Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-11-01
IDEAL CHRISTMAS
PACKAGE WANTED;
FOLKS TO Be TOLD
Suggestions From Whole Army
Will Be Used In
Cabled Reply
STARS AND STRIPES"
ASKS A. E. F. AID
Getting Real Needs Supplied Up
To Three Pounds. Don't For
get The Dimensions

Already the boys in France are
talking about those Christmas pack
ages to be sent them from home as
/ indicated by the following, published
in their service paper, stars and
I Stripes"
Dimensions: Nine by four by three
inches-10S cubic inches.
J. Weight: Three pounds-.0777777777
land as many more seyens as you care
to add pounds to the cubic inch
These are the requirements, an
nounced in this newspaper last week,
which every Christmas package for a
soldier in the A. Z. F. must meet be-
fore it will be allowed to leave Amer
lea
Mine by four by three inches-three
inches-three pounds. No more-and
who wants any less?
"You can imagine what is going to
happen when some 100000 mothers,
fathers, wives, swee hearts, aunts
uncles and the rest of the folks start
TO select what is going into those
packages.
Debates sure 10 FOLLOW
"You can hear the debates around
the family council fire. Shall Aunt
Susies wristers be ruled out in favor
of Aunt Hattie's fruit cake-that is, if
fruit cake isn't perishable? Shall
Cousin Georges sporty suggestion of
three packs of cards Including one
cnt nf =
dice be allowed to stand, or is there
more weight in Uncle Freds opinion
that the boy must have used up all
his safety razor blades land probably
| los. the razor several months ago?
The kid brothers proposal to send a
motorcycle starts a laugh, but can
they discuss so easily little sisters
modest insistence that the package
be filled chock- block full with home
made fudge?
"It's going to be one of the prob
lens of the war. 1t is major opera
ton, if there ever was one.
"Now, while none of the folks is an
amateur when it comes to picking out
Christmas presents, while they may
have their own ideas of what We want
even more than we do, still, can't we
help them, can't we make the puzzle
easier to solve?
1--WE have been here anywhere from
10 days to II months. We know, by
this time, what we can get and what
we can't, what we need and what we
don't
What then, should be the contents
of the ideal 9x4x3 Christmas package?
1.-THE Stars and Stripes will cable
home in plenty of time for the folks
to act on it, if they want to, the best
suggestions for such a package that
it receives from the members of the
A. E. F.
Don't Forget the Size
There will probably be many ideal
suggestions. A member of Field
Signal Battalion in the line may not
want the same three pounds of prac-
tical good cheer that an assistant
provost marshal at port of entry
would like. A man stationed in a
good-siZed S. o. S. center might con-
ceivably be able to buy something
that a doughboy, wondering when the
ration carts are going to catch up,
would give his soul to have sent to
him from the very heart of the salt
fields of Utah.
I'VE shall, so far as is possible and
practicable, take all these considera-
lions into account All we ask the
American soldier to do is to remem-
Der that every package is to be small
er than a piano box and larger than
watch case-that it must be, to be
exact once more, nine inches by four
inches by three inches in size, and
that ii must weigh no more than three
pounds.
1.-The folks will be waiting to hear
your suggestions. The great news
services have already carried word
back to them that your suggestions
are coming Send them along. The
best ones will go to America, and they
will reach America in plenty of time.
Just put the words Christmas
Package Idea somewhere on the en-
velope when you write us"