The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1918-01-17
Thursday January 9TH 1918
Letter From France

of the St. Louis Catholic church
in this city, was published In
the Catholic Citizen, published
at Milwaukee, Wis, and is re-
produced herewith. !, ;" =
l. France, Dec 6, 1917,
| have been in camp sometime
and have become acclimated. !. ]
mentioned that our regiment
was at the British front. We
haul munitions to the. batteries,
but we are not under direct fire.
Indirect fire, of course, can reach
far beyond our outfit. ,.
a''~~TRere, are about 300 K. C.'s in
the regiment, fully Is per cent
of which is Catholic, mostly
young Irishmen and Canadians
from New England, fine chaps
too. There is no vice or booze
area for a good many miles,"
This country behind the lines
is a DESERT hardly a tree re-
mains. l saw a dog for the first
time since coming here today. |
have not seen a COW, or sheep at
all. The only places the Ger
mans left.trees. are the German
cemeteries. Even the French
cemeteries were robbed of the
trees. 1t is>war as waged by
Kultur.
We live in huts or tents, but
we have trenches in case firing
becomes menacing; a.. direct hit
would clean out atrench section,
but the menace of shells consists
much of the debris scattered
laterally, and a ditch is proof
against that. The accuracy of
the Boche must not be under
rated. We experience many of
the thrills incidental to presence
at the front, daily inspection by
the Boche, in his plane, occasion
al bombing in the vicinity, the:
monotonous noise of night
artillery and fireworks.
l hold services every Sunday
and the attendance, is. always
good. Many of my boys are
weekly communicates. They.
are exempt from .Eucharistic
fast at the front, and confessions
are heard standing anywhere.
Uncle Sam has sent a motor
cycle for my use, thus facilitating
my work. Any engineer regi-
ment is necessarily scattered
over considerable territory.
Our regiment has been cited
by the British for efficiency in a
recent move and the boys feel
proud of it. Accordings to a
London paper. the ''show" at
Cambria and vicinity -isone of
the bloodiest of the war; the
slaughter Of the enemy was
something frightful.
The Britishers are grim fight
ers and hard as nails, but the
French eclipse them in quickness
and the power to find cover.
American papers have not eXz
aggerated the astounding raw
ages of war. England mourns,
like France, her numerous dead.
The French and British place
confidence and they somehow.
imagine. that the sAmerican will
be a fine soldier. Give us a mil
lion. Americans, they say, and
the :big. show" is over. The
yellow Of Russia has somewhat
hurt our feelings and we see in
that a prolongation Of the strug-
gle. No one here cares to return
home unless we .win. The
feeling among the boys is more
one of resentment thandespond-
ency. TheGless mentally endowed
chaps. .murmur 1--WE ought to
lick Russia for that after we
trim Germany"
.None.o Of my boys are really
discouraged or seriously home
sick, but we confess we lack the
comforts of the large camps at
home We "salvaged'S' a piano
recently. In military parlance
Salvage" may mean buy, bor-
row, beg or steal. There is no
Y. M. c.. A. or recreation centers
around here. Eventually things
may be different.
Cboploip w A Roo,1dotfo