Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-11-22

now can easily see i old not even
know the letter A about the army.
When l was at Camp Lewis I had a
library at my disposal, but now. it is
only a memory. I also thought we
were given food to eat that was sure
fierce, but now regard those meals
at Camp Lewis as a luxury. we don't
get much fresh meat now and pies,
say it gives me pangs of homesick-
ness to think of one. Then one day
we were given the order to move and
the trip across the state was a glor-
lous one, some towns turned out to
greet US with band, lemonade, fruit
cigarretts and girls and we were
treated like real soldiers when we had
not as yet turned the first page. On
arriving in New York none of us were
permitted to go to the city and given
very little to eat, but we were given
the freedom of the cantonement which
boasted of hostess house that was
certainly filled with good eats, we
were also out-ftted with new clothing
and wrap leggings (and l hate them
more than I do @Bull Reef") five
days and then the unknown, the trans
port, the trip across the Atlantic,
nothing occurred to cause any undue
excitement except the China cooks
and marmalade When we arrived
in Liverpool, England, we were met
in splendid style, British band play
ing American national airs, we march
ed through the main streets of Liver
pool to rest camp, the streets of Liv-
erpool were filled with refugees from
the war zone, Belgians, Russians and
Serbians, mostly old women and chill
dren who had no teeth and dirty clo-
thes and dirty faces. They greeted
US with cheers and savage yells. I
threw all my change away to the chill
dren who begged US for pennies and
there seemed to me there were mill
ions of them. The street cars were
all in charge of conductoresses and
motoresses. We were not allowed to
go to Liverpool but were camped on
the out skirts. On the second night no
passes had been issued except to Sar-
gents, we decided 1.-THE privates) that
we would take French leave, the camp
was surrounded by a high stone wall
fence, that was the first time I ever
went over the top" we went over IN
mob spirit our only desire was to see
Liverpool, what awaited US on our re-
turn we did not know or care, ! can
not help but remember the thrill that
arose in my breast as I cleared the
stone wall in one leap regardless Of
the savage yell of the guard keeping
on my course toward my objective
Liverpool.
/ After taking in the town we return
ed to the camp where we entered the
enemy lines as we termed them, quite
safely, although number were taken
prisoners, we suffered no great cas-
ualties, we departed from Liverpool
the following morning, going south
through Nottingham, where Queen
Victoria at one time had used the cas-
tie as her residence, also where the
Robin Wood legends were located. We
stopped there twenty minutes and
were treated to cookies and coffee, we
arrived in southern England and
marched through the streets of an
other English city keeping time to
the rain drops which came down in
honor of our arrival we stopped one
day to rest but working most of the
time. We departed again in torrents
! of rain and embarked for the last
stretch for France. The night we
crossed the English Channel I did duty
: as guard, walking the deck, trying
| to ease the pain of the stomach ache
which was aiding Kaiser Bill in his
. dirty work. When off duty was
freezing to death under one of the
life boats where the kind waves could
splash drops of cold salt water on me
to help make me comfortable. On
arriving in France we climbed hill
/ without breakfast and when break,
fast did finall find US it was bull beef
: and hard bread That day for the
first time I saw a German prisoner
: Ct have seen a lot of them since as
t said before we did not understand al
we knew about the army, so we went
to training camp where we began tt
learn what we were here for, oul
train had to encounter bad luck anC
we were visited by the grim hand Of
fate our train was was wrecked and {
! number were killed and hurt it would
be impossible to tell of what reall,
occurred as one could never express
things like that like they really are
On arrival at our training CAM
e there we first became acquainted witt
France and the customs of the coun
! try. The streets were the dirtiest
ever saw and the populace was just a
/ bad. The boys celebrated by trying
to drink all the champagne in tn
village, they didn't succeed as know
when we left they were still selling
we could get all the milk we want +
DIR nix providing one had good stroni
stomach. We have all kinds Of char
n acters in our company. Just nov
e where we are under the shelter wher
: Lam writing this there is a Montan
# bow legged COW puncher and a lon
st lanky sheep herder, the tent is full o
It sheep and bucking horses, sometime
le also wheat rancher and bank cash
l. ier, Swede logger who is loadm
lie logs IN his sleep and my self. W
20 also have Frisco toughs and Mormon
is bookkeepers and gamblers, telegrap
rt operators and bell boys. they still tai
er about home and the good jobs the
le had and of all the good things the
e are going to eat when once they ge
D. their feet under mas tablet though
e at one time. we would never ge
S. through training, but now we ar
3 through 1 suppose I will begin
E. think soon l will never get throug
lg fighting. But now training days al
rs over Ike college or school days, W
r have gone forward seeking large
feds, we, believe have found them,
can not help but admire the coolnes
as and daring of allied planes, hav
lie seen them over the German lines III
n der heavy shell fire, shells burstin
in over, under and all around them the
w did not seem to mind keeping steadil
Of on their course showing the iro
" nerves of men who know not what tn
le word fear could be. One has to +