"TEDDIES" IN FRANCE

Evening Star, Issue 16514, 28 August 1917, Page 1

"TEDDIES" IN FRANCE

ARRIVAL OV Till: AMERICAN TROOPS. A. FP.L'XCH PORT. June 30. America's troops are already at home on French soil. One hour .ifter they had landed from the transports they had some tents pitched. The Y.M.C.A. shelter was in operation, with 50 •Vme'rictm khaki-clad warriors writing home about their sate trip, while an American phonograph ground out the music Home, Sweet Home.' All of the American troops who have so far arrived are now landed arid hi camp. Army officers of the United States contingent, no less than o: the French and liritish armies, exnresscd the liveliest satisfaction at the business-like fishion in which the undertaking of disembarking the troop* was accomplished. The- moment the first transport, was sighted the army Y.M.C.A. hurriedly put up a tent —on the very dock off which the men later landed. There were chairs and tables and writing paper a,nd pens—and water. It waf a popular place instantly. The' Americans hurried to " get acquainted " just as soon as the detachments were dismissed ashore. One bronzed Clevelander, a new recruit, accosted a German prisoner working in the streets. The " enemy prisoners " had been watching the landing with farseeing eyes. The. Cleveland boy epoke a few brief phrases to him in German. "You're an American," the German responded. " You're not coming here to Gght greasers now. You'll find this is different." And he went up the street. A big, husky American negro, one of the stevedores on the transport fleet, and an enlisted worker, thought he had found a friend when ho espied the black face of a French colonial. He went up immediately, his face parted in a smile of greeting, and spouting aw*y about how "glad he wag to see another nigger." But. the French colonial, who spoke only French, didn't understand the dusky and voluble perion who had accosted him. He muttered a few phrases in French, looked a little frightened, and tried to slip by. "That's the ignotantest nigger I ever Saw in my life," disgustedly remarked the American negro to a soldier passing by. This port city turned out en masse to greet and cheer the Americans.