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Show T WHEH TELLS OF " LIFE OEIIO FRONT F. S. Rutherford Lauds Grit of American Soldiers at Work and Play. RECREATION IS NEED Air Raids, Bursting Shell and Many Other Hazards Furnish Ecileraent. When a detainment of Anu-ru-un soldiers sol-diers reaches France, the first thin tlie ii! en do is to c-le:ui up a billeting place. This accomplished, the Yank looks about for amusement. Usually tiiis di-' di-' version is sports and indoor entertainment, entertain-ment, such a3 a musical program or ' : pictures. ' . A letter received recently ly George .10. Walker of the Galigher .VacMnery i-ompany from V. Rutherford, a resident resi-dent of llenver lint well known in Salt j Lake, provides much enlightenment on life back of the line of battle. Mr. and 1 Mrs. Rutherford are engaged with the ' Young lien's Christian association as .entertainers. Mr. Rutherford being a ; singer of merit, while his wife is a : gifted accompanist. l ''The bovs want music and stories," Mr. Rutherford declares. He states he has been compelled to add largely to : his repertoire of humorous yarns. p'This is essential, for the boys need 1 good humor and good songs. We are : enjoying it, too, and have made about 1 150 appearances between Soissons and the wiss border. We have seen thousands thou-sands of the boys from every state in ' the union, and, believe me, we are proud ; of them." 5 Billets Are Dull. Waiting for the boche to start some-i some-i tiling is monotonous, but the Yankee soldier has his own methods of keeping up his morale, according to Mr. Kuther- ford. He likes to absorb scenery, and , he makes it a business to clean up the premises marked out as his "home" when he is not in the front line or supporting sup-porting trenches. Jt is not much of a life, over there, but the Yankee fighter ; seems to have fallen in with the spirit i of the thing and is making the best of the hazard he is engaged in. Mr. Kuth-': Kuth-': erford, telling of this phase of the char-' char-' acter '.oi the Yankee abroad, says: r "When they are not actually in the front line trenches they are generally in some little, shot-up French village or town where the barn is a part of the house, and the back yard, with its manure pile, is really in front on the street. Here they are billeted in stalls, havmow or in the open spare where formerlv wagons and implements were kept. Possibly the house holds another gioup, anil in' the cellar of a shell-ridden house there will be a few more. In the old mill, the little factories, the town' halls, anvwhere, you will find them with their bunks or cots, or improvised im-provised beds on the floor. Rats, tt and dogs galore are there, too. to say nothing of more intimate p?ts. Ho. after thev get pretty well settled and clean up the place, according to Yankee armv methods, and have taken in ail the surrounding scenery, they begin to think of amusement. 'Then the ' Y" ' lias its job cut out to find a hall or larcre room, or a tent and give them something to think of after the captain has worked them enoueh. The country is scoured for a piano, or one is sent" from Paris, Nancy or Topi, according to the section the men are in. Then the recreation secretary gets busy and stages something." Mr. Rutherford vrote his letter on Julv 10. A big battle was then in its incipiency. lie and Mrs. Rutherford were stationed in a town which was the big objective for the first two days. Cellar Is Refuge. 1 "We had the doubtful pleasure of sitting in a wine cellar all night long while the boche dropped big 'Jack Johnsons' into town. The third of these missiles hit the bad; of the hotel where we were sleeping. It was sonie night," the relator declares. There appears to have been planty of excitement for the Young Men's Christian association workers during the two weeks following. Air raids were frequent, and on more than one occasion occa-sion Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford were close to the scene of dropping bombs. The writer says: "Thoro was an air rani over tho little lit-tle toTvn whore we were billeted for two weeks, and we had the ple;isuri', in another camp, of having a (Jot ha buzz around a few hundred feet above our house, tt was hunting l'r a sawmill. A bomb missed the ' V ' hut by H'f yards, hitting the hoiucplate on tlie ball diamond, which it drove about thii ty feet into the pround. nariiif; up enuu-jh of the park to sioil play for a few days. ' ' Tliat the Ameriean army will be an important factor in the i'uturp proso-ention proso-ention of the wur, and will be the means of laying ' ' Fri t.ie out cold.' is the j confident assertion made by -Mr. Kutii-i erford. "It is a lively existence," he proceed?. pro-ceed?. "It does one uood to sre the thousands of American soldiers over here, and they si.e up well. Victory Is Assured. ''The last t wo d ay 3 w e have h e a r d wonderful news from our tmops coining back, and it looks as thmih Forh hn at last pulled off something and ill keep it up until Fritzic is laid nut enld. ; "We have seen many of the b-ys j here in the hospital wards whrrj th- y catiK frui ii one bom bed by 1 1 uns, a , reat many ased and nth'-rs witli shrnpnel wound. One boy hud one eye) shut L.-red and the other so badly in-' jured that he will lose the silit. Iff. was from New York. Another stiffen1.! ; from slicl! shock which 1...J iriven hi-niuiith hi-niuiith a queer twist, so he talked av.a a rou nd on one side an un-an ny si : lit. ! It is a horrible si";ht to ee them dress I the slump of a letf blown off by lii;;h 'explosives. ' So it poos over here, t houeji it is marvelous to see what these 'kids' io through smilingly. It just about breaks one up to see some of the fortitude, though like the fellow who will be blind for life." In business life Mr. Hutherford sell-; sheet and tube metal mat cria 1. In Ii 1 -letter he expresses the opinion that the government will sooner or later take over all such material for the prosecution prosecu-tion of the war. "The government wi'l take it nil over, 1 pu'NS and one thing this affair over here demonstrates, is that tin; j'sooner it is taken and put into proper form to shoot at the boche. the sooner will we ge t, bac k to where we ea n breathe freely. When we wateheil the progress of thti boche on the last two or threo drives ho made successfully, we felt that nothinc ehe mattered in this world except putting an end to (lor-many, (lor-many, and I still feel that we are right. Just now it looks as though we hae a good fit art, ami the I'nited States cerlainlv c:in lend the additional power necessary. ' ' |