The vidette. (Iuka, Tishomingo County, Miss.) 1912-1967, 1919-06-05

BoURGEs, FRANCE,
Nav IL. 1919.

thinking of Ny MOTHER, 80 far
away, and wish SO muchsfhat
could be with you both today.
There will be special Mothers Day
exercises at the Y at ten forty-fve
and | am going to be there and
thinking about the best mother in
the world, my Mother.
am enclosing for you an article
| clipped from the Saturday Even
ing Post of April nineteenth, by Pc
ter Clark McFarlane, entitled He
roes All" This story is based on
actual facts. happened to be on
the Aquatania the morning that this
Happened. We were awakened by
the crash and the boys piled out Of
their hunks i'll double time. They
thought the boat had been torpe-
decd or most likely had struck a
mine. The corporal of my squad
and myself were about the only
ones not excited. We thought it
was only a big noise of some kind.
1t sounded like breaking plank and
| heard the whistle blow twice and
| told the boys around me that they
were only turning the boat to take
another course and Corporal Mey-
ers turned over and went back to
sleep and | got up and dressed leis-
urely. That morning when we went
on deck at nine O'Clock an English
boy, who worked in one of the mess
halls, told us that our boat had run
over one of her chasers and had
killed quite number OF her
crew and that two of the other
chasers had staid by her to aid her.
The evening before we had had six
chasers and we went into South
ampton with three and an aero
plane. That was all we ever heard
of that mornings happenings and
we never knew for certain il any
thing had ever happened or not it
was kept so quiet that none of us
knew anything for certain. | met
a young man here working in the
c. r. o. short while ago that was
sick in the hospital at Southampton
the ninth of October and he told
me of them bringing a wounded
sailor in on that morning and Civ.
ing him a bed next to the one he
occupied. He also told me things
that the sailor had told him and
with what little knowledge | had of
the occurrence we had a pretty good
outline of the real thing. If it had
not been for the quick thinking and
cool headedness of the commander
OF the Shaw | might to-day be listed
among those who lost their lives in
the great struggle for democ Scy.
Instead others died that | and Il e
thousands of others on the boat Ac.
quatania might live. The hand OF
God has certainly been over my life
so far and | must have been saved
for some good purpose. AT the time
of this accident | was sleeping in a
compartment way down below the
water line, right next to a maya
zine where great quantities of anu
milton were stored, up toward the
bow of the boat. III it had not been
for that commanders quick thought
edness and the willingness and ODE
dience of his men there would no
doubt have been many casualties,
besides a loss of one of the best
ships afioat. The commander and
crew of the Shaw are in my estima-
ton ALL HEROES, and while the sto-
ry of their deeds might not make
much OF an impression on the read
ing public, | am certainly grateful
to them all. | never wrote you Of
this when | Ian led, as didn't know
the details aud then at that time
the letter would never have passed
the censor.
Yesterday evening after work my
friend Mackey and | took walk
out of town to the place we
call the caves. This is our favorist
walk. The caves are great under
ground passages and chambers, not
in the side of hill or mountain, az
you would suppose, but under al
most level ground. They are moi
natural. but were cut out by the
French and all the stone that was
used in building the city Of Bourges
was taken out of them. There are
ventilators from. them to the sur.