La Junta tribune., 1917-11-08
sos1EwHERE IN FRANCE


e. p. Dudley, os Santa Fe Railway
Regimcat, Writes Thrilling Let
ter OF Life In War Zonc
E. P. Dudley, . former well known
train dispatcher for the Santa Fe at
this point. writes one OF the most
Interesting descriptive letters OF life
"somewhere in France" that has yet
been received from there. It was
written to one OF his fellow COM
patriots In the Santa Fe service. and
Ne have been permitted to make
some extracts from II that are more
! .eAlizntsning as to real conditions in
the war zone than anything that
has yet appeared In any Of the news
papers. The letter in part n - fol-
lows:
It has been some time since
heard from you. one small letter
10 all-but no Campbells. I would
hate to put my eyes on . Campbell
~ my heart Is rather weak. French
smokes are stronger than hades. and
not an American cigarette In the
country.
We have been in service some lit
tie time now. in fact. We were the
first regiment Of the American Ex-
peditionary Forces in active service.
which fact was given wide publicity
here We have three English news
papers published In Paris. The New
York Herald and Chicago Tribune
publish . baby copy for the troops
and II II sure welcome Is II keeps
us in touch with the important stuff
ut homo. but Of course does not run
. La Junta column.
We are directly on the western
front in the most stragetical terri
tory OF the entire front. We operate
. purely military road. handling
nothing but ammunition. food and
hospital trains. Never see any one ex-
cept those In uniform. although we
occasionally see = Red Cross nurse
or two on the Red Cross trains.
We have solid trains OF Red Gross
cars. We keep three OF them here.
and five more SPOTTED close.. all
ready TO move to the point on the
line where an attack II made.
The system Of rsilrpeding here
Il 10 much different. but the ex-
perience 10 certainly valuable. We
work directly under the military su-
thoritiss. and they have impressed
upon us one essential featuPe--the
railroad trains must run. and run re-
gardlsss OF dslays. - We feed ~
army Of . nillion men every day.
aad they have made ~ all feel that
vs are 70 b dspsadsd upoa TO DE-
liver trainloads OF supplies every day
asd deliver them on time or the large
asay viii suffer.
We have forty-eight cardsd traias
each way every day. About seven
miles 10 double track. and the bal
sacs Of The sixty-slvs miles b IN.
gle track. Am chief dsspatchsP.
or ~ The Preach ny. "chisf d'nevs-
meat" We sss nvias 10 hasrseks
here. II . iittls valley hilAsa -.
tvssa lsfos hills. I have set ~
fosad oct tAas ws are Aidasa say.
- the oesDsas sseo % kAew. ali
absut us-ju1giAs from Tie vsy
tAsy treat u. We have = Arss <sr-
nissl here With. many sasinsl.
We have tsautifSsd The country.
side With. jeas lsso trenches. built
.: > eeavsaisat distance 70 orr Guar.
tsfs. Il y vssy ascsssssy that ws
can make euP way thsss n the dssk.
- " hunt thsa aAay tinss auFlng
tAs alsht. especially durias the past
ewo weeks vhsa the 0ooa has besa
fan. Hsias comes ever svssy sight
ssl throws spDlss q %. sad The
spDiss bufst oil over you u you srs
NOT - . trssch. We get The signal
from tAs lockout balloons on the
hill that ~ 10 coming. asd then ws
naks . nassahoa soe the ditch. I
|lh ~ have " clothes Off for four
1ays last vssk, bst ] A % istlss
~ q delsiag Ne spe,ss. Asy
ssrs nuss % ~ sesstsy.
We ase aet allowed 70 tell any
pastjeulsss. o. would Ten you q
vhat . vea1sssul tine yeu hAvs
nisse1 ~ sot coming aloag. I veull
~ havs missed THE for worlds. Our
PeA1 = . dandy. We eaaset uss
ligAts q alght. and many tinss The
trains have - stop. anA the crews
ees uslss Wills The beothsss are
having fua. ne naehiss esss sre
~ wosse thinop sos ths tsaia. md
. tSaia ~ eeAse a1gA4 vhSsA ~
foo)ovo1 ~ . YS1to, anl ovogy tl0o