The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-11-08
CHAPTER xlx-continued.

II
I noticed that all the time he was
writing the word and giving us the
stationery, the sentry was laughing
and having a great time with his own
little self, but / figured he was just
acting German, and that nothing was
important about it.
We were all tickled to death to get
a chance to let our people know where
we were, and each man thought a
long time about what he would say,
and who he would write to, before he
ever started TO write. Each man want
ed to say all he could in the small
space he had, and we wanted to let
our friends know how badly they were
treating US without saying 1t In 80
many words, because we knew the
Huns would censor the letters, and It
would go hard with anyone who COM
planned much. So most of the men
said they were having a great time
and were treated very we'll, and spread
figure they were lying because they
had to.
One fellow h;T an idea that was
better than that, though. He had been
In Jail In Portimouth, England, for
three months, for SeatiEg up a con-
stable. and he Ind mad a pretty rough
time. So he wrote a pal of his that
he had been captured by the Ger
mans, but that everything was going
along pretty well. In fact, he said,
the only other trip he had ever been
on, where he had a better time, was
the three months vacation he had
spent in Portsmouth two years before,
which he thought the friend would re-
member. He said that trip vas bet
ter than this one, so the friend could
figure out for himself how pleasant
this n was. Everybody thought this
was a great idea, but unfortunately
not all Of us had been in Jail, so we
could not all use It. Which was just
as well, we thought, because the Ger
mans would be suspicious If all Of us
compared this vacation with others.
A few of the men did not have any
body they could write to, and some did
not know their friends addresses, so
they would write letters to friends of
the other men, and sign 1t with the
friends nickname.
AS soon as a man had finished his
letter, he had TO go out to The center
of the camp, where they had built a
raised platform. There the sentries
took the letters, and the men formed
around the square. There were off,
GERS on the platform reading the let
tiers. We thought they read them
there In the open, before us. so that
we would know they were not tamper-
Ing with the letters, and we thought
the heaven would fall If they were
getting so unkultured as that.
Finally. all the men had finished
their letters and turned them over to
the officers, who read them. And then
we saw why the sentry laughed.
The officers tore up every one of the
letters. They were anxious that we
would see them do 1t, 80 none of us
would have any hope that our friends
would get word.
But we said to ourselves that, If It |
vas Information they wanted, they had
as much as was good for them, which |
was none at all, because / do not think
pne letter In the bunch had a single
word Of truth In 1t. But we were all
very angry and pretty low after that,
because it showed the Huns still had
plenty Of kultur left, after all, and we
knew there was rough shedding ahead
Of us. Also, some Of the men were
sore because they had wasted their
time thinking up different ways Of tip
ping their friends Off to the real state
OF affairs, and all for nothing. Why
they should worry about time, I could
not see. Time was the only thing we
had plenty of. and i for one, thought
we were going to have still more Of 1t.
Going back to the barracks we tried
to sing "Pack Up Your Troubles" but
there was not much pep In 1t. We
were not downhearted. though; at
Least, we said we were not.