The Alaska daily empire., 1918-09-09

SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE, You
 can laugh at this paper if you want to- but it cost me three packs of Lucky Strikes" to get it from a mule skinner in a machine gun out fit, and he got it from Q. M. truck
 driver for plug of "Sstr" and a
 Boche button. Money means little
 or nothing up here, where a man
 can have anything the country af- lords for the taking but paper soap and tobacco, which are always good currency, for anything the other fei- low has that you want.
 | In view of the fact that you will
 have received all the news of this battle long before this letter reaches you, am going to tell you of 1t tie lcinance that took place in a "il- lage not so far from here
 4 big Irish Sergeant was sitting Eou bank overlooking little town
 that still retained few of its French
 inhibitants, and resting his eyes with view as yet unblemished by
 German shell holes, his attention | fell upon the village wash houses"
 and his heart beat several beats lfaster at the sight of slender fi-, gure bent over timeworn basin, washing what even at that distance
 he could tell WAS a good old o. D. shirt. a}9
 said in the beginning that he Triph {v,ta Uj nn fo feet were not long in following the quickened motion of his pulse. His pack lay on the bank beside him, so it was only a matter of a minute to unstrap it and get out his extra
 shirt as an alibi in case of a rebuff As he walked toward the figure
 washing so industriously, his eyes, tired with watching man shapes in
 man clothes wrecking God-made scenery, took in all the graceful lines of the slender figure, the lit tie straight back in it's little red waist rolled high from the white arms, the voluminous skirt with just a glimpse of bare ankles and the great wooden shoes. He noticed the Yankee "oversea" cap pulled far down over the ears and took it as a sign of friendliness toward Yan- kees in general.
 Now, the Sergeant did not know very much French, SO he thought he would take a chance on English
 first, so, strengthening his coat as best he could, he walked up and
 asked in his best Sir Walter Raleigh
 voice: "Is Mademoiselle washing? ?' | The slender figure strengthened on its knees, and with glare that would have done credit to the great
 Sara in her palmiest days, answer ed:
 ! "Yas, she's washin,' and this bus illness of 'Eve-in' it around in some
 French Jane's cast-off party dress
 while I washes my Q. D.. is got
 my goat eatin' cans in the back yards
 of Berlin. The next war I join its
 going to have a laundry in it or Pri-
 vate Bill Tyke don't jan, son." | The Sergeant saw" and returned Ito hls pack while the slender figure
 laid off to roll one"
 l know now that my first letter
 from the front was written from
 what was really training sector.
 though at the time 1t seemed to my
 inexperienced mind to be very real
 war. We were placed there simply
 to accustom our nerves to the fact
 that we were having real shells re
 turned to us. Each regiment is
 broken in in this manner before
 being sent to the real heart of
 things.
 We had retired from the front and
 were having maneuvers in the inter
 for when the last great German , drive. started. Our division, unsea-
 soned as it was. was the most avail able one to the apex of their ad-
 vance and was ordered in and put
 against them at the point where the
 advance had almost become a fore ed march. Our boys went in to sup
 port the French. but so rapid was the German advance that within an hour after they took their position it was the front line.
 My share was small. am an ar tiileryman, and as one my position