The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1917-11-22
INTERESTING LETTER From
SOLDIER BOY AT THE ~FOONT'

IN Ik8EO1 uN~ LII hE<e 0U8
SOLDIER BOY AT TAE FRONT
Following is . letter handed to Us
for publication which Is especially in
teresting communication. it heing
written by Willard C. Taylor from
Somewhere in France" Mr.. Taylor
serving his country as . SamI,ie at
the front. VI. Taylor ls an old school
friend Of Mrs. John Spells of Jules
burg, the following communication ap-
pearing in 4 recent issue Of tn Mex
ico IN Y. Independent:
The following is an extract from .
letter received by Mrs. W. ". Kings
ley of this village from her nephew.
Willard G. Taylor. son Of John C. Tay-
lor of this village. who is now in
France, q member of the Syracuse
University Unit.
Somewhere in France,
Oct. 81, 1917.
Dear Aunt Julia:
received your letter eighteen days
after you sent it out-that's pretty
good. You see boats leave New York
every Saturday or Monday and some
times more often, so your letter
ought to get here in three weeks.
Every fellow runs for the mail at four
o'clock each day as if his life and for
tune depended upon his getting let
ter. read three weeks cid New
York Tribune yesterday and even
read the weather report. At present
l am still zen repos" between Scissors
and Reims. l expect to move to the
front within few days. l am very
sorry | can't tell you exactly what l
;ncw but dcub, if it would ever leave
France.
OF course you have heard of nv
previous experiences through ou-
'amily, SO will only tell you what ]
have been doing since wrote father
two days ago. Sunday night l wit
messed and was in my first air raid.
Boche planes flew over our canton
ment and bombed houses very near
here. Several women and children
we're killed and others wounded. |
The Germans are trying to locate a
base hospital about two kilometers |
from here and came within a few
yards of it night before last. The
nights are very light now and ideal
time for air raids. When the sharp
nels began dropping and exploding in
the air above my head I STOOD almost
petrified for I didn't see any place to
go or any use of running for bomb
is just as liable to drop one place as
another. All the fellows got out
gas masks and helmets and got under
anything that they could. I crawled
under five ton truck and looked out |
at the excitement all that l dared.
l can tell you now this is not exact
ly what l call pleasure and leave it |
to your imagination to realize a per-
sons feelings.
We are only about ten or twelve
miles from the front and the constant
rumble and roar makes me wish I
could bury. my head in pillow for
while. ! will say now, once and for
all, that anything that you read in the
papers about the Germans cruelty and
hellish deeds is true for have heard
and seen enough already to convince
me of that.
They have absolutely no sense of
what human lives are worth, and when
people say that it is war of govern
ment, ! say, it is the whole darned
German race. l know absolutely that
they crucified one Canadian officer
right in front of a whole regiment,
which at the time was helpless to do
anything.
l could write you pages of things
that different officers have told me
and they are as true as anything can
be. watched stretcher bearers un-
load some soldiers at the hospital the
other day that make me have some
queer feelings, believe me. My stom-
ach felt sort of funny and wondered
right away how was going to be able
to stand it at the font. The poor
mangled were tagged like dogs and
had been just brought from the front
line. They were bandaged from head
to feet and were the most horrible
creatures l ever saw. / will certainly
have to use all the nerve in my body to
handle these men before they hardly
received first aid.
Of course the stretcher bearers look
after that, but l have to see if they
are put in right and properly blanket
ed. 1t is more than any human soul
can realize to try and conceive these
horrible things. And the people in
the States are absolutely, yes, totally