The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-07-24
VISITED OLD GERMAN TRENCHES
John A. Gordon OF Barre Now Located
Near Scissors.

Near Scissors.
In second letter to relatives, John A
: Gordon of Barre, now In war service il
France, tells more about his duties il
driving supply truck and he als'
speaks of visiting the captured German
trenches in the vicinity Of scissors
France.
Parts of his letter are as follows;
After being slammed about Paris
for two days and buying some two tons
of supposedly necessary equipment. Tho
ambulance situation was explained e
us. They told us that there were moi
sufficient ambulances for all because il
was very difficult to have the bodies
built for them. They then told us that
the French government was badly IN
need of canton (supply truck drivers
They explained fully that the canton
service was much harder and possibly
more dangerous. They called for volun-
teers for this service and between 50
and 80 men responded, of which tue ma.
| jority were composed of Dartmouth and
| Tufts men. Only one or two men from
Harvard, Yale and Princeton vollln-
| teered. Out of the A Dartmouth men
SO entered the canton service. OF the
eight men left three are going into ayia-
tion and three were physically unit be-
cause of weight for the canton service.
All but one or two of the Tufts men, |
believe, went into the canton work.
aGatnrJaY v,nrrtoo luna lH n-a an.
trained for the canton training camps,
one of which is at Longpont and the
other, where | am nov, is at Dommicr,
about five miles f,om scissors. We are
enlisted for s.N mon'hs only ;at pres
ent1.
what little l Jaw of Paris impressed
me as being quite II town and very beau
tiful in parts. We have been two weeks
in camp and our training is now fin
ished. Our training consisted in driving
tive-ton Pierce Arrow trucks and learn
ing about the care and working of these
trucks. The men are divided into sec
tions of 40 men each. We are in section
H, Every day we have been out driving
in convois. That is, a convoi consists
of about eight cars and two drivers to
each car In our drives we have covered
quite a bit of territory. France is a
very fertile and beautiful country All
buildings and houses are made OF stone,
some of which are very fine. Last Tues
day we took an all-day drive, starting
about in the morning and finishing
about s at night. We visited ChateaIux
Thiery, which is quite city, located on
the Marine, and also passed through Sois.
sons. Thursday we took what is called
our all-night drive. We started about
noon and returned about 2;30 at night |
On this trip we stopped for a short |
time at one of the finest castles in |
France called Chateaux Pierrefond, from
which the Germans in their retreat at |
the beginning of the war took some
81 ,000,0 900 worth of furnishings.
Friday we visited the captured Ger
man trenches, which are a few miles
beyond Scissors. They are quite Won
ierful reaching from % to IS feet I'M
foreground. They were apparently aban-
aoned in quite hurry, for there are
considerable number of souvenirs still
here. | also saw for the first time what
eal destruction in modern warfare means.
saw villages in which there was not
single stone untouched and standing up
light, not house but what was only Il
heap of stones. As | looked at these
villages all that | could compare them
% were those pictures of old Roman II
owns dug up by industrious students
If history, which one sees in libraries.
We are now waiting orders to move on /
INTO active service. II
'The German trenches were veri- II
able underground labyrinth.
''0ur food is not bad and we have II
'lenty to eat. In the morning we have
Hack coffee which has never been dis
urbed by coffee bean, bread which is H
lot like American bread, and sometimes II
small piece of chocolate. AT noon we L
'et beans or lintels 1.-THE same, bread. 1,
ga or wine, and sauceor jam and cheese.
1t supper beans or lintels, soup. bread
nd tea or wine, with sauce Also we r
enerally get meat with our beans.
Iorse meat, to be exact. Sometimes
hey vary the beans with rice or maca-
oni and occasionally potatoes. Also we
ave had eggs twice.
"The weather in France does not
gree with me at all times. 1t is a lit.
lie too damp for one who has lived in
Termont. Also it is rather cool but not
old. Hot weather, such as we have in
.merica at times, is very rare and B. V.
rs are just a little bit out of place
ere. For winter / should Judge that
eavy wooden underwear is none too
God.
IF you complain of food prices in
merica what would you say if you
aid so cents for pound of butter and
ON so to 20 cents for a can of peaches
ct bread is cheaper here than in Amer
a. | paid 10 cents for loaf of bread
hich was about two and a half times d
large as our American l0-cent loaf. -
course it is not white bread. hut of
much healthier quality in my mind.
is something like whole wheat bread.
cannot stand the cheese or wine and
It every Frenchman practically lives