Putnam patriot. [volume] (Putnam, Conn.) 1872-1962, 1919-06-06
CHAS. RYANS OUTFIT
GUARANTEED
The Feelings of the Soldiers
Told In Verse

ioid In Verse
The outfit to which Charles A. Ryan
of Putnam belongs is held in quaran-
tine at PauiIlac, France The boys
feel blue at not being allowed to
come home, and they have composed
verses TO express themselves. The
letter and verses receivd Wednesday
are as follows:
Just a few lines to yet you know
| am still waiting for boat to take
me back to the good old u. S. A. We
were scheduled to leave France in
April and here it is the middle of May
and we are still waiting. | suppose
most of the SIND Division boys are
home by this time They had better
luck than we did. Our trouble start
ed when they shipped us to this camp.
Some of the boys caught little cold
and the S. o. S. doctors called it in
fluenze and quarantined US. We have
got to wait now until they get ready
to let us go; it may be a week and it
may be a month. | had been hoping
to get home by Memorial Day but
now ! guess | will have to be satisfied
with the Fourth of July.
We have been quarantined for
three weeks now. 1t begins to look as
if they had forgotten all about us.
Most of the fellows think we are a
lost regiment. hope they are
wrong, as this is poor time to get
lost after going through the war with
out losing ourselves.
Here is little poem that might in
terest some of the SIND boys that are
already home. 1t is called the Lost
Regiment:
When reading about war stories in
the current magazines,
One particular story is in them all it
seems.
The tale is told from Florida, to the
rocky coast of Maine
OF the Seventy Seventh Division of
Lost Battalion fame.
Now here is another thriller that will
make hit l bet,
About the missing regiment-they
are looking for it yet.
1t was not lost in action, and it is a
pitiful tale,
Cause the only time that we got lost
was on the homeward trail.
The folks back home are writing al
most every day,
Always surely expecting that we are
on our way.
| hate to disappoint them, but it can't
be helped guess,
Cause the regiment is quarantined in
the dear old S. o. S.
We never had influenza when fighting
was our game,
For soldiers who are quarantined can
work on just the same. =
We are all heart broken and can only
heave sigh
As other troops are loading and swift
ly pass US by.
/ can't explain my feeling while
standing on the dock.
Looking at the transports as to and
fro they rock.
l can't express my thoughts with each
departing boat,
But swallow hard the little lump that
catches in my throat.
At first we counted days, expecting to
pull out.
Every time ship steamed in the boys
would yell and shout.
But now we mutely watch them with
mournful glance;
Somehow it looks as if we have not
got chance.
For we are out of luck, quarantined
safe and sound.
Everybody is discouraged and gazing
at the ground.
Call it influenza or anything you
choose,
The disease that have got is called
1.-THE Homesick Blues"
We have got fighting colonel who
has tried in every way
To start US on our homeward trip, but
still we have to stay.
The Lord alone can help US, cause
we're in an awful fix,
So, God, please send some laision to
the fighting 1926.
CHAS. A. RYAN,
326th Infantry, A. 4. +.