The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-03

were in business houses with you, the boys who have gone from your neigh borhood, and. of course, most frequent ly to your relatives.
 Picture the camp postoffices, the bags going in and out at all hours, the clerks working night and day, the steady dis tribution of mail that line of wagons backed up against the porch and loaded with mail, and then think most clearly of all of the boys as the mail is handed them-or is not They don't want senti- mental letters, they are not interested in letters from strangers, as a. rule. They want home news, and you who know them are the ones they want to Hear from. One man has spoken here at the Hostess house of the letters he has had from former teacher, a master yioin+ | ist, and business man of Lincoln, Nep-s | Another man told us he had two letters | from a business associate in Birming 1 ham, a man you see on First avenue and l on Twentieth street every day in the i week The letters probably took 10 or ID minutes of his time,g but they gave this I younger man hours of pleasure, and II 1 you knew just how appreciative he was, and others are of the same. attention,, | you would take the time and trouble to | write. Tell the men you know what IS l going on at home, the new buildings, ! the progress of the Liberty Loan cam paign, A score of things that seem com. monp,N.e to you, but that are interesting at camp, for the very reason that they are the commonplace home news.
 1 Send the home papers. with some In 1 teresting paragraph of current local news marked, preferably. If you could see how we have circulated the Birming 1 ham daily papers here. you'd be sure to send them. For while a number of us from Birmingham exchanged them ! around among us. and it didn't matter that they were two or three days old We read Sundays paper on Wednesday, 1; and enjoyed the rotograyure that you had seen days before. Send them, espe- l cially blue penciled, for they seem so much more personal then Send them to the men you know in camps here and | across, only 1t is best to limit those sent across to clippings or the most interest l ing parts of the paper. on account of the | space they take up in sending,
 Send magazines with 1-cent postage. l Don't let them accumulate and finally l be thrown away. Put the stamp on, drop them in the mail boxes. and from there they are sent, Qany of thems 10 ] the camp libraries. That is most in teresting place, but l shall mention now 1 OnlX the 13ct that lndl IS Wlitit liic iiis'S
 aziness gd From there the men get them;' they are sent to the hospitals; we $, often go up from here and get an armful for the library table here, and just now there are none too many coming in. Yes- terday I tried to find something to take to a boy in the hospital and the best | could find was an early September Sat vrday Evening Post and "a July number of Harper's Bazaar. 2 Keep them coming
 
 send the best. Send your posts as soon as you have read thenl,' the Literary Di- gest is another that they want while II is current We get the Ladies Home Jolrnal and the Woman's Home Com panion and Good Housekeeping, and you , neednt laugh for they are read, too oi course we have the women relatives com ing here, as we'll as the boys
 .s, When you send packages send smai ones, frequently, rather than large pack ages at long intervals There IS less dah- ger of the small ones tearing up, there is more fun in having them come Ire auently than in having only an occasioil- al surprise, and you can more easily pre- pare small package. Do not seho things that are easily perishabie. saw pasteboard box at the postoiiice mashed sideways. and with the hopeiess- le spoiled remnants of what had peer delicious package of freshSStrawner- ries. One of the boys .from Louisiana had a bunch of sbananas come to hlnl last week. utterly ruined. pox 2, peaches came with one good one. seho things that will keep, send little al time. and wrap the packages until you know you have passed the limits or pre- caution. You don't want your pachase ito come with the paper and box 'orn to pieces, and the contents past use, SC
 the heaviest paper. corrugated paste board. cork paper. tin boxes or woooen
 and heavy twine, and mark them oi every side with unmistakably plain let
 ering. ! While I am writing this. am thinking of Birmingham boy. and of the inter est a certain family iii his neighborhooc took in him. There was 10 sentlmentai' ity about it. just a cordial. interest 1T lhis activities and welfare. l saw nm
 here and saw him leave for France, as he stood out on the back platform oi