Tombstone epitaph., 1918-03-17

~> eNe1 w SA - CSsee@ De>@~>~e out" was looking for him recently. The headquarters of the company were h . former private dwelling house.
 Take look upstairs." said broth CT soldier. "lf you don't fnd him there look out in the carriage house and in the barn loft. If he's not there hen be in the chicken house."
 Our room doesn't afford even that relic of the castle and pride of the bungalow. a fireplace. But our next door neighbours does. and we are of icially assigned to hang out around his grate. That solves the heat prob lem. and also the batning question.
 Bathing facilities are limited in France-at least that. In all of France. for example. there is probably not one of those boors who bothers you about statistics on his daily matutinal inun- dalton. do not know the favorite Saturday night pastime of the people. either. but can say that If there Is modern bathtub in this particular town the Americans have not yet found 1t. So we merely heat a kerosene canful of water-at our neighbours fireplace and take . "bird bath" As there are eight men who must perform this ablu- ton about one fireplace, and good soldier takes a bath twice a week, and there are only seven nights in the week. this grate is @ busy place.
 Drinking water is obtained only after difficulties sometimes. The American doctors are taking no ones word about the supply but their own. and we are allowed to partake only after samples have been tested. Frequently, when in a town. the municipal supply Is avoided and the supply i. brought in In trucks from distant points. But l am not % skeptical of water as I was.
 Our last station was near a hospital. In front of this hospital always hung a big canvas bag full of invitingly cool water. l cannot speak for the whole company. but my squad know used always to drink thereof. We had kept It up for something near month when one day a doctor in tortoise-shell glasses and a white apron espied sol- dier partaking at the bag. He became immediately very vOciferOusly appre- hensive and expostulatory.
 For the great jumped-up Holy Moses. man." said he. "don't drink that. That's where we keep all the samples of contaminated water from this part of France"
 Find Disease cerma
 In the last 17 days we've found germs of 13 deadly diseases right in that container. There are nine million bacteria to the square inch in that enough germs in that bag to kill the whole German army. shodld say that my squad consumed several cubic feet of that water. and don't know enough about mathematics to compute the number of germs. But we're all alive. and that was two months ago.
 But enough of this gassing. l re- solved to be brief in my letters. and here I've brimmed over onto the third page. It has been cold where l am. but the last few days have been like springtime. Where I was last was up in the snow belt. where 1t gets on the ground and stays there. the only hope ful word the natives can give being that 'It goes off the ground in April" Without going into details. though. I learned one hopeful thing. While away I had an opportunity of talking with . lot of Americans who have been In the trenches. They were from dif- ferent groups of troops and had been '-tn" at different times. And they all were confident that the Americans can whip the Germans at every stage of the game, This isn't the boast of . few. but the consensus of the calm opinion of about 70. I guess, that talked to. It was very encouraging. coming from men who have had a mouthful of the front. Most of the fellows were from the old American regular army-from the units over here. which are the only ones still intact, l believe. They are being trained to the highest point of military efficiency possible. and. they say, are to be used as the crack units of the United States forces, correspond ing with the famous shock" units of the German and other armies guess the same is true of the Rainbow divi- sion of the National Guard. which got such a send-off in the States.
 Regulars Fare Werss.
 The old regular army fellows seemed to have fared worse than the rest of us. They came over early in the game, most of them straight from the border with only . few days in the East, and went into training i'm mediateIy. They were Quartered up where the war has left an obvious mark and taken most of the superb cialties. They've been going hard ever since, learning everything of the latest weapons, maneuvers, signals and mili- tary science that the French, British and Americans had to teach them. They're probably the soundest bunch of men, physically. In the world. And yet they're greatly neglected. This is because they come from the United States in general and no place h par ticular. Most of the regiments here come from . distant locality. and the folks back home organize welfare so- ciefies and send 'em tobacco and sweaters. but the regulars don't get h oo this.
 he'd . few letters fr0m the coast