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Show tough guys,--who nau accounted for many of the enemy and who had been decorated for bravery outside , the line of duty, turn away with tears in their eyes when they learned that there was nothing for them. So before I go home tonight, there will be at least six V-mail let-; let-; ters on their way overseas. As I was typing the preceding paragraph, a card with a German postmark was placed on my desk. It was from one of our lads who is being held in a German prison camp. Here is the message: "We are being well treated. I am in good health. A friend received some chewing gum and gave me a stick. I have been chewing it for a week and will keep on doing so until it disappears. The days and nights are long. I have received no mail at all so far. If I could get just one letter from someone I know, I I'd be a new man." . Strollers on Park avenue occa- sionally see a small Yorkshire terrier ter-rier wearing a blanket on which is a six months overseas service stripe, an American Theater Wing 1 pin and the insignia of the 5th army. The dog is owned by Mrs. Laurence Graves and won its decoration the 5th insignia was personally bestowed be-stowed by Gen. Mark Clark by accompanying Katharine Cornell overseas and playing the part of Flush in "The Barretts of Wim-pole Wim-pole Street." Flush was a real G.I. never sick a day and thriving on K-rations. An actor, too, since he delighted the G.I.s no end by wagging wag-ging his tail and licking his chops every time Miss Cornell came on stage. LightsofNevYork By L. L. STEVENSON i An engineer reached New York recently- after two years continuous service in the merchant marine in various parts of the world. Having registered at a well known mid-town mid-town hotel, he deposited $13,000 with the clerk, that amount being 'the total of his accumulated wages and bonuses. In the evening, desiring desir-ing to step out a bit. he drew 5400. In the early hours of the morning he came, back much under the : weather and with his pockets empty. He evidently judged that he'd had his money's worth as the next night, he drew a still larger amount. ' ; Early in the morning, he came back to the hotel without a cent. He kept that up night after night' and when he checked out at the end of the : week, he had only $4,000 0f his origi- ; nal stake left. There were no : repinings on his part he had been looking forward to the big time he'd , have when (and if) he got back to : New York. That incident has been multiplied many times within the last few i months though usually the amounts are not so large. Soldiers, sailors, marines, merchant sailors, back from the wars and flushed by the , pay that has finally caught up with them, go on regular spending Sprees. Anyone at all with money, no matter the source, has no trouble in getting rid of it in New York since there are always hands greedy to grab what they can and servicemen service-men are looked on as easy prey. Seemingly nothing can be done about it. The men hold 'that the money being theirs, they can do what they please with it. Many servicemen fall into the hands of the MPs or shore patrol before it is too late and thus some of their money is saved for a time at least. But many a serviceman wakes up broke, with a terrific headache and without the slightest knowledge as to where his pay has gone. According to a. reliable report, some mid-town hotels often administer adminis-ter the well known "knock out drops" to servicemen. This is not with criminal intent, however, according ac-cording to my informant. Servicemen, Service-men, particularly those back from long stays on the battle fronts, many of whom are really suffering from "battle fatigue," often become be-come noisy and destructive when they are celebrating their homecoming. homecom-ing. It is not always possible to reach the shore patrol or the military mili-tary police quickly enough to prevent pre-vent trouble. So the house buys a drink and the unruly one gets a pill in his grog with the result that for the next six or eight hours, he is extremely , quiet. Of course he and his property are taken care of while he is dead to the world. ' Speaking of servicemen: I read an article by Lewis Gannett, book columnist of the New York Herald-Tribune, Herald-Tribune, who recently returned from overseas, in which he discussed dis-cussed the hunger of our men overseas over-seas for mail from home. That i caused me to recall long ago days of the first World war in the little I village of Montigny-sur-Aube in France when the mail from Ameri- Ica came to a red and yellow brick ipostomce. Many times I've se |