Mexico weekly ledger., 1919-01-23
l am your brother,
Writes His Father in Kansas CITY

on Fathers Day. wrote his father,
E. J. Rutter, formerly of Mexico, nov
of 6403 Independence Avenue, Kansas
City, No, as follows:
Ny Dear Father
Genl. Headquarters American En-
peditionary Force, Chaumont, Franco,
Nov. "a, 1'18.-All the soldiers are re-
quested to write their father a Xmas
letter so as this is Sunday and moth
ing to do much will try and drop you
a few lines. 1t is a fine day here to-
day, rather cool of a morning, when
you have to roll out and wash in cold
water that is H.. Ha. Ha, well
they say we can write anything in this
/ letter we want to as it will rot be cen
sored SC will try and tell you where
all l have been. l am at the present
time in General Pershings Headquart-
ers and this is some place. We have
a large telegraph office here and |
work the casualty wire here that gives
the names of soldiers that are wound
ed in action and died of wounds in hos
pitfalls and ect. 1t sur is some hot Job
believe me or it was for awhile bat
now they have it about straightned up
and not much doing, since they have
stopped fighting. l saw Jesse Bar
nett's name yesterday while sending
a casualty telegram to Bourges,
France, that is where the Central rec
ords office of the A. E. F., is and /
was wondering if that is the Barnett
boy from home. l was up to Toul,
France about four weeks ago where
the big fighting vas on up in that
section and also in Verdun and that is
where they were having those big
drives that is some fiat country up
there, I was down at ColonbeyIesbeI-
les, France, that is where I saw Ray
Gregory and that Kimbru boy, you
know who l mean. And the Burgess
boy. Last L heard of Ray he was up
at Toul, he had left Colombeylesbelles,
and | don't know what outfit he was
with, we then came down to Neufcha-
ateau, France, that is where | lost all
my clothes and we had a big air raid
there the first night I was there OH
BOY right then / thought of my home,
Ha, Ha, We stayed in a dugout for
about ? hours. 1t seemed like about
"a hours and | was so scared that he
was going to drop one on us, belive
me dad you get cold feet when about
25 or 80 of those big stiffs come down
about 200 feet from you and drop
those bombs, there is something TO
think about, well we left there the
next day and | was so glad toget out
of there to. l saw so many boys up
there that had been gassed and wound
ed I'll tell you papa it was H in
general. | can thank God that they
didn't get me. We have a nice place
here good eating and everything, 1
suppose you have read about Pershing
being decorated with the cross of
honor well that took place hero in
Cha4mont last Sunday, it vas a pretty
sight too. He sure is one great man.
When | was at Tours, that is some
large city | had a fine time and was
there almost two months, but like this
much better, but if / could get paid
that is the worst of it, travelling g.
round, | have three months pay com
ing now when | get it | will have
"bookoo of francs" Ha, Ha. You
should hear me speak French, | am \
bear at it and l talk to the MADAM
mazels" just like the American girls,
Ha, Ha. But l prefer the American
girls, best of all. There is a large
bunch of telephone girls here from TIE
States. l talk to them ever once in d
while.
l left the United States on the first
day of September, arrived at Brest
France. in Sept. 7th at $50 p. M, our
time, over here, then we marched 20
the old Napoleon Barracks, there we
stayed three days then went to Std;z-
Ter, France, stayed there about three
four hours then went to MontheaI,
France, there we were busted up and !
went from there to Tours.
1 had a fine trip over, although it
was a little crowded, | never got a bit
seasick, but OH BOY there were some
that sure did. We came over on the
Great Northern with the Vaterlanl
and the Northern Pacific, we came so
darn fast that no submarine could
catch US and we never saw one all the
way over for luckily, we didn't run in
to one. We had a bunch of negro
troops on the boat with US and we hit
a big storm and then you should have
those negroes Pray. Ha Ha.
1t was the funniest sight | have saw
in a long time. One little accident
there was a negro that we call "Feel-
the Fish" well one negro was
standing behind this boy with a pair
Of dice and kept saying dollar he
l never laughed so much in
my life and did come too before long.
Well / sure wish l was home, as a
negro said to me the other night
THERE IS ONLY ONE CROSS l
AND THAT IS BACK A
CROSS THAT THERE POND" and
he meant it too, l think, and another
one said "BOSS, IF rs GOT TAH
CROSS THAT THERE POND TO
GET HOME ILL STAY THE REST
Of MY DAYS IN FRANCE" You
Just hear such as this overe here every
lay an dthere are not many of the
negroes around here, either. I was
,ver in the Y. NJ. C. A, the other night
and there was two negroes in there
some cigarettes and there also
md there were two negroes in there
we'll you know they don't know the
language, but of course
hese negroes didn't know it. One of
Dur American negroes walked up to
his FRENCH NEGRO" and said