DOUGHBOYS ALWAYS CHEERFUL

The following letter has been received from Major B. T. Tilton '90, U. S. Medical Corps, now stationed at the front at Evacuation Hospital No. 10. During his college career Major Tilton rowed on the University crew, and also played on the University crew, and also played on the football team. In his Senior year he was elected captain of the crew, but later declined the position.

Major Tilton lived in New York City until last April, when he went abroad with the Medical Corps. October 18,1918.

"The sun has come out this morning and everybody is very cheerful after many days of drizzle. It must be a great relief to the boys on the firing line, as there are no trenches--only holes in the ground that they dig for themselves and lie in with no covering except their own blankets. They come in here simply caked with mud and look very miserable and cold. The Red Cross Canteen here furnishes them with hot bouillon, cocoa, etc., when they arrive and when they go on the train to be evacuated.

"The ordinary soldier (doughboy, as he is called) certainly has a hard life even if he escapes being wounded. He sometimes goes two or three days without food and is constantly exposed to the dampness and cold as to shell fragments and machine-gun bullets. They are the most uncomplaining lot, however, and are very happy to be back where they can get a chance to sleep on something dry.

"Most of them sleep steadily from the moment they are brought in on stretchers out of the ambulance to the time they are put on the operating table. In fact, we operate upon them without taking the stretchers out from under them, so as to spare them the pain of being moved. They have all had morphine so that they are usually comfortable. It is a wonderful blessing. Each one has a cross marked with iodine on his forehead, showing that he has received his injection of serum to prevent lockjaw.

"I went to a neighboring town this morning which was burned by the Germans in 1914 when they returned through the country after the battle of the Marne. They did the work very thoroughly. On the hill in the town is a very old cathedral which is almost entirely destroyed. From it there is a beautiful view of the northern edge of the Argonne Forest for miles.

"It is along here that all the fighting is now going on in which the American troops are taking part. It was a difficult task that had been given them--to clear the Argonne Forest of Germans, but it has been done at a great cost. However, the fighting is now in the open and things ought to go on more rapidly.

Germans Awaken.

It is interesting to talk to the German wounded prisoners of whom I have had quite a number. They all feel that the war is over and they seem very glad of it. They realize how much they have been deceived by their superiors regarding the fighting strength of the Americans.

"It is very depressing to see our fine boys brought here in such numbers badly wounded and makes one very bitter against the military organization of Germany which is responsible for it all. There is no question that the leaders should receive individual punishments for their crimes and every town in Germany should be made to pay for the restoration of a French town. We all feel that nothing short of this will satisfy the French, who have suffered so much more than we have."