The Lubbock avalanche. (Lubbock, Tex.) 1909-1922, 1919-10-02
Monday, Sept. 80, 1918.

=. monuhy, sept oV lVio'
think II was three weeks yesterday since
wrote you last, and II you could see the con
diti0ns under which | am writing this you
would be surprised that | am writing now. as
! like TO have at least little quiet and haven't
even that along with few dozen other things
that make letter-writing uncomfortable. There
has been so much happen since last wrote that
j hardly know where 10 start but | think will
describe the place that ! am writing in. and
then few of the incidents leading up to our
present situation. Before ] start in on my mar
rative want TO warn you that am not grum-
bling and don't want any of you TO feel uncom
Portable because of our dangers and discom-
forts. Since the day following my last letter
there has been absolutely nothing that has hap
pened but what would make you fee sorry for
us, so / have nothing else TO tell you, but it
takes this to whip the Hun and we are accom-
plishing that end to perfection as | suppose
you have all seen by the papers. Our little
home that | am about to describe is palace
TO us because it means safety, nothing hurts
our health only shrapne and high explosives,
and this sort of place is the only place where
we are sure that we won't meet with our only
enemy, so we live in here like rats and are really
happy because we know the Hun is running so
fast that we can hardly keep up.
am in dugout, about 10 or II feet below
the surface, built by the French long while
ago, judging from the looks of it, and if II
didn't mean safety it would be the last place a
man would think of living It is damp dirty
and full Of rats. We sleep on the floor and on
top of each other. Cover our heads with the
blankets and listen to the rats play hide and
seek. When it gets so damp that ii becomes un-
bearable we light fire in tin can and try TO
live through the smoke They have that fire
burning now and between the smoke and gang
playing cards and another gang telling lies
i hal. n,... Lee
light is candles even in the daytime, as no
sunlight has ever hit the inside of this place,
but in spite of all, am painfully healthy. Just
feel as though there isn't anything that would
make me sick but a shell, and we won't meet
any of them in here. OF course we have TO go
out of here to perform our duties, but if you
want to see activity you should see us digging
for hole when the stuff starts to fly; if the
first few don't hit US we see that the rest
don't
WORK BY DAY, MARCH BY NIGHT.
The wet weather that | mentioned in my last
letter has continued almost without Interrupt
ton, which has, of course added to our dis
comforts. | suppose you have seen by the pa
pers that our division has moved and we made
the entire move over the roads, travelling nights
and we horseshoers working hard during day
light. Believe me, we were pretty well played
out when we reached our destination as the
only place we had to sleep was on an ammun-
ton wagon and the nearest thing know of to
explain to you how nice place it is to sleep
is TO try sleeping on the floor of hay wagon
when it is on the move The hay wagon would
have it skinned TO DEATH because ii would be
long enough TO stretch out on, but our wagons
are 80 short that your knees are under your
chin. We got so tired in a few days that we
would drop off to sleep anywhere. but every
once in a while ! would wake up and think
had run into an earthquake. Every time We
would stop we would have some shoes to put
on, so about all the sleep we got was while we
were on the move My idea of good bed right
now is any place that stands still, and that
wagon bounced up and hit my head so many
times that | almost had softening of the brain.
We shod horses under some of the most dis
heartenng conditions that you could think Of
In the dark, the rain, mud, on the road with