The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1917-12-06

gives an idea OF the inside life and
routine of an engineers regiment and
is written by bright. young Canon
City boy. who is a member of the reg
iment. The young man is ]. Melvin
Affleck. and the present graphic and
interesting word picture Is the contin-
ution OF letter. the fi-st part OF
which was published some time ago:
As ] have said, the men are from
nearly 'every state in the Union About
the only states not represented are
California Oregon. Washington. Ne.
vada and Idnho.
They are mostly young workmen
from all lines OF mechanical trades.
mining engineers. railroad men. civil
engineers. auto mechanics and farm
ers. II is quite noticeable that the
majority were born and raised on the
farm. They are men of all positions
| in life form the day laborer to the
managers and owners OF factories
=, Lots OF them were highly paid men
and the majority were making more
in one week than the $50 per month
they get now. Some have independent
incomes but the most have the spend
thrift habit common to Americans
and ! think especially to men in their
lines. 80 that large part soon had
spent what little savings they had on
enlisting. 1t speaks good deal to
say that most OF these men have
bought liberty bonds 10 the extent of
500 or more and allotted their wages.
in many cases up to SEQ per month to
pay for them. OF course in many
cases It is a good thing for them. for
otherwise they would have nothing on
hand when discharged from the army.
Our company OF 15S men have sub
scribed for over $4,000 In Liberty
bonds.
To go back to my subject the men
are of mixed descent being of nearly
al nationalities including German. II
is surprising how many sons OF Ger
man parents there are. They make
good soldiers and are as loyal as any.
Then there are about 7 or s per cent
foreign birth. being most Polish. Rus
sian. Scotch. English. few Italians
and one Frenchman. Most OF them
e~e fair 10 very well educated. There
are very few who would be classed as
buns.
In politics they are mixed, being of
all parties except /. w. w. You find
very little sympathy among them for
the L w. w. even among the radical
socialists. of-which we have few.
! Very few men are married. but they
write a considerable number OF let.
ters. large part of which are ad.
dressed to Miss at home. guess IL
is better so.
Relations to Each Other.
There are many things to be noticed
In the personal relations of the men
in daily life. In the first place il seems
that friendship depends TO a large ex-
tent on how much two men are to-
sether or upon how close they live to-
eether. For instance. IL Is unlikely
that two men sleeping in different
aisles of the bunk house will be az
close friends as the ones close to you
| find il depends more on that than az
TO their personal likes or things that
affect friendships In outside life. In
fact politics and the current things of
outside life are seldom discussed for
long among the men. or course they
are always glad to talk on anything
connected with their line of work but
even that Is dropped TO a certain ex.
tent. But you can always start an ar.
gument on what the American troops
are going to do In Europe, when we
will get home, about the feed they
give us or when we leave for France.
Another thing that has been remarked
on before is the small difference In
the boys from different parts of the
country.
II is as easy 10 be friends with n
man from New York as one from Col
orado.
When the men from different parts
of the country came together they
were rather clanish. but gradually that
has disappeared until there is very
little trace left.
1t is remarkable think that 150
men can live in such close contact
with pach other in fact live work ont
and sleep within arms length Of each
other and have SO little friction. or
course once In a while there is a fall.