DESCRIBES WORK OF MARINES

The following letter has been received by Professor Copeland from K. P. Culbert '17, now a second lieutenant in the United States marines and serving in France. Culbert while in College was an editor of the CRIMSON.

"My Dear Professor Copeland:

"First: copious apoligies for not having written you before. Many times I thought to avail myself of the privilege but writing tables are dishearteningly scarce and the knee is a shaky substitute. Now, however, I have a very substantial mahogany table (that must date back as far as the last of the Napoleons) a rather massive French lamp, and a most comfortable armchair. All that is lacking is the ability to write of conditions here in the way I should like.

Spent Some Months at Quantico.

"Perhaps a few words about myself will get me 'oriented,' and give me a bit of framework to build upon. I got my commission in the United States Marines without any trouble, thanks to yours and other letters, and a long lanky frame. Darrah Kelly was under-weight, and no amount of argument and pleading could make up for the deficiency. I felt extremely sorry, but was powerless to do anything. After a few months at Quantico, Va., we got off in the early part of September. As I stood a regular turn in the submarine watch,--two on and six off,--I can assure you very sincerely that the transports take no end of precautions to evade the 'fish,' as commanders call them. In thirteen days we sighted France, going slowly up a tiny river into a small port, just as dusk settled. Some women were waving American flags on the porches, or rather the door-steps of their tiny white houses, and I felt thrills leaping from my heart to my head that I shall never forget. The spirit of France, her sacrifices and hardships, her maltreatment and loyal fight--a lot of boyish emotions made me stand up as straight as an arrow. And I noticed the sternness of the expressions on the faces of the officers about me. We were beginning to realize why we were there.

"Once on land we hustled to a camp and got shore down. Then we began the work which a vanguard must always do in preparation for that which is to follow. Of course, some of the work didn't have much to do with the rifle and bullet, or the bayonet, but it was and is necessary; at present of vastly greater importance that the above. With the necessity of five men behind the lines for one at the front the adage about the acorn and the oak is reversed to a large extent as regards war. The gigantic preparation that is necessary,--in ways of transportation, cantonements, supplies, etc., before we can really take care of the big armies which are to come in the next few years, are almost inconceivable. My one constant hope is that the desire to enter the fight as soon as possible will not cause some of these preparation to be hustled or slighted. Everything up front depends on the efficiency of the forces in the rear.

"I with many other officers soon left the regiment for instructions in the ways and means of playing the game. And we've been getting it for the past couple of months in a manner that makes one itch for the actual hunting grounds. Sir, I admire, sympathize with, and love the French, but it's the British to whom I give my respect. They've got the 'spirit of the bayonet'; they've changed their easy going temperament and, taught by bitter experience, answer the cry 'Kamerad' with a short sharp jab; they're fighting mad, playing the game for all it's worth. System? They've got everything down to a fine point; a great part of the time the Tommies don't even realize that the games they are playing are developing just the traits of character and strength of muscle necessary to exterminate the Boche. Oh, the Germans are afraid of them. They know what lies in store for them when the English, the Canadians, or especially the Australians are opposite them, and in the still small hours they come sneaking over singly and in pairs to give themselves up. Which is what every sensible Boche ought to do right now,--in my humble estimation. Unfortunately very few of them are sensible.

"So we're passing the time training and hardening up, occasionally getting actual experience where 'make-believe' no longer holds. I personally am to be the aerial observer of an infantry contact machine, a duty that to me is as interesting as it is important in battle. Before I came over I had never heard of such a man, indeed it's been a succession of hearing, learning, and putting into practice new things, new methods of killing the enemy. The old fashioned all round infantryman is but a shade of past glories; today everyone is a specialist in some one particular thing, and informed in all things generally. Gas, with its terrifying results, trench mortars, automatic rifles, grenades, bayonets, wire entanglements, trenches, communication systems, aeroplanes,--what not? All have men who speak of nothing save them. War is even more highly specialized than modern industry in the heads of efficiency experts, and we're going to keep on specializing until we've won. Surely it will take a few years; casualty lists will be heavy; mistakes will be made, but the point is we will win. Furthermore the sacrifices necessitated at home and the new ideas derived therefrom, are