Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-09-28

Sunday, Aug. 20, lS1i.
Tours, France.
Have hung my hat up again and
hone 70 let il here for at least SIN
weeks. when 1 am supposed to have
NV wings So the Captain told us
Jowevcr I can't see how 1t Will pc
done unless they give US a diftereht
moniteur or split up the class nls
moniteur is very conservative anu
won't allow one TO take ontrot atoneI
OF course, I may be impatient, tor
have only had two rides, but what
ALWAYS did make me mad about
double command aeroplanes. Inc
mONem ents are SO small ana uelCdIe
that the movement of two igures
will serve TO place the machine III
any position. In fact, this type ma
hine will fly itself. as the mohlleuI
thoroughly demonstrated, running
along level with hands and feet OIL
the controls. He did the same thlns
when we came down to land, only
touching the stick when wanting 10
land. Listening to his cine mohlteull
English is actually painful. but one
can understand him II one nstens
closely. It's full of American ISSu-
lars here, moth sailors and soluieLs'
with more coming in every day. Inc
sailors are being trained Tor sea
plane patrol work. The army men,
of course, for work at the 'front.'
There are also a few French men
here, very few, as they are gradualIy
shipping them out as the Americans
come in.
Landings Rough
No. we have not been taken over
hy the Americans and are sun stCh-
ing it out in the Foreign Legion,
which is not such a hard thing TO DO
in our ne wquarters, as the loou Is
very good and plentiful here, at least
if was. To-day service was poor and
coffee will not be served to us here
after. We even had dessert yester-
day Muskmelon IL was ana SO sur
prised me my stomach is still re-
covering from the shock. Cameron
planes are the only type used mere
and are very safe. The rough lahu-
ings made by some of them are sur
nrising. insomuch that no damage is
> done to the machine. There was one
wild and expert moniteur here whom
Ikwished | had for teacher, as ne
gave the pubils the controls hrst Trip
Not only that, but he would stick the
machine into all kinds of dangerous
positions, and then turn around IN
lis seat and bawl the pupil out for
being the cause of it. The stories
told of his escapades with different
pupils are very amusing. One OF his
favorite tricks was to come down
in wheat field and play tag around
the stacks with his wing tips only
several metrS on the ground. 1neH
tell another story of him catching
an automobile which had ran over a
woman outside the school. The
auto had a smile start, but he soon
overlook it and telling the student
he had with him to get the number,
the moniteur began making hgure-
eights around the auto. coming SO
close to the auto that his wings bare
~ graZed as the went around. After
the pupil read the number, the
moniteur stopped the auto by
threatening to collide with them a:
he came hurting down in a nose dive
/ happened to know the student tha
went along on this memorable ride
so can vouch for its truthfulness
This moniteur has gone on his vaca
tion and l have been assigned to
different moniteur, which closes tn
incident as far as my instructor
goes Water is about as scarce her
as boys in Dauphin, which is goini
some. All water must be boiled be
fore drinking and it took me severa
days to discover where the boilin
place was. Meanwhile ] drank milk
which is sold at mess by womal
for 0 sous 90 cents) a quart. Thl
is very gOO1 milk ana nave nee
existing on it pretty regular. The
also serve some liquid called cider
which is the strangest cider I eve
tasted-and the worst, and now tha
= coffee is cut out, I go back to m
milk. Its a doggone shame to g
TO war without being weaned. Th
reason for discontinuance of coffee
that the French Government canno
afford it. I hope they don't discon
tinue it in the morning for that
the only thing that keeps me awak'
as we average only about 5 hour
sleep a day. That is the reason
day of rest is required every once i
a while. Even now. some of the feI
lows who have been attending elias
for d week steady are praying TO
rain so they can catch up on sleel
Am afraid their prayer will be ans
wered. No, We don't observe Sur
day, not even in meals, and if
didn't have a calendar and write
letter once in a while, I sure woul
get mixed up in my dates. Onl
yesterday there was a wild argumeT
as, to whether the date was the 23r
and what day it was. Result We
that there was a confusion in date
that would have puzzled = mathen
tician to straighten out. Since 1 ha