The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1918-07-24
SAMM|ES WRITE
AMERICAS MOST
INTERESTING STORIES
EVERYONE is GLAD TO READ
LETTERS WHICH, OUR ARMY
AND NAVY BOYS WRITE.

Beyond doubt no short story writ
er of today holds so prominent a
place in the hearts and minds of the
people as do the wearers of the khaki
and the blue-the boys who dressed
in the uniforms of our army and our
navy are always in the forefront,
ready to do their part in the winning
of the great war and the safeguarding
of liberty and democracy. No mat
ter whether the wriser is known per-
sonally to the reader Of the letters or
not, there is an interesting something
about the letters which hold ones at
tention from start to finish.
Our first two letters this week are
from Chas. Cowles, to his mother,
Mrs. Spencer Sowles. Then follows
a card from his brother, Earl, another
son of Mrs. Cowles, telling cf his safe
arrival overseas.
Somewhere in France, May IL. 1918.
Dear Mother:
Today being Mothers day / am GO
ing to write few lines to you to let
you know that / am thinking of you
every day. | am well and feeling
fine and hope this will find all the
same. We are having fine weather
here now and plenty of rain. The
trees and grass and wild flowers are
certainly beautiful here and / always
thought France was a far different
country than / find alt6ough i haven't
seen much Of the interior yet. Every
thing seems to be so old fashioned
and everybody seems to be so friendly
and kind and / suppose that we seem
as strange to these people as they do
TO us. We are gcing to get some
blue envelopes and then l can write
to all the folks and mail the letters
all in the one envelope but until then
we are only allowed to write two let
ters week, so / wish that you would
tell the folks how it is. We are getting
plenty to eat and have good sleeping
quarters sc there isn't anything to
worry over. 1t seems certainty
that the war can't last much longer
and Mother, if you haven't received
my insurance policy / wish that you
would let me know in your next letter
and will look into it. We were out
for a hike this morning and / was
Wishing that / might send some of
these beautiful wild flowers to you
forLDecoration day but / am miles
away and can only send you my love.
/ have often wondered why some
other mothers cannot be more like my
own and thifk that if they were this
would be better world. / hope that
Pa is gaining xell him for me to
cheer up, that us boys will soon be
back home again. We are drilling
every day and expect to be starting
for the front before long. Our gun
ners are doing fine work on the new
French IS M. M. s. and soe far we
lead the regiment for speed, although
Battery c has the most points for ac-
curacy but | think we will compete
with any of them in due time.
have been attending school to learn
all the mechanism about these guns;
they are much more simple than those
we had at Douglas, Arizona and their
mechanism and workmanship is truly
wonderful.
Now, Mother, dent blame Earl for
volunteering for overseas service; the
kid told me when he visited me at
Camp Merritt that he was anxious to
' go. He felt 1t his duty to go just as
I did, not because we loved you and
Pa the less but just to do our bit to
/ CONTINUED on page four) ,1ol