"We have a fine lot of officers. The Major wrote to
Seymour, the president of the Wisconsin Telephone Co., and told
him that the Wisconsin boys were the best he ever saw to
pick up the drilling. So he has cut us down one hour in drilling.
I guess that is some feather in our hat. The Chicago bunch have
to drill their three hours every morning.
"I was over to the prison last Sunday and believe me
I don't want to get behind those walls. They are too high to
climb
over. They are 55 feet high.
"They have a fine Y.M.C.A. here with pool, billiard
tables, gym and reading and writing tables. I must close for
this time,
for it would take 88 sheets of paper to tell all the excitement
we have had."
March 25, 1918.
"Well we are back in Leon Springs again and it seemed
like coming home, for that country down around the border is
sure hard. All we saw was sand hills and rocks. We built
sixty-three miles of toll line from Del Rio to Eagle Pass in
twelve days and believe me it was not like building lines in
Wisconsin, in was more like building through the Rocky Mountains.
We had to dynamite about a third of the holes. The line runs
along the Rio Grande River most of the way. The Rio Grande is
surely some pretty stream of water. One can see the bottom most
any place. Down near Eagle Pass it is so narrow that the sentinel
from our guard could talk to the Mexican sentinel on the other
side. We had a mounted guard over us while we were there because
the Mexicans get brave and come across and make raids. So they
keep the river patrolled all the time. Villa's men were only
about forty miles back in the foot hills.
"I don't know how long it will be before we move from
here, but, if we don't go across with this Fifth Division, we,
no
doubt, will be sent back down on the border to extend the
line through Brownsville, which is about 180 miles from Eagle
Pass. It will take about two months to finish it."
France, July 30, 1918.
"We are living in the open, quite a contrast to our
barracks life in Texas. The country is very pretty. I would rather
live a
year in France than a week in Texas, even if it is the rainy
season here. We are waiting for equipment with which to begin
the work of erecting telephone and telegraph lines. In our company
there are two men who talk French. One day they talked with a
ten year old Belgian boy who was driven from his home and does
not know whether his father and mother are alive or not. The
Y.M.C.A. and the Red Cross are caring for thousands of children
like him. We hear that so many Germans are being captured, it
is hard to take care of the prisoners."
Somewhere in France, August 9, 1918.
"You will have to excuse me for not writing before,
for we have been moving. We have a swell place now, in an old
French Army Post, in a city of about twenty thousand. We
have beds with mattress, sheets and pillows - some different
from sleeping on the ground.
"We have not done a thing since we left Camp Stanley
and do not know when we will start to work. It is getting
monotonous lying around here doing nothing. I have seen some
wonderful sights, visited a castle that they started to build
sixty years before Christ.
"We have adopted a little French kid. He is about twelve
years old and believe me he is sure some kid. His father was
killed at the front and his mother has died from sickness.
We have rigged him out in a uniform and he is some proud of it.
We are going to take him back to the states with us.
"Another fellow and I were walking along the street
the other day when we heard someone say: 'There goes some of
my boys.' We turned and spoke to an old lady. She was a sister
of General Kearney of the Civil War. She has lived in France
for twenty-two years. There are quite a few around here that
can talk English. They teach it in their schools."