Well hows everything around the old town going? I suppose the same as ever I would sure like to be there tonight. I suppose that when you reaches you that you will be going to school again tell all the boys that I think of them and would like to hear from them once in awhile for a letter is as good as gold over here and it goes along way to help chher a fellow up. Give my best regards to your folks and also to Blossoms and to everyone along the old Avenue. And tell them that Ningie is making good on the battlefields of France. Well taps have sounded and I guess will get to bed hoping that this reaches you I remain Your old friend Franklin G King 1918 Sept 17 My dear people We are having it a little easy now for a day or two now have just had some of the hardest nights I ever had in my life. One night we marched all night thru mud from six inches to a foot or two deep with all our belongings on our backs. But we are getting as hard as iron and are never any the worse for sleeping in grounds with low temp after hiking all night this one in particular it rained hard all night and a high wind was blowing. It was extremley uncomfortable and fatiguing but ended up with that. I do dread winter here tho but the way things look we may not spend it here. We expect to spend part of it at least in the Good old USA. Places where the Germans have spent years making a sector impregnable the Allies especially the Americans have wrecked in that many hours. I have seen places where rows of machine guns emplacements were smashed beyond recognition and the ground plowed up to a depth of several feet for acres and acres and all done in a few hours Our artillery seems to be very accurate. In such places the Germans have very artistic bungalows for officers under the edge of a hill equipped with electric lights and sometimes running water. All the dugouts and stables are electriclly lighted. They have regular high tension transmission systems for the current. I suppose the Allies have the same arrangements where the line stood a long time but the Americans arent waiting to do things like that they are making East too fast. Im enclosing a plate I took off a German battery case. They use it to prevent mistakes in letter and sound alike. We have one also so you see this one was rather interesting to me. I also have some captured apparatus Im going to use. I havent seen a newspaper in a long time so Im not up to the dope but rumor has it the English and French Letter is cut off here Elaine s88897@aol.com