Dear Mr. Editor:
Just fancy the shelling of the trenches and a little French officer trying to keep up the morale (excellent, I should say) of his men, to teach them the contempt of death, or, rather, to show that he is not in that respect inferior to them.
Fancy that same officer reading your Vive La France Number of Life and translating it to his men, then looking at your contest proposition, and finding very funny to fill his fountain pen and write on the first scraps of paper he can procure a very short story.
The author has not the boldness to say that his story is very interesting. He knows, too, that as a Frenchman he does not speak nor write very correct English; but he has sent it to you rather because of the originality of the thing and to show you that the French soldiers appreciate the friendship of America.
At any rate, it is a genuine story of the trenches and a souvenir of the war.
Yours most sincerely,
M. Constance.
From the Trenches,
June 15, 1915.