Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-28

want. They have been more than
friendly, truly hospitable people
and l am glad to be among them,
rather than some of the other COM
batants."
Il have just stopped writing for
few minutes to talk to few of
the men of my visit. My French is
much more facile now than at first
and l have little trouble in under
standing and being understood"
Now we're out at u little station
about three miles back of the front
line, but it is a quiet sector and we
are safely tucked away In nice
comfortable dugout, Mother, so you
needn't worry at all. It's darn
sight safer here than Broadway on
busy night. Really, you ought to
see this dugout. We mess in little
room at one end of it with second
lieutenant. They are awfully good
fun. 1 think our table conversations
have ranged all the way from the
electoral systems of both countries.
with a live discussion about our
martyred presidents on the side, to
| the price of French wines and the
end of the war and all in a mangled
melange of French and English, all
of which passed backward and for
ward in a lusty tone of voice. all of
us laboring under the impression the
| louder the tone, the better the un-
derstanding."
"A frequent fancy of mine is that
of bath. l haven't had one for
three weeks, but that is another
matter. If l could be shown a nice
big bathtub, filled with hot, steam
ing water and with about a dozen
big Turkish towels on the side, I'd
probably go raving crazy! OF course,
these idle fancies are in vain here.
but they do help. / have been away
| from camp for three weeks and ma
turally have received no mail at all.
| am crazy to go back and find lots
of letters there and a package with
the war bread and some Telegraphs
to be read from cover to cover and
all over again. l hope you'll con-
tinue the good work on the socks.
just wore out pair this afternoon
hiking in boots from here to the
front line and back. 1 wore out the
heels of the socks and my own and
l am sitting now in slippers and
wooden shoes by the fire writing this
on the mess table,
We'll, here I am, back in camp
again (March 10th) and just having
a good old rest. We took two days
to get back. spending most of our
time in stations waiting for long
overdue trains. 1t seems that the
French schedules are arranged so
that the train you want to make al
ways leaves about fifteen minutes
before the one in which you are
riding pulls in. The last ten miles
we rode on a cattle train, which was
bringing horses to our camp and the
very first thing Phil and 1 did upon
arriving, was to grab an entire out
fit of clean clothes and beat it for
the bath house, where we took our
first bath in three weeks. That
evening l spent in giving the boys a
long line about our experiences at
the front, quite a bit of talk, and in
reading with the greatest amount of
joy the twenty-five letters which
were waiting for me, dating from
the 18th of January to the goth of
February. I certainly did have a
time, and all of the Telegraphs for
that same period.
Let me tell you of the great sur
prise I had Saturday morning. /
had gotten two packages of food and
clothing Friday afternoon, but next
morning they sent me word to come
to the postoffice. where I was pre-
sented with a whole mail bag mark
ed with my name and filled to the
brim with packages. / spent a reg
ular Christmas morning, opening
them all and 1 can't begin to tell
you how l felt. / was and am still
quite a little nonplussed to know
why they all came together but it
was great.
Last night Charlie Taft, Babe
Allen, Phil and myself celebrated
my return by a dinner in a village
at little stone inn. We ate with
great eclat huge piece of meat,
French fried potatoes, brown bread
and three pitchers of milk. 1t was
very, very excellent! All day L have
been working on the report of my
observations and just completed il
half hour ago. 1t has to do with
recording enemy positions by diff
ferent methods and was intensely
interesting work.,