Dere Mable: Love Letters of a Rookie

Part 1

Dere Mable--

LOVE LETTERS OF A ROOKIE

EDWARD STREETER

27TH (N.Y.) DIVISION

WITH 35 ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK-AND-WHITE BY

G. WILLIAM BRECK

("Bill Breck")

27TH (N.Y.) DIVISION

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 "The water comes through on me" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 "The last time I will take my pen in hand for you" . . . . . . . 58 "It wont be no use runin to the door" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Dere Mable

Love Letters of a Rookie

Dere Mable:

I guess you thought I was dead. Youll never know how near you was to right. We got the tents up at last, though, so I got a minit to rite. I guess they choose these camps by mail order. The only place there flat is on the map. Where our tents is would make a good place for a Rocky Mountin goat if he didnt break his neck. The first day the Captin came out an says "Pitch your tents here." Then he went to look for someone quick before anyone could ask him how. I wish I was a Captin. I guess he thought we was Alpine Chasers. Eh, Mable? But you probably dont know what those are.

Honest, Mable, if Id put in the work I done last week on the Panamah Canal it would have been workin long before it was. Of course there was a lot of fellos there with me but it seemed like all they did was to stand round and hand me shovels when I wore em out.

The Captin appresheates me though. The other day he watched me work awhile and then he says "Smith." He calls me Smith now. We got very friendly since I been nice to him. I noticed none of the other fellos had much to say to him. I felt kind of sorry for him. Hes a human bein even if he is a Captin, Mable. So every time I saw him I used to stop him and talk to him. Democratic. Thats me all over, Mable. "Smith" he says "If they was all like you round here war would be hell, no joke." By which he meant that we would make it hot for the Boshes.

I been feelin awful sorry for you, Mable. What with missin me and your fathers liver gone back on him again things must have been awful lonesome for you. It isnt as if you was a girl what had a lot of fellos hangin round all the time. Not that you couldnt have em, Mable, but you dont an theres no use makin no bones about it. If it hadnt been for me I guess things would have been pretty stupid though I dont begrudge you a cent. You know how I am with my money. I guess you ought to anyway. Eh, Mable? Never talk of money matters in connexun with a woman. Thats me all over.

Now I got started an found a fountin pen an the Y.M.C.A. givin away paper like it does Im goin to rite you regular. They say there goin to charge three sents for a letter pretty soon. That aint goin to stop me though, Mable. There aint no power in heavin or earth, as the poets say, as can come between you and me, Mable. You mite send a few three sent stamps when you rite. That is if your fathers able to work yet. And willin, I should add.

Of course it aint nothin to me but Id keep these letters what you get from me as a record of the war. Some day you can read em to your granchildren an say "Your Granfather Bill did all these things." Aint I the worst, Mable? Serious though I havnt found noone so far what has thought of doin this except the newspapers. I guess Ill get a lot of inside stuff that theyll never see. So this may be the only one of its kind. But it doesnt matter to me what you do with them, Mable.

Later Ill tell you all about everything but I guess you wont understand much cause its tecknickle. Lots of the fellos are gettin nitted things and candy and stuff right along. Dont pay no attenshun to that, though, or take it for a hint cause it aint. I just say it as a matter of rekord. Independent if nothin. Thats me all over.

Continue reading Dere Mable: Love Letters of a Rookie free in the Wunder reader →