Free trader-journal. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1916-1920, 1918-08-06
OTTAWA BOYS, BOTH
IN FRANCE, WRITE
Of LIFE IN THE ARMY
SECT. LESLIE RANDALL GIVES
PICTURE OF LIGHTER SIDE
WHILE LIEUT., POOL RECOUNTS
sTEARNER EXPERIENCES

Two interesting letters from France
one from Sergeant Leslie Randall,
and one from Lieut.. Pool-giye an
insight to two phases OF life expert
enced by American soldiers. Ser
geant Randall tells OF a Masonic ban
quet at which sixty different Ameri
can lodges were represented and OF
the fraternity that existed among the
men. Lieut.. Pool gives IA sterner view
Of wars realities by recounting some
of his experiences up on the front
line.
The Randall letter:
Dear Friends:
The glorious Fourth is over and |
spent 1t by working in the forenoon
and by attending the baseball games
in the afternoon Then at night we
were entertained at the Y VI, c. A.
by a bunch of cuored local talent
from one Of our local steyedore regi.
ments here and il was surely good.
They didn't have to make up Dit as
they came from "old Alabam' And
then the boys up on the line did some
very credible work and all France was
ablaze with the Stars and Stripes,
mingled with the Tri-color of France
They celebrated in a fitting manner
N all the towns and villages while
,n Paris they put on "beaucoup
celebration,
Yesterday was quite an eyenttul
one in my career as | donned gold
service chevron, which signifies six
months foreign service, and although
I there was not much ceremony attend
ant to my putting on this cheyron, |
felt pretty proud of it, and worked
all the harder for having it on. 1t is Il
/ gold cheyrOn with arms about two
inches long and is worn inverted four
inches from the left cuff OF the
/ blouse, oyerCOat, sweater or whatever
you may have in the line OF wearing
apparel 1t makes quite a decoration
and we all hope that we will not wear
more than one more
The clippings were intensely inter-
esting to me as those names were
familiar and some of them were dear
friends, The young men are surely
leaving fast and the more that leave
the sooner we will all be home. We
had quite an interesting little get
together meeting about two weeks
ago. that | must tell you about.
! 1t was a Masonic banquet and we
held it in a little secluded cafe down
on the point. II was wonderfully
pretty place and there were about
sixty of US present, all from our one
, camp here and each and every one
declared II was a night that Will al
ways stand out clearly in their minds
We had one long table, reaching tht
! entire length Of the cafe, with a Dor
der of ferns and flowers around The
4 edge of the table and a great big
| bouquet of flowers over three or foul
: feet high in the middle Of the table
4 We had wonderful eats and also ha(
some entertainment as there was
. very good piano player in the bunch
:. am writing Leon Levy about this
and am also sending my pass, that
9 had to get to this place. After tn
meal we had some fine speeches OF
Masonry in general, and upon thi
I. meeting in particular. 1t really wa
quite an imposing sight, all youn
men, meeting as brothers In this tal
away land and representing as man
lodges as there were men present.
Judging from your letter Ottaw
gave the increment Of men quite
send.off and believe me" they deser'
ed it, as they were some of the yer
best material in the community
Fritz and attended Frenc
movie last night and 1t was reall
very good and we got the drift, eve
r. II we couldn't "compron" all the su
titles. The picture was Miss N