Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-02-02
FORMER LOCAL BOY
WRITES OF LIFE IN
FRENCH HOSPITAL

Mrs. Frank Mixter, 734 Twentieth
street, is in receipt of most inter
esting letter from Samuel ]. Keator,
formerly Of Rock Island and now with
the United States base hospital Yale
Mobile unit, American eXpeditionary
force, somewhere in France The
letter is of special interest because
Of the fact that it gives an intimate
insight into lives of the men who are
suffering as a result of the war and
is an incentive to the American peo-
pie to send all the cheer possible to
the boys over there that they may
pass it on to the sufferers in the fight
ing service as Mr. Keator has done.
The letter is in acknowledgement of
a Christmas box sent by Mr.. and Mrs
Mixter with special gift included
from Mrs. Montgomery, also of this
city, of which mention is made The
letter follows:
ION Active Service with the Amer
lean Expeditionary Force, Dec. 20
Ny Dear Mrs. MiXter: You must for
give a letter written in pencil. as l
have lost my fountain pen and the
French variety is not worth the pur-
chasing. First ard foremost l want
to thank you and Mr. Mixter for the
Christmas box you so thOughtfully
sent me and then. also, for the letter
from you, which came sometime ago
and which l assure you ! enjoyed
thoroughly. / have never lost interest
in the Rock Island people and news
Of them is always a pleasure. The
box came several days before Christ
mas, but l saved it until Christmas
morning with two supplementary
packages from mother. The real box
from the family, together with sew
eral others that / know are on the
way, has not come yet, which is not
at all surprising when one realizes
the number that have been sent to the
men over here. Yours came through
in perfect condition and everything
was so beautifully packed. / assure
you / appreciated it all tremendously.
l did enjoy the Filings" lot and ha |
good laugh over my Christmas stock
ings-the latter are almost too nice
for the wear we give them, but on
the other hand they are going to be
awfully< useful when We are in the
open, as they are much thicker than
our issued ones. Part of your gift was
put to a use which l am sure you
never suspected it would be, but which
l know would please you. 1t came
about this way. For the past ,three
weeks / have been detailed with four
other men to a French government
hospital most interesting expe-
rience. On Christmas day after our
dinner two of us collected all the to-
bacco and cigarets which the Red
Cross had sent us and got others to
give us theirs, also some Red Cross
comfort bags and some other very de
luxe comfort kits. which one of the
mems mother has sent for Just that
purpose, and took them to the hospi-
tai. Two of the bags | just happened
to tie UP with pieces of the tri-color
ribbon which was around the pack
ages in your box. We had felt so
badly because none of the men seemed
to be getting any packages at all
| had only seen one and that was such
pathetic little thing with two or
three cigars and a few tasteless little
cakes which he had been so nice
about offering to us. wish you could
have seen the party. In our three
rooms there are Is men and we had
10 do quite little nIneuyering and
careful partitioning to make every
thing go round. II was just about twi-
light and the rooms were really very
cheerful with coal fires glowing First
We put small American flag up over
one of the "blesse's" bed. just where
he had asked for il. and then all who
were upmen with amputated legs,
on crutches of course; men with brok-
en- arms and bandaged heads-al,
gathered around while we distributed
the things. They were just like chill
dren and were perfectly delighted
over the simplest things-the candy,
the trench mirrors, little folding
trench checker boards, ct cetera, and
Due Dr fWn whp o0t Eniftad srarfs mr.