Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-22
Paris, France. July %. 1917.

Paris, France, July 28. 1917.
Dear Mother
Great excitement last night about
IL midnight! We had just returned
| from the Y. M. G. A. and an exciting
battle of checkers and were prepar-
ing to hit the hay when horns began
to blow, sirens to whine, and the
! whole Paris fire department turned
out in a body-something in itself
extraordinary, because we have vain
ly tried to find the headquarters of
said NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. began
to sweep the sky in every direction.
To say we were curious would be
putting 1T mildly and our room being
| nearest the roof, everyone piled in
to see. You guess it.. A raid was in
progress and the heavens were filled
with aeroplaneS, looking so much like
shooting stars that one could hard
| ly tell the difference between stars
and aeroplaneS. 1t was a clear night
and the Milky Way was white w ith
stars, which made it harder for us
interesting spectators to find the
| aeroplanes. 1t was strange as we'll as
| amusing to watch a star intently for
few minutes and then discover that
1T was an aeroplane. Everything
Gained down in about an hour and
we learned in the morning that one
lone German plane had caused all
this excitement and dropped one
bomb. Expect another one tonight.
Hope 1 get a chance to see the fun
and hope Yep. comes along. But
it would be just my fool luck to have
raid occur after 1 left for school,
That happens on Tuesday, August
l, and to-day we signed a lot of
papers, were marched back and
forth to several buildings and finally
told to come back Monday when
every thing would be fixed for good,
or as one peSsimistic fellow put it,
Order your wooden box and cross"
Finally discovered some tincups
that would hold drink. Two of the
bunch bought plate which re-
sembled a wash basin more than
plates and were kidded on this point,
admitted that we were right in our
deductions. When they got through
washing up, dinner would be served
in the same utensil. Sure! Why not?
Look how much it holds. Besides the
soup looks the same as the dish
water anyway. Several others have
bought Identification disks with silver
bracelets, which seems a needless
expense as the government furnishes
such articles. OF course, they have
plenty of money, so what's the odds.
Walter is getting pretty low: what
with buying all this school junk and
footing board bills. Be broke soon
and then | will feel natural again,
for | have always been on the verge
of bankruptcy. However, necessity
for expense will soon be at an end,
the French army taking care of me.
Bought some camphor to feed the
affectionate bedbugs / am expecting
to meet. Hope the fumes won't kill
me before the bugs!
To-day was a big day. Yes, in
deedy, quite eventual!-I had bath,
Hot one and it only cost 2 francs
Gao cents). Gee, but it felt good and
soaked and scrubbed for an hour
floating around in a whole bathtub
full of hot water. What with the cute
little pieces of delicate pink soap
given me and two clean towels, mil
lionaire had nothing on me. My
shall get another one. Anyway this
was thorough and ought to last a
while considering the soap 1 used.
The canteloupes are wonderful
here. Great big juicy ones nearly as
big as water melons. l thought they
were COW pumpkins the first time
saw them and was therefore skep-
tical about eating them, but now
you couldn't stall me on them. Have
to quit. Turning lights out on me-.
Good night, WALTER.
P. S.-Following morning (Sun-
day). Another raid last night. Heard
one bomb drop. Had hail storm
fbiS m nrninP Still raining