The Stars and Stripes, Vol. 1, No. 1, February 8, 1918: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces
History
The Stars and Stripes, Vol. 1, No. 1, February 8, 1918: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919
United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces
World War, 1914-1918 -- Periodicals; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States -- Periodicals
"Want me to talk, do you, eh? Want to know what I do with my spare time?
All right, son; just jump over that gang of pouch-robbers and come on
inside. Here you----" this to the still combatant orderlies, at the same
time throwing an armfull of mail and papers at them--"here's all the
stuff for your outfits to-day. Divvy up among yourselves, and then
breeze!--beat it!--allez!
"Now, then, you want to know what I do with my spare time? Well, I work
eighteen hours a day in the office, and the other six I spend worrying
whether or not I gipped some poor Buddy when I cashed his American money
order in French paper currency. Like the saloons in Hoboken, we never
close.
Really Busy at Christmas.
"That's just about the way it was, no kidding, during the Christmas
rush. In about a month enough tobacco, chocolate, chewing gum, knit
socks, mufflers, fruit cake, safety razors, lump sugar--to judge from
the contents lists on the outside of the bundles--came through this
office to stock the whole of France for the next year and a half. Now,
though"--tossing a long, yellow envelope across the room into a numbered
pigeonhole--"things have slackened up a bit. A week ago I had half an
hour off to shave."
"Do the people back home cause you much bother by not addressing their
letters correctly?" asked the reporter.
"N--no," replied the P.S. meditatively, "although I did get one the
other day addressed to Private Ethan Allan of the 'American
Revolutionary Force.' At first I was going to send it back to Vermont,
after changing the private to Colonel, and have the D.A.R. see that it
got somewhere near old Ethe's final resting place; but on second thought
I guessed she--it's generally a she--meant the American Expeditionary
Forces. So I went down about three or four regimental rosters, and
finally I found the guy. Now he's probably wondering why he didn't get
that letter in a month, instead of a month and a half, and cussing me
out for the delay.
"The most trouble comes, though, from these birds what don't stay put.
They come over here all right with one unit, and then they get
transferred to some other. Then the unit is moved around, and the folks
back in the States, not knowing about it, continue to send stuff to the
old address. But generally we get 'em located in time."
A Rush After Pay Day.
"How about the mail from this side?" the reporter queried. "Do you think
that the franking privilege causes the men to write more letters than
they ordinarily would? Does sending their letters free pile things up
for you?"
"I don't think so," the mail magnate responded, "because the lads are
being kept so all-fired busy these days they don't honestly have time to
write much. On the bundle proposition, though, we have an awful rush of
stuff just after pay day, when it seems as if every man was bent on
buying up all the lace handkerchiefs in the country to send to his girl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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