[Illustration: Dere O... LOVE LETTERS By E. STREETER] [Illustration: MABLE] Dere Mable-- LOVE LETTERS OF A ROOKIE BY EDWARD STREETER 27TH (N.Y.) DIVISION WITH 35 ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK-AND-WHITE BY G. WILLIAM BRECK ("Bill Breck") 27TH (N.Y.) DIVISION [Illustration] 1918 DEDICATION To a million Private Bills who have suddenly learnt to call a coat a blouse. Taking things as they find them. Vaguely understanding. Caring less. Grumbling by custom. Cheerful by nature. Ever anxious to be where they are not. Ever anxious to be somewhere else when they get there. Without thought of sacrifice. Who have left the flag-waving to those at home. Who serve as a matter of course. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Mable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ "The only place there flat is on the map" . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 "You can read em to your granchildren" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 "You walk a post but there aint no post" . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 "I just found it in my bakin can" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 "I dont like any sargeant" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 "I dont care much for horses, they feels the same way about me" . 9 "Max Glucos what lives on the next cot" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 "Smith are you laffin at me?" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 "One day its our teeth" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 "Remember me to your mother" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 "Not the kind your father has" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 "I wear them every night over my uniform" . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 "I been made an officer" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 "Somebodied set a trunk on the turky" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 "Built like the leg of a sailurs trowsers" . . . . . . . . . . . 22 "You paint a horse black and white stripes" . . . . . . . . . . . 24 "I spent mine doin Kitchen police" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 "I wish that hired girl could come down" . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 "A croquette is a French society woman" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 "I sat next to a Colonels wife" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 "Men hate to be watched while they are freezin" . . . . . . . . . 34 "I had a reputashun for a devil with the wimen" . . . . . . . . . 36 "It seemed to depres them awful" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 "If I catch one of those ailin enemies windin up your victrola" . 40 "Stuck my head out of the blankets" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 "When I looked in the tin mirror I thought I was starvin" . . . . 44 "They come round an watch you eat it" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 "Army food always runs" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 "He smokes cigarets something awful" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 "I poured some oil out of his lamp" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 "I even got mud in my hair" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54