Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-04-20
Somewhere in France
Feb, IS, 1918
Giving Up Hope.

Giving Up Hope.
Dear Mother:
was just beginning to give up
hope of ever receiving anymore let-l
ters when one finally arrived, also
several cards to congratulate me on
my ripening years. Thanks for tel
ling me how old am. you know.
l stopped counting long ago.
To-day l had the old adage proved
that Satan finds work for idle
hands to do" only this wasn't what
I would call work, il was too pleas
ant, even il painful. Now. you see,
there are four Americans in this es-
cadrille and one of them being Of
fered first lieutenancy in the Ameri-
can army, accepted ii, and also a
prolonged permission to celebrate it.
Incidentally an enormous number
of packages arrived for him, one.
resting in our room for some time,
So to-day after dinner we three AM
orleans having finished all our eat
able packages long ago became sud
denly hungry for candy, and natur-
ally We soon began to wonder if that
lone package contained any. Well
you can imagine how our curiosity
soon overcome our scruples. One
unwrapped the string, another the
paper and then we all ate the enor-
nous box of candy, and now l have,
the head and belly ache; which ad-
mission, 1 know will please your
sense of humor and gives you a lot
of pleasure in saying: Served YOU
right for stealing"
Not Stealing.
But it wasn't stealing you know.
We were merely preventing the
candy from getting stale, for YOU
know in these hard times it is a.
ir4Y 20 Ia.
quite a lively time endeavoring 10
find which one would take all the
blame. Nobody wanted it, at least
not all so we finally unanimously
decided to blame ii on the censor.
SO when our American comr9de
wants to know where his candy went
we can suggest quite Indignantly
that it was censored.
As for our "Zangs" they are near
ly all armed now, and we should
soon a-hunting go. Mine will be the
last done. of course, but the mount
ing of the camera is coming along
rapidly now and l am hoping for
plenty of exciting things to happen
once l get awing. 1t makes me
chuCkle to think of using my ma
chine gun to make Fritz sit up and
take notice and then shoot him with
the camera. We still have the wall
of the bass fiddle and flute next
door. but fortunately the 'fiuter de-
parted this morning to checker
another Zang.
He has tried twice now to fly over
the 2O0-mile cross-country journey
between the factory and the camp.
but both times failed.
No Hard Luck
don't wish him any hard luck,
but hope he goes zen panne" again.
for have Vet to discover any melody
in a flute. The place where we get
these new machines is situated near
Paris, as 1 told you before, but l
don't think l dare name the town.
Anyway. every plane there is brand
new. even to having price tags on.
Il believe mine is still on, and flew
il home that way) and since they
pull all the Zangs out of the hang
ars every morning and line them up
outside, il means considerable work
for the mechanics. So TO save the
men they had horses TO do this work
1t was indeed a strange sight TO see
one horse pulling an enormous 200
horsepower artifciel bird around,
but the sight changed to an amusing
one when a horse ran away with a
Zang one day. One could't help
laughing. Everybody did. For IT
was most comical to see the express
sion on that horses face when the
enormous bird gaining momentum
from said horses frantic efforts,
caught up to him and gave him a
boost with the propeller. Now, most
people and animals appreciate a
boost, but not this kind, for it only
served to make the horse more
eager to get further away from this
bird which insisted en- following him.
IT. ~ hi
and that made us laugh some more,
for they seemed to be as much afraid
of the horse as said animal was of
the Zang. 1 never did credit in my
letters TO that crosS-country trip /
made when / came home. but then l
was so busy looking for landing
places and wondering when my mo-
tor would go on strike. that / did
not enjoy as much of the beauty as
would have liked to.
You remember I told YOU had no
map. so had to commit to memory
as much as possible of the country
before l went aloft. There wasn't
a whole lot of that information that
stuck. except that there was rail-
road which led to "Meaux" and from
there we flew between the Seine
river and a road. 1t seemed very
simple from the ground, but when I
looked down from l 900 meters there
were railroads all over the place
and I was all balled up.
Fortunately, / was following pi-
lot who had a map so soon found
myself and the direction. And as 1
told you, having a bad acting motor
l was looking for landing places all
along the line. So I had a good look
at the country anyway. when ]
couldn't find lot of open fields in an
open bunch. / looked around for a
chateau within gliding range. and
even with all this watchful prepara-
tion / wondered as l looked 1000 me-
tiers below whether those brown
strips were plowed fields and whether
the very green ones were filed with
high grass. And then we came to
a bunch of swamps and I knew we
were getting near home" and l be-
gan looking the ground over even
more carefully, for landing in 4
swamp is dangerous in more ways
than one. for II you happen to upset
you may be drowned in six inches
OF water or mud, neither of which
appealed to me. Swampy ground is
very deceptive to the eye from above
also. as it seems the smoothest of
landing places, but when one gets
down close his wheels sink in and
| over he goes on his back. too late to
see his mistake. I can distinctly
remember three accidents of this
i II