The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-07-02
PAT ROE GETS AFTER
THE-WAR' LETTER
FROM HIS NEPHEW
HUMOROUS AND INTERESTING
INCIDENTS OF FIFTEEN
MONTHS In, FRANCE

latter sums up Cne lncluenLS DOLn
humorous and serious which made
up his fifteen months of life in
France.
Seattle, Wash, May 13, 1919
Dear Uncle:-
My uniform is hanging
on a nail up in the attic. My stomach
is almost stretched back again to its
normal extension and / am gradually
getting used to the feel of garters.
My ears, that for two years, have
stood half cock against the surprise
of various bugle calls, now flap gently
in the breeze attentive only to dinner
invitations. / have begun to realize
that as far as / am concerned the
war is over and that about all the ex-
citement that l can look forward to
now will be the thrills of the movies.
This matter of being licked into
the passable imitation of soldier and
beng sent over to police up the Boche
is proving to be a more serious ex-
cursion than the most of us anticipat-
ed two years ago. Fortunately or
unfortunately-just as the individual
happens to look at it--most of us did
our fighting by proxy, building
wharves, depots. railroads and trans
porting supplies. The boys with the
automatic rifles, machine guns, gren-
AIDES, howitzers and airplanes, who
were in Flanders, Picardy, along the
Marne at -Thierry and Bel
leau Woods, who had taste of trench
life in the Toul sector or who had a
hand or even lost hand in the Meuse-
Argonne drive will have all the thrill
ing stories to tell. Personally / don't
envy them at all. / have too many
friends that are pushing up daisies in
some little French cemetery to fancy
sharing their lot, were it all to be
done ever again just for the chance
of smelling raw powder and taking
whack at Jerry. Not that / prefer
to be live rabbit to a dead lion exact
ly. had little tour of it with the
French at Verdun in July and have
pretty vivid knowledge of gas, rats
whizz-bangs; box, creeping and
squeeze barrages. / have heard the
wailing drone of a German bomber
coming ever at night when there was
not anything between me and the
nearest fixed star but my tin hat and
l neither admit or claim but merely
state that during my stay on the line
exuded more cold sweat than the
spiration in lifetime of work on the
farm.
So back in the Service of Supply
believe that we were neither rabbits
nor liens but classified some where in
the range of the animal kingdom be-
tween two extremes, probably some
where about the draft horses, the
type that pull all they can and some
times little bit more, that know very
little about holidays, war bonuses and
war crosses, but a great deal about
three quarter rations and overtime.
You know that we were forestry
troops and the way we were logging
and milling lumber casual observer
would have thought that the game was
to club Fritz to death with two by
! fours.
And now that it is all over and am
back wearing regular clothes again
and still possessed of the same number
of legs and arms that / took over to
France with me, can say with the
great majority, that war, as an out
door sport and passtime, is very ex-
citing but not at all conducive to the
longevity Of the race. However, I
had some fun cut of it and trip that
l took the first of this year was one
of the highlights of my stay over
there.
1t came my turn to go on furlough
early in January so / packed my hav-
ersack with sugar and tobacco and
put in for my pass. You will under
stand that three wet winter months
had already passed and there prcmis-
ed to be at least that many more to
come. The chill of it was right in
my marrow and when I found that
of all the rest areas open to me, three
were in the mountains and promised
such activities as skating, skiing and
tobogganing (Which meant snow and
ice) and the fourth was a seaside re-
sort en- the English Channel where
wood was selling for fifty four dollars
a cord when there was any to be sold
at all. / got out my atlas to see if
France didn't offer something a little
more torrid than that. / am naturally
inclined that way by habit. A death
by sun stroke dosen't arouse much
compassion in me, but when / read of
anyone freezing to death my heart
goes right out to him. My idea of a
winter holiday is not a picture of
sleighrides and frostbites. Rather it
is sitting in the kitchen with ones
feet in the oven, a pile of magazines
and good pipe.
BY good luck l secured a special
duty pass to southern France and that
same day was on the road south
from Bordeaux. In telling you some-
thing Of this trip of mine, am not
going to attempt guide book but
merely to pass on to you some Of the
impressions / received and little
about some of the people I met.
A French train is a conveyance you
would not mistake for anything else.
1t doesn't any more resemble Mon
day morning accommodation train out
of Grand Rapids than it does the Con-
gressional Limited. 1t is usually q
medley of dozen types Of equipment
There are first, second and third class
compartment coaches, second and
first class corridar cars a red varnish-
ed international Wagon Lifts "a COM