Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1919 — LETTERS FROM DR. FYFE. [ARTICLE]

LETTERS FROM DR. FYFE.

Wheatfield Review: The following are extracts of letters received from Capt. M. B. Fyfe, Medical Corps, A. E. F., formerly of Wheatfield, written to Mrs. Fyfe and Mrs. B. M. Clark: , Well, our corps has been ordered to prepare for occupation of oerman ter«ritory, and suppose I should feel elated at the opportunity, as it is considered some honor. Yow .are considered “out of luck” ifyou are not included. I am hoping we will not fee needed ion* there and it will shorten our Stayton foreign soil, but as usual we never know what is coming. , ... Do not receive papers or periodicals from the states until they are six weteks old. Neither do we receive the dailies from Paris (through the courtesy- of the Red Cross) until they are a day old, so don’ t be amazed if we are slightly out of date on news. -But I feel tonight like what the “L.” I Won’t start kicking at tills stage of the game. The wonderful thing of it all is, its Am sure the allies will make short work of Jix-Kaiser & Co. We don’t know where we are to go on this trip. Hope Mr. Censor looses his job soon so I can tell you. Weather is real cold, ground freezing; eliminating this aw-ful mud. s' Lieutenant Jackson of was ordered to report to an English ambulance company and has gone,, We all feel pretty blue~over it. He was the life vs our outfit, The day War was declared off he came in with the remark, ‘Well, I went up to the front and stopped this d war It’s gone on long enough to suit me.” He was surely well liked.

France, Nov. 19, 1918. Am Writing as often as possible now as probably by ’tomorrow we will be on our way to Germany, and as we go overland will not have an opportunity to write as often, if at all Haven’t any new information on how soon we may be starting home, as no one knows a thing. Plenty of unfounded, likewise confounded, rumors. I will take the first opportunity, you can bet, to come home. Am well, and keep fairly warm present quarters. You speak of getting pT6htyoffresit air. Can’t be otherwise. No glass in the windows, only fragments of roofs, if any, floors and sides filled with shell holes, so you see the houses are not exactly air tight. When Ido get home I will not know how to act in a real house with a clean, comfortable bed. We take our baths near a French fireplace'over which we heat a meat.can full of water which we put into two 'folding pails, one for each foot, and in that way our bath progresses. We still cling to that old time ceremony on Saturday evening. All in the company are busy getting ambulances repaired, new tires, engines overhauled. In fact, everything in readiness to move on quick notice. The Red Cross surely is doing a wonderful work, so liberal to all and “Johnny on the spot." Give us such things as papers, cigarettes, cocoa, jams, red hots, oat meal and milk, and everything possible for them to obtain. Will not accept pay. At their suggestion we are taking a truck load of things like I just mentioned for our company extra 'on the trip. They do not ask praise or notoriety but they quietly “DO” and I believe our money spent by them has gone farther than for any other couse. We are at the place where American and Italian prisoners are coming through retiring from Germany They want a full belly, something warm with a good smoke, and they are satisfied. No complaints, but eternal kigding. One of he knew why Napoleon always had his picture with one hand inside his coatT-“He was scratching cooties.” Such foolish z witticisms, although seeming disrespectful, keep up our courage. With love.

DADDY.