The Carlisle independent., 1918-12-05

- -
 We were all tickled to death to get chance to let our people know where We were. and each man thought q long time about what he would say, and who he would write to, before he ever started to write. Each man want ed to say all he could in the small space he had, and we wanted to let our friends know how badly they were treating us without saying it in so many words, because we knew -he Huns would censor the letters, anG it would go hard with anyone who com plained much. So most of the men said they were having a great ti:ne and were treated very well, and spread 1t on so thick that their friends would figure they were lying because they had to-.
 One fellow had an idea that was better than that, though. He had been in jail In Portsmouth, England, for three months, for beating up con- stable, and he had had a pretty rough time. So he wrote a pal of his that he had been captured by the Ger mans, but that everything was going along pretty well. In fact, he said, the only other trip he had ever been on. where he had a better time, was the three months vacation he had spent in Portsmouth two years before, which he thought the friend would re- member. He said that trip was bet ter than this one, so the friend could figure out for himself how pleasant this one was. Everybody thought this was great idea, but unfortunately not all of us had been in jail, so we could not all use it. Which was just as well. we thought, because the Ger mans would be suspicious if all of us compared this vacation with others.
 4 few of the men did not have any body they could write to, and some did not know their friends addresses, so they would write letters to friends of the other men, and sign it with the friends nickname.
 As soon as a man had finished his letter, he had to go out to the center of the camp, where they had built a raised platform. There the sentries took the letters, and the men formed around the square. There were off cers on the platform reading the let ters. We thought they read them there in the open, before us, so that we would know they were not tamper- ing with the letters, and we thought the heaven would fall if they were getting so -unkultured as that.
 Finally. all the men had finished their letters and turned them over to the officers who read them. And then we saw why the sentry laughed.
 The officers tore up every one of the letters. They were anxious that we would see them do 1t, so none of us would have any hope that our friends would get word.
 But we said to ourselves that, if 1t was information they wanted. they had as much as was good for them, which was none at all, because do not think one letter in the bunch had a single word of truth in 1t. But we were all very angry and pretty low after that, because 1t showed the Huns still had plenty of kultur left, after all, and we knew there was rough sledding ahead of us. Also, some of the men were sore because they had wasted their time thinking up different ways of tip ping their friends of to the real state of affairs. and all for nothing. Why they should worry about time. I could not see. Time was the only thing we had plenty of. and for one, thought We were going to have still more of it.
 Going back to the barracks we tried Co sing Pack Up Your Troubles" but there was not much pep in it. We were not downhearted, though; at least, we said we were not.