The Nenana daily news., 1918-12-06
JR. TELLS OF DO|NGS
 ON FIRING LINE

nington received long and inter-
 esting letter from his son, who is
 with the American army in France and has taken part in some of the
 battles fought.
 ' The following is the letter in part
 September, (date censored) Dear Daddy:
 "I am making the most of very brief, and also very unexpected opportunity this morning to send you line from the War Front in France Hope you have received all my former letters, one of which was forwarded to you in May; one in June; and one in August.
 "The one in May was sent direct to Nenana, the others were enclosed with mail to sister Nell, with in- structions to forward to you.
 Daddy, I am having the ex- perience of my life over here; an experience that is fairly burning itself into my mind, and so far I have been exceedingly fortunate in keeping out of reach of Hun bay onet, Hun hand grenade, or any of their screeching shells, although the latter have made me duck many, many times.
 Have been over the top twice, in what proved to be rather exciting brushes with the enemy, near the little town of -(censored), and have been under shell fire at one time for seven hours without let up, which finally ended in our gain ing the objective we were aiming for, but we had to remain under cover from 12 midnight, until in the morning, before we could ad- vance and make our gains really safe and permanent ones.
 "So far I have managed to get by with only very slight wound in my left shoulder, and now I am begin ming to hope that the worst is about over, although you can never tell.
 Tn your letters to me you have frequently expressed great admira- tion for France, and have told me more of the splendid history of this nation than I ever learned at school. but it would fill your heart with sorrow indeed, if you could see the country now. The things you have told me, have very naturally made me keen to observe everything that come in contact with here, and the sights l witness every day, will | help you to write a book when I come back
 When we march through the | little towns. the men and women. | old and young, come out to their i front gates, or where their front | gates used to be at one time, and they smile greeting, wave their l handkerchiefs' and kiss their hands to the American soldiers as we pass by.We American boys, when we look into the faces of these sad people, and note how hopeless and iejected many of them seem, begin to truly reali}e what a devilish thing war really is They have lost not only their fortune, but the young men are practically all gone.
 "On our march last evening, as we passed through two small towns, we noted many women, and quite a number of old men, but no young men anywhere, and the women were Ill dressed in black However. one cannot fail to admire the brave :ront these French women put up, even under the terrible sacrifice hey have been called upon to make,
 Their love and friendship for he American soldier is beautiful to ee, and it makes our boys want O do more for them, and give more o them than we have done or given eretofore.
 II am not permitted to send you ny war news; have no doubt the ames of the towns which I have mentioned will ha cenSorod out T.