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Date: May 8th 1918
To
Nerta Davis – (sister)
From
Worth Davis
Letter

France,
8/5/18.

Dear Nert.

Your letter from home arrived about a week ago. I wondered if you were home to stay, but was not quite sure when you would be thro. It won’t be long now tho. I have never known five months to pass as rapidly as the past have. Poor kid, I hope you get thro the end of this month all right.

That snap was better than I expected. I have made twelve plates of this place, ten of which are reasonably good. I am waiting for the approval of the Commandant before I make any prints. Hope I am allowed to tho. They would not of course allow me to have a camera permanently, or I would have bought one and used it right along. I was able to rent a new machine from a wholesale, thro a little girl I know there, but not a very large one, approximately 3¼ x 4¼. I had it a week and when I returned it, she had left and they charged me 25 ₣., which was plenty. Everything is terribly high here, and I will have to buy my paper in Blighty if I am to make any prints. The lens was a R. R., supposed to be f. 7.7, but I had to stop it down to .23 to get any depth of focus at all, and then it was not good, so it was a pretty rotten lens. The slides were single metal ones and I was afraid of them, but they did not leak. A funny thing, I made six exp. each time, (two days) and the first time, one image was reversed, apparently the holder was loaded backwards. The next day, I made the exposure again, with the same result. I gave it up then.

I am glad that card of the plane arrived safely as you won’t get a chance to get them often. It is the only one I have had the pleasure of seeing in five months.

Isn’t it a good thing that Mick and Jim are both home? I am certainly glad they made it. “C.” [?]., is gradually making the grade home.

You should see the Yanks over here now. Believe me, they are not losing any time jumping them over now. They can apparently keep it up for some time too.

Well girlie, it is bed time, so I must [“opit”?]

Your loving brother,
Worth.

Original Scans

Original Scans