The Washington herald., 1918-02-07
AMERICAN BOY
TELLS DREAMS
OF PRISONERS
German Soldiers Believe
New York. Captured and
Washington Occupied.

New York has been captured by the
Germans and Washington is being oc-
cupied by victorious Hun troops. Ger
man prisoners in French detention
camps believe. according TO letter
received by The Herald yesterday from
sergt. Archie NJ. Murray. formerly Of
1871 D street northeast, civil engineer
and amateur boxer. now in France.
sergt. Murray. who is stationed at
staff headquarters, So2 Stevedore Regi-
ment, American Expedltionary Force
In France, writes as follows:
France, Jan. 10.-Am located with
the boys who are about to hit the
lines. Wish you could be referee. viii
start the end run in early spring;
so take It from me we are going to
cash-in SO the gang can come back
and live the same as before.
We have q bunch OF prisoners In
our place. Many of them look like
the Kaiser himself, big, husky and
with a twisted mustache. Understand
they believe the Germans are located
in Washington, D. c., have captured
New York. and marched down ,our
town. taking possession Of II. They
are In earnest and really believe 1t
the fact.
They are treated pretty good for
prisoners here, and are in hopes that
every day will bring forth news that
Peace IL declared"
We are not In the trenches or on
the lines. but are close enough. They
are only making pop flies and sac
rifices now. only once in a year do
you hear q triple.
But Just wait; this is only the
fifth inning. We go to a big city
not far from camp. where We have
our only pleasure. There you see
many who have been injured in the
trenches, the widows who have the
custom OF dressing in mourning. old
men and women toiling from early
morning till late at night, children
running the remainder OF their house.
hold, selling papers. and all those Of
an employment age are working.
People here admire our boys and
are very thankful they are here,
telling safe and sound. They are
high In spirit for what our fellows
have already done; feeling sure we
are the ones who will put the X. o.
over. Our government is doing its
part for the boys who are here.
Plenty Of good food. fuel, clothing,
quarters and officers. The Red Cross
has certainly done its share. They
have furnished the boys with quite
a number of sweaters, caps, gloves,
wrfstiets, socks. toilet wraps and to-
bacco.
Coming over on the ship we knew we
had some friends when boxes and
boxes of tobacco and cigarettes were
distributed among the men, which
was very highly appreciated.
The Y. NJ. c. A. is established in
our camp and it also Is doing splen-
did work. They manage to keep
the boys in high spirits by keeping
plenty of cigarettes. tobacco and
cigars on hand. France is short on
tobacco. and what she has on hand
is quite steep. Christmas brought
the fellows turkey. nuts, dates, ap-
pies and fgs. On Christmas after
noon there was a football game
and a few boxing bouts. So you see
We have some little pleasure at
tached to our great task.
One bad feature we experienced
was coming across the pond. 1 am
not allowed to give you our course,
Out Gan say we were always on the
lookout for submarines. We had
very good gunners on board who
could snap them within three
minutes; all being good marksmen.
Our custom for preparedness to
take raft, life boat or water was
to have our clothes on, life pre-
serves attached to us and be we'll
armed. This outfit accompanied US
to meals. office work, deck exercise
and finally to bed. When going
through the war zone all, or, rather
most on board were expecting to
wake-up at night clamc ring for our
last resort, The Water Battle"
Hope to see you before long. Give
my regards to all Have Pennsyl-
vGnia avenue ready.
Your friend,
Sergt. ARCHIE NJ. MURRAY,
N c. Stan Headquarters,
302nd stevedore Regt. A. z. F..
Somewhere in France.