The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1918-09-20
SPLENDID LETTER FROM
THE FRENCH FRONT
Written by Sergt. Harry ingram
Brother of Miss Jane Ingram, Chief
Clerk in the Office of the Local
Board Here.
August 2, 1919.

Dig mails nave come IN. TINS week ana
neither of them contained single let
ter for me. You can't imagine what a
disappointment it was.
Wrote all of you some two or three
days ago, and in that letter / told you
of Francis Byrne's visit with me.
It's an exceedingly difficult propo-
sition to write letter in the army.
Pretty soon there will be gang
around my bunk discussing the length
of the war; what they are going to get
to eat when they return; what they
are going to do, and how they would
like to see their best girl, etc.
This army is certainly one grand
place for arguments. There is a bunch
at this barracks where l am, who
elect governors, mayors, chiefs of po-
lice and settle this mans war every
night. If there is anything they
won't argue about l don't know what
it is. Right next to my bed there is
boy who is a friend of Eliza Wright
and he is the main squeeze in all the
arguments whether it be horse-racing
or woman suffrage, and unless some
enc hurls trench shoe his way in the
dark he would talk until the top SER
geant yells out "Rise and shine, it's
daylight in the swamp" which means
fall out, another day and another dol
Tor. We have fellows in this camp
from east and west, north and south,
and there are certainly some rare spec
linens among them.
don't expect to be in this place
much longer, but just where we will
go from here don't know, nor am I
able to tell you when we will move.
Believe I informed you in my last
letter that had received letter from
sister. Haven't answered it yet, but
shall do so very soon.
Suppose everyone is elated over
the way in which the Americans have
met and defeated the Germans lately.
OF course no one knows how long we
will be over here but believe we will
all be back by the spring of 1920. The
French certainly think the Americans
are the stuff after their brilliant per-
Torrance at Chateau Thierry and 9th
er places since. Germany is bound to
realize she is fighting a losing fight
and you can rest in confidence that I'm
Gle Sam is going to give her the worst
whipping that any nation ever received
at the hands of another, and she Is
going to be so humbled and sphdgSd
that she can never again cause the an
guish and misery she has in the past
four years.
| AS | write this letter, there is an old
woman Ia Belgian) and a little bow
dipping heir hands down in the swill
barrel back of the cooks shack, fish
ing for piece of white bread or any
other morsel of food they can net.
l never thought | would ever see the
day when piece of bread would be as
precious as it is to the poorer people
over here.
VI course there are lots of shop
keepers over here who re making all
Kinds of money, because the Ameri-
cans make more money than any other
soldiers and spend more. understand
that most things the French sell us
are five or six times as high as they
were when the Americans first came
over. But there really isn't much we
have to buy from them, because the
U. ). A. has commissaries over here
at which we can buy any necessity at
absolute cost.
There's one thing can't saw
enough good for, and that is the Red
Cross. was in the hospital over here
for couple of weeks and couldn't
nave gotten any better treatment if I
mad been sick in some hospital in the
States, paying $50 a week. All the
nurses and doctors were from Nash
vile, Tenn. from the major down to
the buck privates in the ward And
the way they fed us was a sight. and
those nurses are the finest girls in
the world. 1t certainly makes one feel
at nome to have real, honest to good
ress American woman come tuck the
cover around his head in the middle Of
the night to keep him from catching
cold, etc. We had one mixture of ra.
, ees IN that ward. Next to me was .
Scotch highlander. The Germans cal
them the Ladies from He'll" on ac.
count of the short dresses or kills
which they wear and the way they
, night have heard that the Scotch
are terrible in action. They 20 over
t the top with bag-pipes playing. anc
! as an Irish soldier from Belfast ex.
r pressed it to me yelling thin wild
highland yells, more like the devi
than a man, in manner to curdle YOU,
: blood" He was an extremely inter
esting fellow to talk with and h,
] had all kinds of souvenirs which h,
} had taken from the Turks down II
! Egypt. "
) Across from me was Belgian. anc
/ on the other side of me a Frenchman
and further down the ward two ne
groes, one from Stamps, Ark. and on,
from Hollywood, Miss. Now wasnt
that a mixture?
Don't know whether | told Won II
my last letter that Francis had receiv
B ca touch of mustard gas. He got 4
/, last March. but az vot bos,n - :.