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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1918-10-18, Page 7CT( , 4 EXPOSITOR 11 111111111111111111111111111111 11111111 at ehalant' beating that Veterane of six -I Moistias carry, sosI sty sleep was lack- ing in large chinks. I am now = , charging the ee.1k4 here,. having lain • dormant for two days, sn fact hiber- nated, 80 to speak, despite the feet • ; that out of doors it is beautiful wen' 91101 Vat 11•ffill m▪ ot NNW WNW 54.0 MVO MM. IMO SC. Walt ='* sunn U13A2TERN res BILLIE'S LETTERS FROM FLANDERS Ea. ell11111111111111111111111111111111M1111M11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111110. (Continued from our last issue.) out of the belly spot othing ser - ions you know, just crooked up with Well, dear, here we are, as 1 say, a deuce of a cold and a very sore heel. a scant two miles from the first line The heel comes from endeavoring to trenches and even here one is scarce break in a new pine of shoes and start - able to realize that there is a wared with a blister which, like FinnieY's, For instance this morning, to look out . Turnip, grew until the length, breadth of the window the sun is shining and and depth thereof was something to birds singing. Here and there a toucb. 1 marvel at, and the pain in keeping of snow glistening amongst the green ;with the dimensions. Talk about' ex - of the fields or fast being dyed by the quiste torture, but I sure feel that the mud of the roads, and not a sound of methods of the Inquisition have no - war pentrates the walls of the hospi- thing on this. However, she is fast tal. Except for khaki moving around healing up and we will go back to from the window view nothing de--; finish the breaking in of the new notes war at all. Of course it is not 1 shoes. This breaking in stuff is no always like that and there -was a noi- joke and' 1 have not yet discovered some bombardment the first few I whether it consists in moulding the nights. In fact the first night when ' boot to the shape of your foot or vice versa, but I think it is vicesversa.. Well, my dear, I've aleeady done a tour or two in the trenches and can assure you that they are the only ex- periences I'vehad that fail to live up to their reputation. Frankly, they were a keen disappointment to me in every respect, although I, pernaps, have not had sufficient time to proper- ly sample them. There was mud and water to the piescribed quaatitins all right, but things are not so bests* un- conifortable and for forty-eight hours I never lay down or was even in a dug- out owing to the crowded condition of the line. Of course one was wet and. cold, but that's what we've been ex- pecting, and the hardships are not, so far, nearly as great as I anticipated. Of eourse there was the danger of get- ting bumped off at any time but altho' I'm 'sure at least two million shells and bullets sang, shrieked, roared, rat - tied, whistled (add here any adjective used by war correspondents, they all fit) hurtled by and around, none hit me. It was Tether terrifying I'll ad- mit, but somehow or other there Was a distinct fascination about it. One's nerves certainly require to be con- structed on the gyroscopic principle, however, to stand the strain. But the surprising thing was that deipite all information re accuracy, hardly one shell in ten does any damage. At least that was the impression 1 got, for none of my men were hit and the battalion up to the time I was brought here had no casualties aften ten days in the front line. Of course I realized that perhaps the weather conditions were not as inclement as early in the winter, but still I reallyecan see no such awful conditions as one pictured in their mind's eye I talked in Eng- land to hundreds of men returned from the front, and by piecing togeth- er their garbled accounts, had a sort of patchwork quilt composition which I chese to call my conception of the trenches, a sort of pre -impression, but I guess either I was a bad artist or else the men I -talked to -store bad raconteurs, for I surely saw nothing like my conception when we -finally- reached the goal. While nothing is so bad that it might .notebe` 'Neese, and: the eaine'1 suppose applies to all things, good conditions in the firing line are neither so good they couldn't be better, nor yet so bad they couldn't be worse. Everything humanly poss- ible is done for the comfort of the men, And every dugout has a brazier with charcoal and coke burning to get warm by, and there is food to spare. The meals are not of course served table d'hote, - and finger bowls, I be- lieve, even in the best battalions, have been reserved for future use; but eat you can, and a little management coin - bleed with the aid of a company cook, does wonders at getting a hot meal. Always granted that it is discouraging ul extremis, also aroiocative of much blasphemy when George the eook, is suddenly compelled to duck and use as a shield the dixie or pan on Which rested your dinner. Because, despite all efforts of the A. S. Q. and year own quartermaster sergeant, thereis only so much for every one, and when yours has co -mingled with the soup lying underfoot it thither adds zest to your appetite nor yet improves the flavor of Ifulligan."Albeit this does not occur thrice a day and we usually are able to say inwardly, if not aloud, "For what we are abont to receive." Of course sleep is rather a minus quantity, particularly for officers, and it was doubly so with us,for I know I felt at times rather timid about the small sector of trench I was respons- ible for and wanted to be sure that no- thing occurred. In any event we have not yet acquired the blase air or non- I lay in the dugout it seemed to never cease. Battery after battery rumbled on and only a few hundred yards away one of the real big guns thundered oc- casionally. All this noise punctuating as it were, the tinny notes of a piano grinding out a blare of ragtime from a Y. M. C. A. hut, the while motor trucks tattooed by on a road as it were beating time for the piano. In- congruous, well I should say so. It cer- tainly,. to one who hasn't seen it, resist seem inexplicable. And yet it exists not only here as an isolated example but all up and down the line. How truly remarkable are modern condi- tions. The hospital is run by a field ambu- lance and. is a large building of four stories with a dozen smaller ones a- round it Prior to the war it was a convent and school and still the patt ient nuns work here. Black robed, and smiling they go about their- dut- ies looking after Belgian refugees, do- ing washing for the soldiers and run- ning a small hospice where officers can get k meal.: I haven't had one, but the boys tell me they are great 1; Fried chicken, cauliflower and pie. Pie I said. Imagine pie. To isle that overshadows the fact that they serve with each meal a pint of cbaanpagne. Yes, there certainly is a high light over the pie.. I care not what; cus- tard, apple, lemon, raisin, mince, blue- berry or cocoanut but, I could certain- ly cultivate a quarter section of pie right now. "Much better this morn- ing nue•ee!" The place has never been shelled and in the officers' ward with me, now, is a Colonel and a Major. The Colonel said he asked one of the nuns how it came that they had never been shelled. She pointed to the cruc- ifix (an inevitable sy-mbol in every room in everv house that I've been in ' over here) and said "We're kept by the Grace of God," and 1 believe it To think that for nineteen ,months in this malestrom of war from every guar - tee. the buildings have never been Int and these quiet nuns have gone about tending sick ..and wounded daily hold- ing their matins and vespers, seenis to be a modern -miracle. "0' woman! in our hours a ease, Uncertain. coy, and hard to please, When pain and anguish -wring the brow A ministering angel thou!—" As I've lain here the force of those lines comes home more and more. You know I've always said a nurse had a halo around her head, well, here there is nothing but males, raere male order- lies. and oh, for the touch of woman's hand. I know that if there was a wo- man, were she princess or char -woman that your beef tea would at least be warm and have salt in it, and there would be no sticky sediment in the bottom of the cur,. That, and a bun, ded other things I could recount, be- telsen the lack a the touch feminie, However, I've no desire to disparage the work of the dirty, clumsy hands which ministered unto me, for they are the boys who in their turn go up into the line and carry back the weunded. All honour to them! But that is just an insistent little fact that presses home quite poignantly. After one has been a gay and festive subaltern in the G.E.F. for ten months one learns to do a eniexd yet fascinating occupation known as Map Reading. It consists of being able to trace one's way on an ordnance map by means of hieroglyphical marks and to know by the manner in which a road ie shown whether it is a first class, or a second class, or a third class, or a fourth class road. Now, a first class road is supposed to be one, but I think that the first class roads here are the ones mentioned in the epigram or proverb, "The Road to hell, etc; at least they are hellish roads. They are all pave roads and consign . first, of a line of Flemish poplars "-on each side. Tall and stately trees they are and from afar betoken . a quiet shady highway, a dolce far niente ef- fect, but, ye gods, what awful purga- tory to walk between those lovely trees ? These pave roads consist of small blocks (cobble stones), and I have it for a fact from a respectable source that there was a clause in the contract which called that no two blocks be laid at the same height or angle in any space not exceeding ten metres in width by thirty metres in depth. $o you can readily imagine - that walking is anything but a pleas- ure. In fact, if I were a parish priest and my worthy confesses had hoofs like mine, I could think up no greater penance than t ohave them do five - miles twice a day over these roads. Peas in ybur shoes and pave roads rank side by side. In any event thir- ten miles of them was too much for "rne noble hoofs " which at present are blistered and sore. In fact, any time after the first five miles I would wil- lingly have walked on anything soft, Hampshire mud, a custard pie, six in- ches of snow or an eiderdown quilt. I certainly can never recommend a -walking tour in France. Well, dear, I can't tell you much a- bout the trenches for I haven't been there but will doubtless have a few re- marks about them next time. Received the joint agreement and will forward it. You can tear up the one I sent you. Love to all. Billy- 7Somewhete in France March 17-, 1910 Dear Mother,—Here I am again in noepital. It seems as tho' I never get Peps will give you iellet1 Simply dissolve a Peps tablet in your mouth. Your breath carries the medicinal Pine vapor, which Is released, to all parts of the throat, nasal and air passages, where a liquid medicine could not possibly reach, This vapor de- stroys all germs with which it comes in contact, soothes and heals the inflamed membranes and fortifies you against coughs, epids, sore throat, bronchitis and griTpe. Peps contain absolutely no harm- ful drugs and are therefore the safest remedy for children. FRT4, F TRIAL cut out this essaan--.04> enelenseen erticle. write -across it tile name and date of this paper, and mail it (with lc. stamp to pay return postage) to Peps Co., Toronto. A free trial packet will then be sent you. All drug- gisis and stores sell Peps, 56c. box. IBMIT111/Y9 !ASK ther.' . I Yes, I think that the "winter of our I discontent" is gone' for that laggaed, ;lover, Old Sol, has for two days wooed 1 Mother Earth. And what an ardent affair:- None of your brotherly pecks I1113 kisses, but long warm Elinor Glyn- ny ones, so that she is all dolled up I in her spring satorial effeet Violets, I snowdrops and crocuses underfoot, bursting buds and the songs �f I mat- ingbirds from the ground and every now . irds over head, a blue filmy haze I and then a sleek grey Belgia nhare lscampering through the middle dis- • ,tance. That's the picture that limns 1 Itself on your brain as you Walk ,long the road. Beauty, beauty every- ( where, till one., wishes one had the i' gift of a Turner to put on canvas the glories of this French land. I've just gloried in the view from my win- 1 (dow here, trying to forget that the whole land ia given over to war and that one or two high explosives could dint the landscape so badly as to mar it for sight seeing purposes. It seems indeed a shame that nb beautiful a part of :the world should be warped out of all recognition. •This hospital or rest station for officers is in a beautiful -old Chateau placed on a • small hill in a circular- basin. Around the valley, it as tvere,runs along are of hills shutting off the view after five or six miles, but in between is really beyond my poor pen to des- cribe. Wonderfully treed are the im- mediate grounds, of the Clmteau; oak, filemish popular, and several trees of unknown- (at least to me) species, their tops graduallseblending into one another tillthe bottom of the hill is reached, a sort , of terraced lawn. Then the plain small farms with their cluster of buildings around them, tiny nuadrangks and triangles hedged off with mounds of • earth and sparse hedgerows where they + grow their crops. Here and there a haystack or a terra cotta roofshows up. while the smoke from a village some three miles away, veers upward just as laz- ily as our . moke at home does on a ii in lackadaisic 1 day srping. Every- thing over ere, dear, seems to move so much slawer than at home. For instance, everyevillage has its chureh and spire, and every spire its chimes,. and in place of clangine out with strident notes in quarters, half and hour, langudtously the sounds float over in deep resenant waves. Long, long seconds seem- to elapse between. notes, in fact you count, say ten, and knowing it's eleven, you figure you've missed one at the,first, when "blong!" over comes the final sound. So also the windmills. I've read innumerable stories about the lazy Dutch mills. and here they are. Square, grey biuldings with the regulation four arms that turn slowly and rather jerk. ily. They always seem to me as if a tired man were =turning them at •a windlass inside, arid when the handle reached the top,1 he -got a little more - pessure' on the 'downward stroke. I may have failedto give you the right idea, but it's here in nev own brain. Well, I could go on tellihg you .about dna picturesque spot and describe the beauties of the surrounding country indefinitely, but better stop here. . As I tell you, we are quartered in _this old- Cliateau-ntruly an old world • place if one ever existed. Set upon this hill with magnificent ground a- round, flower bed rhododendron bushes, stately oaks, tall alim poplars, deciduous trees of every kind arching over long shaded walks which Wind round and round, always coming back to tne Chateau. These walks, lined with secluded spots and arbours, where perchance lurks an inviting rus- r tic bench or maybe a stone or inarble 1 statue in a variety of subjects from Circe to Diana and Mercury to Cupin, Then snuggling in the side of the hill is e -disused conservatory with hun- dreds of broken panes and a seeesing- ly impossible number -of flower pots whole or otherwise; d 1 could not help thinking of you and your water- . ing can and a certain third story gar- ' nIfwofAnVa itherere pots enough ereihatfiievo:Ideep you watering from dawn to dark. Adjoining this is a very pretentious pheasant house all wired off in pens and walks and constructed of mortar, atone and wood like a Swiss Chalet, while stables and a most modern gar- age are further on. As for the house itself, a quaint old spot with high cor- niced ceilings awn walls covered with. tapestry. A large hall dining room, lounge, salon and writing room elab- orately decorated, and all connected by wide, high glass doors. Beautiful - parquet floors of Spanish oak. The furniture is all old, very old, some of it Louis XIV, Old candelabra, antique brassware, etc., fill every corner, while paintings, whope value I know not, a- dorn the walls. And to offsetthis mediaeval old spot,it is lighted with both gas and electricity and has light- ning rods and steam heat. Will write again next week. Love to all with heaps for you. •n .4 Billy. Somewhere. , March 24th, 1916. Dear Mother,—As you will see by the heeding I'm at Somewhere. ' I believe you . have heard of this place. but I know that its importance is not known to you.' Ask any -school boy the principals city of France and he'll say Paris,ibut "Somewhere" has re- cently so increased in population that f belieee it supersedes gay Puree in importance to -day. Of course it is young; less than two years ago it was all peaceful farming land but to -day. it is a vast seething mass of human- ity, its thoroughfares teem with mot- ors, while o'er head fast bitting aero- planes act as messengers. It is, in- deed, the most prominent snot irt- +hp world to -day and gives promise. De- sist, I prithee.- It almost seems like the good old pre-war days when one sold or bought lots. However, dear, 1 today reeeived- your letters dated March 6 and 16 and was Very glad to hear from you as usual. Mail • day means a lot over here, you know, I also received another letter earlier in the week, the date of which I have forgotten, and 1 think a parcel you sent and some letters have gone as- tray. But they'll turn up.; • they al- ways do. We have moved twice since they came, ,and I believe they were sent to hospital when 1 was there; but just as surely AS fate they'll follow on for the Army P.O. is a wonder- ful institution and no matter where 4-r when you move, within a few hours along comes your mail. For instance yesterday we iisoved some miles, and Canadian mail is dile today. No mat- ter where, you are, along she comes. Well, dear, as I say, a letter is al- . *or4Nemat.rorligrinuraiummommeemmili0 1 1 V •11. Why Canada must borrow money to carry on Because Canada has put her hand to the plow and will not turn back:- -our country is ,in the war on the side of liberty and justice and wiJ stay. in it. till complete victory is won and , the mislieakabie Hun is smashed' and , beaten to the ground; —a nation at war must make tre- mendous- expenditures in cash to keep up her azmi.es and supply them with . munitions, food and. clothing; .—Canada mut finance many mil- lions of dollars of export trade in food, -munitions and supplies which Britain and our allies must have on credit; orrow hundreds of -millions of dollars— And, this money must be borrowed from the people of Can.q.,da:.— - Therefore, Canada will presently come to he peopk for a new Victory Loan to ca ry on. • + Canadia s loin:- tile money by again buying Victory Bonds, The national safety, the national honor and the national well-being e71uirr ethat each and every Canadian shall do hie duty by lending to- the nation every cent he can spare for this for these purposes Canada must purpose. Be ready when the call comes to see your - country through in, its great war work Issued by Canada's 'Vktory Loan Cominittee • in cooperation -with the Minister of Finance of_the DOMi14011 of Canada Ways most welcome, for its the only link that forges the ends of "home" and "here" together. It's welcome whether it contains a lot of news' or I just a little, because really the alche- my of a dear one's handwriting ceuses . all the dross of this war to sink, the golden memorites of home, happier fimes, friendseand best of all, love, to rise up; and then your letter was so newsy, dear,andwhat a coincidence the dream I mean. By comparing dates I think you'll find I was lying in hospital when you dreamed and ev- ery few minutes over and around new aeroplanes. So perchance there is something in telepathy even more than just a web o' dreams. Well, dear one, I really don't- know much to tell you, for actually news is mighty scarce. You see officers censor their own letters. That is, we seal them up and they are liable to be censored at the base. We are put on our h'onour not to mention any- thing. of importance, and it is left to our Judgment what to tell; so really honour is a stricter censor than the much hated one at the base. How- ever, we move from billets up nearer the firing line and are four miles from the front line trenehes, in huts which are more or leis shelter -affairs. If one spoke about shelter in Canada, I always associated with it at once the Salvation Army, or the Children's Aid Society. or a nearby doorway in a eainstorrn. Here a shelter consists of some pieces of tWO by six surrounded by sacking, -with perhaps a door. Of course it is very healthy in dry wea- ther for all the aie you get is filtered through the sacking. However, I told you that Old Sol was wooing. Mother Earth. Well, publish it not in Gath, but they had a tiff last night and that hoary old beast Winter called in his . (Sol's) absence. The ground was a -- bout ass inch deep in snow this morn- ing and the atmosphere accordingly, and now there is once more six inches , of mud on the roads74; esult being that she was !some chillsome" at six a. ne when ' you arose and tremblingly tucked your goose-fieshy legs - into breeches and socks "dewy like • the rose,: G'est ra vie. I am sending you a photo of the little girlie, one of four she sent me. I don't mind :telling you it is the worst of the bunch and really is not much like her, but she is a dear thing, and I'm really not horribly sentimental. An for your being an in-law, I know you'll make just as good a one as you do a Maw. Anyway we'll try you out wne IAget forbatam _ code, my dear, if I a e, taken prisoner there's not mach you could do. I am afraid Wilhelm would not or could not do anything, and I' presume I would be' given the same treatment as the rest. Of course food is a necessity I am told, and Aunt Elizabeth could send bread and stuff over. However, if I am taken, which' isn't likely, Pll misspell thus; if I think anything you could do through Cousin ;fare would be any use, and if I do no teeceive the par- cels sent, which b:Cr the way are a necessity, I'll misspeil reeieve or re- cieved . by 'transposing ei to ie; ,both these will get by as easuran .1 should say, but there is VC -'J strict censor- ship in regard to letiers and they'll . only let you write twe a month, I am told. • . We are in -a part of the line now which is a trifle mereEve] than any we have been in befor ' . You see over here the aspect of the war narrows down considerably. 'You are, really only interested in your actual front as it were, and usually have en- ough to do to look after that. What the Grand Duke Nicholas is doing, or whether Turkey has telen carved, or 1 Why Manitoba ' ve:e; ' re, doesn't count. It's What is Fritz going to do next in this few yards of trench I'm responsible for, or I wonder if we'll 1 in Or out to -morrow; anI one. has plentydo to see the m fed and tv) quartere and inspect their feet and rifles ce a day and see that they have their proper amount of ammuni- tion and an emergency rationuneat- en. You see an emergency ration con- sists of a pound of hard tick or bis- cuits, a small tin of tea and sugar and a tin of corn beef. Every man must always keep that, for it is a ainst reg- ulations to eat it accept when in dire straights and on the orders of the Cornpany Conunander. But once in a while Tommy has a gnawing in his eight -cylinder self-starting 1916 model stomach. Thin you see he ias to re - poet that "I've lost my irjon ration, Sir." Of course you ask wiere, and he says that someone stole It, or the rats ran away with the w rks, or it fen in a well, or a starving aviator ' came down and stopped him, so out of the goodness of his heart he gave him the food. Almost any story made uv, on the instant goes. You berate , him for being careless, knowing mean- while he ate it, then proceed to apply through your Company Co mender to •othideierClolonel, thence the Quarter Master, who indents on the A. 8 . G. for another. Hurrah for th life of aIi As I started to say, we narrow down our view here and a perusal of Canadian 'papers re the Canadian Coirps can tell more every day than we know. Anyway the general opin- ion here seems to ' be that ethe war ca t last much longer than, say, next fall. The Verdun affair means some- thing and perhaps a few last gasps like that will see the tag end in sight. There is one thing I've always ' intended to confide in von since we ar- rived Isere, and that is I'm only an- other Henry Ford. As a Peacemaker i I'M a frost pure and simple. I say 1 this after unsuccessfully. for many 1 m hts in succession ;endeavoring to ' arrange for any eight hour armistice between my left hip and a board floor. I started out with the idea of a per- manent peace; gradually felt Pd be satisfied with an amnesty; now as armistice is all I crave. There is one consolation, I'll never need a luxur- ious boudoir "Apres la gunnel' (you'll see my ,French is quite fluent, in fact I speak just like a --- Can- adian). Albeit a disused dog kennel, an abused woodshed or 'even a dilap- idated windmill (Canadian type) is a perfectly elegant spot in which to sleep. -9stermoors homo-quinge bedfs or eiderdowns can fee classed with Do- do or mastodons. Herewith a small Encyclopaedia Soldierannica:— Batman: a soldier pain by you to be: absent when you wast Beer, Belgian; - a liquid resembling beer British or beer American; evi- dently a distant branch of the same. Billet: a place so designated by a billeting officer. Dugout: (a) men a patriotic dot kennell that enlisted; (b) officer's, a root cellar that got into society. Duty: anything, everything: Heaven: (a) Leave; .(b) Ruin; (c). Heat. Hell: working tarty. Horne: a poignant memory relegat- ed to the limbo of things unattainable. Jam: a sticky substance invariably made of plums,used to smear bread. M.T. (Mechanical Transport) a jug- gernautical affair demanding three- fourths of the road and -made to spalsh mud. Projectile: see working party. Ratios: "Man wants but little here - below." Rum: a warming elixir issued in toothfuls by zealous officers. Sausages: pork, a species of animal extinct. Sock: an ever wet, sticky article, used as a covering for foot, hand or rifle. (Continued on Page Six)