The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1915-09-02
AMERICAN BOY
OF SLIDING
Member Of Foreign Legion
Says Ty Cobb Can't
Compare With
Soldiers.

trench fighting and camp life
In the European war appear In
4 the letters home of Russell KEEL
ly. the son of James +. Kelly Of New
York city. Kelly Is twenty-five He
left New York In November Of last
year, supposedly for a visit to the
San Francisco exposition. The first
word received OF him was that on Nov.
"a. at Bordeaux. he had enlisted In
the Foreign legion for the duration of
| the war.
He was officially recorded at Depot
de Lyons as missing on July 1, and Il
Is believed that he Is now a prisoner.
The following letter to his father Is
published by the New York Evening
| Sun:
May 6.
Dear Dad wish they had some of
those trench digging machines Worlds
Advance tells about, because l have
dug 1000 miles OF trenches, or nearly
/ that many. They are constantly dig
ging new and repairing old trenches.
so now we have an elaborate system
of underground streets.
After ! sent my last letter or we
got orders to pack all our stuff and
he ready to move during the night
About midnight n French regiment re-
iieved us and we started TO march. 1t
was n very dsagreeable night. and,
coupled with chilly, penetrating fog
and the rather forced march. we were
fneN
town at 8 a. m. and we of the If
teenth esquand squad were assigned
to sort Of COW shed. The ground
was as hard as rock and cold. We
turned In. but rs tired as we were, II
was impossible to get much sleep.
squad kitchen on one side and our
quarters on the other.
I'll stop here c second to say a word
about the men In our squad. The cor
poral corld be mos: anything. but l
think he Is Arab-French. He Is quiet
fellow and o. X. There are four le-
gionnaires with us; one of them has
served fifteen years with the legion
and the other about ten. They are
both naturalized Frenchmen and fast
friends.
Soldiers Big Children.
The old timer has a huge beard and
Il a very quaint character. enjoy
watching him; he reminds me so much
Of those gnomes which used to inter
est me when l was small. The other
fellow d small and very brown. The
way they confide in each other Is lu-
dicfous. When one has an imaginary
illness he takes the other aside, and
the way they put their heads together
and sympathize with each other b
laughable. As they share their sor-
rows they also share their joys.
You buy their kind OF Joy by the can
teen, and. believe me. they are a Joy
ous pair. The old fellow has been Joy
Gus for about fifteen years.
We have two Italian brigands. One
10 big. husky fellow, and the other Is
typical dramatic villain-good look
ing. dashing and all that stun. We
have an Italian kid with US. but he is
only a nuisance. The two brigands
take an interest in him to the extent
Of continually kicking and cutting him
around. Well, as | was reading your
magazine ! heard n noise In the yard
and upon going out found the six foot
corporal smuggling the five foot FIVE
legionnaire. was glad to see II, be-
cause the little fellow needs beating.
He talks too much. Weeks was out
there, but he did not like the uneven
ness of the fight, so interfered. The
big brigand then came up and hit the
little legionnaire beaut. knocking him
across the yard. The little fellow got
up just In time to be Knocked back
across the yard, and the big fellow was
going to repeat the performance when
Weeks interfered again.
BY this time we were all out in the
yard enjoying the fun. The argument
got hot and finally. as usual. the
peacemaker got walIop In the jaw.
The American section acted as II they
were all hit, and, In fact, they were II
one Of them was hit. In about sec
ond IT was the biggest free for all
was ever In CT hope to be in. We bat
tied around the yard to a fare-you-
well, and In no time the guard was on
the scene with fixed bayonets. but we
still kept on