The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-03-15
LETTERS FROM THE
BOYS IN ARMY CAMP
From Wednesdays Daily.

| From Wednesdays Daily.
| Mr.. and Mrs. ]. j. Schauss, 232
Belgrade avenue, have received two
interesting letters from their son,
Private George E. Schauss, 476th Ae-
TO Squadron, A. e. f. Following are
the letters:
Somewhere in France, February,
191S-'Dear Mother and All: | am
dropping you few lines today to let
you know that l am still among the
living, also well and happy as usual.
The weather is nice, just like spring,
although il is raining here today. |
suppose the next thing | will have to
do is to learn to talk French. Quite
number of the boys in our squadron
can speak it already, having been
| born in the east and having lived
among the Canadian French. | sup
pose the weather at home is very
| severe at present with lots Of snow.
| AS yet | haven't seen any snow
where we are, but maybe | shall. L
| imagine the weather is changeabie
| here as it really seems too nice for
February. Charles is still with me,
| thanks to our good fortune. He sends
| his regards. How is Johns arm get
| ting along. | hope it is almost well
| by this time. Well, | haven't time to
write any more at present, so VIII
close now. Write to me real often
With love to all, | am your son and
brother, George"
February 17.-Dear Mother and
All: This in Sunday and / haven't
10 7 xrr,ritn
other letter. 1 attended holy mass
this morning and church never look
ed so good to me in my life. 1t is
almost two months since we had
chance to attend mass. We were at
pretty little church. 1t was only
about one-half the size of st. Johns,
but it certainly was finished beauti-
fully on the interior. There is an
orphan asylum there and the little
Toys sang during mass. After church
we went through an old abbey, which
was built about 1900 years ago. 1t
is a beautiful edifice, but would take
too long to describe it. | wrote you
a letter two weeks aGO. | am Won
derirg if you will receive it soon.
There is not anything doing here
that | can write you hut l suppose
there is a whole lot of news that you
can write to me. | am well as ever
and hope you are all the same. AS
ever, lovingly, your son, and brother,
George
Private F. J. Frogley, No. 2503374
Railway Construction Depot, The Ar
mories, Hamilton, Ontario. Mr.. o.
NJ. Hatcher, Mankato, Mimi, Dear
Sir: | just received two days leave
so am taking the chance of dropping
you a few lines. I hope you will ex-
cuse the pencil as ink is rather
scarce around these quarters.
Well since leaving Mankato l
have had lots of experience. With
examinations, both physical and
trade tests, l hardly know where l
am. Altogether l have had seven Of
them, three trade tests, for l entered
as a machinist, and four physical
tests, and have two more coming,
one tomorrow and one on the 18th.
We expect to sail for England on the
18th of March.
By the way I fell down on one of
| those trade tests. l got fooled on
the assembling part of it. We have
Nash, Jeffery, and Packard trucks
here, three of each, and six men to
each truck. When the damaged or
broken trucks are brought in there is
tag on them telling which part is
defective or broken and the SER
geant-at arms and the chief me-
chanic detail which of the six men
are to pull her down. The truck is
only allowed to be in the receiving
station two hours. They mark the de-
fective parts on tag and then it is
rushed to the hospital, as they call
it, taken down, the part replaced or
re-machined and then it goes to the
clearing station. 1t is allowed eight
hours to be in the CRIPPLED base and at
the end of that time must be on the
road again.
This place is represented to be the
base of one of the allies centers for
truck stalls. This week we had rifle
drill and squad formation. We biked
about sixteen miles last Wednesday
and it began to snow and we certain
ly looked like a bunch of wet cats
streaming into camp. There were
seven hundred of us.
Our captain is a Minneapolis man.
He was working in some engineers
office there. | was his orderly last
week for four days. Some job be-
lieve me. The grub is swell as we
have the same as he does. He told
me he had seen a Little Giant on ex-
hibition display and called it the
tractor express. He said it was the
highest geared tractor he had ever
seen. He made the suggestion that
| should tell you to equip it with the
| caterpillar traction for hauling 10
| inch Howitzers over plowed land in
France. We work twelve to fourteen
| hours day steady. We are getting
in trim for long journey "over
there" but oh my we are in for
good time when we arrive. They say
| it is all work and no play there
Well, Mr.. Hatcher, give my regards
to all the boys and tell Gus the army
is good for rheumatism. l might sa,
| the company l am in is composed
mostly of Americans from the States.
I think l have told you all / can
for the present and promise to write