Arizona republican., 1918-06-23
BUY
 HAS BUSY JOb
 INFAIRFRANCE

Many letters from boys in France have been printed in the newspapers of this country but they generally de- scribe similar conditions such as those with which the enlisted man at the front is familiar and his vision is linn tied to a very narrow scope.
 Here is q letter of a different kind, written by Russe Halstead to his mother on Mothers Day:
 Somewhere in France, May F, 1918. My Dearest Mother
 "Of all the letters that I have writ ten home this is the one that l desire most of all to have you receive as this is Mothers Day and l am thinking of my dear mother and home. You are with me in my thoughts mother and would give most anything to see you. Being so far away and everything so uncertain makes one realize just how dear a mother is. Even though l cant be with you this day but am far away, you are with me in my thoughts.
 "I haven't written to any one for sbbut fifteen days as l have been gone from the office all that time. You see l am the Supply Sergeant of a very large district, and it is different here than in the states, as there l was only sergeant of the 3rd Bn. 20th Engineers, 
 all the troops in our district. All of France is laid off in districts and one headquarters control each district Our district is quite a large one and we nave troops coming in the district all the time. We will soon have them go- ing out, but suppose they will keep coming in all the time. There are troops of all kinds in the district but we have to look after them just the same. l made a complete round of all the troops in the district this trip and then had to go away back to the coast after some auto parts. You see freight shipments are so very slow here that We go by automobiles for anything welneed in a hurry The troops are all working day and night so if anything breaks down it is up to me to get a new part and if we don't happen to have it in stock in the supply office l have to go after it. I have been to all the big quartermaster engineer, ord nance and signal corps warehouses in France and am posted on the condi- tions of their stocks so 1 most always know just where to go after what want. Many. many times I will be called by the night orderly and have hin hand me a message from some outfit saying that they need some small part of some machine or if from our troops that are saving. saying that their saw mill has broke down and thay need such and such parts and have to get up, call the driver. leave a note with the orderly to give to the niajor saying where 1 am going and away l go. Sometimes makes two hundred miles before the office knows that I have gone as it will be in the night. We have saw mills blown up, or partly blown up by shell fire and a great many times l have to work two Or three days, day and night getting the necessary arts to get them started off again. It may seem funny to you all to think that we would be saving lumber close enough to the front to have mills destroyed by shell fire but ffiyou knew what a little amount of timber there is in France you would readily understand it. If the timber is left there it is soon completely de- stroyed by the heavy hombaTdments so after it we go 4 mill will be blown up and within a few hours another ont nill be setting alongside where the other one was, going ahead the same as if nothing happened. We use port able mills of 10000 foot capacity and tl.ey can be quickly moved to place or to new location. Use all circular saws and none of them over 60-inch as the timber is all small and there is no need of larger. We saw trees here into lumber. trench props and railroad ties that would only make fireWood in the states, but that is all they have over here and so we have 10 use it.
 will have to close mother as l am leaving again in a very few minutes It is 5:10 a. m. I got up early so could write this before l left as 1 knew last night that | would start at 5:3( this morning. l am going to a towr over 200 miles from here just to gel three bearings for Dodge cars. I got in yesterday and thought that I would get to stay here for a few days any way but here comes message abou o'clock saying that one of the service .battalions working close to the iron had two Dodge cars out Of the running on account of three bearings being GU out so as we have none in stock l vii