The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1919-03-13
SOLDIER LOUDLY PRAISES ~
SUNNY FRANCES WEATHER
J Who saId asanng Franee N

Who said Sunny France?'
One Of the captains Of the Seth
division, Charles C. Ingram, of Jas
per. sat himself down and grimly
wrote letter to a friend and fell
low officer Of the 36th, First Lieu
tenant George R. Bringhurst, Of the
filth Supply Train. Lieut.. Bring
hurst sent the letter to his father
in Houston with the suggestion that
it be published.
cts funny, but it expresses the
sentiments Of every doughboy in
France, Lieut.. Bringhurst comment
ed warmly.
Here it is, Capt. Migrants "Dere
Mabel" letter on the brand of wealth
er dished out in sunny" France.
Over Here, Dec. 26, 1918.
Dere Mabel.-It has been my lot
to see the urgent Trinity swollen
by repeated rains, until it seemed
in reality almost as large as pictured
by the Dallas congressman in his
plea for an appropriation, sweep its
way with resistless force toward the
restless sea.
| have seen the Brazos "bottom"
wide expanse of water-countless
farms inundated and flocks of fright
ened farmers roosting in the tree
tops waiting for help and whiskey,
/ have seen the Red quickly erupt
over its wide stretch of treacherous
ouicksands and surge over its con-
filming banks, hating for the time
that great army of bootleggers Okla
homa bound.
have been in the swamps of
Louisiana where it is 50 damp and
dismal that even the alligators reach
an untimely end through chills and
Ionesomeness.
| have lived in Beaumont and lis
tened to the frightful chorus Of the
frogs as they hoarsely beWailed the
cruel fate which compelled them to
live in such a place, for in all that
mighty marsh there was not even a
chunk" upon which they could find
a resting place.
AT Houston l have trudged along
the Shiny banks of Buffalo Bayou
and with mine own eyes have seen
the historic spot where Gunga Din
got the famous drink Of water for
Rudyard Kipling.
I have been in Port Arthur and
have heard the mosquitoes number
less as the sands of the seashore)
singing their sad songs Of carnage
as they, Hun-like, hunted the blood
Of innocent women and children
| have heard the sobbing cypress
and signing pine as they dropped
upon the bosom of Mother Earth
thousands of pearly tears relate to
each other the fluctuations Of hun
dred years, while l, luckless hunt
err, soaking wet, shivered through
a long winter night to listen in vain
for the morning challenge from the
king of gobblers.
have been hustled unceremoni-
ously from the warm embraces OF
a downy couch in the wee small
hours Of a wintry night, clad in raj
ment OF marLyTeu SdlLltJ otulupuhs
over the furniture maliciously placed
in my pathway the evening before
sent barefooted on down the cold
stair and onto porch covered with
ice and snow, all for the noble and
glorious purpose of letting the cat
out. Il
/ have done squads east" and
SQUADS west" and ION north into
line" in the mud and slush at Camp
Bowie with Texas ,"norther" whip
ping the loose folds of my B. v. DIS.
against the goose flesh until the
noise sounded like the parting of the
ways-that the "world might bel
made safe for the Democrats"
These things have ! done and seen
and heard and have survived, but
never anything to equal this French
Should fortune decree that
escape from this seething sea of
mud and reach once more cline
where the sun is not mildewed-