Treat 'em Rough: Letters from Jack the Kaiser KillerLardner, Ring
General
Treat 'em Rough: Letters from Jack the Kaiser Killer
Lardner, Ring
American wit and humor; World War, 1914-1918 -- Humor
So I said "They would have a hell of a chance getting information off me
because they could kill me before I would spill anything." So Shorty
says "You might not spill nothing at first but you would be a game bird
if you stuck through all the tortures because when they ask you
something and you don't tell them they cut off a couple of toes and see
if that won't make you talk and so on till you don't hardly know if you
are alive but if you are game enough to stand all they give you why
finely they will see what a game bird you are and then they finish you
off so you won't suffer no more. But if you tell them all you know right
at first they won't do nothing to you only of course you will be a
prisoner there in Germany till the war is over and they make you work
your head off without no food and they don't even feed the guards
because they want to keep them mad at the prisoners so as they will make
them work harder and every time you act like you was loafing or
something the guards scratchs their initials in you with their
bayonet."
So I asked him where he got his dope and he says he didn't know if it
was all true or not but his wife's 2 brothers was in the German army and
they had wrote home about it and maybe it was all bunk.
Well Al I figured I would take Florrie to a show somewheres last night
because maybe it would be the last time but after supper I felt kind of
sick on acct. of the change in food and I asked Florrie if she would
just as leave stay home so I went to bed early and I thought I would get
a good rest but I didn't get no sleep and as I said I couldn't sleep
this A.M. and now I am waiting for her to get up for breakfast.
I only wish they was some way for me to get out of this corporal and it
isn't that I can't handle it but it seems like a shame to leave the
other boys that almost worships me you might say and here is little Al
playing on the floor and if his daddy was just a private I might maybe
stay at Camp Grant all winter and come in and see Florrie and he every
month.
Your pal, JACK.
CAMP GRANT, Oct. 30.
_FRIEND AL:_ Well Al I am not going to France at all that is right away
and this time I got the dope straight from Capt. Nash and not from no
Lahey or Sampson.
Here is the way I come to find out Al. I was supposed to get back in
camp Sunday night but I missed the train out of Chi and I took the first
train yesterday A.M. and I got reported for being A.W.O.L., and
that means I was absent without no leave so I got called up in the
orderly room in front of Capt. Nash.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account