Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-11-14
PORTLAND YOUTH
GIVES ANOTHER,v|EW
OF ARMY LIFE
WOULD HATE ARMY AS STEADY
JOB BUT FEW MONTHS HAS
DONE HIM GOOD

The life Of an army man is not SO
dull at all times.
Ivan Mccormack, son Of Mrs. j. v.
Mccormack, Of Dandy, writes one Of
his Portland friends a very interest
| ing letter. from the military camp at
Burlington, VT, where he is in train
ing. In, part it is as follows:
81 certainly thank you for the
wristlets.rs They are one Of the things
the government does not issue, but
most Of the boys are like myself
lucky enough to have somebody back
home thoughtful enough to send
them a pair. The folks at home have
sent me socks and other winter cloth
ing, but guess they forgot about
wristlets, so / will give you credit
for bull's-eye,' as they say up here.
When a fellow goes one better than
the rest he gets "bull's-eye.'
"This is supposed to be the coolest
spot in Vermont and at present we
get up in the morning to find a'thick
layer of ice on our water buckets,
and it has showed at different times,
so you see we need everything in the
line of clothing, at present. They
say the government is short of
clothes. Any way, we are still wait
ing for our wooden goods, but nearly
every soldier has knitted socks and a
home made sweater, and one would be
surprised to see the number Of knit
ted and crocheted things in the sold
iers' Quits.
eve belong to the field artillery
now and have our three-inch guns,
with horses attached, and it certainly
is great sport to ride horse or sit on
gun or casion when you are going
over logs or bitches on a run, six
horses for each piece, and at present
one man handles team, eight men
for a gun with casion. The hospital
is full of fellows who have been kick
ed or thrown off, but they are all
anxious to get back at it again.
Yesterday our battery bought
$4,000 worth of Liberty Bonds-not
so bad for 200 men, is it? Oh, ours is
some battery! Twenty are in the
guard house, two have deserted, yet
when the old colonel wants something
put through he calls on Battery C.
So we set the pace. Now the other
batteries will try to Guido us in buy
ing bonds.
"Most of our fellows were put in
the guard house for refusing to do
something, such as washing dishes or
staying on a wild horse when the Off
GERS told them to. They got three
months in the guard house and fine
of $50, but there are some fine fellows
in the guard house. Here a fellow
must forget that he was once a rich
mans son or that he has been to col
lege, and when the officers order one
to stay in the kitchen until 10 p. m,
washing everything, until even the
stove is white, one must stay there.
saw a fellow groom horse from
Ais p. m. until $50 p. m, before the
officers told him he could quit.
Zone fellow over at the second, was
tired of the army and so when they
were at drill and the lieutenant said
"At rest" he leaned over on his gun,
pulled the trigger and / guess he is 2t
rest. Let us hope so, anyway.
s another fellow, tired of the army,
went crazy and every time he was
spoken to he would say THAT amt
it." Well, the officers couldn't do
anything with him so they sent him
to the hospital. E9l After he had been
there a few weeks they put dis
charge through for him, as a menace
to the army, but when they handed
him his discharge papers he yelled
"This is It'll" He was one of the fell
lows who played the game and got
by.
"Still another fellow made believe
he was crazy over religion. He would
sing hymns while at drill, etc. until
he found himself in the guard house.
Now he isn't crazy, has forgotten the
hymns, and is just as normal as any.
II would hate the army as a steady
job, but the last four months has
done me a lot of good and / never
felt better. Don't know where we
will spend the winter, but we all
hope to get out Of this cold country.
The best way can explain the sitau-
ton is by quoting the lines that are
popular around camp:
GIVE don't know where be're going,
But we are on our way;
Yes, we're going to make a showing
For the good old u. S. A
1.-THE band leader has set them to
music and plays while the regiment
sings. We have the best band at the
post