The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1917-08-09
INTERESTING LETTERS
FROM WAR ZONE
George Houston, Well known In
Sk0whegan, Serving in France


Goodwin Houston should be OF great
interest to Skowhegan people. This
young man is the son of the late A. c.
Houston Of Guilford and the grandson
OF the late George Goodwin OF this
place He has often visited here in
the home of his aunt. Mrs E. f. Nc
Neelie. The letter of July 7th was
written to his uncle. Hon. John Hous-
ton Of Guilford. and the other was
written to his brother Robert, also of
Guiford.
American Field Service
Motor Transport Squadron
Division X.
Somewhere in France,
July It'll, 1917.
Dear Uncle John:
/ write YOU this afternoon
for / an moving very soon and to-
morrow We break camp again. You
have to sling your rifle, dufflebag and
gas mask at mighty short notice in
this country. | can imagine no coun-
ry more beautiful or more terrible
+ fnin rance. 1eSleIudE Jul
went mile after mile thru wonderful
farming land. There is not foot of
land uncultivated in France. large
fields of wheat and grain stretch out
as far as the eye can see, thru great
forests, hundreds of years old, that
have never seen an axe, across placid
rivers with great white swans swim
ming about, thru quiet little villages,
with all the houses built of stone,
rooted with a strange kind of red
granite, and then suddenly coming
out OF forest we came upon silent
city, a city surrounded by barbed
wire entanglements; a city without a
wall standing, not a house left stand
ing, a city thru which the war had
passed and gone roaring on. And
then on thru a country so bleak and
barren, honey-combed with trenches
and dugouts, surrounded with nets of
barbed wire and black with the
crosses marking the graves of men
A country so ruined and terrible that
| wondered if it could ever be swept
clean of the traces of war, and then
thru another forest and out into a
beautiful old city with a great stone
castle, one of the greatest in the
world, on a high hill, untouched by the
war We had supper here, the first
good meal since left Paris. We ate
at very ancient Inn built in the 14th
century. at the foot of the great Cas-
tie. Six men. college man from
Arizona. an artist from New York
City, a college man from California,
another from Chicapp a French SOL
der from Australia and myself, eat
ing by the light of two candles, and
then up and away again, with the
Pierce Arrows roaring thru the dark
ness, driving all night without any
lights, occasionally a stray aeroplane
carrying red and green lights Will
swoop down to make sure of our err
rand and then go away as quickly as
it came and finally back to quarters
to be greeted by the terrific sound of
the heavy artillery.
1t is an exciting life but we move
tomorrow where there are no castles
or green fields, where there are only
shell torn roads, where we drive, we
do not know where or why, but ex-
cept for the new gas shells 1--WE never
leave the camp without gas mask
and the bomb dropping aeroplanes
and the artillery fire, it is not very
dangerous, and when by accident a
shell does find one of our cars, why,
at least it is better than lodging
submarines in the Atlantic Ocean.
Good luck until | write again,
GEORGE GOODWIN HOUSTON.