The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-04-12
LETTERS FROM The
BOYS IN ARMY CAMP

| Miss Esther Daniels, teacher at the
: high school, is in receipt of the fol-
lowing letter from Archie c. Currier,
! formerly student at the school,
now with the 476th aero squadron OF
I tho aviation section signal corps,
/ American expeditionary ;orce:
england, March 12.-Dear Miss
: Daniels: AS l sit here in the Y. NJ.
C. A. tent with all the boys busy read
( ing or writing. | am reminded of the
/ Latin class in good old M. II. s., and
! | wonder if you would not like to
hear little of what is going on here
from one of your students.
II have travelled a long way since
l wrote you last. A part OF the way
was by boat and there is not much
to say about that, but the rides
through the country were very inter
esting.
| Il hear that you have had e hard
winter in Minnesota but most Of
France and England have been like
spring at home. One does not mag
inc what a terrible war is going on,
when travelling through Southern
, France. To be sure we saw boxes
and baggage with a government
stamp on and few soldiers about
the cities but business goes on in
/ much the same way The people
seem quite cheerful and always greet
us with smile
"The towns differ from ours in that
the streets are narrow. There are
very few small wooden buildings, and
! even in the small towns there is a
great deal of masonry The farms
are what caught my attention mostly.
/ They were green in mid winter and
| all fenced off by hedges. There is
not a foot of waste land. Many OF
! the fields were planted with fruit
| trees and the farmers were blowing
/ between the trees.
| "As we get nearer the front there
are more signs of an army being near
! The cities have great search lights
to watch for air planes at night AT
| the very front there is no longer any
doubt about the greatness of the war
| There are camps and troops every
where. The railroads and motor
/ trucks are working steadily on, car
rying the supplies. The big guns
open up with steadily rain OF shells
first in one place, then in another
while the light artillery cracks away
! sending the shrapnel, which eXplodes
high in the air with puff Of smoke
"The dough boys lie up in front in
the trenches, ready to advance as
soon as the barrage of the big guns
and bombs of the air planes have
cleared the way. They surely do a
clean job Of clearing The way. We
sometimes read about a place being
completely wiped out in the papers
. but it is hard to realize how. COM
pletely this job is done. The ground
F., is all cut up by shell holes and fur
rows, whole hills are cut down and
made to fill up the hollows and great
forests are cut down by shell fire
only now and then part of the
trunk of a tree being left to show
i the place where it was Even some
| OF the villages are left, with hardly
a stone to show where they had been
"a gentleman was passing over
some of this country with an office,
some time ago, when the Officer
! paused on small hill and remarked
/ This is Witchet' What is Witchet?
the gentleman asked. This said the
officer, is the village of Witcnet.
/ The allies had made such a complete
job of Smelling the town, that one
would never have guessed that there
was a town there. The great cathe-
dral was small hill, with only g
part Of the bell and few stones LEFT
to mark the place.
| ''The ambitious French people are
rebuilding the towns, however, ani
planting the fields to grain and trees.
The American boys are at the
/ front all right and they are there to
stay The Germans opened us such
a heavy gun fire, that some of oul
boys had to crawl out of the from,
! line trenches and retire, but they die
not go back as far as the second lire
/ trenches, but lay down in the shell
! holes and behind rocks between the
/ lines. When the big guns stopped
| the Germans advanced and, finding
the first trench empty, started on to
/, the second, but the Americans pop
| ped out Of their hiding places and
met them on the run with the cold
steel. When the battle was over
| they counted one fourth of the Ger
mans dead en- the field before they
reached the fire of the American bic
guns, SO | fear there were very few
heroes left to go back to the other
side. One little dough boy took a
fancy to a big German sergeant, Sc
he cut him down to his size by
wounding him in the leg and brought
/ him in
81 am stationed in good old Eng
land now and have a nice place.
enjoy soldiers life first rate. but ]
! shall be glad to get back home. |
have not had chance to sit down
! to table and write very much, SO
have gotten cut of practice and
write very poor letter.
Tell the class to study hard, as
we shall need their educated minds
when the war is over. Your former
pupil, Archie G. Currier"
! ID. j. Schroeder and family oil
Mountain Lake were guests at the
Saulpaugh hotel yesterday