ho had come through battles and all sorts of dangers
were about to take a dive over the side if our officers had not started
explaining in time."

Stories of varying degrees of interest, some thrilling, some humorous
and some pathetic to the last degree, have been brought back.

Ralph Tyler, the Negro newspaper man, who was sent to France as the
official representative of the Afro-American press by the Committee on
Public Information, has written many of the incidents, and told others
from the rostrum. He has told how the small insignificant, crowded
freight cars in which the soldiers traveled looked like Pullman parlor
coaches to the Negro soldiers.

"To many of our people back in the 'States,'" wrote Mr. Tyler from
France, "who saw our boys embark on fine American railroad coaches
and Pullman sleepers to cover the first lap of their hoped-for
pilgrimage to Berlin, the coaches they must ride in over here would
arouse a mild protest. I stood at Vierzon, one of France's many
quaint old towns recently, and saw a long train of freight cars
roll in, en route to some point further distant. In these cars with
but a limited number of boxes to sit upon, and just the floors to
stand upon, were crowded some 1,000 of our own colored soldiers
from the States. But a jollier crowd never rode through American
cities in Pullman sleepers and diners than those 1,000 colored
troopers. They accepted passage on these rude box freight cars
cheerfully, for they knew they were now in war, and palace cars,
downy coaches and the usual American railroad conveniences were
neither available nor desirable.

"The point I wish to convey to the people back home is that did
they but know how cheerfully, even eagerly our boys over here
accept war time conveniences, they would not worry quite so much
about how the boys are faring. They are being wholesomely and
plenteously fed; they are warmly clothed, they are cheerful and
uncomplaining as they know this is war and for that reason know
exactly what they must expect. To the soldier who must at times
sleep with but the canopy of heaven as a covering, and the earth as
a mattress, a box freight car that shields him from the rain and
wind is a real luxury, and he accepts it as such.

"There need not be any worry back home as to the maintenance of our
colored soldiers over