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Show Such Taking Ways! If some one says to you, "Why that fellow would steal a red-hot stove If you didn't watch him I" you'd probably prob-ably laugh at that as a pleasanr bit of exaggeration because it's abvious that no one could ever do that. But a captain cap-tain of the Judge advocate's court In one sector of France Is the authority for tills story: "It happened during the recent cold spell when some of our troops were traveling from the seaboard to the interior. in-terior. They traveled In semi-open horse cars and it was cold, d d cold I One train stopped in front of a small railroad station and six soldiers with cold hands and feet jumped from the car and entered the waiting room. "In the center of the room was a large square coal stove with red-hot sides. There was a whispered conference. confer-ence. Then one man tood on another's an-other's shoulders and disjointed the stovepipe. At the same time two others placed poles under the bottom of the stove, lifted it off the floor and walked out of the room with It. They placed It in the horse car, stuck the pipe out of one door and were warm for the remainder of the trip. Of course, the French authorities raised a big row about it nnd presented a bill for 400 francs for the stove and the coal In it. When the commnnding officer offi-cer heard the story he ordered the bill paid without a murmur. He said it was worth every cent of it for American soldiers to prove that you could steal a red-hot stove and get away with it "I know of only one case to beat that one or come anywhere near equaling it. That concerned the Infantryman In-fantryman who stole a hive full of honey and took the bees along with it The medical department handled one aspect of the case nnd the provost marshal the other. The bees meted out some of the punishment and we stung his pay for costs." j ((c). 1930. Western Newspaper Union.) |