The Mankato free press., 1918-07-05
FROM BOYS
in THE ARMY CAMPS


The following letter was received
by Max Wishnick from mis- son Archie
who is Somewhere in France:
France, June 5, 1912.-Dear Father:
Your letter of the 10Th instant at
hand and it found me in the best of
health and spirits. You are right in
thinking that l have increased in
weight as l have gained about fifteen
pounds since being in the service.
/ was pleased to note your activity
in the recent Liberty loan sale and
can predict that if they were all as
patriotic as you are dad, this war
will be over in jig time.
| have seen considerable of France
since wrote last and it certainly is
| a beautiful country. The villages are
quaint and old fashioned and they
have castles which have been built
hundreds of years ago.
AT present am located in a town
not far from the port and am assign
| ed to guard duty. We are on duty
four hours and off eight hours for an
indefinite period. Believe me dad,
marching at attention for four hours
with a rifle on your shoulder is no
| joke and when the relief comes the
first thing one thinks of is to lie
Down. l have been quite busy with
other duties aside from guard as you
can judge for yourself when / state
that within the last few days have
not slept over five or six hours "a
night
Am not short of funds at present
dad, although / am not overburdened
with any and it depends upon
whether we get paid within the near
future and the amount paid. Thanks
for the offer and will let you know if
am short. Will close with love to
the family and best wishes. From
[your son Archie.
| Mr.. and Mrs. B. B. Blyler of North
Mankato received the following letter
from their son Frank:
Brooklyn, June %. 1918.-Dear
Folks: arrived all right and we
found our ship in port getting re-
pairs. We got in New York about
$3.50 and after going all through
some minor examinations, we were
taken right aboard our ship And say
she is a monster. / don't know how
many men she has on her but they
are a plenty. She sure is wonder
full sight You ought to see her big
guns. She has ten twelve inch guns
in turrets and l don't know how
many smaller guns stuck around in
every crook and Granny. And she
isn't the only one in the navy yard
either Right beside her is the New
Mexico, bigger than ours. Then there
are lot of merchant ships and one
French war cruiser in for repairs
Then they are building a new ship or
the other side to be called the ''Ten-
nessee." l don't know how to write
/, a description of our ship for
wouldn't know how to. I'll tell you
more when l get to come home ant
l think we are to get shore leave fol
fifteen days sometime in July g.
/ August. Our ship is in for repairs
and it will take them maybe until
December to finish on her, so they
are going to give the band fifteen
days some day. That will make vi
for having to leave so suddenly.
l have met some of the bad fellows
and they all seem to be fine. We are
to play our firht job tomorrow wheT
we go over to New York and leat
lsome draft boys to the station. Sc
my desire to play on the streets o
New York is fulfilled sooner than
expected.
On board ship we band men had {
snap, even more so than the officers
We have no work at all to bother US
Except our playing duties and they
aren't many. We have every evening
off and Sundays if we want them
You can see we wont be overworked
II am afraid the eats won't be- a:
good as they were at the lakes. bu
we are so we can go ashore and ge
a change at any time. There is {
naval Y. M. G.. A. couple of blocks
from the navy yard gates where we
lean eat cheaply and sleep all nigh
for quarter if we want to stay ou
all night.
Our trip down was great. W.
left the Great Lakes about sever
O'Clock and left Chicago over the
Michigan Central at 10:30. Our party
had two tourist Pullmans and oul
meals were served in the diner. Re(
Gross women met us with sandwiches
cakes, coffee and cigarettes and pos
cards at Chicago, Detroit Windsor
Canada and Albany and they were
sure welcome. Our trip took us abou
200 miles through Canada from De.
troit to Niagara and the biggest towl
up there we struck was st. Thomas
They must lave known we were com
ing for the depot platform was jammet
with people and what welcome they
gave us. 1t sure warmed us up. A
number of young Canadian soldiers
came through and wished us luck. A
a number of places people at the de-
pots who happened to have box o.
candy with them passed it over to us
believe ME, we lived high.
| We struck the Hudson river a
Albany and travelled all the rest O
the way to New York down the cas-
bank. That sure was some of tn,
lprettiest scenery imaginable. The
boats were pretty and the big hill.
come right down to the rivers edge
Then there were the Palisades, tai
rock cliffs that rose as straight from
the river bank as though man hat
built them only much more beautiful
than man could ever do Other sight:
of interest were West Point Military
Academy and Sing Sing prison.