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Show iifs oii BECOMEJCttlfffl They Readily Fall Into the Free and Easy Life of Fig'htinj Men, BATHING IS POPULAR Also Pay Special Attention to Their Dress When Time Will Permit By HENRY G. WALES. Universal Service Staff Correspondent, WITH THE AMhklCAN ALMY. Sept. H. It hadn't taken long for American youths to become acciimated to the free-and-easy Hve.s of t-oldiers. They are as frank and as opn and as shameless aa their French brothers in arms, and a good deal more so than their British comrades. A convoy of American troops halts for a few hours' re:it in some Prt-nch town, not too far from the front but that tho distant rumble of the inc-r-f -ant can-nonnade can-nonnade can be heard, with occasionally the alternating buzz-buzz 01 a boche aeroiJlu.rie aim tne duli boom of the areoi-r.s hurh-u skyward at it. Afwr "chowu.g ' nt the ro:l:ng kitchens that accompany th-m and w ashing up their mess kits, the dough twys usually turn to their toilets. Lven though they are parked in the shade under the tall trees around the public square of the ' town, that doesn't feaze them a bit. They unpack their safety razors, their shaving soap and brushes and proceed to shave then and there. Children Interested. But it is such a commonplace sight that none of Uie townspeople stops to look on. The French children "les gosses." as the Yanks have already learned to call thorn in true French argot gather round, but that is all. Then one doughboy who things he' Is a barber enters the nearest house and borrows bor-rows a chair. He places it on a bor and administers haircuts to such subjects sub-jects as will take a chance on his handiwork handi-work with the scissors. Th-se amateur barbers are not too bad, either, clipping off the. hair close, so the doughboys stand less chance of having gas stick, in their hah". If the Tanks bivouac near a stream, everybody tanes a dip right away. In the line the men shave every day when it is possible, because they have learned from the French that a gas mask; fits tighter if there is no stubble of beard on the chin to let the deadly fumes seep in arid burn them. They have become be-come used to their respirators very quickly quick-ly and wear them twenty-four hours at a stretch without it bothering them. Adopt British Custom. They have also adopted the British custom of merely nip,..i:.g the nose clutch on their nostrils and placing the breathing breath-ing plug in their mouths without strap-pi:-g the headgear over their craniums every time a gas alert is sounded. If gas really materializes, they proceed to adjust the mask according to regulations, regu-lations, otherwise they unr.ip the nose-piece nose-piece and spit out the mouth plug and go on about their affairs. Any time a dud shell lands one that fails to explode ex-plode it is likely to be mistaken for a gas shell and the alarm sounded. Nearly all of the doughboys in the line wrap their tin ha is with burlap or some other material to cover the metal, as. in walking through the trenches, if one's helmet strikes a wire or some projection, it rings like a bell, and is often taken as a signal to open fire by some boohe sniper lurking hidden hid-den and camouflaged in No Man's Land. A stray bullet striking a barbed wire strand makes a ping that can be heard half a miie. and if one strikes a steel hat it sounds like a village fire alarm bell. |