The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-19
Il Can Think of No Newspaper in the Country Now Whose Work and General Tone is More Soundlv
 Patriotic Than the Age-Herad," Writes Lieut..
 Leon c. Bradley From Somewhere in Francen

Knocked out and have been off ever s'nee however, 1t has been decided that While regular leaves are prohibited 2 certain number of officers can get away TOT 2+ 10 9b hours on week-ends to visit cites within reach. I shall take advan. tage of this within the next two or three weeks and will send you the photo for the paper.
 My battalion has been separated from the remainder of our regiment for some time and we have been ordered to be ready to move again in few days The orders were already coming down to us through military channels and we shall probably be on the move by next week It has been rather strongly reported that We are to journey some distance from where we now are. So far as I am con- cerned, 1t suits me 0. K. I am always ready to move or to stay where I am.
 Water is scarcer where I now am than good liquor is in Birmingham and imagine that is rather scarce. There are quite few Americans around here, as you may imagine, and I believe they drink more water than the Frenchmen use for all purposes. All the water has to be chemically treated before it is suitable for drinking, and it tastes about as palatable as one of those effervescing connections a man takes for the head ache the morning he stumbles over the uEedhldSL illlk dS ne IS redcDIng nome.
 There are lots of things going on over here, as you can see from the newspapers and magazines. Some of the stuff you see is mighty good and real ly gives pretty fair insight into war, social and economic conditions, but must confess that much of what I have seen is almost due the designation of 'driveling nonsense This applies more to the fiction than to the real news The stuff sent out by the regular cor respondents and the writers of known standing and reputation is generally to be commended, but much of the war fictioh-the short story bunk-whicn is appearing in the magazines some times appear ludicrous and makes one angry. Some of the publishers have evidently conscripted those old vet erans, the delight of the young boys who thrilled us in our early days with Jesse James, Nick Carter and The Boys of '76.'
 There is nothing to write about the war that you don't know even better than I. I get much news I did not know from old newspapers sent from the U. $. A. Our sources of informa- tion are much more circumscribed than yours and we are apt to place too great an importance on what goes on in our own little area without getting the perspective of the situation as whole.
 However. I can say that things are looking better all the time. Wonderful progress has been made and soon the United States will begin to see the re- suits of the hard work done in building the founda tion over here last fall and winter. As to our men, their morale is Al. Expressed in Americanized' French they all have 'beaucoup pep As you have doubtless read in the pa- perS, most of the men sent over the first six months belonged to the aux Hilary branches of the service-abso- lutely necessary of course-but those who have been coming recently are the real thing-the fighting men.
 T think all the men over here would like to see the war ended as soon as possible, but none of them