Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1918-08-22
Letter From Sergeant Snyder.
At Home, France,
Sunday. Iuly 81, 1918.

heen IN the lob. We nave Iau t"o vi
three nrettv big storms, and while they
hroucht relief for little while, itswlngs
r;obt hack to about one hundred in the
| shade and everyone is recalling Win
regret those cold rainy days we haa
when we first got here. This morning;
however, there is sfrongnorthernw ina
| and there seems to be some cnahee
that we will have letup in the neat.
About the only thing have been aoiis
in the past few days is to hunt me-
quiet SHADY spot along the river anu
take nan. This weather was )ust
made for that sort of thing, and sure
am glad that my work allows me ~ ~ nL'
the cool spots when the sun eets lnsn
We are all watching with great lll.siSs 30
the counter-drive OF the Allies anu ar
honine that something big may CONF
ont of il. The papers every DAY nav
only the generalities, but we haVe h,Sn
coming back from the front constantly
and from them we are able to get inc
details. and it looks as though this were
The beginning of the end for the Ger
mans In the past few days we nave
been going for them strong and nave
heen Capturing them right and LETT. A
bio bunch of prisoners came mere 10
the prison camp the other night, ano
| from what | can understand II does Ho'
take lot of persuasion TO get the bocne
n throw ND his hands and yell Kane
rad" at the top of his voice. Win us
rushing Germany and the Italians going
for Austria, it surely looks good, ana II
there is no slip-up we VIII Set'le tliio
argument before we realize tha' we arc
here.
TODAY for dinner We are having
lemonade and real ice in it. Inc otneI
dav found an ice plant down town, ana
when | told the Captain he Immediately
said lemonade. So this morning went
down 10 the plant and got three cakes OF
;ce-the cakes only weigh twenty-five
hounds apiece-and we are all llned up
for that good drink. The ice plant is
verv funny and the machinery looks ASH
| II might have been used by Noah In the
ark The whole works is run by an olo
gas engine that wheeZeS and groans
and coughs as though the next time II
turned over it would die natural death,
and the rest of the machinery is a0out
on a par with the engine. Inc whole
plant was stuffed into basement aooul
thirty feet square, and you would haVe
10 get outside to change your MIND. II
makes the ice, though, and II does not
cost any more than 1t does back hoine'
so that is all that We can ask Tor.
A big new Y. M. c. A. hut IS being
opened here to day, the fifth one on the
field, and they are having big dolngs all
day. Band concerts, the post ocnestra
and speeches by everyone OF importance
are the order, and we are having big
celebration. Our own "Y" man, Jim
Hanson, left for the States the otherd day,
his time having run out. he ola no,
want to 90, but it was necessary, ana
we will be looking for him back before
many months. He sure is fine fellow,
and the men all hated TO see him leave.
We had just gotten to the point where
we felt that we were beginning TO Dc
real friends, and then for him TO nave
to leave was pretty hard. | think ne
will be coming back.
got three letters from home this
morning, and it was certainly good TO
have them. A new system OF handling
the mail has been put in effect over here
lately, and it is hoped that there Will be
considerable less delay in getting our
mail through. All mail is to be handled
bv the Military Postal Express, which
is made UP of specially picked men, and
| hope that it will have some effect, for
our mail has been coming IN ouncneS
and not very often at that. | don't ike
to get ten or twelve letters In punch,
for you get fed up on letters after read
ing half dozen or so, and II we could
get them two or three at a time we
would appreciate them more. Also 1t
would give us more of chance to
answer them. | guess some OF my
friends think have broken my arm, but
the truth is that letter-writing takes
a lot of time and hardly have time to
get all my work done, and 1t is a big
Job to keep a lot of correspondence up:
In one of your letters you say that
don't tell much about the war. IL the
truth is known, you folks know as much
as we do and what we are not allowed
to tell is the interesting part OF the war.
We are not very close TO front, but our
men are going right up to it all the time
and they bring US some pretty lively
stories back, but the strict censorship
lIldl VIC NlllC lllSlll liOhiS, S' w
can only treasure them up against the
day when We get back, and what time
We will have thrilling the natives with
the wild stories, about zone day when
| was up at the front, etc." and while
the home folks may think we are spread
ing it on little more heavily thanne
sary, the only thing for them to do will
be to listen with open mouths and pc
lieve every word of those narrowing
stories. Some of our men have had
some pretty close calls, really, and quite
a number of them have had the good
fortune to see the German troops ad-
vancing in their shock waves. One
bunch of our men came near being
captured in the June drive of the Ger
mans, and il was so close that when
they got back home here they had hard
ly gotten back their natural color.
Just now we are all up in the air over
the phenomenal drive that the Allies are
making, and we are sure pulling hard to
make this amount to something. Our
men are wild with enthusiasm, and the
only thing you can hear around the camp
is, "Have you seen the paper yet? Do
you know anything new?" We had
fine time yesterday for while. News
came in that French bulletin had been
received stating that we had captured
ffty-hve thousands Germans and the
Crown Prince. Well, we just natural
ly fell on each others necks, and there
was sure some celebrating around here
for a while. But today the official COM
muniques have nothing to say about the
matter, so we guess that there was moth
ing in the story at all. 1t sounded too
good to be true in the first place land
in the second place | had "me doots"
that the Crown Prince would be foolish
enough to get even within hearing dis
lance when bunch of these wild Amer
leans are on the trail Of the retreating