Search The Archive

Search form

Collection Search
Date: November 28th 1916
To
Sister – (Miriam Davis)
From
Worth Davis
Letter

M.B.C.H.,
28/11/16

My Dear Sister,

Really, I must admit that you have proven a better correspondent than I. Lately I have been around with some of our boys, and going downtown a good deal, I don’t stay down late, and really enjoy the outings. It however interferes with my letter writing.

To-day was pay day and I drew my regular £1 with £2 extra that they have held back six months for my clothing. Then an order for £1 from Nert, yesterday, will put me over Christmas very well. I cannot get any thing here for Mother and Father (don’t send this letter on home) here, so told Nert to check out enough to go in with you two, to get something decent there. I will send Floss three Kipling’s as I can get here, the edition I have been sending her. For you and Nert, I will pick up a good souvenir of my trip over so don’t lose it. If all is well I will get these off to-morrow. I am enclosing a photo for you, I only got six, one to you and home and Floss, one to Mitchell Seaforth and I don’t know yet whether I will send the other to Mae S or Vera A. Outside of these I will send only cards. Last Winter, we ordered some very plain, but elegant cards for the Christmas trade and I asked Nert to have three dozen printed up for me. To date however, Dad has not received them, so I will have to order some here. Of course will have to get some nice ones.

I have been attending the theatre here, and last night three of us went down and saw Martin Harvey play “David Garrick.” It was excellent acting and is a good piece so I enjoyed it more than I have anything I have seen for a long time. It is not so deep as Oman, but has a good plot and a chance for good acting.

I am living in Sandgate now, in what was once a palatial hotel. It has been cleared out tho and we have trestles about six inches high, three boards on them, three “biscuits” (sectional mattress) and four blankets on this. It sure is fine and I have some sleeps. They put us in the basement of the ruins of what was once a very fine residence, but the rats and odor were so great that we only spent one night there and moved into this hotel, next door. Very few know where we are, so it is likely to last for a time. There is just a road between the house and the beach and we (having a front room) can hear the roar of the channel waves whenever we awake.

I spent a few minutes with Happy et cetra on Sunday but you will see all that in the home letter. I was sure glad to see them all.

I am getting along fine with the work, and really don’t mind anything now. One thing this war has done for me, it has made me get used to doing things that I do not like, because I cannot run away from it.

It is certainly not true that we are short of anesthetics here, because we use ether for washing up our “preps” after shaving for operation. I think it more than likely tho, that up near the line, they cannot always get it up during a big push, for the emergency work. They are using a great deal of local anesthesia tho, cocaine and novocaine. One case that I know of being done without an anesthetic of any kind, was an old soldier of 70 who was returned from France and doing A.M.C. work here. He had both legs run over by a heavy motor truck, and they were terribly crushed. In an attempt to save rather than amputate his legs, they made over 36” of incisions in his thighs and legs and he stood it all right. He is in my ward, and coming along fine, but will always need a cane I think. He was an orderly in St. Michaels at one time and in St Josephs, London when he enlisted. I think Col. Scott performed the op, but it may have been Maj. Bowie.

The vaccine and serum nifj[?] in Canada is certainly good. I never thought where they were made.

Well Dear, as I have a couple of others to write to-night, I must “on with the dance.”

Your loving Brother,
Worth.

Original Scans

Original Scans