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Saturday
Dear Emma and Children: For five days without any aid given to them from the Germans many Americans were with them they suffered very much, six Americans that were in[[crossed out]]the[[crossed out]] this group came to the hospital, two of them have died, they had contacted pneumonia from their exposure and the Bosch doing nothing for them.One German boy from Cincinnatti [[Cincinnati]] was brought in day before yesterday, he and five brothers had left home to go and join the army and navy against the wishes of their father[[crossed out]] and mother[[crossed out]] He said his father was a good American but did not like the idea of his son’s killing possibly their own relatives. Well this young chap was wounded Thursday, he laid in the field two days then crawled towards the American lines when he go to the Marne he crawled on a raft and then about half way across two Frenchman saw him they got a rope and he said,”Believe me!the Frenchmen put the cowboy    throwing it right over me and pulled me across. Then [[crossed out]] the boys[[crossed out]] he had to walk 7 kilometers before he got first aid. He’s doinf[[doing]] very well, he’s young and strong and can stand a lot. The youth of our army will keep our numbers very high in the recovery of the wounded, not so much with the English and French. Their armies have a mixture of old men and quite young. The old fellows do not last long, the boy no matter how bad he is wounded he is quite proud of what he has done and likes to tell his story and of course we encourage it, to help him forget his auffering [[suffering]]. But the older men they have already suffered much and they think their families and of course what will be done with them.
  Yesterday two Frenchmen in the hospital (their cots being side by side) both had their left leg cut off, they are all very proud of the fine way the doctors fixed them up so they always throw back the blankets and want me to look at the good job, so I joked with them(you know I am quite a joker) and said it was too bad they had lost the same left leg, if one had lost the Right leg they could take turns in buying one pair of shoes, then divide. Yes, they said, they had thought of that but now they would have to buy a pair and always throw away pne [[one]] so I consoled them by saying that since they had never had of pair of shoes made to order they should have one fine shoe made to order that would last longer than the two pairs. Jim has been sick for two days I think he drank too much cider, he is all right now. He goes got the hospital also but he is a very sensitive fellow and it takes very little to make him cry so he is crying most of the time when we make the rounds he has his cigarettes with him and where the wounded want to show him their beautiful dressed wounds he gives them a cigarette and walks away. Four of the American boys that were put here left yesterday for an American hospital. Two were pritty[[pretty]] bad, the French one was very short of help and so sympathy cannot be given much in a French hospital run the way. Jimmie was sorry to leave them, he wrote a letter to the parents of each one of them. Jim then through one committee of ladies in the hospitals around Paris and in the South that go around the hospitals and write letters to the parents of the boys. It is very hard on the women they cannot stand it very long, we need a lot of good men and women