The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-05-16
Letters From and About Soldiers


the field. He writes;
| am indeed sorry that YOU are not
getting my letters, but suppose Ger
man subs are. We have accounted for
some Of them, however. | shall try to
write oftener this summer. and at least
some Of them should reach YOU
| am ordered To hold myself In readi-
ness to return to my unit in the field.
and may 90 any day now. There is
rather hard fighting over there now,
but the bosch is not having things all
his own way. He.may find that he is
merely batting his head against a
brick wall. Our turn is surely coming,
and this present feverish rush of the
enemy's may do more to end the war
than anything else. And by that, of
course, | mean an ending favorable to
US, which will be the only one.
Yes, have been wounded three
time. but only the last one was serious.
still feel il bit. A piece of shrap-
mel caught me through the right lung /;
at the same time three small bits in
the chest and one in the wrist. The
other one was through the right arm.
but being only a clean rifle bullet
wound did not mind it, and remained
on duty. | told you about.that scrap
in a former letter, but you could not
have gotten it, SO will wait now until
| see you, sometime.
took a course of instruction in re-
volver shooting here recently, came
out only two points below the record
there, and had t.not been for little
hard luck should have made a new one.
| used the Colt. both automatic and
far shot. We practice on rats in the
trenches when no huns are available.
We sometimes use long magazine in
the automatic that holds 20 cartridges.
The huns, however, have gone us one
better by using an attachment on his
Luger automatic, closely resembling
the Lewis machine gun magazine that
holds 90 and that with ~ in the gun
gives him 60 cartridges, but | cannot
see where it is of any great use to
him, for | have never seen one yet
that had CUTS enough to fight at close
quarters. They nearly all carry a dag
ger as well, with a blade about eight
inches long | never could understand
why unless for ornament whilst swank-
ing around the streets of Berlin.
Please thank Mrs. Elaviland for her
kind offer to send me magazines, but |
fear it would be quite useless, as they
very seldom reach us in the trenches
but are given to Base hospitals, as the
difficulty of transporting mail up the
line is very great However, you
might try single paper sometime and
will let you know if it reaches me.
think | must close now, old man,
and will write again from France.
"The music that the boys make
around the Y M. c. A. huts" writes
Elliott J. Staten, member of a quarter
masters corps now in France, "keeps
us in good spirits. While ! am writing
a half dozen men are playing on the
piano, banjo and ukelele.
The young mans interesting letter,
in part, follows:
1t would be interesting for you to
see the methods employed by these
French people in doing their work. 1t
seemed to be wash day the day of our
arrival They have wash-house, con.
structed of brick or stone, in which are
located huge tanks. All the women of
the neighborhood seem to gather at
such houses to do their laundering.
AS we marched through the streets
little children would follow, asking for
cigarets. The men gave them some
and of course they smoked them, as
though they had been accustomed to
do it. Old women also smoked.
The poor classes wear wooden shoes
and when a youngster runs along a
paved street it sounds like a 1900
pound horse coming down the pike.
Some of the old men had shoes Is
inches long How they managed to
travel with these sticks is mystery
to me, but | suppose they are easy to
travel on as snowshoes. Two old
women gather up the tin cans here at
camp. They have cart and two
horses hitched tandem. 1t would be
an interesting picture for you to see
them travelling along the stone-paved
street. Except for autos, all vehicles
here seem to be two-wheeled.
The farms are small and fertile All
the buildings are constructed of stone
or brick, very little lumber being used.
We passed sawmill, built of stone.
1t was manufacturing lumber from
poplar logs about foot and half ir
diameter. If these people ever saw ar
Oregon fir tree, full grown, don't be.
lieve they would know what it was.
The boys have a lot Of fun counting
the French money after shopping at
the French store here at camp. We
have Y. M. c. A. store. which furn.
ishes towels, tobacco, cigarets, soap,
dates, figs, etc, at cost to soldiers
You have no idea of the good the Y
M. c. A. is doing for the boys along
these lines.
Herbert Kaufman is going to speak
here tonight want to hear him.
You will remember he used to have
articles in the Sunday Oregonian.
Coming over on board the ship We
had Hood River apples twice at dinner
time. 1t seemed like meeting an ole
friend when | saw the Blue Diamond
wrappers. We have Columbia rivel
salmon here sometimes. | don't know
whether the bread is made of Oregon
wheat or not. Anyway it is good
We get plenty to eat and wear and are
in good health. You must not let da(
or mother worry about me. keel
them smiling Dad must remember
that it is going to take lot of hogs
and beans to win this war, so keep hin
in good spirits while raising same.
Capt. Louis A. Henderson writes hi
wife that he regrets not having de
voted more time to learning Frencl
before being sent on expeditionar,
duty. Capt. Henderson writes as fol
lows:
Goodness, | wish | had paid more at
tention to French. have to deal will
the natives continually, and | an
afraid to venture on speaking thei
language. The people are very patien
and good natured, though, and W,
Americans manage to get along.i
am so busy. however, that have ha,
little time to study. try to learn
little at meal time, as all orderinl
must be done in French Nv landlad,