Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 150, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1918 — Joe Meehan Writes Home from the War Zone. [ARTICLE]

Joe Meehan Writes Home from the War Zone.

On active service with the British Expeditionary Forces. Somewhere in France. June 6, 1918. To Robert Emmett Meehan, Remington, Ind., U. S. A. Dear Mother, Brothers and Sisters and the rest of you all: —'Received your letter of May 4 O. K., and I must confess that Balcom lad is one regular “Go-to-Hell” with a typewriter, especially a Remington. Well I- am fine and dandy and very glad to hear you are all the same. We are having great weather, also out on rest, but time taken up between inspections and field days, etc.

Old Heinde comes over on these moonlight nights and says, “Welcome to our city.” But our boys do the same, so it’s an even “buck.” It sort of worries you though when he drops perhaps one-half dozen “eggs,” and then he seems to stick around [in very close prpximity as though, he was taking an inventory. Then you smoke a clgaret or two and wait for the next act. Us fellows sleeping outside had a few pieces of dirt drop around us one night, but you might as well be outside as in, as those “birds’’ frequently send “eggs” through the roof.

He didn’t play fifty-fifty on Corpus Christi day, as ou<r boys stayed away from bls processions rather than kill poor little kiddies all dolled up, but he comes over and bombs one of our hospitals. You can’t trust him. But that goes down on the slate against him, too. So never mind, it will all come out. This clipping* I ta enclosing is from the Paris edition of the Daily Mail. The town we had those band pictures taken in was shelled all to pieces, and this picture is a replica of the scores you see going along the road. I went out to buy some milk night before last a/id some refugees had just arrived, / a wee baby in a baby buggy and a four-year-old girl in a wheel barrow, and . the child was also sicK. So I “shot" the milk to the kiddo and went and got some more. It isn’t as if your house was on fire and you stood and watch It burn with, all your stuff safe on the roadside.’ Far be it from such. It’s grab and git while the going** good. It certainly is hard lines to have a war at your door for four years and then have to “beat It.’’

These people have got a great disposition. They certainly are workers and their crops look great. First warm spring they have had in three years. Old men, women and girls work the land and they are going from early morn until late at night They certainty have got

the “stlck-ta-It-tlveness.” Well i’ll forget the war for a couple- or in inh tea . Bangi— t -a couple of peace notes just barked. We had Batt, sports one day and then Brigade sports three days after. Our Batt, tied with another one for first honors. Then there is Division sports day to come, and ttnal. Corps day and all the Topliners are out. Some get leave for their prizes, others get money, and go away satisfied. Last Tuesday was a gala day for lair. An American -baseball team from an aviation camp close by came over and played a seven-in-ning game with our lads, beating our lads by 5 to 2 in a real nice game. Some good plays were made and some ivory ones were to be seen on both sides. This pal of mine, Lieut. (Chick) Robinson, was the “bmp.’’ and gave satisfaction. But we were handicapped in the line of rooting as we are not “up” ,in the latest baseball vernacular; but we gave the opposing team credit wherever it was due. I was talking to one of the sergeants—he’s from Frisco —and - he told me they got an awful cleaning up the week before, but didn’t eay what team. vVhen, they stepped out of their lorries we started “Yankee Doodle” and they acknowledged with a little gesture. Air nice appearing and — I don’t know, there is something about a Yankee —he’s different, x'hose fellows stepped on our field modest, unassuming, as if it was ,n ordinary occurance. The pitcher was of the Ernest Fisher type when ae was in his balmy days of ball playing. He was non-excitable and .ad tne inevitable smile for the rooters. A little fellow playing short-stop—he was also the comedian —introducing Charlie Chaplin stuff while running -the bases, and getting away with it, too. They all were as nifty a bunch of fellows as I would want to meet- — made you feel like old times. They were chock full of vim and that good old asset, confidence. But our boys made a good showing, especially as most of them have been •‘out here” close to two years, and you spend two winters out here and bound to take some of the “pep’’ out of you. They were very well pleased with their 1 treatment and want another game as soon as -ossible. , , Our boys did a hard day’s grind the day before,the game. I’ll detail the day’s doings for you-, and we were with them, not playing, but ■toting the shotguns” and the regulation battle regalia: Reveille 3:30 a. m.; breakfast 4 o’clock; “Fall in” 4:45; inspection, etc., and you’re on your way—nice aid cool marching until about 10 o’clock, then '“Old Sol” began to work. You rehearse field maneuvering all day and start back at 6:10 /p. m.; line up at your particular “beanery” at 9:30 p. imi, after doing a good twelve-mile hike to and from. But thank Christ, we’ve got a real colonel. Got his tuition in the Spanish-American war serving as a Lieut, at Porto Rico. Told me he got his education in Wisconsin. Colonel Carey is his name. He has got a line of chatter, too, and he gives all concerned a square leal. Here is one he pulled the other day: He was talking to a bunch of N. C. O.’s and men explaining this and that, and in the course >f his talk he says, “Now this is going to take brains and I know you Canadians have brains, judging from the line of talk I have heard in the Orderly Room the last two weeks” —meaning the different alibis the fellows put up who had to say, “Good morning, Judge.” He’s been with us just a year this month. Real colonel, real Battalion. . .. We are getting lots of rations put up in U. S. A. now. We cam tell what firm the “bully beef” belongs to without seeing the box. I was over to the store this morning and w Libby, McNiel & Libby well represented. Liggett & Myers cigarets are being sold at all canteens ow One sure thing, a firm wants to be careful what they send over for the boys to buy frottm the canteens. You can’t give them “bunk’ very long, because once you put It over they boycott your stuff and the canteens won’t carry your junk in stock. You have to move canteens and Y. M. C. A.’’s on the double some times —same with canned fruit and milk, v j hud s. me real U. ». baked beans for lunch last Monday —first we had as rations for a long time. Tasted mighty fine. Well, I’m not a pessimist or an optimist and I don’t expect to wear a peace flag this coming 4th of july, but the next one I hope to tell you some funny stories. So it’s “chow” time and me to the roast beef and boiled spuds (without the jackets—l saw them re-pareing them at lunch time) and a concert for the lads at 6:30, then we’re at liberty until 5:45 a. m. So good luck and love to all and hello to any and all of my inquiring friends. —“JOE.” 760759 Bandsman Joseph Meehan, 54th Batt., B. E. F., France. ♦The clippings referred to show a picture of “French refugees saving their belongings from the Huns. An every-day scene on the roads behind the battle line (Official).” And a picture of “A Big Chew of Real American Bacca at ‘End of Steel.’ These Canadians have just boarded a light railroad at the end of the steel, after holding Heine in the front line. The driver of the train is a member of the American Expeditionary Force, and he is shown offering the neighbours of his homeland a chew nf tobacco, which was gratefully accepted.”