The "OO LA LA" Times. A Journal printed with the hope of: passing the Censor, and for those at Home who care.

FIRST ISSUE OF THE 17TH U.S. ARMY ENGINEERS NEWSPAPER PRINTED IN FRANCE DURING WWI, A PAPER WITH A MISOGYNISTIC BENT

[WORLD WAR I ARMY NEWSPAPER]. The "OO LA LA" Times. A Journal printed with the hope of passing the Censor, and for those at Home who care. Vol. I, No. 1. Folio, 4pp., in four columns, printed on brown paper, unbound, as issued. Published by The 17th U. S. Engineers, "R[ailwa]y." Somewhere [St. Navaire, France:] Oct. 30 '17. $150.00

Poetry, sports, account of a "sing song," etc. An informative history of the U. S. Army Engineers is, Charles Hendricks, Combat and Construction: U. S. Army Engineers in World War I (U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, 1993), readable online. Future issues of this newspaper were notably misogynistic, at least as concerned French women. 17th U. S. Engineers (Railway) was one of the first units of the American Expeditionary Force in France. The first issue of this soldier produced newspaper contains a two-column piece by Army Chaplin and Episcopal Priest, Henry Russell Talbot (b. 1873), entitled, "Of our Friends, The French," by way of introducing the French to American troops. The newspaper came to be largely written by Talbot, especially later issues. He was a Bostonian educated at Harvard and the Episcopal Theological School at Cambridge. Ordained in 1898, he was elected dean of the Albany Cathedral in 1903. During World War I he was chaplain of the 17th, later senior chaplain First Division, and still later chaplain of the Seventh Army Corps. In 1920 he became canon of Washington Cathedral. Talbot retired in 1942 as rector of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Rochester, New York. Many of the articles of the various issues were unsigned, but by Talbot. "As the personal items became more biting, the paper became an improving scourge to the men who read it. Discouraging men in their relations with local women held first priority in the paper's list of behaviour modifications...The Oo La La Times did not just throw its ice-water on relationships that looked mercenary on the part of the French woman, but on any sign of affection or even generosity by an American man for a French woman...Too much attention paid to a woman drew the attention of the Oo La La Times. The implication of the newspaper's message was that French women could not be faithful. If a soldier showed signs of making a commitment to a woman, it behooved the paper to demonstrate that she was not worth it..."-Mark Meigs, Optimism at Armageddon: Voices of American Participants in the First World War (1997), pp. 128-132. Exhibiting a bit of racism, Capt. DeNice Burkhalter contributes a piece to the paper entitled, "Essayons," the motto of the 17th meaning "forward," that "We are not expecting any other race or color to do as well as we can and must do." OCLC locates five copies. Folded, else fine. 84642