Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1918-04-10
WOULD LIKE TO SEE
KAISER BILL AND
OTHERS.-.HAMG|NG
FORMER AMERICAN COWBOY IS
OPTIMISTIC ABOUT OUTCOME
OF WORLD WAR

~ A1uAoAl N ADOO W lAOmE
OF WORLD WAR
This very interesting letter from
France Is clipped from tie Rockford
Register and is written to Miss
Pauline Hessler, formerly of Court
land township, now of Rockford, by
Pink Simms, member of Co. d., 18th
Railway Engineers. Mr.. Simms for
merly followed the life of cowboy
and it was while Miss Hessler was
teaching school at Deer Lodge, Mont,
two years ago, that he became ac-
quainted with her.
Mr.. Simms has had many years ex-
perience among the cattle men of the
western states, is the hero of one or
two books which take in the, life and
environment of the cowboy. He is a
men with very little education as far
as schooling goes but has become
learned in the ways of men and books
through his own efforts. The letter
is printed because of the good
thoughts presented. In part it is as
follows:
IL was sitting in my cabin last
night alone with all my windows
blanketed so the boche could not see
any light and, feeling i'm a rather
melancholy mood, commenced to re-
view my past life. 1t has been some
what eventful but l finally decided
that | was gazing back over 20 vast
ed years. For although thrown upon
my own resources at the age of IL
years and very ably withstanding the
temptations that befall any young
man who has no parents, overlook
one thing, the most important of all,
/ did not look far enough into the fu-
ture to see that some day / might
want home.
81 did have foresight enough to
educate myself beyond the schooling
l received which is one of the few
things | have to be thankful for. But
love of adventure had surpassed any
other desires ever had and thought,
Here | am in foreign land; do not
know if | will be alive in the morning
or not and no one thinks enough of
"reminiscences were due to the fact
that large amount of mail had just
arrived and, as in other cases before,
there was nothing for me.
After summing it all up there was
only one thing to do. / haven't travel
led from Honduras to Yukon with
some of the toughest men the world
ever knew without learning a choice
collection of cuss words so / opened
the relief valve of masculine feeling
and cussed myself and no one else for
the fool i have been. Right in the
middle of it a comrade came in with
your letter as about dozen stray let
ters had come in after the others. /
looked at your name on the outside
with real JOY and told my friend that
could answer it without reading it.
at is impossible for me to tell you
how glad | was to hear from you. Not
single person has written me yet
from Montana and it is six months
since / left. | have sent at least a
hundred letters and cards and surely
some of the people must have heard
from me. However, feel know my
friends too well to think that they will
not write SO surely my mail must have
become delayed somewhere. Nearly
everyone gets mail but me and you
can hardly realize the feelings one
has when he sees everyone else read
ing letters and has not one to him
self, especially in this terrible place.
have Dragged that | would not cry
IT some one were to burn me alive
but often | have wished that / were
a girl so / could and | believe if /
did not know how to swear | would
anyway.
Friends / have met since / left
Montana are the ones that write.
Some of them are people whom i met
on the sea and in England. i got a
letter from a girl who lives in the
Pyrenees, near Spain. A soldier gave
and she is very beautiful. Her name
Ic Ecfo Sxrly c1
French. l admire French women for
their beauty and bravery but give an
American girl every tine, no matter
how nature moulded her.
You say that America is waking
up. You are wrong. she is only just
stirring but some day the censor will
let loose some facts and America
will bound clear out of bed with blood
in her eye. Over there you do not
know what you are fighting and they
will not tell you, but we know over
here. You had better get right down
on your knees and thank God that
some of the men did not wait to be
drafted and thus gave Uncle Sam an
army, trained and armed before the
conscripts were even in camp.
II think now that there are enough
volunteers to keep the foul hands of
the T1unS OH ITOfu our WOmenS
throats and off the French women too
until the rest can get here. But my,
won't we hand it to them when the
boys get ready. / want to see the
mail stripped from that famous fist
and see it made to pay for every drop
of blood that has been shed; for every
desecrated church and village and for
every dishonored woman and enslaved
man. do not care what may be the
cost to myself If can see all these
things come to pass.
"Never, before did I believe that
any nation could hold the power over
her subjects that Germany does over
hers for they have committed acts
here in France that an Apache Indian
would blush at the mention of. The
world at large will never know all of
them for they are unprintable. OF
course we all know who caused the
war but If my country were not in it
xL-l