The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-09-13
HOW SOME SOLDIERS SEE IT
Interesting Letter From Dorothy Can.
field Fisher Who Gives Close Up
N.sNs

personal letter TO friends home IRON
Mr.. Dorothy Garfield Fisher, who,
with her two children, joined Mr..
Fisher In France year or 50 since.
There is little episode ! wanted TO
tell you abou, in the last letter, but
didn't have time. came out to
Crcuy for n day, 10 look at the house,
etc. before We came here permanent
ly. When ! went back 10 Paris, the
train was full OF permissionaries linen
coming back from the front for their
precious week at home which they get
once in three months you know). John
was at the station, with his "marechal
de logis," sending off forty or fifty
American Ambulance boys who were
to 90 on the same train as far as
Neaux and there change To a train
which took them TO the front The
windows of the train were full OF Curl
.ous faces as the American boys in
their fresh, new, uniforms with their
fresh Anglo Saxon, boys faces march
ed up and took their places. got in
70 a compartment with an elderly
Frcnchman and an employe OF some
railway or other, tboth past the mill
tary age and hence civilians) and as
/ was excessively tired during those
days / went instantly asleep, as soon
as I sat down. ! was awakened some
time later by the sound Of voices in
alteration and saw a couple OF poilus
sticking their heads in our window
shaking berct and asking for contri-
buttons to help them enjoy their per
mission" in Paris. My two elderly
Frenchmen had given little, under
protest, saying (what was perfectly
true) that it would go for drink and
wouldn't do the poilus any good. And
one of the soldiers was declaiming
about the fat bourgeois who stayed at
home and let himself be defended and
then wouldn't give helping hand to
the poor soldier on permission! 10
get rid of them, | rubbed the sleep
from my eyes, went over and put a
frame in the beret. This was received
with acclamations, and they inquired
10 whom should they drink toast
with the money. ! said, "Oh give a
good 'Vive PAmerique' thatll suit me
bestw They both shouted "oh, is
Madame an American ~ and to the
dismay of the two bourgeois, put first
one long leg and then the other
through the window and came in nois-
ily TO sit down. (They were standing
on the running board all this time
with the train going forty miles an
hour--a thing which was simply un-
heard-of in France before the war
one of the privileges" which the
poilu takeD Well, they shook hands
with me two or three times over and
assured me they had never seen an
American before-and indeed the two
bourgeois looked at me curious!y.
Then one of them began to talk bois-
terously, expressing himself with
great fuency and occasionally with a
liberty of phrase which wasn't conven-
tional at all--another poilu privilege
said, to get rid of them again, Look
here. If you're so keen on seeing
Americans, why don't you go to the
back on the train. There is a group
Of American boys, just there going out
tothe front. You tell them that Mad
anne Fisher sent you. and | think they
will contribute something" 'Nuff sed
They went out Of the window as fast
as they came in, and ! fell asleep
again. But in a few moments they
came back, beaming, and ingling
coins amounting 10 almost a whole
dollar tit takes such little to make
them happy and this time they sat
down evidently for a long visit. |
wasn't sorry, for they were typical
specimens: one was noisy, fluent,
alangy, coarse, quite eloquent at times,
a real Prisian Of the lower classes,
the kind which leaves its shirt open
at the neck over hairy chest and
calls itself proudly "the praletariat. !"
The other was fresh-faced, vigorous,
countrymen from Bourgogne who
hadn't much 10 say, but when he did
speak, spoke to the purpose. They
both. through all their roughness and
coarseness and evident excitement
over starting on their permission
had that French instructive social tact
and amenity (of sor,l which keeps
deeen, women from being afraid Of
them or from hesitating TO talk with
them; and they were both very sim
ccre, and desperately trying to ex-
press something Of the strange confu-
sion that is in everybody's mind ever
since the war--what are We all doing,
anyhow, III try to set down, as ac-
curately as can. some Of the things
the fluent Paris "cockney" said--for
the TYNE corresponds in Paris TO the