The A. E. F.: With General Pershing and the American ForcesBroun, Heywood
History
The A. E. F.: With General Pershing and the American Forces
Broun, Heywood
United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
There were sports as well as military exercises in the program arranged
for Clemenceau. There were footraces and a tug of war and boxing
matches. In one of these American blood was freely shed on French soil
for a middleweight against whom the tide of battle was turning butted
his opponent and cut his forehead.
I did not see Joffre when he paid a visit to the army zone and reviewed
the troops but he left a glamor for us all in our messroom where he had
dinner with General Pershing. It was a reporterless dinner so it meant
less to us than to Henriette who served the dinner for the two generals.
Nothing much had ever happened to Henriette before. She looked like
Jeanne d'Arc, but the only voices she ever heard cried, "L'eau chaude,
Henriette," or "Hot water" or "OEufs" or "Eggs." And if they were not
wanted right away they must be had "toute de suite."
It was Henriette who brushed the boots and cleaned the dishes and swept
the floors and every night she waited on peasants and peddlers and
reporters. Once she had a major in the reserve corps. He was attached to
the quartermaster's department. But on the historic night she stood at
the right elbow of General Joffre and the left elbow of General
Pershing. I was away at the time and the correspondents were telling me
about it before dinner. While we were talking she came into the room
with the roast veal and I said, "Henriette, they tell me that while I
was away you waited upon Marshal Joffre and General Pershing."
One of the men at the table made a warning gesture, but it was too late.
Henrietta put the hot veal down to cool on a side table and pointed to
the seat nearest the window. A large man from a press association sat
there but she looked through him and saw the hero of the Marne.
"Maréchal Joffre là," said Henriette. She turned to a nearer seat and
pointing to the shrinking representative of the Chicago _Tribune_
explained, "General Pearshing ici."
One of the men rose from the table then and got the veal. Something was
said about fried potatoes, but Henriette remained to tell me about the
historic dinner. She admitted that she was very nervous at first. That
was increased by the fact that General "Pearshing" ate none of his
pickled snails. The Maréchal had fifteen. The soup went well, Henriette
said, and General Pearshing cheered her up enormously by his conduct
with the mutton. The chicken was also a success. After the chicken the
generals held their glasses in the air and stood up. Henriette noticed
that when Maréchal Joffre stood up he was "gros comme une maison."
As he left the room Maréchal Joffre pinched her cheek but the mark was
gone before she could show it to the cook. For all that Henriette had
something to show that she waited upon generals at the famous dinner.
She opened a new locket which she wore around her neck and took out a
small piece of gilt paper. She would not let me touch it, but when I
looked closely I saw that it had printed upon it "Romeo and Juliet."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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