The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-01-04
DADS CHRISTMAS LETTERS"
FROM BOYS ACROSS THE SEA
CORPORAL JACOB scHElDT and JOHN NORMAN SCULL, WITH THE
AMERICAN ExPEDlTloNARY FORCES, TELL OF THRILLING INCL
DENTS SINCE BEING IN THEIR couNTRYs SERVICE.
PROUD TO FIGHT, But GLAD The WAR is ENDED

The following interesting letter was
written by Jacob Schiedt, former book
keeper for the o. j. Hammell Co., to
Jesse Steelman:-
November "a, 1918.
Dear Uncle jesse
Today is set apart for every Ameri-
can soldier to write a letter to Dad.
| I'M writing one to my father, and
am also writing one to you as you
have been as much of a father to me
as he, We are given two hours of this
morning to write this letter. The lid
is off the censor, and we can tell our
experiences that we have had since
we have been in France. The STARS
and Stripes" says Tell Dad about the
battles you nave fought, whether Cha
teau Thierry or Tours. Of course by
the. battle of Tours they NEAR pushing
a pen or running a typewriter in the
S. o. S. department. Well I was not
at Chateau Thierry, and was only in
the Battle of Tours" three days, but
l have been fighting the Battle of
Bourges" for nearly three months.
Have not killed any Huns, but have
been keeping records of dead ones.
You see l have charge of the dead"
file in the German Prisoners of Wal
Information Bureau. Sort of a Ger
man Undertaken Establishment. One
might think it would be a very I'M
pleasant thing to be working on dead
reports all the time, but l think, next
to being up on the line killing them,
this is about the next satisfactory job.
There was this much satisfaction in
my work-the harder l had to work,
the more Huns were kicking in. The
blooming Germans are as much trou-
BILE dead, though, as they are alive.
l. used to think that all there was to
do after n vas dead was to bury
him and that wal all there was to it.
That is only the beginning of the trou-
BILE. That is when the work in my de-
partment begins. Records are kept on
him as much as they are on u own
soldiers when they are dead.
l can say a bit about my experiences
in France which did not happen in an
office, too. | think | am at liberty to
make some statements that were not
allowed to be written before. | will
begin with my trip from Admission,
Ala. We left there on June 18th and
reached Hoboken, l think, on the 18th.
We reached the Jersey City Yards dur
ing the night, and as soon as 1t was
light we were marched on the ferry
boat and taken Immediately on board
our transport, 1.-THE Northern Pacific.
| was picked out to help load the bar
rack bags, supplies, ETC., on the light
er at the dock; then we rode up to the
transport on it. We lay in port for
over two days before leaving. Just
think of it-half of my company with
in a quarter of an hours ride from
home and spending two days in port,
and not being allowed a chance to get
home. Some Of the fellows did have
their folks come to see them on the
dock, but most of them did not get to
see their folks.
We left Hoboken on the 18th of June
and had a very favorable trip across.
We made the trip across the pond
from Hoboken to Brest, France, in six
days and nineteen hours. We were
not allowed on decks while going out
to sea. l had a last look at the Statue
of Liberty through a port hole, though.
There were only two ships in the con-
voy-two sister ships. 1.-THE Great Nor
thern' and "The Northern Pacific"
We did not even see a submarine, but
one day, when most Of us were down IN
the hold, the guns on both ships begun
to pound away. OF course we all fell
in alongside our hunks, put on our life
belts and filed up or deck alongside
the boats, which was the regular sub
marine drill, or abandon ship drill.
OF course it was in ev~erybody's mind
and mouth that a submarine was
sighted. l had imagined that a period
like that would make everyone excite
and cause confusion. Instead every
thing was carried out as regular as If
nothing had happened. However, ev-
eryone was eager to get out on deck
and see what was going on. After a
little while something was sighted by
the crowd which looked just like we
imagined a periscope would look like.
The guns were blazing away on both
ships. Every shot either hit the mark
or came entirely too close for the sub
marines comfort, as we thought. All
eyes were turned on that p~eriscope.
Every time a shot came close the boys
would cheer. Nobody thought of any
danger. We all thought surely the
submarine would be sunk. Imagine
our surprise w n, instead of a big ex-
plosion and thu periscope disappearing
when a shot hit the mark, it kept COM
ing nearer. We were all wondering
why it did not fire a torpedo. Then
at last the secret was let out. What
we all thought was a periscope was
nothing more than a drifting buoy, and
the gunners were making use of it for
target practice. There was sure a
bunch of disappointed Yanks when we
found out how we had been fooled.
After landing in Brest, we stayed
on board ship over night, unloading
1.-The ship next day. and marching about
Ithree miles to a rest" camp. A very
pleasant name to call 1t, but not a very
truthful name. We stayed there about
Ia week, in the meantime doing steve
dore work at the docks, loading cars