TRANSCRIBED FROM: THE MOUNTAIN ECHO MARCH 1, 1918 P. 2
The Mountain Echo,
Yellville Arkansas,
Dear Friends:
Things must be picking up around Yellville, if Red Cross proceedings and tobacco campaigns count. I am really proud of my home town for the interest it is manifesting in our soldier boys. While a package of tobacco seems a small thing, it is the small things that are going to win this war. The Russian soldier furnishes us a good example of this. As the time the Russians made such a drive into Germany, they required the military salute to all officers entitled to it. About this time a socialistic element rose up and put an end to that courtesy, and as a result of that one thing, the discipline and morale was considerably weakened.
I think our cause is being supported more and more by our people. It is not always the boys in the trenches that win a war – it is the support he thinks he has behind him. If he thinks the man behind or “the girl” behind will stake everything possible for the cause, he feels more confident. The soldier boy receives a package of tobacco from the states; that alone has a meaning to him. At some quiet moment he throws himself down on his fifty-pound roll and takes a smoke from a package that has come from home. He takes the matter personal. When he signs the card and sends it back, he feels that that package was originally meant for him. So keep the good work up.
I am now in San Antonio. Tomorrow I will shake Texas dust off my boots and will be long gone from here. Any way there are other places that have more allurement for me than this, still this is not so bad, as the winter has been rather mild compared to some other places.
With kindest regards to all my friends, I am your friend,
Oscar McCarty
NOTES: Oscar was an instructor at Camp Wheeler, Georgia. He is the son of Mr. J. F. McCarty.
TRANSCRIBED BY: ISAAC WOLTER
The Mountain Echo,
Yellville Arkansas,
Dear Friends:
Things must be picking up around Yellville, if Red Cross proceedings and tobacco campaigns count. I am really proud of my home town for the interest it is manifesting in our soldier boys. While a package of tobacco seems a small thing, it is the small things that are going to win this war. The Russian soldier furnishes us a good example of this. As the time the Russians made such a drive into Germany, they required the military salute to all officers entitled to it. About this time a socialistic element rose up and put an end to that courtesy, and as a result of that one thing, the discipline and morale was considerably weakened.
I think our cause is being supported more and more by our people. It is not always the boys in the trenches that win a war – it is the support he thinks he has behind him. If he thinks the man behind or “the girl” behind will stake everything possible for the cause, he feels more confident. The soldier boy receives a package of tobacco from the states; that alone has a meaning to him. At some quiet moment he throws himself down on his fifty-pound roll and takes a smoke from a package that has come from home. He takes the matter personal. When he signs the card and sends it back, he feels that that package was originally meant for him. So keep the good work up.
I am now in San Antonio. Tomorrow I will shake Texas dust off my boots and will be long gone from here. Any way there are other places that have more allurement for me than this, still this is not so bad, as the winter has been rather mild compared to some other places.
With kindest regards to all my friends, I am your friend,
Oscar McCarty
NOTES: Oscar was an instructor at Camp Wheeler, Georgia. He is the son of Mr. J. F. McCarty.
TRANSCRIBED BY: ISAAC WOLTER