Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-11-02
POE WAS MEMBER
OF BLACK WATCH
Letter From Dead Football
Star Tells of Army Life in
Northern France

A recent issue of the Princeton
Alumni Weekly publishes an interest
ing letter from John Prentiss Poe, Jr.,
95, the once noted football player,
whose death in the fighting in France
on September 90 was reported from
Paris. Poe was private in the IA
nous Black Watch regiment with the
British army in northern France,
which was practically annihilated in
the recent allied drive against the
Germans.
IL their commencement reunion
last June the members of his class
gave him postal shower" At the
suggestion of Andrew c.. Imbrie, the
class secretary, all the members sent
Princeton picture postcards to Poe
with an individual message from each
sender. The class secretary received
reply from Poe. sent from North
ern France" which follows:
"I want to write thanking you in
the name of the class for the postals
the fellows sent me.
$50 far about 130 have arrived, and
as ! read the sincere wishes of the
fellows many an incident unrecalled ID
for years at least comes back at see-
ing the we'll remembered names.
"I have transferred from the heavy
artillery to the infantry-the famous
Black Watch, than whom there is
none SUCH who over one hundred and
fifty years have showed the British
flag into many quarters of the globe
and kept it there, until now, as Kip
ling said:
Never a sea so Distant never an isle
so lone
But over the sand and the palm trees
the British flag has flown.
"I am beginning to feel more al
home in a kilt; and while they are
cool, the legs get dirty for quite way
above the knees.
"You all must have had a great
reunion, and I often thought of you,
during the four days in June,' and
wished I could drop in on you.
Am glad Net was there to tell the
fellows where / was. | should have
dearly liked to have seen the enlarg-
ed kodaks taken years ago.
There is no use in my telling you
about the war; as you doubtless know
much more than do, and besides, our
letters are censored.
"Of course. we are going to win;
but the Iimburgers' are putting UP
great fight. What business have
the square heads to start on the
weathered the Spanish Armada, the
Dutch under De Ruyter and Van
Tromp, the Grand Monarch and Ma
poleon?
Aren't you sorry am such a shark
on history?
"The Black Watch carried a Ger
man trench on May 9 after several
regiments had tried and failed II
was taken with the piper playing the
'Hieland Laddie.'
"The heavy artillery does most OF
it's firing from five to eight or nine
thousand yards and one never sees the
enemy.
There is no use in writing why
transferred or I would only be mis-
understood-or else suspected OF
bumming my chat (praising myself
"I hope you will thank all the fell
lows you see who took the trouble to
write (and it was trouble too). / had
no right to expect them to do so.
trust that 1 shall be on hand at the
next roundup to tell you how the play
came up or in other words how me
and K. and K. made the 'sauerkrauts
wish that war had never been invent
ed.
"And now, in the stately language
of the rancher and miner, looks to-
ward you all, and also bows. hope
catches your eey.'
"As ever, while water runs and
grass grows. J. e. POE.
Thus speaking, and illustrating the
hardships in France, Private Poe took
long siesta.
"My address is A Company. thiro
platoon. First Black Watch, British
Expeditionary Force, care of War Of
flee, London, England"