The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-11-21
Letter from Private
e. A. Griss0m


Grissom of Company NJ. 352nd Infan-
try, with the expeditionary army
somewhere in France" Private Girls
som. who was employed at this office
for about year previous TO going into
the army. was registrant under the
selective draft at Great Bend, Kan.
ad received his military training at
Camp Funston In his letter, which
bears the date of October 80, he says:
Il will write you few lines from
France on my mess kit, and if IL
sounds ''bully-beefy" you will know the
reason why.
Il was going to wait and write you
from the trenches. but on second
thought have decided that it would
be better to write before get there
as they play a little rough at the
front and might get ratified by the
excitement. About ali we have done
lately is to work our way up to the ad-
vanced lines. At present we are close
enough and II a fellow is out after
dark he must be careful which way he
wanders or he will be over where the
Boches live. We expect TO be flirting
with the big whiz-bangs and the little
steel balls before long. II can get
two or three of the Fritzes before they
get me I will be ahead of the game. If
fellow can always beat the game he
is playing in great luck.
asrrt,;s Ct1ndox- aud Ii fe t-af fnfnfr
but that is almost an everyday oc-
currence over here. This rainy weather
is hard on a fellow whose usual habi-
tat is sunny Kansas OF Colorado. II
makes 1t difficult for him to keep dry
and warm. / am all bundled up like
an Eskimo ard il is not what you
would call cold weather, either. You
may believe me or not as you like when
tell you that l am wearing one suit
OF light underwear and socks; suit
of heavy wooden underwear and socks;
woolen trousers. shirt and coat.
leather. feece-lined Jacket. spiral leg
gins, hobnailed shoes and cap have
taken off my gloves in order to write
this letter. l wore the lightest kind
of clothing all last winter in Canon
City. / am going to lie down under
four or five blankets after while 10
get warm.
Il can say without lying bit that
/ don't like this country. The war is
all right: in fact. it is quite exciting
at times when the big guns get to
rumbling and the aeroplanes flying
around. but If l get back to the old
homestead I'll never save my money
TO take vacation over here. OF course
there are SOME nice places in France
but the Yankee soldiers are never sent
on the route along which they are To-
Gated. When we are fortunate enough
to get TO ride, which hasn't been the
case lately they bundle US in small
box cars marked "eight horses or 40
men The top layer gets along with
out much trouble. but it's hard on the
boys underneath. Our moves are all
made at night, SO we don't see much.
feel lot. The French farm villages
where we stop are all alike; the same
as a circus. When you've seen one
of them you've seen all SO far as gen
erai characteristics are concerned. Tie
houses and barns are always butt Of
stone and are under the same red
tiled roof. They are almost invaria-
bly, clustered around a large. hand
some church.
The people over here are in all es
sentia's the same as they are at home,
good. bad ard indifferent. But all in
all they have treated us very nicely,
except in their business relations with
US. When we want to buy anything
they take all the money we have. A
piece of candy costs francs. or 10
cents. The price of dozen eggs is
$3.50
Personally, have managed to get
along on witt the mess sergeant
dishes out. and. speaking OF eating.
I'll tell you what we had for dinner
today. Tomatoes, mashed potatoes
juicy roast beef. two big pieces of
wheat bread with butter and coffee, all
OF which came from the good old
United States of America. Besides
all of this ! had can OF Welch's
grapelade jam and an FL Roy cigar.
which my bunkie and finished up
We purchase all of the luxuries from
the " but the demand always ex
ceeds the supply.