TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ARKANSAS GAZETTE SEPTEMBER 15, 1918 P. 3.
It is hard to tell you how much the boys over here really appreciate letters from their friends, but you can ‘kinder’ draw on your imagination and realize that there are very few things you would like better, especially when mail is so uncertain. The mail service is improving wonderfully, though, over here, and I think in a short while we will have as efficient a service as you now enjoy in the States, considering, of course, that it is mostly transient letters that are handled.
We are having some very fine weather over here—much cooler than it is in the States, I am sure. Most every night two blankets and always one, feels fine. The days are not very hot, either. At the place where we are now stationed, temporarily, Maj. Charles H. Miller of Little Rock, is in command. I notice from a copy of the Gazette that I got from Kern Hall of Pocahontas, who is also in my train, that crop prospects in our section are fine and the price of rice is simply great. First thing we know old Arkansas will have a bunch of millionaires made by the rice industry.
It seems from reports that we get through the papers that you will soon do quite a lot like the French people do over here when they want to buy various things – get a ticket from some government official before you can purchase anything from the dealer. It seems strange that when people want to buy flour, sugar, etc., that they cannot go in and lay down any amount of money and get its equivalent in the things they want, but that seems to be the only way that economy can be taught the people, and that is one thing that will be absolutely necessary to win the war. With so many men in the war game who are taken from the fields, it is very necessary to protect all the people. A millionaire over here cannot get one pound over his allowance.
Am glad to see the people in the States show so much interest in the boys over here and believe that all of the boys will make good at the duty that they have undertaken – ‘To Can the Kaiser!’ News in the papers at present seems to be very favorable to the allies, and I trust it will continue.
As we are in the Advance Sector, am not permitted to give the name of the city we are stationed near, but it is one of the larger cities of France and is some place. Have not been able to get to Paris, the goal of all the boys in the A. E. F., but have been close enough to see the Eiffel Tower. Have hopes though that I will get to go there before we go home anyhow. Would not sound very nice to say that you had been almost over all France and not been in Paris.
NOTES: This is a partial letter written by Sgt. Earle Bowman, Co. E., First Army Supply Train, to T. W. Campbell of Little Rock, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
It is hard to tell you how much the boys over here really appreciate letters from their friends, but you can ‘kinder’ draw on your imagination and realize that there are very few things you would like better, especially when mail is so uncertain. The mail service is improving wonderfully, though, over here, and I think in a short while we will have as efficient a service as you now enjoy in the States, considering, of course, that it is mostly transient letters that are handled.
We are having some very fine weather over here—much cooler than it is in the States, I am sure. Most every night two blankets and always one, feels fine. The days are not very hot, either. At the place where we are now stationed, temporarily, Maj. Charles H. Miller of Little Rock, is in command. I notice from a copy of the Gazette that I got from Kern Hall of Pocahontas, who is also in my train, that crop prospects in our section are fine and the price of rice is simply great. First thing we know old Arkansas will have a bunch of millionaires made by the rice industry.
It seems from reports that we get through the papers that you will soon do quite a lot like the French people do over here when they want to buy various things – get a ticket from some government official before you can purchase anything from the dealer. It seems strange that when people want to buy flour, sugar, etc., that they cannot go in and lay down any amount of money and get its equivalent in the things they want, but that seems to be the only way that economy can be taught the people, and that is one thing that will be absolutely necessary to win the war. With so many men in the war game who are taken from the fields, it is very necessary to protect all the people. A millionaire over here cannot get one pound over his allowance.
Am glad to see the people in the States show so much interest in the boys over here and believe that all of the boys will make good at the duty that they have undertaken – ‘To Can the Kaiser!’ News in the papers at present seems to be very favorable to the allies, and I trust it will continue.
As we are in the Advance Sector, am not permitted to give the name of the city we are stationed near, but it is one of the larger cities of France and is some place. Have not been able to get to Paris, the goal of all the boys in the A. E. F., but have been close enough to see the Eiffel Tower. Have hopes though that I will get to go there before we go home anyhow. Would not sound very nice to say that you had been almost over all France and not been in Paris.
NOTES: This is a partial letter written by Sgt. Earle Bowman, Co. E., First Army Supply Train, to T. W. Campbell of Little Rock, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT