Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1919 — LETTER FROM REV W. G. WINN. [ARTICLE]

LETTER FROM REV W. G. WINN.

, » Rustington, Sussex, Dec. 5, 1918. Dear Brother Hamilton:— V 7 Your letter with paper .enclosed received yesterday, and believe me I certainly was glqd to get a line from you and to know chat the strain under which you folks must have been under ever since you gdi word that Fred was wounded was over. I should have written to you long ago, in fact, thought that I had written telling you of Fred’s visit with me. It was a' treat for me to have the boy out here in camp tor a few days, was sorry that he could not have staid longer with me. He came at a most inopportune time for me to be very much with him in his -tfrolics, but I did the best 1 could for him under the cireiimstances. I loaned.him my “best girl” to run about with and gave him my bicycle to ride around and see the country. When he came my associate was away on his vacation, which threw all the work and responsibility of the “Y” activities in camp on my hands. Fred managed to get along fairly well, met lots of chaps here who were good fellows and together they seemed to have a good time. One of the beastly things about camp life is, if a fellow does not wear shoulder straps there are certain restrictions to which we must all bow. It happened that ever since I had been in camp I had been messing with the officers. When Fred came I Was ~up against it to know just how to manage. However, I saw to it that he fared just as well as I did while he was here. It was a great pleasure to have him with me and I was sorrji when he had to go back to the hospital again. He was looking fine and seemed to be in the very best of spirits. His wound, while it must have been painful in the early stages of its development, had reached a point where there was very little suffering'” caused, by it then, j There will not be any facial disfig-1 urpment from it. He is a very lucky, boy and I am sure we all have a great deal to be thankful for under the cir-: cumstances. I am enclosing a picture taken when he was here. Since the armistice has been signed and we are on the way to peace the camps along the coast have all been washed out and the boys are on their way home. My duty did not cease when the boys left as I hoped it would, but there has been delegated to me the duty to see that all the “Y’ ’supplies and equipment in five camps are taken care of and stored away in certain centers. Just how much longer I shall be detained here is a question that I can not answer nor do I know what will become of me when I am thru with this job. I should like to come home by way of France and may get to do this yet, I can not tell. I have a trip up thru Scotland and Ireland planned and have the promise of the Area Secretary that I can have the time to take this trip. I was on my way to Scotland just a few days before the 11th, but was called home and sent back job to await developments. 1 don't see how Fcan come back to the States without taking that trip for I have set my heart on it and simply must see the country. There is not much to tell you of my work over here for it has been just a sort .of routine work, nothing startling, nothing extraordinary, just a commonplace experience. Of course, I’ve met lots of people and have seen the camp life in its every phase. It’s been most interesting work for I have seen the boys at their best and sometimes have seen them at their worst, but take the American boys as a “bunch” and they have made a jolly fine impression on # this community. The boys have gone and we who have staid behind have heard the thing said about them and their behavior and I want to tgll you I am proud of them as a, set of rep.resentativeAmericans. The people here are simply lost without them, this is the dullest place on earth, I am sure of that. Since the boys have gone there isn’t a thing to give the place any semblance of life. We used to have a dance every now and then, and there was nothing dull” all of -the-time. I was -walking’ up the fbad the other day and a lady riding on her wheel passed me and after she had gone by I heard her call out to me and I turned to see what she wanted, and she asked me how many of us were left, and I told here that there were only a,, few of us, and she said “Isn’t it a d shame that all of you felows had to leave us so soon and suddenly,” and lots of other things she said I need not jot down, but she was really in earnest about it and that seems to be the opinion of everybody. I am mailing you a book that we had printed here in camp that will give you more of a nidea as to what the nature and. value of the “Y” work in the camp has been. The book was gotten out,Just before the boys left and was intended as a sou--yenir of the camp, and it will be of value to them in the years to come I am sure. I prize very highly the part I have been permitted to have in the development di the spirit of the camp. I came here in May with the first troops and staid with them thru the whole job. When I came nothing had been done in the way of construction, where the camp is today was a field covered with grain six months ago. lam the only “Y” man. in this area who staid on the job from its begininng to its finish. ( With kindest regards and best wishes to you all. W. G. WINN.