Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-09

burg? Say, if I'm not glad to see
you!"
Can you imagine, friend stay-at-
| home, what this greeting must sig
Nifty over there, four thousand miles
! from home, when folks meet from
the same neighborhood in old Penn
Sylvania. Can you sense the thrill of
gripping hands with some one who
knows all about you, your family
and your friends, especially if you
happen to be wounded and hunger
for the sight of familiar face.
Cheering adventures of this sort
seem to have befallen in uncommon
me,.sure a trained nurse of this
neighborhood, Miss Blanche l. Feis-
ter, who has written a letter to Mrs.
Bernard Wautersz, of Gettysburg, a
long and intimate friend and resi-
dent of Harrisburg until a year ago.
She made the acquaintance of Miss
Feister when the latter was grad
uating from the Harrisburg Hospital
in the class of 1916 and kept up the
acquaintance while Miss Feister was
engaged in private nursing and until
she volunteered for service in
France.
Miss Feister wrote:
You will be surprised to receive
a letter from me. / know you have
been getting few from this side for
l saw your dear boy yesterday. l was
never so surprised in my life and
guess he was just as surprised for
he showed it. He told me he heard
there were some nurses in the town
and they were all going to doll up
and come down. Then he heard one
was from Harrisburg and she was a
stout blonde. He had me in mind
but could not think of my name, so
when he came in and met one of the
nurses he told her he had message
for the nurse from Harrisburg and
they sent for me.
HE looks just fine, so please do
not think he is hurt or sick, for he
never looked better in his life. How
proud you would be if you could see
your boy and every one of them.
They are surprising ever one of us
and l know it is the spirit of their
| mothers that make them so. l never
saw anything like them. How for
| tunate you are In having boy so
capable of doing what he is doing.
You people are all doing your
| big bit at home as weare here, and
| just as much, for without the back
| ing we can't do much. How. proud
we all are that we are Americans
and from the U. S. A. We will ap-
preciate home more when we get
| back.
/ II am especially glad 1 am from
Pennsylvania when 1 hear what our
division is doing. They are right in
it and have them on the run. They
are called iron men instead of
| Keystone men,
Am so glad 1 can be with our
home division. 1t seems more like
home. Saw Col. Maurice e. Finney,
from Harrisburg, the other day, also
Lieutenant Spragg, my home den
| tist. We are moving farther up the
line to-day. Our boys have been ad-
vancing so fast that we have to, too.
1--WE surely have had all the real
tiles of war here. 1t is far worse than
we read of, and l am sure our boys
paid the price for what they got
here"
Miss Fiester is the kind of a good
| Samaritan who is on the job at the
right time. Just think how cheering
she must have looked to Corporal
Harry Miller, of whose wounding the
Telegraph has already had some ac-
count. Miller, secretary of the Hope
Fire Company, and passenger con-
! ductor on the Middle Division, p. r.
| r., is in base hospital No. 10, Ameri-
can E. F., and he writes to his moth
er a most vivid narrative of his es-
cape from death, telling:
ION the morning of the 10th OF
| August we were going from one town
to another, across a bridge when j
was hit on the knee with machine
gun bullet. l didn't mind 1T at first,
! but then it started to get stiff and j
could not go ahead because there
were Germans in the town and
knew L could not get fixed up there,
| 7
where we started when a big shell
burst right behind me and some of 1t
went into my back, penetrating my
abdomen and chest. | thought my
time had come, and after about fif-
teen minutes two hospital men came
along and found me and took me
| back.
| "It was there 1 met Miss Fiester,
"Then | was taken to an evacua-
ton hospital and kept there five
DAYS: put on a train, riding for "a
| hours. They sure have these trains
fixed up with all conveniences.
ION Sunday, August 18, l arrived
at Vichy, France. They tell me it is
one swell town, a great French sum-
mer resort, known the world over for
it's Vichy water which they get here
from the springs. All the big hotels
are now hospitals; / can lie in my
bed and hear the music in the caba-
rets; we have nice clean soft beds
and kind nurses. They could not
| treat us any better.
Last night was the first l slept
since l was hurt. l can, only lie in
one position, my leg has a big iron
splint on it. 1t does not hurt me at
all, though 1 had quite bit of pain
yesterday when they took the stitches
| out"