DIY History | Transcribe | World War I Diaries and Letters | Robert Morriss Browning correspondence to Mabel C. Williams, January-March 1918 | 1918-02-05 Robert M. Browning to Dr. Mabel C. Williams Page 1

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Robert Morriss Browning correspondence to Mabel C. Williams, January-March 1918

1918-02-05 Robert M. Browning to Dr. Mabel C. Williams Page 1

February 5, 1918
Dear Dr. Williams -
About two or three years bak there was a boy in the Department who thought he kept himself busy.  In some way or another he used to fill up several hours a day but in the army he finds minutes occasionally - chiefly while burning a post midnight stick of incluse (?) to Kipling's "great good kick o' Jeen" - to look back regretfully at the leisure he has lost. As a matter of fact I buzz around some!
The latest battle duty I have is the English instruction of a couple of dozen illiterates. Two of them are of American birth; the rest are chiefly Russian and Austrian Poles with a few Italians, Lithuanian, and even one Turkish subject, an Armenian. Most of them can make themselves understood in English but not at all.  Some of them can even read a little, but most of them can write but little more than their names.  My experiment with them is going to be happy I am sure, but I get pretty restless when I think of how far away France is and how my colleagues are going to be mauled in the big push soon.
The German strikes don't impress me very much. Some wise man said once that a revolution in Germany was something that we might look for in vain, "Because revolutions are Wuubotunn(?)."
I get nearly frantic sometimes in the small hours when I think of the possibility that I may not help in this struggle.  Rumors say that the thirtysixth is to be one of the outfits kept in the Continental Army! Of course rumors are rumors - and the fact that all the others I've heard, with one exception, have proved false make me hope that there won't have to be two to prove the rule.

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February 5, 1918 Dear Dr. Williams - About two or three years bak there was a boy in the Department who thought he kept himself busy. In some way or another he used to fill up several hours a day but in the army he finds minutes occasionally - chiefly while burning a post midnight stick of incluse (?) to Kipling's "great good kick o' Jeen" - to look back regretfully at the leisure he has lost. As a matter of fact I buzz around some! The latest battle duty I have is the English instruction of a couple of dozen illiterates. Two of them are of American birth; the rest are chiefly Russian and Austrian Poles with a few Italians, Lithuanian, and even one Turkish subject, an Armenian. Most of them can make themselves understood in English but not at all. Some of them can even read a little, but most of them can write but little more than their names. My experiment with them is going to be happy I am sure, but I get pretty restless when I think of how far away France is and how my colleagues are going to be mauled in the big push soon. The German strikes don't impress me very much. Some wise man said once that a revolution in Germany was something that we might look for in vain, "Because revolutions are Wuubotunn(?)." I get nearly frantic sometimes in the small hours when I think of the possibility that I may not help in this struggle. Rumors say that the thirtysixth is to be one of the outfits kept in the Continental Army! Of course rumors are rumors - and the fact that all the others I've heard, with one exception, have proved false make me hope that there won't have to be two to prove the rule.