and to cease firing at
11 A.M., but by the time the messenger caught up with the rushing troops
it was ten minutes after the Huns had ceased firing on the Western
front, and those colored boys were just putting the finishing touches on
one of the neatest captures of the war--a German army train of fifty
wagons.

TAKING THE BIT BETWEEN THEIR TEETH

Their commander had one criticism to make which, however, will not be a
mark against the old 8th: "My greatest difficulty was in keeping my boys
from going on after they had obtained their objective," he complains.
The boys had formed the habit of "getting there" so strongly that
inertia kept them going. Discipline in this respect seems to have been
lacking among the American soldiers generally. We heard this same
complaint at Chateau Thierry, at St. Mihiel and in the Argonne. These
doughboys, like all genuine Americans, evidently believed it good policy
while getting, to get enough.

FIRST AS WELL AS LAST

It will be noticed the 8th was among the last to quit doing things, but
they were among the first to start things going. Laon is an important
city of France about eighty miles northeast of Paris. For four long
years it remained in German hands. Allied troops recaptured the town
October 13, 1918. At the head of the column of troops entering the city
was a colored sergeant of this regiment carrying a French flag while,
not to be outdone in courtesy a French Sergeant walked beside him
carrying the Stars and Stripes. The French people of Laon knelt by the
roadside and kissed the hand of this colored sergeant of the 8th
regiment. The torture of four years was over and they saw in this proud
young soldier a representative of the Great Republic of the West
rescuing France from the rapacious soldiers of Germany.

THE HINDENBURG LINE COULD NOT STOP THEM

The Hindenburg Line was the most celebrated battle line of history. It
passed through Laon, LaFere, St. Quentin, Cambrai and Lille, a total
distance of about ninety miles. Every foot of that distance was
fortified with such massive trenches, supporting lines of trenches, and
elaborate lines of wire entanglements that it was supposed to be
impregnable. Nothing known to warfare ever equalled such strong
defenses. Every avenue of approach was defended by machine guns and
heavy artillery, and in the trenches and at easy supporting distances to
the rear were massed the best soldiers of Germany, yet that line was
crossed by