Well Al a lot of things come off since the last time I wrote to you.  We left Chi Wed. noon and you ought to seen the crowd down to the Union station to bid us good by.  Everybodys wifes and sisters and mothers was there and they was all crying in 40 different languages and the women wasn’t allowed through the gates so farewell kisses was swapped between the iron spokes in the gates and some of the boys was still getting smacked yet when the train started to pull out and it looked like a bunch of them would get left and if they had I’ll say their wifes would of been in tough luck.

[Illustration:  Florrie was all dressed up like a horse and I bet a lot of them other birds wished they was in my shoes (p. 10).]

Of course wife Florrie and little son Al was there and Florrie was all dressed up like a horse and I bet a lot of them other birds wished they was in my shoes when the kissing battle begun.  Well Al we both blubbered a little but Florrie says she mustn’t cry to hard or she would have to paternize her own beauty parlors because crying makes a girl look like she had pitched a double header in St. Louis or something.  But I don’t know if you will believe it or not but little Al didn’t even wimper.  How is that for a game bird and only 3 yrs. old?

Well Al some alderman or somebody had got a lot of arm bandages made for us with the words Kaiser Killers printed on them and they was also signs stuck on the different cars on the train like Berlin or Bust and etc. and the Stars and Strips was flying from the back platforms so we certainly looked like regular soldiers even without no uniforms and I guess if Van Hindburg and them could of seen us you wouldn’t of needed a close line no more to take their chest measure.

Well all our bunch come from the south side and of course some of them was fans and the first thing you know they had me spotted and they all wanted to shake hands and I had a smile for all of them because I have got it doped out that we are all fighting for Uncle Sam and a man ought to forget who you are and what you are and be on friendly turns with everybody till after the war.

Well Al they had told us to not bring much baggage and some of the boys come without even their tooth brush but they hadn’t some of them forgot to fetch a qt. bottle and by the time we got outside of the city limits the engineer didn’t have to blow his whistle to leave people know we were comeing.  Somebody had a cornet and another fellow had a trombone and a couple of them had mouth organs and we all sung along with them and we sung patriotic songs like Jonah Vark and Over There and when they started on the Star Spangled Banner the guy I was setting along side of him hollered for them to not play that one and I thought he was a pro German or something and I was going to bust him but somebody asked him why shouldn’t they play it and he says because he couldn’t stand up and he wasn’t the only one either Al.