Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Diane Monico and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. [Illustration: (cover page)] [Illustration: "MARCHED TILL MY PACK GAINED A HUNDRED AN FIFTY POUNDS"] "Same old Bill, eh Mable!" BY EDWARD STREETER 27TH (N.Y.) DIVISION Author of "Dere Mable," "Thats me all over, Mable" _WITH 27 ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK-AND-WHITE BY_ G. WILLIAM BRECK ("_Bill Breck_") 27th (N.Y.) DIVISION [Illustration] NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS _Copyright, 1919, by_ Frederick A. Stokes Company PREFACE The rightful place for a preface is at the end of a book or, better still, the scrap basket. My only reason for setting it here is lest someone read and, misunderstanding, take offense. Not for one moment has there been any thought of making light of that splendid, almost foolhardy, bravery which has characterized the American soldier. It was he himself who made light of it, as he did of the whole war, and probably would of doomsday. Nor is there anything unkind or deprecating in his attitude toward the Frenchman. He met a race so distinct from his in ideals and customs that there was no basis for understanding. Failing to understand, he followed his usual rule in such instances and laughed. One of those veterans of a dozen battles, chancing to glance over these pages, may say that the dangers and horrors of those last five months have been underrated. They, however, belong to a comparatively small and enviable minority. Those who turned the tide in July, 1918, and who knocked the line at St. Mihiel into its proper place in September, also bore the brunt on the Meuse and the dreary mud-spattered monotony of the Army of Occupation. The great mass of the American army saw but a few brief weeks of fighting during October and November. Thousands of other Bills, equally brave and more eager because it was denied them, never heard the sound of guns except on the target range. This is not a treatise on International Relations. It is not a chronology of battles. It is not a memorial of brave deeds. It is merely a few impressions of Pvt. William Smith, Buck, placed in a situation so new, so incomparable, that it had wiser men than he guessing. He was one of those who left their reasons for being "there" to be analyzed by men not so occupied in the business of keeping alive. He would have been bored to death if you had tried to explain them to him anyway. His loyalty and patriotism were so unquestioned that its discussion was absurd. Sentimental, yet so sensitive to obvious sentimentality that he died many times making fun of the things that he was dying for. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "Marched till my pack gained a hundred an fifty pounds" "Everybody had a beard on both sides of his face" "Beat the buttons off them with a big board" "Everyone tucks there napkins under there chins" "They just ishued us overseers caps an rapped leggins" "Will have to lean them up agenst something"