The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-12-27
LETTERS FROM BOYS
IN The ARMY CAMPS

Extract from letter from Logar
Rose under date Of November "a
1918:
Cautiously, a clipping which you
sent showing how liberal thought was
beginning to permeate Germany
reached me just as the crash came
Republics were being proclaimed and
kings were Indicating all over the
fatherland just as had been done the
week before in what was Austria
Hungary. at was as comical as what
happened in Russia when things got
started. The unstable equilibrium
was upset; and it came quicker than
we expected.
Putting together hints from con.
secutive letters (the mention of an
ambulance driver said to be west OF
Fresnes-and, in another letter-nOt
walking over to see him) of course
enabled you to know where l have
been, and the newspapers have told
the rest The town we stopped at
several weeks when we first landed
in France was Chalons- sur Marn; the
Roman circus grounds was the spot
where the first notorious Hun awaited
the battle of Chalons, 451, and the
place is called the "Camp d'Attila.'
"When l wrote Grandma, how
wanted to state how l had been rid
ing over the battlefield of the Marns
The crops were good; and it was at
Chateau Thierry 1.-THE name didn't
mean anything to us them that the
train stopped and they gave every
American a cup of sweet "cafe royal
''On August 18th last, travelled
again along that Marn over the
same route had come on August 18th
the year before, when we first land
ed. The war we thought was going
to be over before we got there. What
a wreckage. Local traffic had only
beer restored three days before and
all through trains were still being
detoured to the South. The time
tables were modified every few days
as new track connections were made
And the masses of crumbling stones
or the hillsides. We had been accus
toned to think of that region as be-
ing long way from the war zone
1t was hard to realize what happened
but there had evidently been g
storm. 1t was the big guns brought
up in the second battle of the Marn
that made the difference 81 saw the
first signs at Epernay, where the
buildings were still standing, but every
thing full of debris, and people gaz
ing around as after big fire. Nc
wonder the Prussians wanted to stop
the war when it commenced to go the
other way, and form a republic any
thing to get good terms
"Our army is just getting organized
and it is absorbing French ways very
fast. Symbolical of this is the adop-
ton of picture devices which are
painted with stencils in colors on
the "camions" or trucks to designate
different units, and new ideas are
developing every day.
christmas will be a happy one
this year, ard may the new year be
very bright"
Mrs. Eva Freeberg is in receipt OF
the following letter:
Somewhere in Belgium, November
"a, 191S.-Dear Mother: No doubt
this will be a happy Christmas for
you to learn that I am still o. K, and
which I hope Harry is and you
folks at home.
Was right up in front where the
smells were flying thick and the
shells bursting all around us when
the good news came for us to
cease firing, although we were driv-
ing the Huns back fast.
1t sure does feel good to be walk
ing without trying to duck shells OF
laying in shell holes all day in water
and mud. l felt sorry for a few OF
my friends that were killed the last
day. l also feel sorry for these Bel :
GUM people. They are a good class
OF people ard will do anything fo,
us. The Germans took nearly all
their COWS, horses ard chickens. Now
you see them coming along the road
pulling large loads and spading fields
and pulling drags over them which
horses or oxens used to do.
| am writing this letter in a ReI-
GUM home ard they have pulled the
taDie up close to the stove so that
should be warm, so you see thew
are really good. The nights are
pretty cold here, but it warns I'm
during the day. 1t just showed here
little one day.
we sleep in barns and buildings
that have been shelled. It sure is
good deal better than sleenino In
dusouts. This town is pretty wall
ruined which the most of them arc
and what railroads they have here arc
blown up, but the German prisoners
are at work rebuilding them.
| suppose Walter is still at The
wnolesale house. l got one of his
letters but it was two months old !
suppose he goes out on a rabbit hunt
now and then too. I sure would like
10 be with him, ard l think I will
soon be back. Some of the bovs
tnlnk we will be back in the states
Dv Christmas, but I have nv douots
aithough | wish it were true. as 7
haro rot seen anything here as GOOD
as the U. S. A.
This is all the paper / have 81
must close. With love, A Merry
Christmas and A Happy New Wear
to all.-Private Frank Freebere
Miss Elsie Olson received the fol-
lowing letter from Harold Amundson
with the A. E. F:
somewhere in France, November
10, I9lS.-Dear Elsie: Just got vour
ietter today. / got another one from
you while ago so guess I had bet-
Ter answer. I've had a good excuse
Ior not writing before. 7 didn't writ