The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-06
BORDEN BURR GOES OVER THE TOP WITH
 HANDFUL OF ROCKS
Pay Days Scarce, But Pennyante Pastimes Profitable-Captured Fifteen Thousand Prisoners
 Hun Rum Popular

| To niS mother, MrS. J {. V. BuIBHl ol Aoo1
 semer. The letter. which was received yesterday, is as follows:
 Still Here, October $, 1slS Dear Home Folks:
 l This is the first chance I have had to write in over a month and l know that you all are beginning to think that I m 1 pushing 'em up but I am not. Never | felt better nor had less in. my life. .Well, this finds us upon one of the l biggest fronts in France. We just land | ed here last night. Cannot tell you where 1 it is but guess you know where 1t was that the French told the Germans Thou shall not pass So you see that lat least we are not on picnic. We have | just finished a big drive of r kilometers or another front and had been holding
 down the front line for l5 days.
 I 1t was on the 12th of August that the l drive started at 5 o'clock in the morn ] ing Our company was one of the first wave companies and our guns started | the bombardment on all the back roads I and the Boche reserves at i q. m At b | O clock the prettiest rolling barrage that l l ever saw started 1t looked mpos- sible that any Boche would be alive to l ] had those damned machine guns, and be- lieve me, they sure know just how to use them, but they couldn't stop this l Bama bunch, for we kept going and I every dugout and place of concealment | was full of them.
 1 They looked scared to death and read l fly gave up We captured in all about l1500O. Sure had a good time rounding l them up and found lots of them who ! could speak English. We asked these all kinds of questions and they seemed to | think that this war was about finished. Hope they are right, don't you? RUM PLENTIFUL
 l we captured some that were only 16 years old and some old birds who looked | 50 We got moro souvenirs than we ! could carry, but for my part l only took an overcoat. which I wear under my slicker to keep from being shot, for it 1 is hard to tell who Q man is at night. Saw some of the funniest sights that day that I have. ever seen. Most Of the Germans carry a canteen full of rum and they all would offer us q drink when we captured them, but being strict l ly prohibitionist didn't accept any. I (You don't believe it,, do you? Neither do ID If these Boches had known how an American acts when he is drunk. they would have poured that rum out. We | recaptured some Italians that the Boches
 had working for them in a small town l by the name (you know what you cook a cake in don't you? it's panne isn't 1t? We had five days in which to reach our final objective. which was the old Hindenburg line and we did 1t in % hours. That's going some. isn't 1t? And the pretty part Is we lost only two men killed and 10 wounded. You don't know rF hav ql After we finished driving we organized line and had to stay therexf for 15 days During this time we made several very successful raids on them and brought back prisoners for information. The Roche made one raid on us and we killed or captured every man but one. Wasn't he unluckyS l They said that 1t took an officer and a noncOm. to every hvo men l te make them come over. tell l you now they are afraid of. us l Americana. It is said that some prisoners sAy they were only afraid of three d1visions--the For ] ty-second, the Rainbow and the l Alabana, which is all In one. So, 1 at least they kNow Alabama any l way, and everyone else over here | edees, too, fer that matter.
 A FIGHTING PARSON
 Oh, yes. the preacher from Bessemer l is with his regiment (Rev. Williams). hadsa long talk with him today He l told me all about you and how ev-
 erything was. It made me homesick
 as hell, but guess there Is no use to
 be that way, for 1t don't seem as if 1t will be long now until we are over i the Rhine, does it? He said tell Mir. I Thornton and all hello for him. He
 had not heard from his family since he left. Seems to be nice man. all right
 and went over the top with us. At
 least, he is not afraid.
 1 Yes, saw Borden Burr. He,s
 some gvy, an rightJ went over the
 top with us at C-y T-y, and
 only had, . handful sf recksf didn't l even have . gun. rave him . message te you alL Call him up
 and him I saiA we were still giving 1 'en hell and that I win nonA(A
 mate him for governor just as sooh l as get hack. He sure made hit | with all of us and wish he was one of our officers.
 A letter just came from ElIa with the piece about Captain Jordan. Have
 been . little shOrt on mall of late. j. Two or three tlmea naail came and l was left out. Please don't forget l me like that. for . letter from home l helps out lots.--- A man can nGht like the very 0evhI n ne 8eto plenty of mail.
 Wiliie Nc is not back yet. but ex-
 pect him any time. sent his money Hast pay day in letter, and hear from lhim quite often. What do you ethink? My money got mixed up on the pay I roll and haven't had but ono pay day
 in six months, but guess 1t will be To. k by the next. I'll get by some way. You must remember Joe Is . fair poker
 player and there is not a bit of harm | just to pass the time away. Rev. Will
 Hams asked me If I played cards and
 you know told him mo-"
 ] IN FOURTH DRIVE
 You folks ought 70 hear these big guns talkinQ right now. We arc in re-
 serve hefe and are back close to them.
 It sounds worse than thunder. Our line
 has advanced i've Kilometres today and they sure are pouring It into those
 Alamand (French Tor Germans) and l hope we viii not have to 90 to the 4opt, for we have about done our hit t4his summer. Have been in three drives
 and are now in our fourth. They have lbeen taking lots of prisoners during the
 last two days and the air Is full of our
 planes They sure make . Bochs plane live hard whom, they show mp.
 HAvs seen some of tho nnest air bat
 tles tmAeinablA ana I bet Dave TFotter