Semi-weekly herald., 1915-05-06

fined. My first stop was at Tours, a
town of $4,000, one Of the oldest in
France, and in France all towns and
cities are old. Tours appears to be
railway crossing or center. Trains
were coming aud going and military
SUPPLIES were in evidence. The day
was not such as to cause men to be in
the fields at work, but the men who
belong in the fields are near the bat
tlefields, less than 100 miles away.
My ride from Tours westward to
Chateauroux, distance of 70 miles,
was in an automobile. 1t was a quiet
journey for the reason that the three
other gentlemen in the car could not
speak English and l could not speak
French. Thus l was lett to my own
reflections, and their cigarette smoke.
| made no noise in regard to either
French Roads Fine.
Furthermore | had leisure and i'm
proved it by looking out of the win
dows on the splendid French public
roads. AS usual, wondered if the
roads would have any culverts, and |
discovered that they had none. The
water from all these European roads
is carried away in bitches on either
side, running parallel with the road.
In some places shallow bitches di-
verge from the roadway to carry the
water into the main ditch l never
Travelled over better roads than these
in France. They are good even in war
times. They are far away from the
battle lines and have not been cut up
by artillery as l found them in Bel
gium.
Our party consisted of four auto
mobiles, all closed cars and all the
best. Each car carried a skilled me-
cl,..si- - we'll as driver. The French
drivers have no superiors. Over the
splendid macadam roads we never
made speed of less than 25 English
miles per hour, and our speed was
often 35 miles.
Good Beds as Usual.
AT Chatanuroux we found the aver
age country town in France and the
average accommodations. There is
one thing always found in European
country hotel, and that is a good bed.
| have travelled much through the by
ways of Europe, and / have never
slept in an uncomfortable bed. But
these hotels have their shortcomings.
| need not name them, because it
is not my mission to reform them
We had good dinner awaiting Us
at Chateauroux and we were not long
in disposing of it,
The following day was busy one
with us. We put in more time at
the camps holding the alien citizen
prisoners than those holding the Ger
man soldiers. But in each instance
we found the men were being better
taken care of than had been their
lot in long time. Near Chateauroux
we met a commanding general. We
dio the same at Tours. France has
hel permanent army in time of peace
and has her divisions with generals
in command all the year around. The
generals have elaborate homes. At
one of these military division head
quarters | think | saw busts or pic
lures of every distinguish ed soldier
who ever lived, fought and died during
the past 1000 years. 1t was peculiar
that the first bust was not that of
Napoleon, but it was not. There was
another singular thing. Liquors were
not offered to our party. Formerly
liquors would have been the first thing
offered. But France and the French
army are not encouraging liquor.
Women and Children Left.
On this journey we had a chance
to see large part of France dur
ing wartime, far enough removed
from the fighting lines to indicate
the lives of the people. The country
looked thrifty. There were plenty
of good sized barns, well filled with
grain. But | must say that we saw
few people on the highways or the
public streets of the villages, and viii