Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1918-09-07
Greetings from Hurley Boys
Somewhere in France"

We, the three boys mentioned wish
to extend our best wishes and greet
ings to our sturdy hackers at home.
We also wish to express our heart
felt appreciation for the great pat
riotic work being done back home for
all of us in the service of our country.
1t gives us renewed spirit and super
human power to execute our duties
and go into battle with a determina-
tion never displayed before. We all
realize the burden carried on our
shoulders and that of our patriotic
citizens back home. We also realize
the serious nature of our duties and
will willingly give up our lives for
our country and the better living con-
ditions of the worlds inhabitants. /
have been fort innate enough to re-
ceive few of our local papers and
marvel at the spirit of enthusiasm
shown by the many different races
of people represented in the surround
ing locality about Hurley.
All of us boys enjoyed our trip
across and could find nothing too eX-
citing for us. Our arrival in France
was quiet and unnoticed by others
but our attention was centered on the
old structures and the different GUS
toms and habits of the French people.
We missed the familiar sight of street
cars and automobiles. The automO-
biles are few and used by the mill
tary authorities only. The only means
of conveyance is by horse and wagon
and most of the wagons are two
wheeled affairs drawn by one and
two and sometimes three horses.
The French people have good, well
trained horses, as man sits on one
horse and drives the other two or
three horses by talking to them. The
horses understand the French langu-
age very well and need only one rein
to drive them. All the farmers live
in villages and have their little tracts
of land to journey to in the early
morning, returning at night.
Dan Mcdonald, Harvey Devine
and myself are all in the same bat
tallion and have been together most
of the time. We have travelled quite
a lot on foot and have seen good
part of France. Speaking for all three,
we have enjoyed ourselves, regardless
of the harbships experienced. Lape
Noldin is in another battalion of our
regiment and is separated from us
most of the time. | haven't run
across him since arriving in France,
although he has been real close. |
presun he is getting along we'll and
taking things as they come. We
didn't take this job to get fat, and |
think our weight is showing it. The
packs we carry will not allow the fat
to accumulate on our bodies. Our
steel helmets keep our brains from
getting rusty, as it has rained nearly
every day here lately. Our gas
masks are ample protection against
some of the cheese issued to us by
the cooks. The holes in the bareback
were made by men jumping on them
with their hob-nailed boots trying to
break them.
We have all had some experience in
the trenches and found them mighty
interesting. Before you read this
each one of us will have seen more
of ''FritZie'. cannot go into detail
about our movements or whereabouts
at present, neither can | explain the
condition of the trenches at this time.
Our experience back in the mines has
enabled us TO bee ONE good ground
hogs, as we have to dig in whenever
we makea stop, Jerry is keen eyed
fellow and may drop a few Jack john |
sons or few black pills on us.
We were favored by vaudeville |
entertainment given by an engineer /
unit last Saturday night and few
boxing bouts or feats last night. |
1t was the anniversary of the begin /
u nc of this great war and had to be |
celebrated in some form. The andi- !
ence was a mixture of English or
'Tommies", Australians or Aus /
sizes, BTazilians or "Diggers",
French or Froggies" and large
number of "Yanks", "Sammies" or /
"Go-devils" as the Americans are
called. Every one enjoyed them
selves and felt safe from Jerry" as
several Australian, English and
American planes lowered over our
heads.
Well, speaking for all of us, wish
to send word of good-cLeAr and
many thanks for the good work done
at home.
Greetings to all the families and
friends of the three above named
"Sammies".
Sergeant c. +. Emunson
Co {. 1870 Inf. Reg.
a. h. F. France.