New Britain herald., 1918-05-04
CD, | BOYS under
FIRE ARE PRAISED
Corp. Cream Describes Silent Liz
zieS and Other Things

who was named in yesterdays casual
ty list, describes experiences in the
trenches against he Germans in let
tiers just received by his mother, Mrs.
NJ. T. Cream and sisters, Mrs. Claire,
Patterson and Mrs. Tryon Smith. He
writes under date of April 5: well.
SIS, dear, | guess you've read by now
all of the deeds Of 1eroism performed
by the u. S. boys over here, and III
be able TO give YOU some graphic ac-
counts of how we did this and that,
when ! get home. You know we've
had a lot of things to be sore at over
here and the only ones we could vent
our ire upon was Fritz. and Fritz
knows we'll now that it doesn't pay to
get US peeved.
They started to come over one
night Ct know this will pass the CEN
sor, because I saw an account of it
"in the papers," and l tell you it is
an absolute fact) but our artillery
opened up almost as soon as theirs
did and there were SO many shells
landing behind them that they could
Mt get back, while at the same time
the crazy Americans were ahead of
them yelling like Indians and they
didn't know what to do. They didn't
vail ~ COlll6 o1l bGCc1 use lliCS lCoi w
tho Americans and gave themselves
I'D. When questioned why they pre-
ferred being prisoners of the French
they said:
American artillery crazy. in
fantry all drunk
They proba bly, had seen some pic
lures Of the Indians, or possibly the
101 Ranch circus, and formed their
conclusions from them.
We've got them stopped and they
know it. Don't worry, sis, I feel sure
that soon I'll have a good swim at
Ocean Beach, Apologizing for not
writing before he wrote: Don't think
that I'm dead one, because I am still
hopping around good and lively. I'm
as healthy as a bear and at present
living the life of Riley We have
had a few April showers that bring
forth May flowers, but today is one
of the dry ones that give you that
ticklish sensation which I term as a
grand and glorious feeling of being
glad that + am live one
References in Corp. Creams letter
indicate a change in the company's
place on the firing line. Mail has not
been coming regularly. He anticipat-
ed a turkey feed on Thanksgiving
and said the bill of fare on the day
Of writing included beef stew The
young corporal is possessed Of the
same spirit as is found with the other
American soldiers in France. He
writes: .'Say, Madge, don't wish
was near YOU on one Of those Islands,
because I Wouldn't be over there now
for all the money in the world. Any
body, or at least any soldier, over
there must feel cheap nova days if
he is not over here. You can be
glad that the big guns over on Fishers
Island go off only once day. There
are thousands of similar ones all
around us and they make some racket.
I imagine you would be Jumping every
second, which isn't good for your
health. I used to be startled at first,
but they can bang away all they
please now, I guess I can sleep all
right 81.
Mrs. Smith had iokingly written to
Corp. Cream about the French girls
and his reply was that he would have
nothing to do with them. Not for
this little doughboy. They're not worth
it, I'm going to steer clear Of Paree,
because I'm terribly scared of air
planes. Say, I did get in front OF a
movie photographer sitting on the
back of an automobile, so If you see
me, say 'howdy do "
Since going to France Corp. Cream
has traced out the whereabouts OF a
number of friends. One he met was
Arthur Pagan of Naugatuck, a mem-
Der of Company F, 1929. He promised
to 5000" on the next box of goodies.
In letter dated April ~, to his
mother Corp. Cream wrote that he had
seen delaney a few days ago and he
was then all right and feeling fine. He
isn't up to the line now, so unless he
dies a natural death he wont. come to
harm. Sparmer of whom l wrote, is
not in Company E as l wrote to YOU,
but in the Machine Gun Co., however,
being a New Britain boy any mail
that was sent to him to Company e,
would be delivered. 0. K. Kelly is III
Company f, and the last I knew of
him he was feeling fine. If there are
any other fellows I can locate for you
or any of the folks do not hesitate to
write" The corporal writes happily
and jollingly recalls some of the home
occurrences.
Proud Of Boys From Dublin Hill.
'"The papers at home must be full
of news about us these days, and if the
censorship rules weren't SO very strict
probably you'd be real proud of the
stock that came from New Britain,
especially from Dublin Hill. I wish
I could tell you more, but it isn't pos
sible.'
In another letter under date OF
April 10, Corporal Cream tells of a
long tour through France, on foot"
Just at that time the Americans were
Fastening to the support of the heavily