The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-04-04
Ralph Durfee n
Praises WOrw of
Red Cross and Y

Prof Alfred Durfee, Supt. of Coal
Creek. continues to get interesting
letters from his son Ralph. who is
with the army in France.
Prof Durfee is anxious to go to
France and has offered his services
to the " NJ. c. A. for work in
France.
Following are extracts from two let
ters recently received from his son.
Somewhere in France, Feb. l3. 1918
You said you were knitting me an
other sweater. If you haven't already
don't send 1t TO me but to someone
else. ! have one Red Cross sweater
you sent me and tie one the govern
merit issued US. would advise you
and all the ladies' doing knitting to
conserve your work for knitting either
socks or mittens. because they are
the things that wear out quickly and
really are the most useful I said
some time ago in one OF my letters
that the Red Cross was not doing any
good that I could see and am very
sorry said it. We have received
packages from them and they are do
ing fine work in the hospitals. The
Y NJ. c. A. is also doing fine work
in helping the boys out
Wa have been spending quite
bit OF time on gas mask drill lately.
We have two kinds of masks and car
~ them both. One is the English
type and one the French. Today We
were under French instructors with
the aid of an interpreter, who is q
member of our company. We put on
one o; the masks and then went into
a closed room where poisonous gas
had been liberated In case any OF
Us suffered any i'll effects { the gas
we were to get out at once. While in
the room we had to change from one
mask TO the other as you would have
to do in case your mask was damaged
in some way. We had to hold our
breath and put on a lot OF speed and
it sure was good practice
have been trying TO have picture
taken but there hasn't been sun enun
lately to have a good one taken.
one OF ouf men ran onto Eddle Rob
inson. who used to live in Florence,
while he was at Newport News. He
is in the California Engineers and is
somewhere near. suppose.
recently got promoted TO private.
lst class which pays me three dol.
lars more a month.
expect you wonder why | haven't
written to you lately and l don't
blame you but | haven't been able
10 write as no letters were being
censored
thing you read about US being on the
firing line, etc,and remain there
until after the funeral
One of the boys wrote n letter
home telling them we could hear the
roar of the guns and they put il in
the paper. adding a whole lot of stuff
to II that would give the impression
we were out in NO Mans Land" all
the time.
am working hard every day in the
hospital taking care OF both French
and Americans and have one Italian
patient. who is convalescent from
meningitis. One old Frenchman. who
has typhoid keeps one busy most of
the time.
Some of the country we have
passed thru has sure been shot mp
during some period of the war and in
some towns there is scarcely house
left standing
believe I have seen soldiers of
every nation represented in this war.
including the possessions. There are
sure q bunch of different kinds scat.
tered around.
RALPH L. DURFEE.
1sSth Field Hospital.
III Sanitary Train.
4snd Division