Well any way he must get a whole lot of letters wrote if he answers all the ones that comes for him because every time you bump into him he pulls one on you that he just got from some gal that’s nuts about him somewheres in the U.S. and its always a different 1 and I bet the stores that sells service stars kept open evenings the wk. this bird enlisted in the draft. But today it was a French gal that he had a letter from her some dame in Chalons and he showed me her picture and she’s some queen Al and he is pulling for us to be sent there on our leave after we serve our turn up here and I don’t blame him for wanting to be where she’s at and I wished they was some baby doll that I could pal around with in what ever burg they ship us to. But I don’t know nobody Al and besides I’m a married man so no flirting with the parley vous for me and I suppose I will spend most of my time with the 2 Vin sisters and a headache.
In the Trenchs, May 9.
Friend Al: Well Al I was talking to 1 of the boys Jack Brady today and we was talking about Harry Friend and I told Jack about him getting a letter from this French girlie at Chalons and how he was pulling for us to go there on our leave so as he could see her so Jack said he didn’t think we would go there but they would probably send us to 1 of the places where we could get a bath as god knows we will need one and they will probably send us to Aix les Bains or Nice or O.D. Cologne. So I said I didn’t care where we was sent as they wouldn’t be no gal waiting for me in none of them towns so Jack says it was my own fault if they wasn’t as all these places was full of girlies that was there for us to dance with them and etc. and the officers had all their names and addresses and the way to do was write to 1 of them and tell her when you was comeing and would she like to show you around and he said he would see 1 of the lieuts. that he stands pretty good with him and see what he could do for me. Well Al I told him to go ahead as I thought it was just a joke but sure enough he showed up after a wile and he said the lieut. didn’t only have 1 name left but she was a queen and he give me her name and address and its Miss Marie Antoinette 14 rue de Nez Rouge, O.D. Cologne.
Well Al I didn’t have nothing else to do so I set down and wrote her a note and I will coppy down what I wrote:
Dear Miss Antoinette: I suppose you will be supprised to hear from me and I hope you won’t think I am some fresh bird writeing you this letter for a joke or something but I am just 1 of Uncle Sam’s soldiers from the U.S.A. and am now in the trenchs fighting for your country. Well Miss Antoinette we expect to be here about 2 wks. more and then we will have a leave off for a few days and some of the boys thinks we may spend it in your city and I thought maybe you might be good enough to show me around when we get there. I was a baseball pitcher back in the U.S.A. tall and athletic build and I don’t suppose you know what baseball is but thought maybe you would wonder what I look like. Well if you aren’t busy when we get there I will hope to see you and if you are agreeable drop me a line here and I will sure look you up when I get there.
So then I give her my name and where to reach me and of course they won’t nothing come out of it Al only a man has got to amuse yourself some way in a dump like this or they would go crazy. But it would sure be a horse on me if she was to answer the letter and say she would be glad to see me and then of course I would half to write and tell her I was a married man or else not write to her at all but of course they won’t nothing come out of it and its a good bet we won’t never see Cologne as that was just a guess on Brady’s part.
Well Al things is going along about like usual with nothing doing only inspections and etc. and telling us how to behave when we get up there in the front row and not to stick our head over the top in the day time and you would think we was the home guards or something and at that I guess the home guards is seeing as much of the war as we are in this old ditch but they say it will be different when we get up in front and believe me I hope so and they can’t send us there to soon to suit me.
In the Trenchs, May 11.
Friend Al: Well Al here we are up in the
