Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-02-01

| Diekirch, Jan. 1.-Well, we all made
In the days driving around over the
divisional area. getting data to answer
welfare inquiries. checking up our
missing, and esta blishing reading
rooms. My judgment was that keeping
busy was the best possible way Of
fighting inconsistencies. 1t works only
fairly well, and that brings me to a
point that shouldn't be overlooked. II
lighting is hard. it's also mighty inter-
esting work, and the nervous tension is
sufficient to keep your mind thorough
sly occupied. You don't have much
chance to get lonely and homesick when
the guns are booming day and night.
The elemental question of whether
you're going to be alive tomorrow Is
the big one. But this business of be-
ing part of an army of occuaption is
Ia holy terror. There is nothing to do
except drill, drill. drill and the game Of
squads right and left doesn't look good
to fellows who hoped over the top five
and six times, and held whole corps
front for 40 days at stretch. No criti-
cism of anything or anybody is intend
ed. The occupation work is necessary,
but what ! want TO emphasize is that
it's mighty hard. and the folk back
home should redouble their efforts to
help keep the fellows fit. There al
ways exists a woeful shortage of writ
ing paper and envelopes. games. and
reading material. This is stuff that can
easily be mailed, and the different war
No nj mi 90 ~ IN
ply enough. hope every Idaho boy in
service has something sent him every
week. To illustrate, some one back
home has sent me a small bundle of
magazines each week. | have had
probably q dozen packages all told, and
every magazine that has reached me
has been loaned and reloaned, and read
and re-read until fairly Worn out. We
have goodly quantities Of magazines to
distribute, but we don't get one-tenth
enough. The same thing applies TO
games. | brought over deck of cards,
and loaned them out until the spots
were worn off. BY all means, keep the
mails loaded with stuff of this sort 10
the boys. All OF 1t won't reach them.
bat enough will to make it well worth
While.
over the division, Christmas was gem
orally observed in much the same fash
ion, as at headquarters here. There
We're extra feeds gotten up for the en-
listed men, and of course. each officers
mess had more or less elaborate
spreads. In most of the towns there
was an entertainment of some sort
division talent players, or a band con-
cert or a dance, In one place, where
we made headquarters, there was a
public Christmas tree, upon the decor
alton of which the fellows who a cou-
pie of months ago were hot-footing it
after Fritz with fixed bayonets, eX-
pended infinite care. | was there on
Christmas eve. and paced up and down
an old paved courtyard. lille waiting
for a report. They have a band. which
was playing something about beautiful
Katy, and moonbeams. Riddles were
frolicking about the streets, and ven
dor of waffles rather timdly offered
mo his wares. Let's see. That was at
Medernach. q town old in history be-
fore the white man had even dreamed
of America very prett. and quaint
old place. All that's fine to write about
but then, and now, ] couldn't help but
think that it would be much more en-
tertaining to have been at home set
ting up a tree for the Riddles, or even
doing Christmas shopping, which r
heartily abhor.
Christmas day was somewhat siren