known and terribly retarded transportation which was almost at a 

 deadlock, and we congratulated ourselves on having moved into a very 

 small house, where the half-ton lots of coal, all that we were allowed 

 to buy, sufficed for a considerab.le period. Food supplies never ran short. 



In February I had to go up to Cataumet on business, going by train 

 and returning, or trying to, by the Fall River boat. My journey re- 

 minded me of General Sherman's account of the two roads over the 

 Cumberland Mountain, in Tennessee: "Which ever one you take, you 

 wish you had taken the other." My train arrived in Boston so much 

 belated that I missed the connection for the Cape and had to wait till 

 the next morning. The following night, I left Fall River by the steamer, 

 but was awakened early in the morning by the stopping of the boat. I 

 waited till daylight, then dressed and went out on deck and there saw 

 such a spectacle as I never saw before or since. Long Island Sound, as 

 far as one could see in any direction, was a mass of ice and we lay in it 

 almost helpless, for the boat had broken one of her paddle wheels 

 against the ice. Finally, we Hmped slowly into New London and were 

 put ashore there, where we had a long wait for a train, another and 

 longer wait at New Haven, eventually reaching New York six or seven 

 hours late. 



Soon after that time, the first of the great German drives began and 

 we were all appalled at the speed and power of the advance. That drive 

 stopped within 1,700 yards of complete success. Amiens would have 

 been taken, the French and British armies separated and German vic- 

 tory would have followed. I have read accounts of German eyewitnesses, 

 who declare that the drive was not stopped by the enemy but by the 

 irresistible temptation to loot. The soldiers, half starved by substitute 

 rations, could not resist the sight of real food and stopped to plunder. 

 All through that spring and up to July 14, the date of the last German 

 advance, we were in a state of continual anxiety, as great as that which 

 had burdened our hearts in August and early September 1914, when it 

 seemed as if nothing could save Paris. 



When Foch began his series of counterattacks, anxiety gave way to 

 triumphant relief. From then till the Armistice, not a day's papers 

 failed to bring news of a success against the enemy somewhere. We 

 were all especially elated by the fine showing of the American troops; 

 the American soldier has no superior, but I had feared that the hastily 

 improvised corps of officers would not prove equal to their task, but 

 my fears were not justified. The intensive methods of training adopted 

 proved sufficient, on the whole; of course, there were many failures, 



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