The Hope pioneer., 1919-03-13
BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE
FROM THE RANKS

your mls1nfOrmatlOn.
Somewhere in France.
An exaggeration for no place at all.
Dear Friend:-Want to hear from
an old stretcher bearer. Taking it
for granted that you do, here it goes.
l am as 1 said over in France and
very glad indeed to be up among the
boys.
Isuppose you received the Distress
ing document I wrote you about New
York and this time I beg of you to
overlook the fact that owing to the
state of mind I am in at present II
will not be able to state all things
for facts in this letter.
lam using a candle for light and
am in the thing that I am to put up
in for this night and the ones to come.
Dope it out for the best.
Well l arrived over here some time
ago and am feeling fine except few
minor difficulties which will enumer
ate later on. Suppose" things are
booming around Daleville now. have
been expecting to read .of another
book most any time in the Paris Dis
patch, but as yet l haven't seen any,
but let us hope not any way for such
activities are reflections on certain
young fellows characters. Well do
remember one especially.
think will just tell you some
interesting facts about our trip over.
We arrived in an English rest camp.
Holy Smoke! if that was rest camp
l never want to come in contact with
a working one. Why they even add
ed another hour to the twenty four in
order to get sixty minutes extra work
before the days work began. I had
hoped to get some easy job like shovel
ing coal or working on railroad but
as usual, all in vain.
Say you will not believe me, nor
don't either, but here is a little de-
scription of the kitchen they had you
working in at the rest camp. The
kitchen was 92S feet wide and 1928
feet long. 1t took 1S firemen to keep
it hot. We mashed potatoes with a
pile driver and ground coffee with a
$50 horsepower Liberty motor. When
we pealed potatoes we scraped them
with a road scraper. They hauled
out dirty pans on railroad cars. The
k. p's. going to and fro on roller
skates. They had Is Fords carrying
the chief cooks back and forth to the
ice box. The mess sergeant rode up
and down in side-car shouting ord
lers from megaphone., They mixed
pancake batter with IL concrete
mixers and had a steam shovel NOV
ing egg shells from the door. They
had Se k. p's. with slabs of bacon on
their feet skating over the griddles to
keep them creased. We drew water
from river about. the size of the
mississippi and after drawing from it
twice, canals had to be dug from the
ocean before we could get the next
meal. They even had a day and night
shift and I was on both. Some
place, believe me, but never want to
get married to another job like that
know the army is the army but that
is a much hotter place.
Well after expressing my senti.
ments so fully on England's "summe,
resorts will endeaver to tell you
something about the place where am
now. We have little thing to sleel
in and we have to line up and get in
as three PERSONS is it's official capa.
city we have a good time and excel
lent sleep. I have rubber heels put or
my hob nail shoes and that make:
my bed much softer now.
1 suppose all of you are thinking
= about Thanksgiving and Xmas and
:. long some day to be there too, bu
the duds am wearing now are more
of the fighting fame, so it is better a,
it is.
I clean my teeth twice week nov
as have little more time.
I suppose you have heard of tn,
new twentieth century invention
about to be perfected. 1.-THE Anti
u cootie Blanket" Well for ,variou
reasons it isn't any good. For
ewell as I am no relation to Longfel
: low I won't go into details, but
> would not take any stock in the firm
Il if the shares were at sacrifice.
Well we have lots of Madamoselle
> over here and fellow could no
get lonesome, and the nice part of i
. is we can say anything to them w
y want to and it is "wee wee' just tn