Putnam patriot., 1918-10-18


 pair continually since we left. They have not worn down very much for the length of time they have been worn.
 ''ies, 1 walked up the gang plank alone, short ways back of Capt. Sell. We went up different plank from the rest of the gang. It was rather important feeling; walking alone, with the bunch looking on. And We did live fine on the way over; l was almost sorry to have the boat land. The trip across the channel was some eome-down to the other one.
 ''Papa's speaking of the freight at home reminds me to tell you of the trains here. have told you of the little short and light cars that we have here and train of thirty or for ty doesn't make much of a train in But there is a lot of American-man- ufactured rolling stock over here. You would be surprised to see the number of U. S. A. engines and cars on the trains. The engines are all big types but have been fixed up 'Frenchy' in order to fit with the French cars and engines. The cars have two bumpers on each and with chain coupling in between and a turn buckle arrangement to keep the bumpers together. to prevent the play between the cars. Some of the U. s. A. cars are built French size and some are built the regular American make. Just think of transporting all of this material over here. Of course some of it was built here or in Eng land, but according to U. S. plans. Then, too there are many soldier en- gineers and firemen operating. The train that brought us here from the French port was drawn by an Ameri- can engine operated by U. S. soldier men"
 "8.00 D. m. Sept. IT.
 ''I couldn't finish all at one sitting and this second 'spasm' comes at a rather dilatory time. I finished in regard to papa's letter. and now will answer any questions which you ask ed in yours.
 II hope you are getting my mail right along and am glad you have re- ceived my letter written on the boat Was it cut any by the censor and what parts? l wish I could be there and attend Chautauqua with you. Will you tell me something of the various programs or send me clip pings about it. l got the clippings in this letter of yours and enjoyed them very much. l hope you will send the Patriot to me, for I shall be very glad to read what is going on at home. You can send it just the same as you would if I were at Camp Devens
 hc way hiihSo EoiiiE hpWs it begins to look as though the end is near. It can't come any too soon for me, for I shall be having to continue with the work for some time after ev- erything is over, especially if I am still here when the end comes.
 ''I am sitting here in our office in Central Headquarters, because we haven't electric lights in our barracks yet. A week ago this last Saturday we moved over here from Unit No. 5. got them over, our bunch, at that time, so they would be free to go on pass Sunday afternoon. Our barracks here are practically the same, two decker beds, except that there is a dirt floor and no doors on the ends of the buildings. The frames are up but the doors are not yet hung Two rooms were built in at one end and Sgt. Kennedy and myself have one of them and the wto corporals in the other squad have the other
 "The rooms have dirt floors, too When we first moved in, we had one bu~ ]. at ne side and the other against the wall. The room is quite small aLG it didn't leave hardly any room to @at around. We conceived the idea of putting one bunk above the other, on framework, and that would give us quite little space Sgt Kennedy got excused from work one afternoon md we went to work. We got our beds fixed and then wondered if we couldn't make some sort of floor. We discovered pile of tile over in front of the officers mess hall that was being gradually broken up from being walked on ,and we decided that we could get enough good ones to make a floor They were about 2 in. thick. in. wide and 8 or 10 in. long. We levelled off the floor and began cart ing them in a wheelbarrow with Sgt. Kennedy doing the laying. By sup per time we had it finished and it came out fine. We filled in the cracks with sand and it makes a fine solid floor It looked so 'Frenchy' when finished, that I hung a dry bush over the outside of the door Each wine room over here has a dry bush hung 4 L