The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-11-19

think.
sure saw funny sight about two
weeks ago, one of the boys 'of 4S5"
got on the train here at Pruniers
Station, that Sunday, going to ROM
orantin to see his "doll," he had a
box of Wallace's chocolates and
much chewing gun, that he had pur-
chased at the commissary, under one
arm and a whole library of French
English dictionaries under the other
arm, sure was a ridiculous looking
sight. Most all of the boys have a
"pocket edition" of this literature,
but this guy was such small fellow
and really had about as much "court-
ing material" as one could well car
ry. Most Of the French ladies think
the "soldat Americaine" fine too, so
you see there are some nice times
even in this country where so many
wars have occurred. In fact, "his-
toric France" requires more pages
in the worlds history than any other
country, and it is said that France
has been at war nearly one-haf OF
her time. guess you remember
this-"all Gaul was divided into
three parts" well, France, Belgium
and Switzerland were the three parts,
and these French people are the de-
scendants of those "great warriors,
barbarians that Caesar subdued
for several years, and we see here
today several of the main roads of
France that were built by Caesar at
this time for military purposes.
His most important road was from
Marseilles to Lyons to the different
seaport towns of France. All this
sounds like a myth to me, certainly
hard to realize, and Joan of Arc,
that you have read Of so often-well
that means as much to a Frenchman
as Washington, Lee or Grant does
to an American. Well, I didn't in
tend writing a history tonight for I
know you don't like to study that,
but all of this sure is interesting to
me at present.
AS I have often written, we work
very regularly over here and get
rather tired and disgusted at times,
but if we just think of the fellows in
the trenches, then we realize that
old luck has favored US. Of course,
there is lots of boys in our bunch
that are wild to get to the front, but
the novelty of the guns and noise
would soon wear off and then it
wouldn't be so nice, for the trenches
seem to be filled with "rats and
Coolies" One reads Of the trenches
and war in the papers etc., and it
looks pretty nice, but I've seen sew
eral who have been there for some
days. Rest seems to be a scarce ar
ticle.
The "Boshe" usually entertains
during the day with some charge or
something and at night "Fritz"
seems to be doing his best to keep
the boys awake with the artillery
and bombing planes.
A wounded soldier said that the
Americans at the front certainly had
shown up we'll. He said that he had
never seen the least hesitation from
a single one, when they went cover
the top" etc., after the Germans, and
that the nearest thing to "drawing
back" that he had seen was when a
detail started back for food etc.
They take turns at going back and
it usually takes six or seven men,
each time, and he said when you
started out in that detail you never
expected to get back, for it was very
seldom that more than three or four
out of the seven returned, on ac-
count of the German 'sharpshooters'
or 'snipers'. He says it's right anus
ing to see the experienced French
men telling the Americans how to
keep quiet and close to the ground
when they charge, and then to see
the Americans roll up their sleeves
and unbutton their collars and start
out across No mans Land, yelling