The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1918-10-24
From Irving Chayken.


Ny Dear Parry:
Your very interesting letter Of August
70 reached me today and gave me much
pleasure, can assure YOU On receipt
Of your letter l at once started in 10
inquire Of the Hammond boys in my
regiment. and also two other regiments
near by as TO their getting The Times
i found out in each single instance that
once in a month one or two Of our boys
set q few copies that are three to four
months old and can say in my own case
that while you have been sending me
the papers regularly | have only gotten
five copies thus far. The mail service is
getting to be a great farce Letters take
as long as six weeks in reaching US. and
only few weeks ago Congressman Isaac
S'egel. who was in Paris, announced 10
our brave Yanks that our mail was to
be speeded up and that letters from home
would reach US in three weeks. No
doubt NIr Siegel was sincere in his In
ton.ions. but so far I have yet to run
across p letter that took only three
S-aaks in reaching ne. end Selieve me
get enough mail 10 take notice.
we over here are banking on you back
home to see that something is done to
hurry up our mail and l believe that
Washington can remedy the nasty bung
ling Of our mail service The news
papers can help great deal. and a few
good sound editorials on this matter viii
probably help, and il il doesn't then the
buys over here Will take things in their
own hands I appeal to YOU to write.to
Senators New and watson. and if ever
a Hoosier statesman has done something
good they can surely apply their old vim
81. oil ,t.-f.f n
over
am indeed glad that The Times read
ers like my letters and were it not for
the strict censorship I could write you
many an interesting story but so it goes.
Correspondents are allowed to write
whatever they wish while those In ac-
tive service are barred. Oh. it's great,
but why kick: it's all for the cause.
You asked me to write a few lines on
the soldiers life 1 think the following
will go a long way in making a front
page display l don't think there is a
soldier who does not write home that the
closest friend the average Yank has IS
the ecootie" Some Of the boys fear the
'coot" more than the brutal boche, and
words alone cannot describe the feroc-
ious animal
one has to he bitten by a "cootie' TO
appreciate his fine qualities. My use of
the Hebrew. German. French and Polish
langua ges are limited so I will try and
describe him in the plain mona lossh-
on"
The "cootie" is a small animal l. 9
built like eentipede. blessed with bulldog
tenacity and full of vim and bukoo
ambition. He builds his nest in the
seams of your government issue O. D.
and II takes a Morris Dobson warrant
to find him. MY idea of indoor sports
is TO sit UP all night trying to catch
him asleep Of course you have been
vaccinated at one time or another. Well.
to describe him to The Times readers
accurately you can imagine being vac
cinated every two minutes for 241a
hours day.
on account Of the poor mail service
We do not receive great deal Of reading
matter, and I suppose we don't need it.
as it takes bit Of time TO read our
shirts. When battle is over and the
boys go in for q rest you will see all
the boys sitting in the sun perusing
their wearing apparel up and down. in
side and out. and waiting for some
straggler to show himself. Some of our
Yanks claim that they are shod all
four feet to enable them to get around
more easily. and I've been thinking of
advocating hitching them to ammuni-
tfon wal CONS and making them pay for