at Smolny, Major Young, provide for those fighters in from the fighting
front for rest. And that might be said too for his battalion mess. No
wonder the doughboy set out to help himself in these things.

Strange to the American soldiers was the fact that at Archangel, a city
of saw-mills, sitting in a nick of a great forest that extended for
hundreds of miles south, east and west, there was such difficulty in
getting supplies of fuel. A desperate sergeant took a detail of men and
salvaged a lot of logs lying near the river's edge, borrowed some Russki
saws with a few cigarettes, commandeered some carts and brought to the
cook's kitchen and to the big stoves in the barracks a fine supply of
wood. But the joke of it was that the watchful Russian owner of the logs
sent in his bill for the wood to the British G. H. Q. And a ream of
correspondence was started between Major Young and G. H. Q., the
typewriter controversy continuing long, like Katy-did and Katy-didn't,
long after the sergeant with diplomacy, partial restoration, and sugar
had appeased the complaining Russian.

At American headquarters in the Technical Institute was held many a
pleasant entertainment to while away the winter hours. The auditorium
possessed a stage and a good dance floor. The moving picture machine and
the band were there. Seated on the backless wooden benches soldiers
looked at the pictures or listened to the orchestra or to their own
doughboy talent showing his art at vaudeville or minstrelsy.

Or on officers' entertainment night they and their guests chosen from
charming Russian families, joyfully danced or watched the antics of
Douglas Fairbanks, Fatty Arbuckle, Charlie Chaplin, and even our dear
deceased old John Bunnie. Not a silver lining but has its cloudy
surface, and many were the uncomfortable moments when the American
officer found himself wishing he could explain to his fair guest the
meaning of the scene. More than rumor spread through that North country,
attributing wonderful powers to the Americans based on some Douglas
Fairbanks exploit. Can it be that the enemy heard some of these rumors
and were unwilling at times to go against the Americans?

Enlisted men's entertainments by the "Y" and their own efforts to battle
ennui with minstrel show and burlesque and dances have already been
mentioned. The great high Gorka built by the American engineers in the
heart of the city afforded a half-verst slide, a rush of clinging men
an