The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1918-09-13


following letter from Corporal Ned
Brown, well-known St. Johnsbury
boy, who is now with the A. E. f.
in France:
France, July 20, 1918
Dear jim:
Wd are kind of handicapped for
makings of much of letter that
would be interesting and still pass
censorship. We were, of course, a
little nervous our first few days in
the trenches, but have overcome that
and now feel like veterans and are,
as far as the American army is con-
cerned. Our division has put in as
much time in the lines as any of
them and have more than made good
each time they have had anything
to do with the Boche. In one of the
heaviest scraps this American army
has taken part in, our company lost
quite d few men but you can tell the
world that Fritzie paid dearly for
every one he got, and is now satisfied
there is some fighting blood irS this
outfit. On that occasion he had ev-
erything in his favor, and after the
heaviest artillery preparation since
Verdun, he found the Americanswait
ing for him, and they went back with
out accomplishing what they set out
to do. This game isn't near as bad
as you folks at home imagine. |,
myself, had an idea it was a contin-
uous slam-bang but find there are
! plenty of dull moments. Unless you
are mixed up in an attack it isn't
bad at all. We even find time to play
little cribbage on the side. | can't
say | like this miners life. The dug
outs are usually comfortable but are
bound to be pretty damp in France.
There are bound to be some men
hurt as long as they keep throwing
these "iron foundries" at one anoth-
er. The quotations are my bunkie's.
His name is McNally and he is sure
ly fine fellow From the name you
will know he is Russian. He is a
clean-living Catholic lad and halls
from birmingham. We surely ap-
preciate our religion here as there
are times when a fellow does quite
some thinking. We have been fairly
we'll taken care of religiously up to
lately. AS we are only a battalion:
we do not rate a chaplain and have
to take our chances in finding a
priest. Up to very lately we have
had a chance to go to mass and
communion nearly every Sunday as
we happened to near regiment of
infantry with a Catholic chaplain.
We know the K. of C. are doing as
rauch as possible to take care of thai
end of, it, and, no doubt, will in time.
have run into only one K. of c.,
hut over here and that was back
where we were training. We haven't
been far enough back to see much
of anything since then. All we can
do is to live accordingly and we try
to here if we ever did McNally has
crucifx he found in church that
had been destroyed by shell-fire, and
his first move is to put it over our
heads when we hit new place. l
have been fortunate in having perfect
health over here, and fellow sure
has to be in good condition to stand
it, especially the long hikes with
! packs. We used to think we were
being overworked while training but
can plainly see that it was just what
we needed to pull us through now.
We sometimes say we wish we were
back in the states, but there is not
a man in the company who would ac-
cept the chance of going home if Civ
en- it. | myself have never beer
! sorry I came across, and to quote
from a short story read recently
will say, that when it is all over
there are going to be only two kinds
of people left in this world, those
that were in it and saw it, and those
| that were not. | also read another
funny one in Golfers. 1t was II
one of those baseball to Boche stor-
les sixth inning, where the fellow
tells of being over here to help make
the world safe for Democrats. If you
haven't read them, get them all from
one to six innings. They are funny
We know you people are with us II
this scrap, and you can tell them al
that this American army is coming
along fine and that things look baC
for Kaiser Bill when the word is Civ
en-. He has got to take his beatings
| guess | have overdone mySel
and will close for this time.
Your friend,
Ned Brown