Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1915-09-01
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
the letters home of Russell Kel-
IL. the son Of James E. 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 expoSitiops 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 /, and 1t
IL believed that he is now 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 / have
dug 1000 miles Of trenches, or nearly
that many. They are constantly dig
cling new and repairing old trenches,
30 now we have an elaborate system
Of underground streets.
After sent my last letter or we
gct orders to pack all our stun and
DO ready to move during the night
About midnight a French regiment re-
haTed as and we started to march. 1t
was a very dlsagreeable night and,
coupled with chilly, penetrating fog
and the rather forced march, we were
- nh had
town at a. m, and we Of the fif-
tenth esquand squad were assigned
20 a sort OF cow shed. The ground
was as hard as a rock and cold. We
turned in, but as tired as we were, 1t
was impossible to get much sleep.
Outside there was a small yard with a
squad kitchen on one side and our
quarters on the other.
I'll stop here a second to say a word
about the men In our squad. The cor
poraI could be most anything, but 1
think he is Arab French. He Is quiet
fellow and o. K 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
Is a very quaint character. l enjoy
watching him; he reminds me so much
OF those gnomes which used to inter
est me when l was small. The other
fellow is small and very brown. The
way they confide in each other is lu-
dicrous. When one has an imaginary
illness he takes the other aside. and
the way they put their heads together
and sympathiZe with each other Is
lsughable. 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
Gus pair The old fellow has been joy
GUS for about fifteen years.
We have two Italian brigands. One
- big, husky fellow, and the other is
q typical dramatic villain-gOOd look
ing, dashing and all that stuff. 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 l 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 1t, 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 a 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 a wallOp in the jaw.
The American section acted as If they
were all hit, and. in fact. they were if
one of them was hit. In about a sec
Ond it was the biggest free for all 1
was ever In or hope to be in. We bat
Iied 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.
Brigand With a Brickbat.
In a lulI in the action l happened to
look around in time to see the villain
Gus looking bandit picking up brick.
] made a bee line for him and received
. good cleut on my bean for my trou-
bic. The guards eventually separated
as, but we carried the day.
landed at the infirmary and had
nh, rooH-15 n