The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1917-10-05
WRITES
FROM THE
FRONT
Especial 10 THE TrmEs.)


WHITING. IND. Oct 5-The follow
ing most interesting letter has been re-
ceived from the French front by sena-
tor and Mrs. f. n. Gavit of this city:
Tuesday. August %, 1917.
Dear Clarence:
Half an hour ago I started to write
YOU but got no further than the first
line when our Lieutenant came and
broke the pleasant news that my car
had nat tire. Now that the French
Michelin is replaced with an American
Goodrich. 1 am starting again on your
letter
Today is quiet and cold. Now that
the French have in four days recovered
positions that the Boche were six
months in capturing. our hardest work
is over and instead of all being OF, duty
all the time only six Of our. twenty are
working now. I go out again tonight
after twentyfcur hours Of rest IT has
been a great week for the French. They
have pushed the Germans back about
two miles on an eleven mile front. They
have taken positions that vii make it
easy to drive the Boche back further
They have grabbed off over nine thous-
and prisoners and best of all, the
French losses are slight.
L do not know how many hours have
been on duty lately. but I think have
averaged about eighteen of work out of
every twenty-four hours during the last
week. Ny schedule. along with that of
four other fellows has been little stiff
fer than that of the others. but every
one has worked mighty hard One TWEEN
ty-four hours the goth and FIST OF
August we carried seven hundred and
sixty wounded. the record for the Am
erican Ambulance. We have been very
lucky. not one of our drivers has been
injured. (Somo Of us got a little too
much gas one nighO but over half OF
our cars, mine included. have been
scratched UP by flying chunks Of shells.
Other ambulances working the same
post as we. have had cars wrecked and
drivers injured. but so far we have come
through without an accident.
I thought Id had close escapes be-
fore but lately I have found out how
close one can be to a bursting shell and
still get away whole-skin. The other
day / was standing in the doorway Of an
abria when the we'll known whizz-z-
bang came. The shell had come in about
fifty yards away. right where bunch
of officers were standing one dashed
young Gavit, along with a couple OF
Frenchmen. to drag in the wounded. We |
got part way when another shell came
closer. We heard the whizz in time
and fell fiat. A horse about ten feet !
away from me was killed. and French |
man who did not fall down in time was
pretty badly msngled up. We got hold |
of him and just as we got to the abria /,
a third present came from the Boche. /
this time not over twenty-five feet away. !
We all dropped fiat, wounded man and |
all. and although stones and dirt fell all /
over US, no one was hurt. I thought 1 |
was just about killed. my ears rung, |
my heart was knocking off about three
hundred thumps a minute. and I had
blood on my puttees. (This turned out
to be from the wounded fellow. We
got inside and stayed there until they
got the wounded ones bandaged up. /
Then 1 got my car backed around in
record time, got it loaded, and dashed
off at about ten miles er hour more than
a Ford had ever before gone. One of
the wounded I had. died just after