Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1918-10-25
LETTERS FROM
THE SOLDIER BOYS
Interesting Happenings The Boys in
The Service Write Home.
Somewhere in France"
Sept. 16, 1918.

CGDC' lO, IO1 O.
Ny Dear Sister:
l will try and write few lines to-
day as it has been impossible for me
to write in the last few days.
l received your letter of Aug. 26,
with two others last night, I was sor-
ry for little Dutch. Your letter
found me in the best of health and
l hope this will find Dutch we'll and
enjoying life.
We are having fine weather now to
pay for the rainy and cold spell we
have had.
We have some new draftees nour
outfit and they are a joke. The
other day l was looking at an Austri-
an gun that had been captured
in this last drive and one of them
asked me what size it was. l told
him l did not know for sure so he
picks up a star shell and wants to
know if that is what they shoot
Can you imagine three inch gun
shooting star shells not bigger than a
shotgun shell.
picked cootie off my shirt and
showed it to one of them and he said
it was the first one he ever saw. |
am afraid they will know what coot-
les are in a few days but l hope not
for their sakes.
Well l will try and answer your
questions, of course | don't know
when the war will close and there
is only one that does and if he ever
tells me l will write and tell you,
but Sis. we will eat Christmas din
ner together next year if | don't
hold match to light your firecrack-
er with. Now the Boche use to be
as bad as you read about, but they
don't dare to be that way with the
Americans. They know we would
use twenty of their men bad for
every one of ours that they had
harmed, but what you hear of them
doing to women and the Red Cross
is true. l can't tell you of some of
them as they are to hard to write
but will tell you what they did to
a Red Cross station we were u.s.
ing on one of our drives. They loca-
ted it and when we got a lot of
wounded in it, they shelled it with
their big guns and knocked it all to
pieces.
One German prisoner taken last April
had a pair of baby hands in a small
package. You can imagine what he
got when they were found.
Well about our time at the front
is real uncertain, sometimes we are
there three days and some times
two months. Since Feb. we have
been up at the front or reserve eX-
cept while moving from one front
to another.
| just wish you could have seen
us while we were on the last drive.
There was steady stream Of Ger
man prisoners going to the rear.
They left every thing behind them
and what few got away can consider
themselves lucky to get away at all.
l send my mother all | can, but of
course she can't save what she could
when was at home. | think she and
Charles do awful we'll When | get
back back | intend to enjoy my self
more than | ever did before. | shall
work hard too and shall give Charles
the best vacation he ever had. If
they get what little they owe paid up
by then | will get the house fixed
over for my mother and we won't
have to worry. / want to save fifty
dollars besides my allotment so they
can have a new moving machine
next year.
| was sorry Julia did not finish
school as l would have given my right
arm to have seen her through school
No / did not go to Paris and none of
the privates got a chance to go.
did spend couple of days in Meaux.
| had good time but did not have
permission to be there so the skipper
put me in the jug for ten days without
smokes or writing or receiving let
ters, but Icould afford it. Well |
must close for this time as the censor
must be tired if he hasn't burned it
before now.
Love to all, your true soldier
brother,
Pvt. Edwin NJ. Annis
,o1L n