On such an evening, I found myself writing a letter, as letters to me of late had been rather scarce. I was sitting in a plain, bare hut with a kerosene lamp, and a peculiar letter it was that I wrote. I had seen some odd writing paper in a little stationery store and had paid a couple of cents for three or four sheets of it. Each sheet was arranged by the manufacturer so as to make a complete letter. If you were to take an ordinary sheet of paper and perforate it on the sewing machine on all four sides about half an inch from the edge, then put some mucilage on that half inch margin and let it dry, folding it across the middle, you would have a piece of this one-letter stationery. As it happened there was a little wording on the outside, and a square for the postage stamp. All you have to do is to write the address on the outside, open it out, pen your missive inside, fold it and wet the edges all the way round, thus sticking it, and you then have your letter so to speak, on the inside of your envelope and the receiver simply tears off the perforated edges, opens it up, and reads. I was writing on this odd French stationery after a day of idleness. My table consisted of two boards thrown across a couple of sawhorses--a very comfortable table by the way, but the kerosene lamp smelled badly. My thoughts were of America and home. I was in a soliloquizing mood and I also wanted the letter as a souvenir, when I returned. And so I began: My dear sir, self: U. S. A., When you receive this epistle you will be far away from the scenes which now confront you. You may sometimes think you have it pretty hard staying out here in France away from home and loved ones, having no money, dead broke, and laboring without pay, and often getting little time to rest or sleep. But listen, son, you must realize that you are at this hour in the very midst of the biggest crisis of history. The world has never seen such a moment and if you had missed having a part in it you would have kicked yourself throughout eternity. Your own little life anyway is not an important thing to the world. A few dollars more and a position of ease doesn't make any difference, and if you learn the lesson, my boy, that giving yourself in a noble cause and living for others, is the greatest thing in life you will have found happiness and gained all things. Please take this little suggestion in the proper spirit and set it to work. Also remember that never again in your life will you ever get a reception from anyone which is so beautiful as that which the French people are giving you right at this hour....