Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-22
DESCRIBES AIR
RAID ON PARIS
Young Flyer From Here Tells
of Excitement When Ger
man Planes Arrived


Dauphin, Pa. Aug. 22.-The pleas
ures and discomforts of Paris life are
vividly described in the following
letters from Walter ]. Shaffer, a young
Dauphin aviator who has entered the
Lafayette flying corps. He is a son
of Mr.. and Mrs. Charles Shaffer and
is well known in Harrisburg.
His latest letters follow;
Paris, France. July %. 1917.
Dear Mother:-Just had my first
glass of milk in a month, and that
was at the Y. M. c. A. There are a
lot of things the Frenchmen seem to
get along without. and one of them
is milk-the other probably being a
bath. At least so it seems to me, for
there seems to be no place to buy
milk in Paris and one cannot get 1t in
the sidewalk cafes. It's hard enough
to get lemonade in some. Ordering
lemonade is big experiment anyway,
for one can never tell what one will
get. The other day it was coffee.
However. there is one thing that I
have not discovered as yet and that
is hot bath. Goodnessd knows 1
need 1T, but cold ones are all l have
taken to date. Got our room rent
to-day. only 103 francs. Don't faint,
that only means about twenty dollars
which covers nearly two weeks.
Board and room was included in that,
also extras, such as butter and wine.
] used no wine, so my bill will be less.
Take 1t from me, I'm having my own
troubles keeping from drinking in
this city where drinking is a custom.
Went out to Versailles to-day, there
being a Belgian fete held in that
place. There was quite a mob and
the cars were stirling hot. When
we got there we were charged two
francs eighty cents) to get into the
gardens. You know, Marie Antoi-
nette's palace is situated here and it
was in the gardens of this palace that
we went. The most noted things in
these gardens are the fountains. and,
sad to say. they were not working,
so we missed a beautiful sight. How
ever, the statuary was worth going
miles to see. How they can make
sculpture here! It's wonderful As
for the woods in the palace grounds,
never have seen it's equal. not even
in California. 1t was not so much
the flowers. for there were very few
as the way the woods were laid out.
Probably the best way to explain it
would be to say ii was a Veritable
lovers paradise. After watching a
number of youths ,endeavoring to
climb a creased pole. we walked
around in the woods. An aeroplane
flew over during the day. also a diri-
gible airship. of which my partner
secured a picture.
Have heard some wild stories about
the aviation and the front. Some OF
them are too horrible to tell, others
too full of military Importance to
write about, so 1 won't tell any.
Thursday we were all vaccinated
and inoculated and it surely made old
men of us for several days. The doc
tor lined us all up in a row, stripped
us to the waist and shot us in the
back with two billion bugs.
Fortunately my boarding house is
situated right in the center of the
city. The Eiffel Tower is two blocks
away, Alexander Ill bridge right be-
side me. while the Louvre and Jar
dinde Tulieries are only a five-mnute
walk away. Hotel de Invalides, where
Napoleon's tomb is situated, has quite
a collection of trophies. one room con-
tanning nothing but suits of knights
armor. There were also four cap
tGred German aeroplanes, which natu-
rally interested us, one of them being
the famous Fokker type monoplane
1t surely is a tiny machine. Looks
just like mosquito. Captured guns
of every description were strewn
around the courtyard and were very
interesting. Next to holding hands.
fishing seems to be the greatest of
Paris sports. Any time you go down
to the Seine river lines of fishermen
can be seen on either bank of the
river passing the time away, because
they never catch anything-as far as
| know. Some of them even use no
bait. And, strange to say, one of our
bunch saw one of them catch a fish,
four inches long.
One of our men had ride in an
aeroplane over Paris and to the front,
According to his account. it was some
ride.
Am having quite an amusing time
with my French, it generally being
my luck to spring it on an English
speaking person.
Tomorrow we know the worst as
our papers viii be back. Here's hop
ing l got by!
WALTER.