112 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



ropes and chains let it down the precipices, the road twisted so they 

 would have to bend it in the form of a letter S to get it around the 

 curves, and they let it down, and one day brought it in with the com- 

 pliments of the chief commander of the Serbian army. So we set up 

 our post in the middle of our camp in Kremlzani and hoisted the Ameri- 

 can flag, and took possession of the town and about 20,000 acres of 

 land surrounding it. 



Now why we did this was because the people of Kremlzani were 

 bandits and Turks, and just as soon as the Serbs drove out the Turkish 

 army they took possession of this city, and the Turks were so stubborn 

 and so cruel and bloodthirsty that when the Serbs came into the town 

 and occupied it they found two Serbian soldiers roasting over a fire on 

 a spit, and out of vengeance they set the town on fire, when everybody 

 who was in any way implicated in this murder, and the rest of them, 

 women and children, all those people escaped into Turkey, skipped 

 across the border, whoever remained alive after this ruining of the 

 city skipped into Turkey, and then turned and fought against the 

 Serbs through this whole world's war, so the town was absolutely 

 deserted, and they presented us with the whole thing. It was ours. 

 For the first time in my life I was the owner of a city and the sourround- 

 ing territory. 



Now, when I say "city," I mean just piles of bricks. Once in a 

 while you could see a door or an entrance or a wall or a roof, but you 

 would see nothing but ruins wherever you went, and among the ruins 

 was a great deal of ammunition. We found hand-bombs and grenades, 

 and it was dangerous to dig, because you might strike some explosives. 

 So we started our camp right next to the town, and started to build 

 our own city, and just drew our bricks and stone and materials from 

 the ruined town. We constructed our barracks and our tents and our 

 magazines and our workshops for machinery, and got our engineers 

 and other people to work, and our machinery and other things were 

 coming from Salonica, where they were unloaded from the ships. 

 There came up altogether something like 250 cars of stuff that had to 

 be hauled over to our camp in automobiles, we had acres and acres 

 covered with that, and by-and-by we had to erect buildings and store 

 those things, and erect our workshop, machinery shop, carpenter's 

 shop and blacksmith's shop and other things. 



Now, where did we get all this help? The commander of the 

 Serbian army gave us not only the site and the surrounding territory, 

 but they were very kind to the Americans. You see an American in 

 the Balkans is looked upon as just a few inches below Wilson. Presi- 

 dent Wilson is conceded to be the greatest man that ever lived. No 

 matter where you go, just mention Wilson and there is a hurrah every- 

 where. If you mention Italy, nothing doing; mention France and 

 England, there is not mtich enthusiasm; but just mention Wilson, and 

 you will see them go off every time. 



Now, Americans, coming from Wilson's territory, of course were 

 received with great honor and great respect, anS given all the privileges 

 of the country. So the commanding general of the Serbian army told 

 us: "Whatever you people need in the line of help, you just tell us 

 your wishes, and you can draw from out army for mechanics, for 



