New Britain herald., 1917-11-16
|HUMASON RUNS INTO
 ! AN ARTILLERY DUEL
Suddenly Discovers Big Guns All | sArOund Him on Dark Road

ceaseless torrent and with active artillery roaring few feet away to prevent him from catching @ nap was he. experience described by Howard '. EHumason in letter to his mother, Mrs. H. B. Humason of Vine street. Humason also tells of a. French |fIensive for which all waited for Vnat seemed ages and which was peSun and concluded in record time, thousands of prisoners being bagged Fnd hundreds of guns being brought n.
 The joys of a real bath-in fact |wO real baths-are also described With the clever humor that the writer fae revealed in all his letters.
 The letter follows:
 Grand Hotel, 12 Bouleard
 8t des Capucines, Paris, "28 October. 1917. My Dearest Mother:-
 "As you will note by the stationery am once more in Paris. Arrived eAt evening too late to get anything ut a bite to eat but have just finished baking up for lost time as just prior pf sitting down to write 1t was ne- cbsary to let out my belt. You never tl1 know me in the world when oturn, at least in the way of eating. "When entered the dining room hls noon you can guess what I or sred but found I could not obtain atoday, so had the regular dinner khich had for its piece de resistance -foast beef and mashed potatoes. nike former times I did not stop ith the main course but went right 1swn through the list, starting with ekled tongue, soup, fish, mush- ppms, roast beef. salad; candied 11Ats, coffee and above all. 8 cigar. link of it, ma chere mere, the first flour long months. I scraped the ate clean of everything and feel Qte contented with the world.
 l'When I last wrote I promised to rite again but did not get 8 chance i've have been having it hard late- . Until last night had not had my ofhes off for over three weeks. ex- Dpt for my shoes and coat. On ar val last night I got a room and bath Id thanks be to Him 1t was hot kter day. Saturday and Sunday be- ;; ' the only days that commodity can 1 obtained in this city. The tub was ! miniature swimming pool and after link it to we'll over my knees I was le to lie down at almost full length l kd wallow like hog in a pen. Sn went right straight to sleep in 1 bed which Is the kind that makes A, wonder how you will get in and l hut would happen if you fell out. It i . . mattress fullysthrees feet thick N its, 50 different from the small l raw mattresses at Gouaignos. Slept nearly fifteen hours and then arose i Id took another bath and had the l oresaid dinner. In spite of tho lat- I think I must be pounds lighter 1 ter the former.
 .Eh bien! These are big days and 1 n hard to sit down and try to write l connected letter There are SO 1 any things to write, questions to l oNrer, thoughts to express, that 1t Is l hpossible to know where to begin or ! op.
 Waiting for Offensive. 1T presume that by now the news of . French offensive has reached you. 1 waA a long time coming. but has the appearance of a wonderful ctory Ut tho present writing. It was, fact, 50 long in coming that most
 ua began to have doubts that 1t er would happen. "AssI wrote, there were indications oryvrhere of a great offensive long o, but when, day after day, noth-
 happened, we began to believe a2 all the lengthy, arduous prepar- tons in which we had taken part rA nothing but preparations for a aonaavo. Our doubts increased day
 day until the question of 'Quand arnence Iattack?' became as hard answer as the old proverbial joke, low old is Ann?'
 "A little over a week ago, however, e guns began to bark. and once they rtod how they did talk! Sleep. Ut nos was almost impossible. as at mes our beds actually shook from A far of tho earth, although the Aarest guns were over three miles vays This kept up for three days. most without cessation, and Dame umor. aided and abetted by both rench and American pessimists. had ready spread numifous reports of a E Hun drive, when ono day all bubt was dispelled. It was on the at Wednesday. I believe. We were l a trip which we had taken many mes before and were travelling in the aneral direction of Soissons when . saw what looked like a body of cops come on to the road from the oods Ut tho left. The sight of the 0opa was 50 familiar that mono of
 thought anything of it until we ere almost up to them when it was scovered they were Boche prisoners hder guard. This caused everyone
 sit up and take notice and we then W for the first time that the ob- rvatton balloons were far in ad- Lnce of their former location. A tie while later we reached the road ong which many of the parks are cated where We unload and we then tssed another huge procession of oche. There must have been 5000 silly and we all began to be glad lat We played even our small part