University of South Carolina Libraries
r - - * - - - ? j SYNOPSIS. 1 CHAPTER I?Fired by the news of the inking of the Lusitania by a German submarine, Arthur Guy Empey, an American, leaves his office in Jersey City and goes to England where he enlists in the British army. CHAPTER II?After a period of training, Empey volunteers for immediate service and soon finds himself In rest billets ^somewhere in France," where he first Snakes the acquaintance of the ever-present "cooties." -\ CHAPTER III?Empey attends his first church services at the front while a Ger jxn&n Fokker circles over the congregation. I CHAPTER IV?Empey's command goes jtnto the front-line trenches and is under fire for the first time. i CHAPTER V?Empey learns to adopt the motto of the Brtish Tommy, "If you Are going to get it, you'll get it, so never ; Worry." _ CHAPTER VI?Back "in rest billets, Em;'pey gets his first experience as a mess ; orderly. CHAPTER VTI?Empey learns how the British soldiers are fed. CHAPTER VIII?Back in the front-line trench, Empey sees his first friend of the trenches "go West." ' CHAPTER IX?Empey makes his first 'visit to a dugout in "Suicide Ditch." CHAPTER X?Empey learns what conjstltutes a "day's work" in the front-line 'trench r CHAPTER XI?Empey goes 'over me [top" for the first time in a charge on the German trenches and is wounded by a bayonet thrust. CHAPTER XII?Empey Joins the "suitdde club" as the bombing squad is called. CHAPTER VIII?Back in the front line trench, Empey sees his first friend of the trenches "go West." CHAPTER IX?Empey makes his first visit to a dugout in "Suicide Ditch." CHAPTER X?Empey learns what constitutes a "day's work" in the front-line trench. CHAPTER XI?Empey goes "over the top" for the first time in a charge on the German trenches and is wounded by a bayonet thrust. CHAPTER XII?Empey joins the "suicide club" as the bombing squad CHAPTER XIII?Each Tommy gets an official bath. CHAPTER XIV?Empey helps dig an advanced trench under German fire. , CHAPTER XV?On "listening post" in No Man's Land. CHAPTER XVI?Two artillerymen "put one over" on Old Pepper, their regimental commander. CHAPTER XVII?Empey has narrow escape while on patrol duty in No Man's Land. CHAPTER XVIII. I _ ! Staged Under Fire. < Three days after the incident just reHated our company was relieved from tthe front line and carried. We stayed ;in reserve billets for about two weeks (when we received the welcome news I that our division would go back of the tline "to rest billets." We would remain in these billets for at least two i months, this in order to be restored to ! our full strength by drafts of recruits j from Blighty. Everyone was happy and contented at these tidings; all you could hear around the billets was whistling and singing. The day after the receipt of J the order we hiked for five days, mak!lng an average of about twelve kilos ! per day until we arrived at the small, Jtown of O' . It took us about three days to get [settled, and from then on our cushy !time started. We would parade from 18:45 in the morning until 12 noon. [Then except for an occasional billet ' or brigade guard we were on our own. !For the first four or five afternoons I spent my time in bringing up to date fmy neglected correspondence. | Tommy loves to be amused, and bejing a Yank, they turned to me for i something new in this line. I taught them how to pitch horseshoes, and this game made a great hit for about ten days. Then Tommy turned to Amer lica ior a new diversion, x was up in ! the air until a happy thought came to ! me. Why not write a sketch and break | Tommy in as an actor? ? One evening after "lights out," when j you are not supposed to talk, I impartted my scheme in whispers to the secjtion. They eagerly accepted the idea *of forming a stock company and jcould hardly wait until the morning jfor further details. After parade, the next afternoon I was" almost mobbed. Everyone in the section wanted a part in the proposed [sketch. When I informed them that it 'would take at least ten days of hard [work to write the plot, they were bit 'teriy disappointed. 1 immediately got ibusy, made a desk out of biscuit tins in the corner of the billet, and put up a sign "Empey & Wallace Theatrical !Co." About twenty of the section, upon reading this sign, immediately applied for the position of office boy. I accepted the twenty applicants, and sent them on scouting parties throughout the deserted French village. These . parties were to search all the attics for discarded civilian clothes, and anything that we could use in the props of our proposed company. About five that night they returned covered with grime and dust, but loaded down with a miscellaneous assort< jd' mmcm souarn [0 WENT ? ?" ! flttfiDYDlPEY' GUNIiER,SERVING Iff fRAWCE ?1917 BY I j ARTHUR GUY EHPEY , ment of everything under the sun.! They must have thought that I was | going to start a department store,! ' judging from the different things they i brought back from their pillage. After eight days' constant writing I completed a two-act farce comedy ! which I called "The Diamond Palace Saloon." Upon the suggestion of one j of the boys in the section I sent a rroof of the program to ? griming house in i London. Then I assigned the different j parts and started rehearsing. David i Belasco would have thrown up his j hands in despair at the material which I had to use. Just imagine trying to teach a Tommy, with a strong cockney accent, to impersonate a Bowery tough j or a Southern negro. Adjacent to our billet was an open field. We got busy at one end of it and constructed a stage. We secured the : lumber for the stage by demolishing an old wooden shack in the rear of j our billet. ; , The first scene was supposed to represent a street on the Bowery in New York, while the scene of the second act was the interior of the Diamond Palace saloon, also on the Bowery. In the play I took the part of Abe Switch, a farmer, who had come from Pumpkinville Center, Tenn., to make his first visit to New York. In the first scene Abe Switch meets the proprietor of the Diamond Palace, saloon, a ramshackle affair which to the owner was a financial loss. The proprietor's name was Tom Twistem, his bartender being named Fillem Up. After meeting Abe, Tom and Fillem Up persuaded him to buy the place, praising it to the skies and telling wondrous tales of the money taken over the bar. While they are talking, an old Jew named Ikey Cohenstein comes along, and Abe engages him for cashier. After engaging Ikey they meet an old Southern negro called Sambo, and upon the suggestion of Ikey he is engaged as porter. Then the three of SSI Preparing th them, arm In arm, leave to take possession of this wonderful palace which Abe has just paid $6,000 for. (Cur tain.) In the second act the curtain rises on the interior of the Diamond Palace saloon, and the audience gets its first shock. The saloon looks like a pigpen, two tramps lying drunk on the floor, and the bartender in a dirty shirt with his sleeves rolled up, asleep with his head on the bar. Enter Abe, Sambo and Ikey, and the fun commences. One of the characters in the second act was named Broadway Kate, and I had an awful job to break in one of the Tommies to act and talk like a woman. Another character was Alkali Ike, an Arizona cowboy, who just before the close of the play comes into the saloon and wrecks it with his revolver. We had eleven three-hour rehearsals before I thought it advisable to present the sketch to the public. The whole brigade was crazy to witness the first performance. This performance was scheduled for Friday night and everyone was full of anticipation ; when bang! orders came through that the brigade would move at two that afternoon. Cursing and blinding was the order of things upon the receipt of this order, but we moved. That night we reached the little village of S and again went into rest billets. We were to be there two weeks. Our company immediately got busy and scoured the village for a suitable place in which to present our production. Then we received another shock. A rival company was already established in the village. They called themselves "The Bow Bells," and vat uu a sketch entitles, ? What Hopes?" They were the divisional concert party. We hoped they all would be soon In Blighty to give us a chance. This company charged an admission of a franc per head, and that night our company went en masse to see their performance. It really was good. I had a sinking sensation when I thought of running my sketch in opposition to it. In one of their scenes they had a soubrette called Flossie. The soldier that took this part was clever and made a fine-appearing and chic girl. We immediately fell in love with her until two days after, while we were on a march, we passed Flossie with "her" sleeves rolled up and the sweat pouring from "her" face unloading shells from a motor lorry. As our section passed her I yelled Mitt "Woiin Flossie: Bliahtv?What Hopes?" Her reply made our love die out instantly. "Ah, go to h?1 !M This brought quite a laugh from the marching column directed at me, and I instantly made up my mind that our sketch should immediately run in opposition to "Blighty?What Hopes?" > When we returned to our billet from the march, Curley Wallace, my theatrical partner, came running over to me and said he had found u swanky place in which to produce our show. After taking off my equipment, and followed by the rest of the section, I went over to the building he had picked out. . It was a monstrous barn with a platform at one end which would make an ideal stage. The section got right on the job, and before night had that place rigged out in apple-pie order. v The next day was Sunday and after church parade we put all our time on a dress rehearsal, and it went fine. I made four or five large signs announcing that our company would open '* J ? ? +1,/, "C"innr Oanrtro flip up mat evtfLuug m mc mug v^v.v.e,^ ~? Fifth theater, on the corner of Ammo street and Sandbag terrace. General admission was one-half franc. First ten rows in orchestra one franc, and boxes two francs. By this time our printed programs had returned from London, and I further announced that on the night of the first performance a program would be given free of charge to men holding tickets costing a franc or over. We had an orchestra of seven men and seven different instruments.- This orchestra was excellent, while they were not playing. The performance was scheduled to start at 6 p. m. At 5:15 there was a mob in front of our one entrance and it looked like a big night. We had two boxes each accommodating four people, and these we immediately sold out. Then a J brilliant idea came to Ikey Cohenstein. , Why not use the rafters overhead, call ( them boxes, and charge two francs for , a seat on them? The only difficulty % pusuc . e "Chow." was how were the men to reach these boxes, but to Ikey this was a mere detail. He got long ropes and tied one end around each rafter and then tied a lot of knots in the ropes. These ropes would take the place of stairways. We figured out that the rafters " *- ? nnd CAI H W0U1Q seal auoui mnj iucu auu ouiu that number of tickets accordingly. When the ticketholders for the boxes got a glimpse of the rafters and were informed that they had to use the rope stairway, there was a howl of indignation, but we had their money and told them that if they did not like it they could write to the management later and their money would be refunded; but under these conditions they would not be allowed to witness the performance that night. After a little grousing they accepted the situation with the promise that if the show was rotten they certainly would let us know about it during the performance. Everything went lovely and it was a howling success, until Alkali Ike appeared on the scene with his revolver loaded with blank cartridges. Behind the bar on a shelf was a long line of bottles. Alkali Ike was supposed to start on the left of this line and break oif nf thA hnttlps hv firincr at them with CIA Vi MVVVV^. ?^ Q his revolver. Behind these bottles a piece of painted canvas was supposed to represent the back of the bar, at each shot from Alkali's pistol a man behind the scenes would hit one of the bottles with his entrenching tool handle and smash it, to give the impression that Alkali was a good shot Alkali Ike started in and aimed at the right of the line of bottles instead of the left, and the poor boob behind the scenes started breaking the bottles (Continued on page 7, column 2.) I NOTICE | I will be at Rizer's 5 Stables, Olar, S. C., on g the second and fourth || Mondays of each R month. jfe Dr. J. M. LOVE I Women! 1j A f Here is a message to kff ?8 suffering women, from in ra Mrs. W. T. Price, of nj 48 Public, Ky.: "I suf- ? H fered with painful...", #5 (W she writes. "I got down (Tl y y with a weakness in my Ef H back arud limbs...I S j* j| Kj felt helpless and dis- |jj a Jm | couraged.. .1 had about jjj | 0 ? given up hopes of ever K 13 K 83 being well again, when M N Iniin a Jrlen(* insisted I r/wj] ? Take ^ PADnill UMI1UUI Hie Woman's Tonic W] I began Cardui. In ST H a short while I saw a J| marked difference... 9 9 I grew stronger right 29 along, and it cured me. aS ^ gj I am stouter than I J jVi | jf have been in years." fl w ^ S If you suffer, you can Kg :v jjj| appreciate what It | 1 ja | means to be strong and ? ;? m I well. Thousands of wo- p ffl fl r men give Cardui the FUr ! W credit for their good I M ! nj health. It should help | gjj ! M you. Try Cardui. At all | 9 9 druggists^ E-73 I 9 Whenever You Need a General Tonic Take Grove's. The Old Standard Grove's Tasteless chill Tonic is equally valuable as a General Tonic because it contains the well known tonic properties of QUININE and IRON. It acts on the Liver, Drives out Malaria, Enriches the Blood and Builds up the Whole System. 60 cents. Piles Cured In 6 to 14 Days Your druggist will refund money if PAZO OINTMENT fails to cure any case of Itching, Blind, Bleeding or Protruding Piles in 6 to 14 days. The first application gives Ease and Rest 50c. 1^ Best material and workman- I ship, light running, requires I little power; simple, easy to B handle. Are made in several g sizes and are good, substantial K money-making machines down H to the smallest size. Write for H catolog showing Engines, Boil- S ers and all Saw Mill supplies. ? - LOMBARD IRON WORKS & g I SUPPLY CO. I I Augusta, Ga. ? RILEY & COPELAND Successors to W. P. Riley. Fire, Life Accident INSURANCE Office in J. D. Copeland's Store BAMBERG, S. C. TWICE PROVEN If you suffer backache, sleepless nights, tired, dull days and distressing urinary disorders, don't experiment. Read this twice-told testimony. It's Bamberg's evidence ? doubly proven. James A. Mitchell, R. F. D. mail carrier, Calhoun St., Bamberg, says: "I have taken two boxes of Doan's Kidney Pills and am glad to give my public endorsement for the benefit' I received. The jar and jolt of driving is, no doulbt, responsible for the weakness and pains I suffered "with my back. Doan's Kidney Jfuis brought me relief in a short "While and I never lose a chance to say a good word for them." The above statement was given by M*\ Mitchell on May 29, 1914, and on Annary 22. 1918, he said: "1 always have a good word for Doan's Kidney Pills, because they cured me cf disordered condition of my kidneys and the cure has remained permanent. All I have formerly said in praise of this remedy I gladly con firm. Doan's Kidney Fins are certainly a fine medicine." Price 60c. at all dealers. Don't pimply ask for a Iridney remedy?sret _ Doan's Kidney Pills ? the same that ~~ Mr. Mitchell had. Fostcr-Milbum E Co., Mfgrs., Buffalo, N. Y. I A^iv dftfc A^A 4^4 i^ll A^liAi^kA^I A^jk A^jkAi A^k j^-A\^| j^j| TAT y "A" "A^ "A" "A" "A* A" "a" "A" "A" TA? "at TAT TA? "AT Ty | STONES CAKE s | 4 KINDS X X Heinz Loose Sweet Pickle Heinz Loose Sour Pickle % Y Heinz Sweet anil Sour and Chow Chow Pickle in Y % Bottles. X /a ? Florida Oranges y W IS/ O ? sweet and juicy Y Y I TT?AA Winesap Apples V y WMWMIDM Y ^ UISD if XHX ^ *! *????? fBESH CABBAGE 4 A I SQUASH, CUCUMBER, A X Buy Them And GREEnewAtotatwesPEAS X X Help Win The War puQMr i 5 X Y FOR SALE EVERYWHERE i Trm/i IMTrrro * X i vm uuv/i\Lii\ x PHONE 15 NEXT TO COPELAND'S BAMBERG, S. C. > A^A A^A A^A A^k A^A A^A A^fc, A6iV A^A A^A A^A A^A A^A A^A A^A A^A A^A A^ A A A "C> A + + vVf TA" A AT A A vLA aI^aXaaXA ^7^ AAAIAZAAA^ ^XAAWAAZA ^1"* P1J P^wVTWRFT^ PTWTVP! V A TTiT^TTT^T^ A #i # A # A? A # ?A# \Z* ?1 ~ 1 a | 4* I BUY \V. S. S. BUY W. S. S. I & ]y? B and Help and Help I * I WIN THE WAR WIS THE WAR I ^ iuAvrvnul I li/ivL 1UU i ?<? . jf bought your summer clothes yet? A iSi We are now able to fill your wants in I# ?f? cool cloth and palm beach suits. We ?> ill have one of the best lines ever shown 2 * here, and as we bought early, we *j * Tj? are in a position to save you some *? tt? money. J ?l? * ' I HOW ABOUT THAT STRAW HAT? I < to S? W A We still have a nice assortment of A A* 1 Panamas and leghorns. Come see ? ? t#! our line before buying. ?? tsf w | <f> . ? l fwsa I 1 I 3; | eammmwc | | ? Buy Them And $ I Help Win The War I |* *0R SALE EVERYWHERE *jf |. H. C. FOLK CO. 1 |t I BAMBERG, S. C. I :: iji www ????i ? 4? ( ? ; fcXa jm ^YrtTlYr " ' ? ^ T T I ^ ^ ?j^^iJ*i"*T*wTW*PTwPTvPt^ft^ PT^WTWPT^PWPTVPTWB'I^PTWWTWWT^TWWTWPtIWPIV^iw ^ ^ l Unirene onJ Muloc I iiuidca aim muiio We' have a full stock on hand of Horses and Mules. Our stock is selected personally by a member of our firm, and each animal sold has the Jones Bros.' guarantee?and you know what that means. When you I J need a horse or mule, don't fail to come to our stables. We will take pleasure in showing you. Our stock is always in good condition?they are . bought sound and sold sound. BUGGIES, WAGONS, HARNESS I We have a splendid line of Buggies, Wagons, Harness, Lap Robes, Whips, Etc. We have a number of styles in Buggies and Harness, and we can suit you. We handle only the best ve hides to be had, and our prices are always right. Come to see us; you ' are always welcome. Innac Rfnc I t/vriivo A^I va? I 8 RAILROAD AVENUE BAMBERG, S. C. I 1 ~ ' I lack The Boys Up at The Front Buy War Saving Stamps