The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-08-13
When Uncle Sam first put hi

When Uncle Sam first put his
| boys in the lines, as the story goes
4 raid was made upon a German
front line trench, it amounted to
nothing-only an exchange Of shots
in returning one of u boys got
lost from the bunch, he was captur-
ed by an enemy patrol. Next morn
| ing the observer saw standing high
| above the German trench a cross
with our man crrcifed thereon, just
| as Christ was crucifed. Every nerve
in their systems grew tense, (French
and English do not play base ball,
Americans do). Our boys loaded
to the teeth as one may say, and
backed up by a team that could
hurl grenades as far as they could
a baseball, rushed like so many wild
cats over the top, through the much
damaged barbed wire, they brought
back the body of their comrade, and
left the enemies trench fllsd with
dead.
That is an old trick of the Boche,
with new animals, they knew that
the opposing party will come over
in frenzy, which is just bait for their
machine guns, but our grenades put
'em over so far and s. fast that they
thought it was a hail storm.
When Uncle Sam called "Wake up,
your country needs you", many a
man said, "I'm not mad with the
Germans" or 81 don't want to fight"
and they disbelieved the stories of
the German frightfulness, but uncle
Jim, 1 have seen the evidence with
my W eyes, l have seen the young
girls that were dragged down in
shame. A mother being roughly
used by an enemy in the presence
of her small child, the child rushed
upon the Hun, hammering at him
with his little fists-the Hun did
what the enclosed picture (that l
received in a book of cartoons)
shows, saying, now will you be good,
and on and on. I could tell you so
many things that you would feel as
we dots a privilege to fight,
even unto death for Uncle Sam and
those who love US, and never a sac
riice." Must stop for tonight as l
must put my light out, old Fritz is
trying for the range now. Good
night. Will talk more pleasant to-
morrow.
July 13.-After listening to our
batteries hammer at the Boche posi-
tons for an hour or more and also
to the rats, who were on q rampage
around my bunk last night, l went
t osleep. / have a nice bunk, sleep
next to my desk, and under the
watchful eye of an alarm clock,
which blows reveille too soon to
please, but after I down. a few ser
vice stripes (Bacon) and. can a few
flags (Hot cakes), I am as happy as
a lark, and ready for dinner, as 1
had to stop for the train. ! have to
look it over every morning, though
for the past two or three weeks l
have had it pretty soft.
Have just finished dinner-Vir-
GINA ham, French cabbage, carrots
and tomatoes. Suffering for a varie-
ty is an unknown quantity. The on
" system that Uncle Sam hasn't
perfected to the satisfaction Of the
entire enlisted personel of his mon
strous army, is the allotments, and
I think soon that they. will have that
sifted down to a comprehensive and
unifrom scale, whereas every man
will only allot so much, and then
they might send out a bulletin gen.
eral that will explain the things Of
interest to the ordinary mind, in
stead of one of those legally worded
| affairs that only a Philadelphia law