The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1917-09-28
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Miss Du Paul Tells OF Her Experience.

France, describes some of her txper-
fences which are quite interesting.
In her first letters. which were writ =
ten on shipboard, Miss Du Paul describ-
es very graphically the fear and appre-
hension which an ocean trip at this time
causes. The ship on which she sailed
had safe passage but the journey was
not without its thrills. The first thing
which confronted them was to learn
alb out the life preservers and to find
thci" place in the lifeboats. About this
time they were chased by raiders, but
owing to the darkness they escaped
danger Her story of the time spent in
the danger zone is very graphic. They
were chased by sub marines but escaped
this also as the night was very darl and
the steamer was able to go much faster
than the submarines. Twelve miles
from land they were met by cnnvoys
and the relief of the passengers was
very great. OF this NJ iss Du Paul says:
I'VE smiled for the first time since we
left New York, and the nervous strain
makes us look 10 years older"
There were No lights on the ship and
the men were not even all Dwed to
smoke on deck for fear the the light
would show their location to the
enemy. One night they narrowly es-
capped the submarines, as a ship was
sunk just behind them. To quote Miss
Du Pau: eve passed over the same
spot two hours before They sent out
S. o. s., and as we We're within 100
miles when it happened we thought our
boat would have to go to their rescue,
but another wireless from England told
us to stick to our course The days
and nights spent in the danger zone
were evidently ordeal.
Following is Miss Du Paul's letter
to her sister upon her arrival in France:
D jon, France, July 80, 1917.
Dear Jen: We are very comfortably
located in what was formerly boys
at the foot of the Alps, and is one of
the most desirable spots in all France.
The climate is temperate the year
around. We were hurried through
England from our place of landing to
special train which was waiting for
US, then to a boat where we waited for
day. That was on Monday the day
we landed. Wrote you that day-did
you get ii? We went to Havre, France,
one of the oldest towns in France. We
were stationed in an orphans home run
by the Sisters of st. Vincent de Paul,
sisters of Charity, fer three days. Had
a good time there. People out in front
of the cafes drinking and having a
)od time The Sisters were 80 good
to US and one of the women who work
ed there only made rs cents month,
so we all gave 81 and divided it among
charity and the women. | guess each
one of the help got about $40 apiece
and the gratitude of the Sisters aud the
help was certainly pathetic. We Were
all handled with good deal of curiosity
and joy, Little kids would throw up
their hats and say American, Ameri-
canw and want our United States flags.
Soldiers salute US as we pass by and
old women and meu stop and look at
US in the street.
We travelled for "a hours to get to
our final destination in day coaches
and l guess all the town was out to
| meet US. We arrived here at s D. M.
Came Immediately to our place and sat
down to swell meal, which went
mighty good. The benches were hard
and the tables (benches). too, but WE
| didn't mind. The French are so full
of apologies and said it was war time
and they were so apologize for every
| thing. They made homemade Ameri-
can flags and put them in the flowers
on the table and even the bare walls
were decorated. Some French officer
presented Miss Mel. with some home
grown white roses and welcomed US in
the name of the Red Cross of France.
The women who have been here are
not nurses, just women who have given
their services for two years gratis and
all the hospitals have been kept up by
private subscriptions, so you see they
are pretty tired.
The town is up to date and we can
buy everything we want. Cotton is
more expensive than WOODEN Tell me
what you want in the Inc of something
unusual and I'll try to get you what
you want for, Christmas. One girl got
a letter from Detroit in two weeks.
You'd laugh to see our rooms. No
dressers nor boxing glass: just little
drygOods boxes with two shelves, no
bathtub nor hot water A big stove
out in the hall. One Frenchwomen
here thought it SO strange that We were
not afraid of the submarines of course,
we didn't say word about how scared
we were.
Came through Paris enroute, also
Rouen, Joan Of Arcs old place. We
are not far from Switzerland and Italy
and think we will probably get to see
both countries, if possibly.
Bicycle riding seems to be the chief
pastime, so guess I'll buy one. The
town has invited all of US to movie
show tomorrow night. Every one talks
French. Can't understand a word of
English and as the French money is
new to US we have lots of fun when WE
go to settle up.
We get plenty to eat Breakfast is
war beakfast-coffee and war bread
but the other meals are good. The
nurses take turns waiting on table and
washing dishes, so you see its like
camping out. I've got to get busy and
co,rL ,nr tbic ~ ~, tbop