minute min-ute ho would yd ant. a stiletto in mv back. His name as I'inero. Hi i nt rod net ion to us waa rery brief: ''Get- up off of that blank ety blank 'natch and line up nainat the rail. ' ' We did n ordered. Then he commanded: "All the nigger line up aloneide of the, port rail." T t'urss a lot of them did not know whnt he meant bv the "port, rail' hernue thev looked very much U-'vildered. With a n i.n t.ii he na pped out : " V nti bbfn k -ctv blank idiot.". The port, rail i that, rail oer there. ome f n. XTovp, or T '11 sonn mo', e voii. ' ' Tie looked wII able to o this nnd the nigger prompt )v shuffled over to the plar dcMlgnnt'il. Tfe qut'klv divided us into "onndi of twelve men, then ordered: ''.Ml of von who are de-erfers from the army nr who ,;t ipf-n ser vice- in the. e,i va 1 r v at op out in front." I'our other heqid"i rnvcidf -t.'i'ped out. The f t"' man he en me to he i n forrn"d? ' ' You re a st r;i w bo5". Ho yon k now t hn t n st rn w hoqg j ? ' ' Tlii't iiuin rnee'.Jv answered, "No, sir." j V ith aofpflvr oath, the siernnd forenmn : ''AH ri gltt, von 're not a straw bo'. : fa 1 1 back . ' ' 1 got the cue 1 mine di;i;H Mj turn iqme neTt. I'm a Straw Boss. ' ' I )o vow know whn! a itrn'V bo-s if?" 1 said: "Sure." Me naid: "Al! rig'nt, you're utraw hrofi. ' ' r had not the b-a-t idea of what he wn talking about, Iml tnaiie up mv mi i nd that it v. oul d not t;i k e rm l"ii g to f;mt out. Then ,n pntui-u dovt-n Ihe line, pi'-liinf out 'rn-.v ItdK-n, I al'ed uiiu of tlif in' a in my Wi,ln 1 1 u t wi t the duties of a straw boss, lie had been over with the horses before, 'and told me that a straw bo-?s meant to be iu charge of the gang to feed the horses and to draw and keep careful check of the straw, bay, pats and bran. Having served in the cavalry, this job. as I figured, would be regular pie for me. In about an hour and a half's time Pinero had selected his straw bosses and divided the men into gangs, and assigned us to our quarters on the ship. These quarters were between decks aud very much crowded; the stench was awful. Irou bunks, three deep, with filthy and lousy mat tresses on them, were set into the sides of the ship. The atmosphere in that dirty hole turned my stomach and I was longing for the fresh air of the deck. A dirty bum, with tobacco juice running out of the corner of his mouth, turned to me and asked: " To the gray backs bother you much, matey f' A shudder ran through me as I answered: "Not much." But 1 figured fig-ured out that as soon as I got them, which I knew in a very short time would occur, they certainly would bother mo. but 1 had to keep a stiff upper lip if I wanted to retain their respect and mv authority as straw boss. One old fellow in my gang was a trouble maker. He must have been about forty years old and looked as hard as nails. Ho was having an argument argu-ment with a pasty-faced looking specimen speci-men of humanity, about twenty -tdx years old. To me this mau appeared to be in the last stages of consumption. I told the old fellow to cut out his argument ar-gument and leave the other fellow alone. C'pon hearing this ho squirted a well-directed well-directed stream of tobacco juice through his front teeth, which landed on my shoe. J inwardly admired and respected his accuracy. I saw my authority au-thority waning and kucw that 1 would have to answer this insult quickly. 1 took two or three quick steps forward and swung on his jaw with my fist. His head went up against the iron bunk with a sickening sound and he crumpled crum-pled up and fell on the deck, the blood pouriug from the cut in his head. X felt sick and faint, thinking that he had been killed, but it would not do to show these signs of weakness on my part, so without oven moving toward him 1 ordered or-dered one of the men to look him over and see if he was all right. He soon came around. From that time on he was the most faithful man in the section sec-tion and greatly respected me. The rest of the. men growled and mumbled and I thought I was in for a terrible beating. beat-ing. Lying close at hand was an iron spike about eighteen inches long. Grasping Grasp-ing this, 1 turned to the rest, trying to be as tough as I possibly could: ''If any of the rest of you bums think you are boss around here, ;.t:irt something, and I will sink this into your heads." Although 1 was quailing underneath, still I got away with it, and from that time on I was boss ol my section. Now every man wa smoking or chewing chew-ing tobacco. Fret ty soon the hold became be-came thick with smoke, and I was gasping gasp-ing for breath, when the voice of the foreman came down the companion-way companion-way : "Turn out on de-'k and give a hand loading the horses. Look alive or I'll come down there and rouse you out pretty quick." We needed no second invitation and lined, up on tho deck. I looked over the rail. On the dock were hundreds of the worries t looking speermens of horseflesh horse-flesh I have ever laid eyes - on. These horee were in group of ten or twelve, bning held by boibemen from the New Jersey stockyards. A lot .of the men who had shipped n,s horsemen had nrer led a hor&e in their live, and it was pitiful to see their fear. The foreman b t out a volley of oarh for them to move quickly, and thev derided de-rided to accopt the le5er evil and take a chance, with the horc?. Then th work of loading comment ed. I have been in a cavalry regiment when hurry -u p orde: s were rec.o y to entrain for the Mcxban border and helped to load elei en hund red hore on train. The confusion rn that dock was indopc ribnhle. The horses were loaded bv three ruinvavs. Mv gan? nd The foreman was leaning over the rail, glaring down upon lis and now and then giving instruction mixed with horriblo oaths. He had a huge ma rlin-spike in hi hand. On the deck wm the second foreman, in his la : ge mn brrro, a red neckerchief around hi neck, wearing a blun fhrt with the sleeves rolled up to the el hows, and in his light hand a roiled lariat. It did one'. heart good to f-ee him ppf the hor-p which broke loo-e. I'pon writ' hmg hi f ir-t performance per-formance 1 knew 1 wan correct when T figure,! h'nn as having Meirnn blool in hi" vein. A bb-a rv-c ved d run k w a t ry in g to lead a horse bv the hhlter up our run. He wa looking back at Ihe horse, nt th t-arne time tugging and jerking on th halter. Von cmi'd s-e the wlu'o in the horse' eye, and I knew right away, from my experience with hor-eq, that t hi wa a bad one. or. n we would term him in the eaalry, an ''Outlaw.'' The drunk w as curbing and "wearing and kicking up at the horde's head. The foreman saw thi and directed hifl barrage bar-rage at the offender. " How irt h 1 do you expert to lead a hore while looking at him? Turn vour back to hiuii von lousy bum. Vou are blocking the whole run. Turn your bark to him, J say. Vou can't lead hi in that wav. If I come down there to you, f'll Boon show you how to get him aboard." The blearv eve1 one became bewildered bewil-dered and ni his rxeiiemnnt Int. his footing on the jdipperv runway and fell underneath the hnre, at thn same time Inoi-.nitig his hold on Ihe halter ehai n. The horte jerked his hend loir-e, reared up. turned nmund and made a break for the dock. Thn man on the gang'vav tried to scramble out of t ho a v. The hor.M-, i n wheel in g, let. fv with both heel and eaupht him below the right ear with his near hind foid . With a piercing shriek the 'trunk clasped hofh hand to hi head, fell o er backward nnd mlled down to the foot of the gangplank, find lay t here in a crumpled h"ap, the blood pon ri n g from hi no- e, rnnut h and the w on n d lielo iv h in ea r. I'pon hi-aring thi Oirbdt several of the men lending thru- hor-e-, in their fright 1 11 r lied t hem Inn; e, nth I t hero wan a mad htmnpedo on the dork. The pn-t v f nerd horseman, w 1mm I had helped out a lilMr wlnlo before in 1 he n rgument a bou t h m bunk, was "landing near the runwnv, holding on to a hor' e. He t.u mod h ih )ioro loone and ruhed to the Idomlv inaH which whh (witching with convulsive shud-drrs. shud-drrs. The foreman, on seeing this ac ridout, hiinpped out a long siring of ciire .. whieli almond froe mv heart: . " What did I lell VOU r I T-I Tl 't I toll i mi not to look at h mi i I knew i mi vvuild yet it, and a dnmm-d yumi job. too; blocking that run with your fool tricks. ' ' ; Then he noticed the pasty-faced I horseman stooping over the bleeding ! man. ! "Get im by the heels, you cross be-! be-! tween a corpse and mummy, and drag 1 him out of the way. We've bloody well j got to get this ship loaded to catch the tide. ' The pale-faced man kept on with his examination without paying any attention at-tention to the foreman s insi ructions. The foreman got blue in the face and bubbled over with rage. "Ho you hear what 1 tell you? Get 'im out of the way. This ship has got to be loaded or T'll go down there aud pound some obedience into you. " The Pasty-Faced Doctor. The man still paid no attention. The foreman was speechless. In a few seconds the stooping man straightened up, and looking the foreman straight in the eye, calmly replied: ''He's dead.'' This did not seem to fease the foreman fore-man in the least, and be bellowed out: "How do you know he is dead?" The man answered simply: ' I 'm a doctor."' Then the foreman once again exploded: "A doctor! Hlawst mv deadlights, a doctor! Well, if you are j a doctor, what in h 1 are you do- I ing on a horse ship? You ought to be rolling pills for the high-brows." The doctor never took his piercing look from the eye of the foreman. The foreman was now- like an enraged bull, spitting all over himself, he blustered out: "Well, if he's dead, there is no doctor that can do him anv good. A ! couple o' you black skunks over there j (addressing two negroes who were ab most blanched to a bluish white and i who were trembling near bv"i, get j ahold of him and drag 'im out of the ! way.'' One of the negroes, with a leering grin, replied: ' J shipped on this here ship to handle bosses, and 1 don't allow nohow that it's my work. to tote corpses around. ' ' Just then the second foreman rushed over, jjave the negro a push out of the way and. grabbing the heels of the dead man, pulled him away from the run, 1 turned away, sickened with disgust. The foreman then took an j empty oat sack and spread it over the bloody head. .hit tiieu the clanging bell of an ambulance was heard and a white-clothed white-clothed doctor, followed by two men with a stretcher, pushed their wa- through the crowd of horses and horse-i horse-i meu. Thev were accompanied bv a po-jlueman. po-jlueman. The body was put into the ! ambulance and taken away, while the j police officer went on board the ship. The past v-faced doctor was hold in'? j onto the rail of the runwav and cough-( cough-( ing. I thought each gap would be his , last. The seeond foreman was talking to him. The doctor paid no attention. Going up behind the doctor, the fore-! fore-! man coolly measured his distance and ! swung on the point of his jaw. The doctor crumpled up and fell on the t doi k. At this l owardlv and dastard-lv dastard-lv a.-t.J saw red and made a leap at the foreman. An onru-hing light flashed in front of me and a huge lo-coniotie, lo-coniotie, going sixty miles an hour, hit me between the eyes; then black-n'-. When ! came to. 1 was Iving in mv bunk in the hold. I had an awful headache. Then everything rame back j to me with a fla-h. I could hear the gurgli ng of water on the ship "s Mde and knew wo were under wav. Right then and there 1 donned never again, especially while aboard ship, to interfere inter-fere with the f" re ?n a n. A mnn that cant: of human wreck and cutthroats it whs cwrv man tor himself, and the survi a I nf the f it ; r-t. I had two beautiful black ovp and mv nose felt like H football. I went up on dc-k. The moon and star were out and the twinkling lights of ew York harbor were cradualh-fading cradualh-fading into, the di-tnme. Leaning uer the rail were thw fop-man and the veterinarian. vet-erinarian. "bM'" 'amy bv name. The foreman w as talking, snui ches of his Icon vcr -at ion reached m v car--: "Load horses? Why, that bnnrh of scum they wished on me couldn't load lump sugar, one lump at a time. How ; Brown expects me to deliver 1300 I horses into Bordeaux with this scurvy j outfit 1 don't know. We're, lucky. 1 thiukin', if five hundred o' them don-' . die. Why, there's not one o' the blighters knows which end of a horse , eats hay. I tell you, Doc, your work is . out. out. for you. If, in a few days, you don't have a couple of hundred cases of colic on your bands, then I 'm a bloomin ' liar. ' ' " Doc ' f Casev answered: "Well. I'll tell you, Mr. Goorty, this is my third trip over and I have seen some tough bunches, but this one is the limit, aud I sure have a iob on mv hinds. It 's too bad that Pinero lefJ out on that young fellow, because, iu mv mind, that was o prettv eowardl'v blow. He seemed to knowlhow to hau- 1 die horses. What do you say if I give 1 hirn the job of assistant veterinarian? ! He's had six rears' cavalry experi- ' ence. ' ' ; The foreman answered: ! ' ' Throw him over the side, if vou j want don't ea're. But I guess vou '11 ; need someone to help vou out, so go I to it." 6 j I was overjoyed. Just then Pinero I came aft. The horse doctor turned to! ; him nnd said: "Look here, Pinero, I've seen lots of dirty work in my life,: hut tbat exhibition of yours on the dock is about the filthiest I've seen in a long time. Vow. just take a tip i from me. That young fellow from now ; 011 if working for me, and vou lav vour hand? off of him. Jf I find vou meddling med-dling with him, I'll push that sillv grin j of yours down your throat until it ! chokes you. Xow, that's all I got to j say, lav off of him. Do vou under-j under-j Ftand ? " Pinero started to mumble excuses, but the doctor shut him up with, "I don't I want to hear any more. 1 'm off o von : ftr life, but remember what 1 tell vou." Steer clear from the two o' us, sab'e?" j T guess the second foreman "savied ' , all right, because he vouchsafed no an-j an-j swer. My heaft warmed to "Doc' , f 'nscy and I slipped away unobserved. j "Assistant Veterinarian." The next morning the doetoj fixed mo up with court plaster and I was in-j in-j stalled, as assistant veterinarian at $30 1 for the trip. I was to sleep in "Doc" j Casey 's stateroom, where he had his j medicine Htock, but before entering the j room ' ' Doc " told me, " Take this ' bucket of water; put a few drops of j creosote in it, and go aft on the hatch and take a good bath, and throw vour underwear away. T at-ked him what for. He answered: "When yon tnke your shirt off. take a good look at it and you'll see why.-' I began to feel itchy all over but minutely followed his instructions. Upon taking my shirt off, one look wn enough. It wa alive, and over the rail it went. Doe loaned me a white ; Mi!t and took charge of my outer clo'h- inn. What lie did with them I don know, but tha afternoon he returned j them to me. They were shrunk a size smaller, but were clean. I wa? satisfied. satis-fied. So was Doc. Vive days ont we ran into a squall and our work jas cut out for us. We even had horses on tho decks in wooden stalls. The ship was lurching nnd pitch-ing. pitch-ing. ani huge seas would hurst over the. gunwales. Several of the wooden Mai's gave way, and the horses were Inoe on the dc k. With e verv lur--h of t hp ship a couple of hordes would fnll, and, kick-j kick-j ing anil Miorting. would slide down the inclined deck, hitting against winches and the hatchway, ?crH jMn g their hide off. It wa ortb a man's life to get into that mess. Then 1 had more or 'ess respect for the foreman and sevond le.rcmnn. Into the mbUt of that struggling and V ick i n g bunch of hore thev went. a-aitrd bv Doc t"aey. four of the hores re'-e- ved broken leg-, and Pin -I ero, instead of shooting them, cut their throats with a phnrp dagger P carried. Or o of the ne "roes from t h lower hold si jggered to the upper deck with hi face blanched almost white, ami his eve popping ont of him head. Between Be-tween ga spji he informed n that n whole scrt ion of stal Is. t wont y four in nil, had carried niviiv between decks, and that the horses w ere loose. H e -aid three negroes of his gang wore r a i: h t in this stampede. The f nre ma n must e red most of the men . nnd dividing t liem into t hree croups, in charge of himseif, tho second foreman nnd Doc nsey, thev went below. be-low. 1 followed. An Jiwful sight met rev rvi'i. The ship was birching in a horrible manner. All I could see was, one minute min-ute h pi le of kicking horse, smashed up planks nnd the three negroes piled up in one corner of the compartment, and then, with a lurch of the ship, thev won Id si ide into the ot her. Nothing could be done bv us. t was madues to attempt am thing. The throe negroes ne-groes were dead. That night and tho following da v was a portect hell on the ship for men and hores. The phip rode through tho nqunll and when it became calm we h 11 got busv. Out nf the t wonty four horses between decks we had to shoot even teen on account of injuries. Be-hides Be-hides the seventeen, three had died from broken necks. The four renin in-i in-i ng horses were still a H e, but hardlv had h mU re foot of hide left. They were a pitiful sight. Tho next dnv the three negroes woro buried nt oa without a word of prn v it. Tor the next couple of day nothing of importance happened. A bout four da s out of Borden u x one of the large M earn pipes in the lower hold bu rst . In this hold t here were sitv four horres. The engineer ef the ship t nod to repair the brea k, but it was almost worth ii man's life to i;o down t here in I ha t hiding and scalding steam. The cries of the hordes went Mraight to mv heart. All we could do was to turn st reams of cold valt water from three pairs of hoses into the hold, thus trying to keep tho hc: t. down and sa e as man v horses OS ponvible. Whv the engineer did not shut off the vteam I don't know. J noted this fact in in v report . A f t er a bout fou r hours the steam was nhut. off nnd tho two foremen. Doc Casey and myself, followed bv t w-ol vn ol her men, w ent into the hold. 1 will novor forget tho sight as long ns 1 live. Nearly every duo of the horses wan dead, and those whi'h still remained alive had to bp 'hot. Soinn of (hem won practically boiled alive. The weather was hot. nnd it whs not long before the r:iltin;; bodies of thn hordes made tho steiu-'i n board unbearable. We had lo got t hose bodies out . Dong t ac k les wr J rigged up, a chain around tho nock oJ a dead horse, and f worked the winch. The bodies were snaked along the passageways pas-sageways in the hold and tip to the hatch. Some of the bodies would not hold together, and it was a common sight to see a dead horse suspended in the air by his hind leg drop tmd' ienlv into the hold below, leaving his leg hanging to the tackle. Every horse sent to France is branded with a different brand. They have a system of indexing them. As each dead hore was snaked to the upper leek. Doc had to stoop over and make a note of the brand before the horse was thrown overboard. As the dead horses were dropped over the side, a resounding splash could be heard and the water was churned into a foamv white as the bodv momentarily sank from view. Then the bloated body of the horse would reappear and disappear in the wake of tho ship, the seagulls hovering acid screaming around it. The grub on that ship was awful, and a day out of Bordeaux the gang i of horsemen refused to work. The j foreman mustered them on the main deck, and standing on the bridge, let I out about twenty minutes of religion and advice in their direction. The whole gang inimediate.lv cot religious and returned to their duties. 1 was heartily sick and disgusted with the rest of the trip because the stench was awful, there Win? about twelve- dead horses that we could not get out. Just outside of the entrance of the river leading to Bordeaux, a small, rakish boat, flying the tri color of J France, came alongside. W'e hove to and up the gangplank came three ! French officers. Thev were closeted with the eantain of the ship and our. foreman, and. after about twentv min- ntes, left and we continued on our course. , j France! Going up the river in some places the banks were only about twenty feet away. We could see the French women tilling their fields. As we went by these workers stopped and waved their hands in the air to us. and wc waved back. It was my first sight of France, and I was not in any way disappointed. It came up to my expectations. A Uttie farther up the river we came to a large dock where ships were loading load-ing and unloading cargoes, and a thrill passed through me as I saw ray first batch of German prisoners at work. These were immense fellows, nearly every one being six feet or over. Thev were guarded by little French soldiers, averaging about five feet five inr hes. with long rirles, bayonets fixed. These rifles, in comparison with the Frenchmen, French-men, looked like telegraph poies. The soldiers had on the old blue overcoats, tho tails buttoned back, pattern of 1571. As we passed the German prisoners thpv scowled at us, and we. feeling quite safe on the deck, veiled back insults in-sults at them. Une big Irishman. Tight near me. took great glee in jumping up and down on the hatchway and running his finger across his throat. This seemed to enrage the prisoners and they yelled something in German. Th'1 Irishman Irish-man must have understood :t because he let out a volley of curses in return. The French pent ne seemed to enjov this barrage of insults and did not in any way attempt to curtail the prisoners' re-maiks. re-maiks. This, at the time, struck me as depicting a remarkable sense of fairness fair-ness and, later on. during my service on the western front. I found out ibar the Frenchman in al: bis dealings is fair and jost. Pretty soon tho prisoners faded out of sight and we came alongside ihe dock at Bordeaux. I was all en gernes and strained my eys so as not to miss the leat thing. The dock was full of F-euch ca -al r men. hu rry ing to and fro. Huge Turcos, black as the ace of s; ado. with white t u rban on 1 heir head, were maierica!1v striding about. After we war;ed into the do-k and made fast our work was over. We had nothiug to do wi;h the unloading of tho horc. The French cavalrymen came aboard with a hunch of cavalrv halters hanging over their arms. It was a marvel mar-vel to see with what case and efficiency th.it ship was unloaded. The condition of the horses was pi ti fill. Thev couM hardly bend their leg" from stiffness. Thev would bobbin down the gangplank a nil stand t remhli ng on the dock. In about a minute or so thev would streteh their necks w ay up into the nir :md seem to b taking long breaths of the pure air. Then they started to whinny. They were railing ba k w ard nnd forward for-ward to eaeh ohor. Fveu though I did not mvicrst.'in 1 hore ::in;:;.ic I krew exactly what the- were sa ine;. Thev were thinking their bore God for their deii era nee from that hell ship, and were looking forward to .roen patuies and a good roll in the ;:rt. Fretty soon you could see them bond their forelegs fore-legs and lie down on the dock: then ti to roll over. It was pi: i ful ; mne of them did not have the strength to turn o e r and they feebly kicked. ' r e t v soon the whole docV wa a mass of rolling roll-ing horsey, the Frenchmen jumping around, gesticulating and jabbering. After getting the horses up, they were divided into clashes according to their height and weight. Then each horse was led into a ring chalked out on the deck and the armv inspectors examined k. Verv few were rejected. From this ring of chalk thev were led into a portable stall and branded. You eould hear tne siiicom' voice of the brander shouting on f what sounded like "Bat try -Loo. As he veiled this a French Prl';? would come over, get the horse which had beeD branded, and lead it away 1 got in conversation with an interpreter and he informed me that the average life of these horses in the French arm' was three dav. so these poor horses had onlv left that hell ship to go into a worse hell of bursting shells and cracking crack-ing bullets. I. after passing a rigid examination as to mv nationality, and being issued a cattleman's passport, inquired my wav to the prefect of police. I delivered to him a sealed envelope which I had received in New York. Upon opening it. he was verv gracious to me and J went into a rear "room, where an interpreter inter-preter put me through a grilling examination, exam-ination, from there I was taxen to a hotel, and the next morning, in the company com-pany of a sergeant and a private, got into a little matchbox compartment on the funniest looking train I ever saw. The track seemed to be about tbreo feet wide; the wheels of the cars looke like huge co2whe?ls on ao engine unnu the cogs. After bumping, stopping and -ometimcs sliding backwards, in twenty- i six hours we reached a little town. Sup- I plies were piled up as high as house. i Officers and enlisted men were hurrying hurry-ing to and fro. and I could see lnng trains of supply wagons and artlllery limbers always moving in the same direction. di-rection. T was ushered into the presence of a French officer, who, I air found out. wa a brigadier general of the quartermaster quarter-master corps. I could hoar a distant booming and. upon inquiring, found out that it was the gun of France striving to hold back toe German invaders. I trembled all over with excitement, and a feeling that I cannot describe rushed over me. I w-as listening to my firs sound of the guns on the western front. Home, but Dissatisfied. Two days afterward I again reached Bordeaux, and shipped to New York on the French liner liocbambcau. Upon arriving in New York I reported to the Frenchman who had sent me over. He was very courteous, and, as I reached out to shake hands vidi him, he placed boTh hands on my shoulders and kissed me on the right and left cheeks. I wa-dumfounded, wa-dumfounded, blushed all ever and after receiving the pay thai was due tne I left. I think J could have borne another trip across with hores. but that being kissed upon my return completely got mv goat. T went ba'k to the routine of my office, of-fice, but everything had lost color and appeared monotonous. I believe I haii left my heart in France, and I feit mean srid small, eating three square meals a dav aud sleeping on a soft bed. Tvhn the armies oii the other side were mai-1 ine the world's history. Sometimes when sleeping I kou! have a horrible night-v..? I ' , those horses being boiled alive T'A J Several times laer I passed J i on Greenwich street, " Koi MOE France, Men V.'anted and th ; j of the second foreman drop ;-H pa-if- faccd doctor would loor r mv "eves. T do not know to " what became of that nervy t Tj humanity, who had the temeril j our foreman v h ere he got O" tjf -J know- he did not make the rass t:4 us. "T |