No- 23.

Tues. Oct. 9th 1917.

Dear Mother:-

Well it’s just a day over two weeks now since I’ve written you anything but field cards, so I had better get busy again right away. I think I mentioned in one of those cards that I had received a letter from you. I haven’t got it with me tonight, so I can’t answer it. Saturday, just after getting out of the line, I got that other parcel that you sent on Aug. 18th, the one with the maple cream & sugar in it. You forgot to put the batt. on the address & they had to hunt it up in London, so it took longer getting here than the other. However, it’s age didn’t spoil the candy any.

It wasn’t quite such a hard trip coming out of the line this time. We only came about two thirds as far the first night & camped in some swell new huts & had lots of room. I sure had a swell sleep too. It felt good to get my clothes off once more. The next morning we spent cleaning up & then moved on to another camp in the afternoon. We got wire beds there, three deckers. I don’t think they make any better sleeping than just plain boards tho’. Instead of writing letters that evening as I suppose I should have, I managed to work in a picture show and a concert, both fine. Next morning we moved again to the camp.

The French people around here look awfully sloppy on week days but they can dress up pretty well on Sundays, as I noticed on that march. Of course they were all out to church, in a church that has been hit a few times with shells from the look of it. We have been in the same camp ever since, -two days- We missed church parade Sunday on account of rain. It started to rain the middle of last week & it has rained every day since - awfully miserable weather. I’m mighty glad we are not in the line. I guess tho’ it will keep on raining for six months now, so I might as well get used to it one time as another.

There is still lots of fruit around here grapes & plums & pears, especially. I got one swell pear the other night, I think as good as ever I tasted. It cost 10 F., a lovely big red one. The apples are not very good & the best kind, I guess, are not ripe yet. I haven’t had any eggs yet. I’m going to try for some tomorrow night. We had a clothing parade tonight at six, & we had to be present whether we needed anything or not, else I would have had a feed tonight. Tomorrow we are going to have an inspection by the commander of the 1st Army – quite a big bug. I’m getting so used to these inspections now tho’, that they don’t bother me very much any more.

Just one more bit of news. I’m a S. B. again. That’s why I sent for the scissors. They come in handy occasionally. I didn’t know for sure then whether I would hold on to the job, so I didn’t mention it then but I think now that I’m pretty sure of hanging on. Of course there is always the chance of some of the old S. B casualties coming back & thus overflowing the number. Only a certain number are allowed of course, & of course the newer ones would have to get out. It’s a pretty good job. Some people think it is a more dangerous job, but I don’t think it is very much so. And the term stretcher bearer is rather a misleading one. The only time a S. B. carries a stretcher is carrying an empty one in & out of the line, & then he doesn’t carry it all the way, except under exceptional circumstances when no one else can be got. His business is solely First Aid. Also he carries no rifle or ammunition & gets out of fatigues, so it is a pretty good job looked at from that light. It makes quite a difference on a route march, with no rifle or ammunition. Another thing too that I’m thankful for is that we don’t had to do squad drill. We have lectures etc. instead.

Yesterday morning they got us up at 5 a.m. to go for a bath. When we got to the baths there was no hot water so we about turned & came back. This morning we were up at 5 again & got a bath this time. We also got an issue of brand new shirts, under pants & socks. Well at noon I took a look at my shirt. I quite sure there was a louse for every square ¼ inch of that shirt. I never saw anything like it before – hope I never will again. The usual proceeding is to pick them off & kill them, but I decided that that would be a hopeless job, so I just took a boot brush & brushed them off. However it feels now as tho it was as bad as ever. I’ll have to get some creoline after it tomorrow. Send me some sabadilla powder if you can get it. I think that’s the spelling. It can’t be got here & the fellows say it is the best stuff. But say, wasn’t that some shirt to issue a person as clean.

I’m going to try & remember to enclose a little article that I ran across, that I think hits the mark pretty truly, from what I’ve seen of things in my short stay over here. And just by the way, In another week & two days I’ll have been in France five months. It seems about a month.

Well I’ve got to quit I guess. What do you think of this paper. It’s pretty swell stuff, really. I think I’ll write to all my friends on it, as it’s getting near Xmas.

John.

P.S. I just received your letter of Sept 10th., the one with the second 50 fro. in it. I guess you needn’t send that powder I spoke if you have already sent some. And look. They are paying us a little more now so I won’t want you to send me so much. Make it $10 one month & $5 the next. That will make it just about the same as before. I would like to get a few things to send home this Xmas, but I doubt if I will be able to. It is practically impossible to get anything at all worth while sending home around the towns that I can get to.

Well I guess I’ll quit again.

J.