Your pal, JACK.

[Illustration]

CHICAGO, Oct. 28.

FRIEND AL: Well Florrie is still in the hay yet and little Al is playing with himself on the floor and reading the pictures in the Sunday A.M. paper and I thought I would sleep late this A.M. but when a man gets in the habit of wakeing up early you get so as you can’t sleep after you wake up once and thats the way it was with me.

Well Al I suppose you will be surprised at me saying it but I pretty near wish I wasn’t no officer but just a private like at first and I got a good notion to go back to the camp like Chambers did behind time and 1/2 stewed and the reason I feel like that is because I have got attached to my boys and I would pretty near rather give up going to France all together then quit them because it seems like it wouldn’t be hardly fair to leave them now that they have got so as they look up at me and I figure that even if I wasn’t a corporal no more but just I of them I could do more good then if I quit them entirely.

I suppose you will wonder what I am getting at Al.  Well on the train comeing from Rockford yesterday I was setting with Shorty Lahey and he was on leave to and I know its a mistake sometimes for a officer to pal a round with their men but I set with him on the train because I can’t stand it to hurt a man’s feelings and Shorty’s hearts in the right place with all his jokeing and etc.  So we set down together on the train and got to talking things over and he says “Well Keefe you have got to be a corporal and that means you have made good and I wish I was in your shoes.”

So I said that if he took care of himself and minded his business they wasn’t no reason why he wouldn’t be advanced higher up the ladder some time in the future and he says “Yes but now is the time I would like to be in your shoes because I would like to get over to France and get in it.”  So I asked him what he meant and he says the dope Red Sampson was giving me was part of it right and part of it wrong and the right dope was that General Pershing hadn’t sent for our whole regt. but what he had sent for was all the non commission officers out of the regt. and that means all the corporals and sergents and they was the only ones going this time because the French army had ran out of non commission, officers and General Pershing was going to lend them the best ones we had over here in training.

[Illustration:  Florrie is still in the hay yet and little Al is playing on the floor (p. 97).]

So I said “Well it looks like I was elected and its 100 to 1 that I won’t never come back.”  So Shorty says “Oh I don’t know about that and I think Red Sampson is wrong about them killing all them corporals because from what I heard they’s a few of them they don’t try and kill so they can take them prisoner and get information off them.”