The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-08-17
PARTY PUT ON BY
LOCAL ENGINEER

The last issue of The Spiker to be
received in Winnemucca is without
question the most interesting piece of
reading matter ever enjoyed. The
Spiker is published "by the men of
the Engineers, Railway. u S. Army,
Somewhere in France" The pages
are 9x12 inches in size and there are
% pages to the issue, well written
edited and printed. and covering every
activity of the soldiers, from jokes
and fun to the more serious things.
The Spiker is monthly magazine de-
voted solely to entertaining Yankee
troops in camp. barrack and trench,
is censored by the military authorities
before it is printed and may be for
warded to this country by the soldiers
or subscribed for by civilians.
The leading articles for the July
issue is headed "Au Revoir, Dear
Somewhere in France E" 1t reads as
follows:
Ssh. Doucement! We've been re-
vealed, found out, exposed. The Sc
cret is out; the censor has lifted the
veil. We know where we're at. We're
no longer in Somewhere in France;
we're in Bordeaux, France
What will the folks at home say.
the folks who thought we were at
Cambrai. at the Lys, Ypres and Kim
mel Hill! Therell be a lot of ex-
planning to be done by the lads who
wrote of the trenches they had dug
and there'll be a sigh of relief from
other more honest letter writer's, but
no better muckers, who had been un-
able heretofore. to assure friend wife
and worrying mother that we were
camped along the Garonne rather
than along the Somme.
What a grand alibi, it has been for
the-Engineers, Railway No longer
will We begin our letters home with
the hackneyed, but super-significant
| Somewhere in France It'll be 'Bor-
deaux,' Berlin or what not"
Turning over the pages of The
Spiker the reader comes to an answer
to minister who wants our boys de-
prived of smokes. The minister says
smokes are just as much of an evil
in the trenches as they are elsewhere
and that rule should be made pro
hibiting smoking by the soldiers.
| In answer the soldiers say that il
they get as much comfort out of to
5acco in the army as they did in civil
life, they will be very well satisfied
md that they are the ones to be salts
tied-"not the minister or his kind"
And if tobacco is all you can find
TO preach about we are wonderfulIy
we'll off. Victory will in no way be
impaired and our salvation is as
sured. If this is your (the ministers
chief concern, your mind is as free
from responsibility as your efforts are
from results. In this war of ,democ-
racy VS.. aristocracy, democracy is
bound to win-but not without a
struggle. The desire to rule is in
stinctiye in some men. These petty
attempts to regulate individual con-
! duct within the army can in no way
impair our chance of victory and after
the war. through the medium of the
ballot. we will continue to be of the
people. for the people and by the
people.
"Just now the boys are all working
well and shooting straight-none
know this better than the soldiers OF
Willie of Potsdam-and take it from
us. they are being damn well 'potted."
Further along subjects of all sorts
are taken up, and in every article il
is noticed that the funny side is al.
ways uppermost in the minds of tho
writers, bespeaking good morale
among the soldiers and intimatine
that they are not downcast. Cartoons
there are in plenty and lots of poetry
One reads:
Over There
A little trip, made two and two;
An auto, or mayhap canoe;
A maiden's laugh, mans voice, too;
A whispered word, meant just fol
two;
That's all it takes to make life do.
Over Here
The hum of motor. running low,
Adown the streets of a town know
. A sudden stop-"Bon ri"-"Hello.
A maidenis cap, a mans chapeau;
The worlds the same where'er you go
Finally the reader comes to a page
devoted to Company Notes" From
. the correspondence from Company I
the following paragraphs are taken
The Rags Means referred to is sol
der from Winnemucca, who enlistet
in the railway engineers about a yea
ago. For four or five years he wa
employed as a locomotive engineer oil