The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1918-09-20

Mr.. Ira d. Thompson, Jr., lately of
Paris, who is at the Government
rifle range at Annapolis Naval Acad-
envy, writes a short letter to his
mother, in which he says in part:
Dearest Mother: I received your
letter yesterday September 12) and
was certainly very glad to hear from
you. You did not send the candy,
but 1 want you to be sure to send me
Red Cross sweater. Get a blue one
If possible. If you make it yourself
make it good and heavy, and make
nice neck in it. You asked me
about my promotion. 1t is not an
Office, but l am an assistant on the
five hundred yard range, and stand
an excellent change for getting an
office some time soon. I am an ex-
pert rifleman now, instead of a sharp
shooter, so / am climbing little by
little, all the time. The expert is the
highest course you can make in the
navy, so 1 am going to try for an
army expert. 8. . Don't forget about
the sweater, and if you make it your
self be sure to make it a blue one.
If that is not possible, make it gray,
but 1 prefer it blue. Well, l must
get busy, so will close. Hope to hear
from you again very soon.''
Under date of August IS, Mr..
Baldwin Woods, son of Mrs. Jack
Woods, of Paris, now in England as
a member of the DR.. Barrow Base
Hospital Unit No. 40, writes, in
part, to his mother, as follows:
II guess you are wondering what
part of England we are in. We are
in the southern part. We are about
IS miles from the firing lines.
The only firing we can hear is the
firing on the water. There was hos
pital ship sunk last week. 1 guess
you have all heard about it :. The
Americans are driving the Germans
every day and capturing them by the
thousands. They are depending on
us to putting stop to this war. The
way things look up here it will be
over this time next year. II wish
you could see this hospital we are in.
1t is a big beautiful manor surround
ed by over two hundred acres of
land. We haven't received any pa
tients yet, as we are building on it
and equipping it. The landscape
is beautiful and the roads are
simply grand. Big cedar trees over
hang the roads, and at night you
can't see your hand before you. The
gardens are also beautiful. They are
somthing like big flower house, and
have big ripe peaches and grapes on
the inside. The Pathe Company
took moving pictures of the Hospital
and the Red Cross. If / can get a
magazine that has the pictures in it
/ will send it to you.
"You wouldn't imagine how much
a fellow thinks of his old home when
he is over here. tell you that they
did think of home when they were
at the rest camp We had to sleep
on the floor most of the time, and it
was raining, too, most of the time.
We would often wake up in the night
with our bones aching and our
clothes wet But it came out all
right in the end. ;. The trip over the
ocean came near getting me. We
slept in hammocks. One night / fell
out of mine and thought 1 had broken
every bone in my body, but guess l
didn't. One night a submarine scare
came up, and when it was reported
that a sub was close to us one OF the
Paris boys (name withheld) got so
scared that he buckled three life
belts around him and crawled into one
of the big air tunnels, where he re-
NAMED four or five days. We thought
that he had fallen overheard"
On account of being written on
both sides of thin paper with heavy
ink which soaked through and made
it illegible, several pages of the let
ter could not be made out. And the
newspaper man had other things to
do than try to decipher it in a few
moments.
Writing from England under date
of August IA, Earl Blake, OF Win