Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-15
From Baseball to Boches

BY H. c. WITWER

the oars will board, the men assigned
, TO lowering the boats will take their
| positions, and the others will take
their seats in the boat. There is to be
no pushing and showing, no running.
and, above all, absolute silence from
the time YOU leave your hunks until
YOU enter the Ifeboats!" lie stops
and. drawin' hi gun, breaks it and
shows us a handful of bullets. Il
want you all to see that my revolver
is loaded with ball cartridges" he
says, stickin' out his jaw, and the
first man that allows as much rs
murmur to escape him will be shot
down instantly
Joe, they was no more laughin' and
joshin' about lifeboat drill from then
on 1 seen the civilian passengers
goin' through the drill the other day,
and they was two things l wanna
tell you about. One of them handed
me laugh. and the other gimme
a pain in the chest somewheres
around where a guys heart is. The
first was big fat guy comm up
on deck with q life-savin' suit on
he had invented all by himself. He
looked like a sea lion in the thing.
and il the ship had sunk then we
would all of died laughin'. They
was a pocket in the suit for every
ried water. brandy, cigarets, biscuits.
writin' paper, magazines, money,
and-well, Joe, in fact, he was MT
ted up better than the ship was, and
some guy asked him If he could buy
room and bath on him in case We
got hit 1t took 'em only two days
TO laugh this bird outa that suit, and
from then on he come up without
nothin' to protect him but two life
preservers.
The other thing 1 seen was also
durin' the passengers lifeboat drill.
That was a little baby girl about four
years old and as pretty as Walter
Johnson's inshoot. She was goin'
over with her pale little mother TO
see her dad, which had got wounded
in the CANADIAN army. Here comes
that little bunch of peaches and
cream up on deck with a life preser-
YER on bigger than she was and takes
her place by a boat Everybody went
nutty over her, and she's smilin' on
all comers.
Joe, ii was both the cutest and
saddest thing 1 ever seen in my life.
Imagin thinkin' that little darlin'
baby might be in the water any
minute strugglin' for her life on ac-
count of them German hellhounds
slippin' us a torpedo
NSilt says 10 my sell, IL SnS
guys in America that don't wanna
scrap could see that little baby just
as she is now, life preserver and all,
they'd be an army raised overnight
that would lick Germany in one af-
ternoon! If that's the kind of birds
were gonna fight, 1 wisht 1 had got
in this thing the mornin' it started"
And all the other doughboys feel
the same way about il.
Joe, the little kid comes and hoi-
lerS down over the rail to us every
day, and we can hardly wait till we
get to France and get at them buns.
Her names Gladys, Joe, and to-
day she throwed me down a cake. !
and, believe me, if them Germans
hit this ship l amt gonna get OF
of it till I see that kid and her moth
er is safe and sound in a lifeboat.
Not even is Lieutenant -- makes
good and takes a shot at mel
We're in the war zone tonight,
and if we ever get out of it my next
letter will be from France.
Yours truly. ED HARMON,
(Formerly the sensation of baseball) |
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