Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1919-01-17
With Our Soldier and Sailor Boys.

That loyal U. s.. citizen, John DeTr,
hands US letter written Nov. goth by
bis son, Edward Derr, then at Louise,
France, from which we are making the
following interesting extracts:
II suppose everybody is rejoicing in
the states that the lid has been put
down on the Huns, and l think the lid
is going to stay there. Kaiser Bill can
look for different job now and earn
his own bread and not have his people
do it for him the way they used too. l
didn't get chance to take a crack at
him but did at the Huns. Was in the
trenches at Hagenback. That's in
Germany. Probably you know where
it is The trenches is very nice place
to be but what are you going to have
in war time. Everything goes then.
When we were in the trenches, the
Huns also shot some gas shells over
but they didn't explode, so none Of our
men were gassed in that deal.
.. We were headed for the big front
when they quit. guess they knew
who was coming, Hs, Ha.
They sure celebrated over here;
guess the French are dancing yet.
Was over to Toul Sunday where that
big battle was. Sure some sights
there too, but to tell the truth about it
Pve cot all the war l want and then
some and I think 80 have the rest,
these midnight marches are over now,
and also box car rides. It's cinch to
walk twenty four miles in one night
with thi'ty-five pound pack, don't
you think so; we'll, we did it. I was
pretty tired when we landed where we
were going. Lots of them fell out too.
Some it took two days to catch up but
held out. We made lots. Of hikes
nights when it was 80 dark that you
tell whether your next step
was into she'll hole or into . trench
and sometimes it was . long time be-
tween smokes too, because no lights Of
any kind dared be shown or . German
leroplane could find you and would play
'Deuchiand Uber Allies with their
plane guns on you; but they nsver had
the chance on % to do it. Our yank
Ayiespsn played more yankee doodle
e9 on thsm g.than thsy did On %,
3s yoa forget sst. I ~ quits = lev
plans sslss over hsese I54sI = fsw
pieces ofshrspnel in my pocket that
fell close TO me. and that vas close
/ think our steel hats are sure
! great thing and our gas mask 10 an
,ther. We put them on in six seconds;
zone speed isn't it, oh you've got to
be there when it comes to warning and
| think all the yanks are speedy enough.
TOO. -.
When l was over at Toul saw
number Of prisoners and had quite a
talk with them so I know quite lot
lbout Germany anyway. 'e--
Just now We are in q French town
md and another fellow have q room
rented, or rather . bed. ! never saept
10 such . bed in all my days. When
vou get in them you drop about four
feet in feathers. hoy! yoy!. When the
bug'e blows in the morning to get up
wish the bugler would lose his bugle. l
Gould sleep for week without getting
up in . bed like that. ~. ..
Une thing l haven't seen in England
'r France or in Germany, is . wooden
building, all stone and brick. Two
wagons, OK teams, hand ma
:hinery. Wooden shoes are the pride
,ver here, and wine SO sour that you
actually shiver as if you had chills when
7ou drink it. You can get beer, too,
out l don't like it and it costs you
;wenty cents a bottle. franc. We
get paid with French money. Green
,acks and silver will have my eye
gain when / reach the states, which l
hink we will see before long now,
Mr.. and Mrs. c. H. Miller have re-
eived q letter dated Dec. 18th from
heir grandson, Ed Cottrell, who is now
ocated at Trier, Germany with Evacu-
ltion Hospital No. 3. Extracts from
he letter are as follows:
Il am in fine health and hope you
IRE the same. You will see by this
hat am with the army of occupa-
ion. The people here treat US just
inc and all say they are glad that the
var is over and that the Americans
ire here. This is certainly pretty
much nicer than France; so
veil built up. and then the country it.
elf has more scenery and more up
o date aspect like the United States
han France has. !
We have been having pretty nasty
weather.. 1t is not cold but raining
bout two thirds of the time and mist