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Show "With the Colors" From L, D. Childs of Orangeville Dear Mr. Williams: Just a short note to thank you for the two issues of the Progress you have sent me. Their arrival . shortened short-ened very materially th'e distance- between be-tween Maryland and Emery county in that one's mind can picture miich plainer the. people and affairs of the day in dear old Castle Valley by Its aid than could one; without it. ,. .., -;" It is very interesting to 'get acquainted ac-quainted with the boys from home in their different locations and daily tasks: "in preparing to "go across. T . " Hej.e-.let .me . insert that the one only bad; feature of army' life is -the fact that you .could - be within a. stone's throw of an ' old acquaintance and never kjiuw-it unless you .yere.. In posession of . all . the dope, on him, such as' company - letter, number, branch of service, location of branch, division, ; battalion, aescrip'ticm ':'. tit' person in general, and what-not. Facts are, as T have found-them; - th'tit a . soldier: really knows, .less of -.:the. things that take 'place about' him than'.-does: the: rea-tUng- public,- For instance, one day we got hold of a newspaper7 which .sard ";ttiiUiOhr particular par-ticular company would give up the barracks we were quartered in for a new:. iun,ch ...of ..draftees .and -that. w.e. would' probably moVe" into a "machine gutv battjipn's'. barracks, as Jhelat? ter were leaving " for France'. SucTi n'eVs ampiigVthe..-. byi is visually ;'d.is-'-cuese.d. hi agreements, disagreements, ' profanity, Songs, 'ar "dance" Indian fashion, arguments, . and even to. the point of a 'baxing'vontest between a pair o rookies who see things exactly, alike only in a different -"Way: "" ' Well, we did move! One morning the order came to pack up and be ready . to fall... In - with, all- belongings, in hand which means on youi1 back, around your neck, in your pockets, downyour legglnjgsV a'.nd even ; In your mouth. I say one pile' of junk wrapped around, a poor-little soldier in such a way that his field were just visible- beidw white - a hat cord andtwo pipes 'in his- ritouth 'marked his height! ' ' : -'- '' - : -'' --' ' " ' I'm hot naturally furious" or-: "inquisitive "in-quisitive but I- simply "hat) "to- k-now why" he had - two pipes in his -mo-uth-at the" same time so I yells down -at him, "Hey, boe, why the pipes?" The answer came, "G'wanr . you big stiff, where else am i'-goth's" to 'carry 'c'm. I walked on. I guessed he was right. Well, we stood in line for about 30 minutes, and then we got "Fall out." Five minutes later we got. "Fall in!" "Fall out!" "Fall in!" "Fall out!" And so on until noon. Moving had begun to lost- its excitement already for some reason. I don't believe there" was a guy in the outfit dared to start, "Where do we go from here, boys?" Well, in the afternoon things looked brighter because we . were rounded up, equipped with brooms, mops, rakes, shovels, pon.p. scrubbing brushes, and plenty f corporals, and marched off in the direction of our new quarters. I, personally, had a hunch as to (Continued on page 5) "With the Colors" (Continued from page 4) what wan going to happen, but, let me impress it upon you thoroughly, I never nev-er aflk any llttlo short suy"s opinion of the matter. I marched along like, any good buck private should and took my orders from corporals only. We halted In front of the strano barracks, did a "right face," and found out what we were there for and commenced com-menced at once to "police up!" This I done we turned back again for our , "home." I We rather felt we would soon move now that we had cleaned up the new quarters but to our surprise we were Just a week before we claimed victory over the new position of Installation. During that week we moved out and moved In those old barracks until every ev-ery duck In the outfit was an artist at furniture Juggling. The newspaper was right. We "were to move" which we did. Now we are moving again to Oeorgia, Ohio, Texas, New York, and : to France. We are going tomorrow, , the first of neat week, the first of the 1 month, the laet of the month, in six weeks, in two months, etc., etc. ! The soldiers are a tribe of movers. If they don't move one way they will another. I'll bet there Isn't a candidate candi-date In our whole batallion who would vote to stay over here If he had a chance to go "ove r there'. Which shows the great spirit of love they all entertain in their hearts for the famous fam-ous Dutcher. To talk to any of the boys, they are simply "raring" to set sail. Some of 'em are scared to death of a pair of boxing gloves, even, claim In the most convincing tones and Tankee slang their anziety to be in France where there is "something doing." The American boy has a way of kidding kid-ding the other fellow into thinking he's a brave man. A good stunt, for after a few bombs toss him about and the enemy "gases him up" a few times he begins to kid himself into thinking think-ing he is a brave man and when he : gets that idea Into his head, he's seen to many movies In dear old U. 8. to do the thing up on a common basis. It's gotta be romantic and dramatic! Then look out, Hun. I suppose when I "go across" I'll have plenty to do dodging bullets unless the trenches I get Into are fairly deep in places. I I'm quite disappointed to know that what we are actually doing is censored cen-sored because our daily program Is . highly interesting. Anyhow I wont break any rules by saying that the : government Is a master hand in find-: find-: Ing somehting for the rookies to do. One optimistic chap broke out in the is good hard work, so, as I see It, it will make us all better fitted for big things after the war. If I had time I midst of a fw momentary chatters of soldier complaints by saying, "Oh, hell, youee fuys give me a pain! When I get out of this army and hit some blaj-waisted old fathead for a job and he asks me what I can do, I'll say I can do anything." Training to become a useful soldier might enclose a few sketches of the boys in various attitudes of "detail." There are many tunny things happen good subjects for cartoons every day and it is my ambition to pick up all I can by way of happy remembrances remem-brances when this word-madness is over. Now I must close and put my appearance ap-pearance in at a little game of bags-ball bags-ball this afternoon. Again thanking you for your pager, I beg to remain, yours lengthily, L. D. CKILDS Co. C, S24th F. S. B'n, Camp Meade, Maryland. |