The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-12-27

never had an inning till now, and the
twenty-fourth of November was set
aside for writing to him and telling
something of the trip or the expert
ence in the war, with the result, that
fathers all over the United States are
watching the mail now for letters,
with almost as keen interest as they
did in courtship days. After the let
ter arrives, dad reads parts of 1t to
his neighbor, and listens while the
neighbor tells what son said to him.
Here are samples of letters to dad:
Ezra Jolly and Charles Farnsworth
Write to dad" on Fathers Day
Lawrence Bingham Writes
to Mother.
| Mars Sur Alters, France
November "a, 1918
Dear Dad:
As this is "dad's day." I'll sure
drop you his letter. feel in the
proper spirit for writing today, SO
this will probably be more interest
ing than the usual run of my letters
ut leaves me well and happy and
hope it finds you the same. Weather
is pretty cold.
Now | will start and tell you some
of my experiences: remember just
as if it was yesterday, the first shell
that came over. We were stationed
at Barbarett Cottage, up in the Al
sace-Loraine sector. We were all
eating supper, which, on this occa-
sion consisted largely of beans (Al-
gerian light artillery we call them
| We were about half finished when
all at once something that sounded
like hundred freight trains came
whiz-z-z-z BAN! and of course, we
all hit for some place of safety. Jack
Roberts hit for the dug out, and SO
did most of the other boys. But
did very funny thing. l got be-
hind small tree. Just as soon as
the shell exploded the boy on guard
started to ring the gas horn, and
maybe you think that wasn't some
breathless moment, while we were
getting our masks on. l got mine
on O. k. but there Jack was with his
half way on and so darned scared
he couldn't seem to get it the rest of
the way. | helped him with his
mask and then we stayed under COW
er for about ten minutes, but no more
shells came over so we went up to
finish our beans. We had just got
started to eating when here comes
Fritzie again. This time he bursted
right over the kitchen, and a piece
of the shell went through the officers
mess shack. No one was hurt that
day, but let me tell you Dad, when
you hear one of those 42's coming
over, you simply have the creeps.
From this place we were sent to
machine gun emplacements and ev-
cry day Fritz had his fun with us,
| We had a regular game of "duck and
duck damned quick (excuse the cuss-
ing but that's just the way fellow
feels, and no kidding.)
We had several gas alarms up
there. Jack and l were at Bio po-
sition and every evening about sun
down, Fritz would shell the French
artillery right in front of us. That's
the place where Jack and | were
gassed the first time. To the hospi-
tai at Baccarat for ours, and there
l stayed for three weeks, but at that
was back with the company in time
to send over several machine gun
barages and we certainly did make
those machine guns talk, oh boy!
l was made WAGNER on April list,
but had driven a car for our COM
pany quite while before that. The
roads were pretty badly torn up and
it was very hard to drive with a
load of ammunition
Our trenches up in the Alsace-Lo-
raine sector were very muddy and
we had most uncomfortable Sleep
ing quarters, with the coolies rails
ing cane with us all the time. We
were hardly allowed outside our
dug-outs because of German air.
planes. Many day have sat in
the bushes and fired at them with
a machine gun.
From the Alsace-Loraine front we
went to the Champagne, where we
participated in fierce battle, but,
as you must know, came out victor
ious. We were camped in the woods
with a regiment of Frenchmen. We
were expecting an attack at about
four o'clock one afternoon, and it
sure did come. Boom! Booml Half
a dozen big shells came over, and
claimed toll of some forty French
men and seventeen horses. was
stationed about ten feet from a big
Frenchman who was seated in his
wagon eating bread and drinking
their favorite drink-red wine. A
shell exploded right over our heads,
and piece Of it struck this big fell
low at the side of his head, tearing
it almost entirely from his body. /
was so shattered over with partic-
les of flesh and blood that our cap
tain thought I had been hit, too, and
came running to me. assured him