Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-01-28
OUR ,. BOYS
OUR C0UNIRY'S SERVICE
A BIithesome Ballad of the Honorably
DISCHARGED

! Back to dear old blighty. as the well
known British say;
Back to home and house rent AMI to
living on your pay:
Back to start all over where we left OF
some time since
And sailed away gently to Stay the
Kaiser and the Ounce.
Back to chase a cripple or Jane from
Back TO read such pifle as The
Doughboy and the Gob'O;
Hoping we may catch up with the gang
But, anyway. were glad we've sloughed
pair of mortal fears.
All we can die of is cancer.
Consumption, and kidney disease.
Pneumonia the fu-there's a ban. sir,
ON the blow and the cough and the
SnceZe.
Measles and munps, they arc sad, sir,
But US doughHoyS are sure overjoEtd,
For were safe from the smallpox, be-
CAD, sir.
And We never can have the typhoid.
Back to prohibition and to politics and
pants;
Hacl to more or less unmixed regrets
for dear Old France;
Back to LIS and suhways and to Broad
WAYS No Mans Land,
i That midnight trail where every tran Is
tinted up by hand;
Back to brutal bosses and to unions and
to strikes:
Back to greasy Bolsheviks, pro-Ger-
mans. and the likes:
! What we've got to show Tor 1t is plnned
upon our vests
And thew jabbed us in the bicep7. so
were safe from two old pests.
All we can die of is gunshot
Surgery, powders, and pills.
Those of US coming home unshot
Fear but a few human MS
Paralysis. asthma, Ray lever
But nix on the varolold:
They can hang us Ike olo Danny
But they cant kill US off with typhoid.
C A. in The New York tribune.
Tho following extracts from letter
. written by Ralph A. Rramhall, cash
Ter Of the City National Bank o1 lci-
fast are the most intensely Interesting
! that have vet been sent nom" con-
corning the last few days OF the DIS
drive which ended in the signing OF
the armisticc on Nov. l1th. The let
ter is dated NOV. 27th and was writ
ten in lase hospital in Nichy, where
Private Eramhall was taken after nc
was wounded. He says
The last time ] wrote YOU We were
bi]lited in the .\rgonne Forest.
There VIC built barracks from lumber
left by the Huns. When we LETT
there the front was about 90 to 81
kilos away and we reached the sup
port lines the first night Here we
STAYED for day. and that night, our
artillery which was Just behind us
opened up with a hararse, about -
o'clock. Such a roar is hard t.
! imagine, but it did seem cool, Tor IN
our minds we could see the JcrrHs
beating it for home. In trent OF
over 25 miles our artillery was llneC
ND so thick. that, they told us. the
hubs of the wheels nearly touched
The firing was so inccsSant that 1t
vas hard to distinguish individual
shots unless one happened to be right
in front Of the guns.
The Last Long Mile"
We marched until dawn without 4
stop. BY that time tho packs on cur
backs BEGAN to get heavy, they
weigh about $3.50 pounds, and be
sides the packs we carried rifle, 1ot
/ rounds Of ammunition, gas mask
and as l was a rifle grenadier, ] had
6 Y. Bs, which are rifle gren2des
these are fired from tromblon which
is put on the end Of a rifle. The bull
let in passing out the barrel OF the
rifle passes through hole in the
| grenade. The gas from the bullet
| cxpels the grenade and carries it from
| $50 to 200 yards, depending on the
! angle of the gun when fired. They
are timed to explode in six seconds
and are effective within IS yards
, They are a very effective weapon to
! clean out machine nests when the
machine guns have you cornered so il
| is too risky to so in close to them
About 8 o'clock We reached the
ground where the barragc shells be
gan TO fall and believe me it was some
sight There was not a square yard
of a once level field that was not torn
up and cratered with shell holes
! One German prisoner said that the
barrage was the most terrible he had
been through.
Advanced Single File
Our advance from that time was
single file and in teams with Is feet
4 between, that is SO the German shells