New Britain herald., 1918-01-23
Johns Hopkins Hospital,
 Octnher [

Today one of the fellows came in from camp, and brought two letters from you, one from Aunt Mary and one from Bill Lamb. I guess after all that no boat was sunk, one of yours letters being mailed Sept 6 and the other Sept. 10. You see none of us in the section received mail from the States post-marked between Aug. 21 and Sept 10. Consequently it looked as if ship had gone down, as surely you would have mailed some letters during those ten days.
 If Bill Lamb is deaf he will not mind the bombardment One doesn't want to hear, only see, and some of the sights one doesn't care about see ing, either. We have had the bombs land five and six feet away, and had 3 cars blown up.
 You write you wondered where I was sleeping on the night of Sept. 4. I just looked up in my diary and find that I was sick abed Or rather on broncard from the effects of getting gassed the night before. On one trip that night I had six gassed victims, and when I got to the hospital four of them were dead and the other two pretty far gone. I am feeling a great deal better. I am going to stay here for few days though and get thor oughly strengthened out. I got only soft diet-eggs, toast and chocolate. Dix is in the other end of the ward
 October 10.
 am feeling fine this morning. The doctor says perhaps 1 can get up to- day. I didn't get any mail yesterday;
 Io1 1crh Some of the parents of fellows here write they haven't received a letter for three months. Up to now the time has been six hours ahead of your time, now it is five hours, under the daylight saving plan. The clocks are set back an hour in October, and ahead an hour in March or April.
 I wish some newspapers would come. They are always slower than the first class mail. About Verdun, The Boche never got clear to the city. They are being pushed back and, Of course as the lines go back, our posts are moved also. Where we are camped was at one time the advance posts. Now, the advance posts are eight or ten miles back. We were camped about eight or ten miles from the active front and our advance posts were three-quarters of mile from the trenches. At one place on tho road Fritz could see us, and we could see him. The S. s. II. No. 1 "SectiOn, Sanitaire 1Americaine Numeral Un. (one). the T.. means Americans or Etat-Unis (United States), The Con- vors Autos "Ambulance." The Par E. C. M means by the Bureau Censaire Militaire (through the military cen sor). It is not hard to understand the French now. The only trouble is they talk so fast when they get chatterlng to the tune of sixty miles an hour, we say Pas si Vite (not so fasD or petardenient (slowly). At present we are about forty miles from the Roche lines. At our advance poste de se- cours (first aid hospitaD we were three-Quarters of a mile, we served several postes, we would get the blesses at all of the advance postcs and carry them to the first field base. Here those who had died in our cars were taken out and others who were suffering intensely were given hyper dermics, then we took them to the hospital beside our camp.
 The "movies'' in London are similar to ours We can smoke in tho the aters. In the afternoon they serve tea; in the evening, beer. Ice cream is not known in France. It can be gotten in the Y. M. c. A. cantine in Paris, and when I go to Paris ] am going to make a bee-line for some. | hope to go to Paris soon to re-enllst. The United States has taken over the American Field and we shall soon be released and as Dix and I would like to stay in Red Cross work for while we plan to enlist in the trans portation department of the Amer ican Red Cross, which is a part of the expeditionary forces with headquar- ters in Paris. We will drive ambu- 1ances, trucks, staff cars, on call all of the time, to go wherever sent.
 October 12.
 Yesterday I was allowed to get up for two hours, and this morning and afternoon two hours each. l hope to