Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1922-02-15
FORMER SOLDIER
WRITES FRIEND.
Martin Williams Gets an Interesting
Letter From Soldier Pal of
The World War.
SAW MUCH SERVICE
NOT KICKING MUCH
Says He is Not BOlsheyik, But He
Hase Been Looking Around
Considerably.
1874 Ornsby Ave.
Mt. Oliver, Pittsburgh, Pa

Dear Martin:
Received your letter of Dec. 1921.
Sure was glad to hear from you.
After three years, it seems such a
short time ago since | was helping
to bring in the wounded, can't quite
realize that the war is over. And
good many of the boys, still have
reasons to believe it not over. It's
still going hard with lot of the
wounded You ask about sorle Of
the cher fellows. Do you remem-
Der fellow by the name of Miller,
had little black mustache, about ten
beds to the right of where you
were, and about five beds from
Meyers. Meyers was she fellow
whose leg was amputated at Camp
SO. Well if you can recolect this
man Miller, want to say that j
have been corresponding with him
ever since / came home. And he
has been having a hard time of it.
If you can remember his right arm
was all shot up, most of ithe flesh
was shot away from the upper part
of the arm. Well the last report
| had from him he was still in a
hospital in New York, with one
operation after another, until he is
almost disgusted. The last | heard
from him was about year ago. /
have written to him twice but have
received no answer. He probably is
in bad shape.
Meyers is doing fine. But he says
his leg is still giving him trouble.
He has had two operations performed
since he got back to the states.
About a year ago | received letter
from "Carp" Dillon the Marine. !
don't -know whether you remember
him, wounded in the legs, always
felt as though he didn't get enough
attention; hcwled more about the
eats than anyone in the hospital.
Well he wrote me a very nice letter
telling me how much he owed the
Medics and me. Well, Martin, any
one else would have done the same
in my place. | don't think it would
be possible for anyone to stand and
look on, and do nothing. So why
all the credit. | was in an infan-
try outfit, and just before | went
over they transferred me to the
Medics, there were some mighty
fine fellows in that outfit, but when
we got across, they split US up, and
about 30 of my outfit went to the
lines. / haven't heard a word from
one of them. They where all doing
what they could. And if some of the
wounded hadn't borne up so well,
our little help wouldn't have done
much good. | remember Martin
when | used to bring the litter to
take you to the dressing room, and
l noticed you pushing a kaki hand
kerchief in your mouth, and how
you did chew it when they put the
old alcohol on. And it sort of got
my nanny. l suppose you still
have a pretty good sized hole in
your leg. Well Martin times have
changed, but l have mot. feel
sometimes as though | would like to
start a war of my own.
You may think me strange, this
war has made me think. You know
we an ought 20 get a shaking up
once in a while. Some of our poor
people need it, so they wake up, and
if they ever wake up Martin look
out. There will be a few of the
Ruling Glass" get the shaking of
their lives. No | am not a Boil
,-shevik, but | have been looking
around me. | don't want tha. so
called bonus, not that | couldn't use
it, but when ! heard they wanted