Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-08-07
MOURN ABSENCE
OF OLD SMOKES
French Tobacco Poor Stuff, Says
Moline Boy in Interesting Let
ter from Overseas.

Entirely characteristic of Stan
ley A Tullsen is the letter which
has just been received by his Mo-
line friends and parts of which
are here reproduced. Tullsen, for
mer Moline newspaper man, bet
ter known as Whitley" wildly de-
scribes what he evidently finds the
fascinating life of training in
France and probably by this time
is aiding in the great push to shove
the Hun back where he came
from. He writes:
Sitting here waiting chow call
and will slip you a few lines to
while away the anxious moments.
Am just winding up my first month
on this side. and still have the
regulation number of legs and
arms, but l don't look the same.
Il am thin, but feel fine. l
haven't been in action yet, but by
the time you get this | suppose l
will have ducked a few shells and
kicked a German or two in the
shins. Here's hoping!
France looks good. Scenery
beautiful, quaint buildings, kindly
people and all that. Around where
we are there are few signs of the
horrors of war. About the only
atrocity 1 have seen committed so
far was by the company cook. He
calls it stew.
"Old men and women are doing
all the work, and it's hard to find
anything to buy. Otherwise farm
ing and business IS being conduct
ed as usual, though we are not
far from the front
I'VE can hear the big guns roar
ing day and night, sometimes too
close for comfort. Air battles we
see often and we have seen a num-
Der of planes go down in flames.
A certain city was being bombed
while we were on a troop train
awaiting the move out. but we
were not hit. Outside of this all
has been peaceful, though we have
taken some heartbreaking hikes
and had some tough drill
TuIIsen says that it is rather a
tough proposition to get smokes
and extras in the line of eats. Dur
ham and Camels are spoken of
reyerently and in whispers, he
claims, and Bull sometimes goes
for as high as dollar a sack. He
says that he has paid franc for
three rather mutilated Camels.
French tobacco is not a favOrite
with the Yanks evidently, as he
states that the stuff is a crime,
tastes Incredible and dynamites
your lungs"
Jam, cheese and canned goods
are about all We can buy at the
peas, scrub brushes and wine are
about all they sell in the dumps
| here. You buy a can Of stuff at a
small fortune, guess at the label
and find you have hair restOrer in
stead of peaches. l saw one guy
pay four bits for tobasco sauce
which he thought was pork and
beans.
We are camped in a small for
/ est here, sleeping two to a pup
tent with plenty Of hay and two
blankets The nights are chilly
and the weather here is much
cooler than in Illinois in the sum
mer. 1t doesn't get dark until
about 10 and is daylight by 3. We
have a company kitchen on wheels
and chow wherever we land. Eat
a la squar, and as to baths, there
amt any But we're r'arin.
We just started getting mail
yesterday, as we've been hopping
around so much that it's always
Z
J hadn't seen an American newspa-
per since l lit here until today
when I copied a Sterling Gazette
| from a Guy from Rock Falls.
don't know a fraction as much as
| to how the war or anything else
I is going as you do there. | would