Imperial Valley press., 1918-12-21
WRIT EN-
FRO NJ F R A nee
ON FATHERS DAY

|
A letter written from France OF
November 25, "Fathers' Day." an(
nearly two weeks after armistice be.
came effective. has been received by
Ben T. Cox from his son, Pirate
James C. Cox, with q cavalry reGi-
tment cover there" The letter fol-
| lows:
"Well, dad, this day has been set
aside at Fathers Day. and we can
write almost any thing we want to-.
think every boy of the A. e. F..
is supposed to write a letter to his
Gad or this day, and l am not 60
ing to be one that renigs, so here
goes.
~ have been over here Just a few
days over four months, ana, believe
ne, sure have seen an awful lot of
amusing things. He came through
@nClan3, having landed in Liverpool.
First came across the English chan
mel. and such ride / never hope
to take again. Came across on an
old side-wheeler.
LANDED at LIE Havre, France, on
the English channel, and went out
to some rest camp. or supposed to!
be. They were English rest camps
you can guess the rest. Stayed
there a couple of days and then
boarded some box cars and proceeded
on our wav. He spent two days and
two sleeplass nights in those boxl
cars.
Il am confident in saving that
riding in a French box car would
make any preacher lose his religion,
for 6 little while anyway. W. final |
" landed at our destination, which is
spelled la Guerche and pronounced
Ia Cash. We stayed there for a
couple of months facing whatever
we came in contact with which was
not verv much. Then we cot orders
to mack one day at | o'clock.
owe left at O'Clock the next
morning. Of course we could not
take our packs down after making
them. so consequently we never had
INV bedding. but | managed to find
= havstack and made good usa OF 1T.
There were only two or three fellows
there when 1t urned in, but they
became thicker than the hair on
Ioo's' back when | turned out.
$50 we got up q hot breakfast,
Of so called. and started out TO some
more box cars-thirty-four OF Us III
,oo little measlv car Had another
miserable ride of couple Of days
md finally landed here few miles
hack of the front iines. Srom the
looks of things. this place was once
tho front line. The town is all shat
tered to the ground. They say. the
Germans held it once for twelve days,
ar6 cues sthey did. for the place
is sure some wreck.
"When we came in we could near
the big guns pounding, but after the
11+b we haven't heard another gun.
am very positive we won't hear an
other in this war. We haven't had
but two nights sleep. | was on pro-
vost guard for several days and now
am permanent as night watchman.
7 have so long to stay in this mans
army and il matters not Wnat 40.
| have no idea how long 1t VIII De
before we start homeward, out that
all there is to live for here now; mo
fighting in front to do or nothih9
to look forward to. There IS nothing
IN This country in the way of amuse-
ment that could possibly interest
"They say Paris is nice place,
With rienty of pretty, which interest
me but little; large theatres and SO
forth, bat l have no desire to go
there. All l crave to do is to get
}omc to you folks and my daring
"This sure is cold country
Mcazes every night, showed Wh.te
one dav. Well, dad, / guess l nave
sail, about all that is necessary un-
I'll | can speak to you in person.
"Your son,
GAMES"