The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-29
SERGT. JOE BURGIN TELLS OF HIKE ID THE BANKS OF THE RHINE Only Nine Members of Fa- nous Company D, 167th Infantry, Escape Term
 in Hospital

Sergt Joe A. Burgin of Company D, 167th infantry. Rainbow division, in a letter to his mother, Mrs. J. c. Burgin. 171S Second avenue. Bessemer, writes Interestingly of the life of soldier overseas since the signing of the ar mistice. The letter is dated Decem per 20. was written in Lohndorf, Germany. Sergeant Joe does not hesitate to take liberties with syntaX and grammar. but his letters are always interesting and newsy. His letter follows yer batim
 My Dear Mother and All; We'll, last night two letters came from homo, one from Ella and one from Velma, and l was certainly glad to get them. Have had the rheumatics in my left knee, but it does not bother me much. Think it is from the long hikes on hard German roads or laying in so many wet holes while up at the front. We stayed wet all the time up there, you know, but 1 think I'm in no danger of catching anything now after dodg- ing so much steel, gas and pig iron. Nothing can hurt a good man, can IL?
 This is the damnest damp place 1 ever saw. We are way up in the hills and the clouds are so low that at times they are on the ground just like heavy fog. It has rained every day for a week and the sun nevec shines. But, thank God, the armistice is on and 1 don't have to drill so let it rain, snow or sleet. 1 don't care. We have good bed to sleep int Frank and l.. and a good warm office to work in, so what more do l ask than to come on home, get married settle up and down, in of m Y weary days.
 EATEN UP COW
 Say, have you all started fatteninls up that COW yet? lou know, the fatted cal1 will be too small for us, and, by the love of our good first sergeant, please put those peaches where they will be safe from all harm
 From what 1 read in the month old papers we get, it seems that the dear old state of Alabama, for whom we fought So hard and endeavored to hold up her good name and reputation, will be dry, but what's the difference? Old
 -- still raises corn and, besides we have been raising sand to get to a dry place for six months.
 This town we are in is about three miles from Sinzig, prosperous city right on the Rhine. Who ever thought we would be on the Rhine by Christ | 1t least. When we first marched up in sight of the Rhine Colonel Screws had the band play Dixie and, man, man, it made cold chills run all over those boys. That was always my idea of the way it should be done. These square heads I know, thought we were fools, and we are, when it comes to march ing many miles right along side o i railroad all the way. Trains just passed us by like We were tramps and going right to our destination, too. That's what makes hiking hard, to see empty trains going in your direction. But, Cest la Guerre, I can't stop it or 1 would.
 why the devil don't Claude write to me: If had him in this company ] would keep him on ktch police all the time I'd make him peel million . spuds for that? Wouldn't it have been funny if the breeze had blown him in and he had been sent to this com pany. It would have killed him for me to have ordered him around, wouldn't it? But am glad it didn't get him or any of the older married men.
 ONLY FORTY LEFT
 "Of that old company that we had when we went into Chateau Thierry there is only about 40 of us left They are scattered all over France. In ev- cry outfit over here some of them are. You see, when a man got wounded or sick and sent to a hospital he got transferred to some other outfit nearly every time. If we had that company I wouldn't be afraid to fight any two Prussian guard regiments that the boche had. Those boys were men. They were worse than that, they were devils on wheels when it came to get ting the Alamand's goat But some of them will never know the outcome of the war.
 Some of them are buried on every sector that we held. Some of them were good and some were bad, but at that they were all the best that ever were on this side of the pond, and I'd give my right eye to have seen with the left one all of them sail back 10 the United States with us. Of the whole company there are only nine