|
My Dear Parents: -
Paper is scarce, candles are scarce and Germans are scarce. How's that for
a starter. Have just finished another busy day despite the fact that it is
Sun. Just found out at 7 o'clock this evening that it was the Sabbath. We
are so employed watching every move the Hun makes that one never knows
what day it is. It is very wintry looking here now. All the leaves are
down and it is rainy weather again. We did have several nice days but
hardly had time to dry out until the skies began to weep again. They too
feel sorry for the Kaiser I guess. Have just finished reading
about Turkey's surrender and the Austrian affair and it seems that the
whole thing is going to be over soon. We have beaten them to a frazzle and
from the stories told by the prisoners who come in they are all convinced
that the best thing to do as accept peace at any price.
It won't be long now till I can sit at the table with you and after
filling up on real "chow" lean back and spill you a few yarns. At the same
time wearing a new spot on the wallpaper behind my chair. You surely have
had some time wondering where we are and how we are and I know your
anxiety at times must have been great. Now however you can rest easy for
it is all over but the shouting, I'm sure. Ben writes me he is in good
shape and I'm sure there is some very good reason why you don't hear from
him more often than you do. Grace can be sure that it is much harder for
Ben & I to write than it is for Albert and the fellows who are permanently
located miles behind the lines. They have so many hours a day to work
while we who are in the thick of it must work day and night.
Wish you could see the place I am living in now. It is in the midst of a
big woods and we have a small dugout where we seek shelter when things get
too lively and also sleep there. We have a large tree for an O.P. [Editors note: means
Observation Post] and must
be very careful when on duty because the leaves, which once served as
camouflage, are almost all down. We are miles from water and can only go
for it when night comes. Then we take the buckets and place them in a
small truck, which runs on a narrow gauge R.R. which the Hun, placed here
to transport ammunition and supplies. We can drift
down thru the wood to the road where the carts are but it is some trip
coming back. You can't see the man ahead in these woods at night and the
going is bad. But as the French say "Se-le- Guerre" (such is war).
I am enclosing a picture of the statue of Marie-Christian which I obtained
from one of the Monks at the Abbey where it is located. I'll tell you
about it in detail some day. Just now I'll say that it is the most
wonderful piece of work you could imagine. It is many centuries old and
the whole
group is carved from one piece of marble. The work took the sculptor 8
yrs. + and is so delicate that the lace you see on her collar seems to
wave. The scarf and the pillow at her feet are so highly polished that
they can hardly be detected from velvet. But then that is part of another
story I am going to tell you some day. Oh! I've been seeing things, good
and bad, since I left you last spring.
Haven't heard from you this week nor from Hump. I'm afraid to ask any of
his officers if they have any report of him. The last I heard I hesitated
to believe and am still hoping he will drop me a line. How is his
Grandmother? I hope you always give her my love when you see her and also
to R.J. and his wife. (My roof is leaking, just a minute till I shift a
little.) This underground life is great stuff! Take a candle and go into
the back party of our cellar under the dining room, throw a few buckets of
water around you, place an old mattress on the floor, sit on this with
your back against the wall and with a cigar box for a desk, write me a
letter. That's how I am situated while scribbling this. When I think of
the different places I've called home and, incidentally, a few pet names,
I wonder if things can ever happen bad enough to make me complain when I
get back to civilian life again. I've slept in woods, in ditches,
trenches, culverts, dugouts, etc. but then we are lucky when we can sleep
at all and the beauty of it is that when you lie down, no matter where,
you sleep.
How's me dad! I'm look forward to the happy moment when I can take him by
the mitt as man to man. Say, after all it's just the experience I needed
and I know now and you will know someday what I mean. Tell Grace and
Florence Hemp I want to know their husbands' opinion as to when the war
will cease. Well must close or the war will be over before I've finished.
That's the way I feel now. Keep pulling! Love to all
|
