TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SPECTATOR MAY 23, 1919 P. 1
I guess all the readers are hearing a lot of stuff about the war now from folks nearer home but I am taking the chances on starting out with a few tales about what I saw while in service.
I guess all the readers will remember that I wrote from Camp Pike some items of Franklin county boys there. After I left Camp Pike I never saw any boys I knew before I came into service.
I was in training camps until long last of October and landed two days before the armistice was signed but saw beaucoup service nonetheless.
I am in a position to tell more about the effects of shells, gas, shrapnell, and high explosive than some that were at the front and escaped. I saw things I couldn't well describe on paper of the effects of gas and shells. I too saw men whom I believe had their lungs practically ruined by gas. One man in particular I would wager his lungs weren't any bigger than my closed fist.
Ask any one of the over sea boys what they think now of the Y.M.C.A. if for nothing else just to see how much he will say. Personally I never saw but one while I was over there and they were exchanging American money and charging 15 centimes on the dollar for it. Thats the free service we all got over there where it was most needed from the ""Y"".
On the other hand te Red Rross was always ready to give us anything we needed and if they couldn't get it to make a substitute. There were from two to five Red Cross workers in every hospital and a head quarters besides.
It rained all but about ten days of the four months and a week I was over there on French soil some time during the day or night. And mud wasn't the name for it. Many of the boys that came home with a disability were knocked out by the rain and mud. Many a case of rheumatism was contracted there.
Many too were "Finish" by the French wine and water. We all called the wine "vinegar blanc and vinegar rouzhe" it would tear a good set of digestive organs up quicker than anything I know of.
The French cannot understand the American but they are our loyal friends just the same. They don't understand the American way of fighting or playing either. They are by nature a rather conservative people and do not go into anything with the rush and "pep" the Americans do.
They have no idea of sanitation as we know it and most of them live in the same house with their stock. Neither do they have any plumbing or electric lighting and in fact they live about like we did a century ago.
I don't know whether the readers are wanting to read this kind of dope or not so will quit here and next week will send in what news there is in this section of the country.
Former Pvt. "Harley Hanson"
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
I guess all the readers are hearing a lot of stuff about the war now from folks nearer home but I am taking the chances on starting out with a few tales about what I saw while in service.
I guess all the readers will remember that I wrote from Camp Pike some items of Franklin county boys there. After I left Camp Pike I never saw any boys I knew before I came into service.
I was in training camps until long last of October and landed two days before the armistice was signed but saw beaucoup service nonetheless.
I am in a position to tell more about the effects of shells, gas, shrapnell, and high explosive than some that were at the front and escaped. I saw things I couldn't well describe on paper of the effects of gas and shells. I too saw men whom I believe had their lungs practically ruined by gas. One man in particular I would wager his lungs weren't any bigger than my closed fist.
Ask any one of the over sea boys what they think now of the Y.M.C.A. if for nothing else just to see how much he will say. Personally I never saw but one while I was over there and they were exchanging American money and charging 15 centimes on the dollar for it. Thats the free service we all got over there where it was most needed from the ""Y"".
On the other hand te Red Rross was always ready to give us anything we needed and if they couldn't get it to make a substitute. There were from two to five Red Cross workers in every hospital and a head quarters besides.
It rained all but about ten days of the four months and a week I was over there on French soil some time during the day or night. And mud wasn't the name for it. Many of the boys that came home with a disability were knocked out by the rain and mud. Many a case of rheumatism was contracted there.
Many too were "Finish" by the French wine and water. We all called the wine "vinegar blanc and vinegar rouzhe" it would tear a good set of digestive organs up quicker than anything I know of.
The French cannot understand the American but they are our loyal friends just the same. They don't understand the American way of fighting or playing either. They are by nature a rather conservative people and do not go into anything with the rush and "pep" the Americans do.
They have no idea of sanitation as we know it and most of them live in the same house with their stock. Neither do they have any plumbing or electric lighting and in fact they live about like we did a century ago.
I don't know whether the readers are wanting to read this kind of dope or not so will quit here and next week will send in what news there is in this section of the country.
Former Pvt. "Harley Hanson"
NOTES:
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD