K 0 0 T I E S
Dear Editor:
I want to tell you hew I happened to join the Army.
It was through no fault of mine that there slicker who had a band
on his arm just hypnotized me and made me believe I would’nt get
home any more and that there grape vine I come in by had been cut.
Well, that was years ago and I shure did listen to him good and
plenty to my own sorrow, for when that there fellow at the recruit
camp who handed me my store clothes forgot to shake the moth balls
out of my b3.ankets, he unknowingly was the beginning of my down
fall, as I had never smelled before nor have I ever smelled any
thing since that smelled so good and sweet.1
Yes, Uncle 3am and I finished our first contract, I eating all
the beans and slum and his bosses., the dom-Coms, getting all the
good things, till I was just simply disgusted, as I thought at
that time that I would just quit and leave the Army cold, what I
me an cold. v‘ell, it was winter time and every time I got a dis
charge after that, they just simply would net let me cut till win
ter and by the time summer gets here I Tm just hankering for a
sniff of moth balls and am keeping a watch on my right arm 1’ ve
got in the habit of raising •• , ,&ard I lay the whole cause
to that there moth killing stuff'.
Well, when you get to vour new outfit after riding the Pullman
and caving niggers wait!ng for tips that they don’t get, and you’re
feeling queer and kinia lost and can’t just get that there feeling
of contentment what you’ve been looking for comes creeping to your
nose when the Supply Sergeant throws you four blankets, which is
only three when you count ’em and you’re getting his apology for
the mistake of only one blanket, you’re holding on to them and just
sniffing the sweetest odors your olfactory nerves have ever experi
enced and you’re glad to get back home and swear that you’ll never
leave the Army.
well, I don’t rightly know whether that grape vine was cut or
not, hut I bet it was ’nt and that Recruiting Sergeant did’nt have
no right to fool a young feller and keep him from getting back to
his folks to help then finish eating out of house and home. I tell
- T | — -L. - ’ - * •
you
m
strong for these stay-at-home boys, as they are not
troubled about what1 s going on all over the world, he and the other
fellers up here in Alaska are getting grey headed because we have
to stay two years in one place and can’t see it all at once.
Now, take that feller in Company "E" that went to Canada - he
just simply could ’nt stay there three months and had to pack up a:. :
hike to tikagway, when he heard of Soapy Smith and his gang and then
Skagway did’nt suit him, so he just come right nome and found con
tentment when he got a sniff of that noth killing stuff called
mothballs. Even the officers have got the habit. You’ll see one
of them on an inspection tour pull a "John ’s” blanket back from
his pi Her and say: "Private Smith, when did you change them
sheets?". He don’t care w^eiher he has changed the sheets or not
for he knows that Smith is a "John" ail has new blankets full of
moth killing stuff and he just wants to get a sniff of mothballs
himself again, and whe : he does, he just straightens up the blan
kets and says: "How, in the Oil Army, it was done this way", and
has that far away look in his eyes and is evidently recalling
other days when he first got a sniff of mothballs himself.’
Yes sir, I’ve heard that i:i the English Army a feller accepts
the”Kings Shilling but in Uncle Sam’s outfit we’re handed a mothbaj
and sailors get a boot, and us poor fellers in Alaska just have
nothing but glazier bugs and glazier worms and Kootie Editors.
• ■ . • J• E. j^.