WWI AEF Letter Nov 1917 14th ENGINEER Regt. in France WINSTON CHURCHILL VISIT!

Description

World War I soldier's letter, 2-1/2 pgs., approx. 5-7/8" x 7-5/8", dated
"France, Nov. 9, 1917"
, from Capt. (later Major) Robert G. Henderson, 14th Engineer Regiment, to his sister-in-law, Mabel Henderson (married to his brother, Harry P. Henderson)  .
Includes the original envelope, addressed to Mrs. H.P. Henderson, at 29 Washington Square, New York City, with Nov. 12, 1917 dated ARMY POST OFFICE/S. 57 double-circle, red British PASSED BY CENSOR handstamp, and with "OPENED BY CENSOR." label affixed over the right edge of the cover. At bottom left is Henderson's self-censor signature, "R.G. Henderson" (as an officer, he could to this).
The 14th Engineer Regiment was recruited in New England, mostly from railroad men, and arrived in France in the fall of 1917. They did important work repairing railroads, building railroads and bridges, often under gun and artillery fire.
Great content
, writing of how the men decorate their huts with pin-up art mostly by Kirchner (Raphael Kirchner), of the incessant rain and how it turns the chalk they use for railroad ballast into cream, and of a visit to the Regiment the day before by several U.S. & British dignitaries, including
Winston Churchill
, later to become Prime Minister during the second World War.
Includes:
"Dear Mabel,
I've owed you a letter for a long time now, but I'm just as rottenly lazy about writing as back home. Five boxes of your candy arrived OK, but none since...Our mail service is very bad, in fact I have received only 4 or 5 letters in one month now.
Hurrah, you're in Washington Square. You don't know how I would like to drop in there. Over here (apropos of nothing), it is the fashion to decorate one's hut with small portraits & pictures of women naked or...attired in a pair of drawers, done mostly by one Kirchner. It's a curious phenomenon, because I can't see that we behave any worse here than at home, nuff ced. Because I'm a good little boy, even if I am a battalion commander.
It rains here every day and daily the mud grows deeper. Our little railroad is ballasted with chalk, which is the most entirely damnable ballast ever used, because it turns to cream with a little rain. My God, what a country. I'm going to try to get a week's leave in Paris just before Xmas...I'm going to blow myself ton one damned good time.
Recently we've had some distinguished visitors, Medill McCormick, Gouverneur Morris, Winston Churchill and umpteen Congressmen that blew in yesterday and whom we gave a feed to. One of them made the inevitable speech.
Outside of that, life is one round of pleasure.
The damned old guns are going strong tonight, most likely some little raid on.
That's a great idea sending chocolate to the company - it will certainly be appreciated..."
Fine-Very Fine.
COMBINED SHIPPING FOR MULTIPLE ITEMS.
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