Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1918-11-27
MIR. S. B. Mays Writes His Sis
ter, Miss Madge Mays.
At the Front,
September 20, 1918

l find it a hard job to write to any
of you as l am not sure what KIND
of letters you like to receive. All OF
the letters 1 have seen copied in Am
erican newspapers are the kind in
which the fellows tell what great
picnic they are on and all that pie
dope" Although l am sure of not
wanting any of my letters published
I believe that is the kind of letter all
of you want to get from over here.
/ find it hard to express just what l
want to say, when writing about my
life over here and after reading one
of nv own letters over find it all
too doleful and Pm sure that I'm not
.anv worse off than the writer OF any
other letter.
do not believe there is single
American soldier in France who does
not want with all his heart to stay
over here until Germany is thorough
ly whipped but still every one OF
those soldiers is looking forward to
the time to come when he can go
back to those States which they have
all learned to love so we'll. In that re-
spect the feeling is unanimous. SO
if some of my letters seem little
bome-sicky dc not think that l have
gotten my fill before my time.
1 could 60 to some length and tell
YOU some horrible things that have
seen with my own eyes. have seen
nen who were so badly shot up that
their own friends could not recognize
them, men whose faces were lacerat-
ad with bayonet cuts and any num-
ber of such incidents but I do not be-
lieve that you care to hear of such
things. I, myself, have been spared
from such things but / have had
shells fall so close to me that the
high explosives used would throw
stones, clods of dirt, sticks and all
manner of debris around me. On one
occasion I had rather large piece to
hit me squarely upon the head, but
is happened to be my lucky day and
was only clod of dirt instead OF
rock or piece of the shell and only
rot a headache and a rather large
lump on my head instead of wound
stripe. One gets so used to it all that
the bursting Of shell begins to seem
and sound natural and as strange as
it may sound, it is real interesting.
OF course business always picks up
when the shells begin to fall into
your very midst but as long as they
are a couple of hundred yards away
il is great sport to watch them hit.
I have about gotten so that they do
mot give me the shaky feeling that
sbey did at first and l would not feel
natural if I could not hear a few go
ing over to let the Dutch know that
Uncle Sam is still on the job and not
asleep at the switch.
Who could help being proud that
he is one of this greatest-of-all-tlmes
army? wish that I could tell you
what a great thing it is. l am lately
of the opinion that to view 1t IN Its
greatest light one must look at IL
from behind the lines instead OF
from the front line trenches and l
have had the opportunity to see
little of it from both places. l am
not wanting to take any Of the just
" due credit from the Dough boys
for they have met the great Prusslan
Guards and demonstrated to the
world that they are better and brav-
er fighters. But l am wandering and
will 20 back to the other theme.
When 90 out tomorrow l will see
United States railroads built by Am
erican soldiers with American mate
rial with an American engine and
box cars, see all kinds of automobiles
from America from twelve cylinder
closed cars to worn out Fords and
every kind of truck that you can I'M
agine. Today we had steak that was
raised in the West, killed in Chicago
and shipped from Nv York along with
everything else that we ate. Then
there are any number of other such
things that could mention. l some
times wonder if there is any materi-
al in the world that does not come
from the U. S. A. About the only
thing that you haven't is a war rag
ing in your front yard and you do not
want that. It sometimes seems fun
nv to me that the firing line does not
extend all around the world as 1t
reems unreasonable to think of q