The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-07-13
Son Of w. D. Willard Tells
| Story of Trip Abroad
;EEING SIGHTS IN PARIS
londefuI City and the People;
"W0rId Not So Big
Il After All
I'm Mondays Daily.

NtSha0y
Y. d. Willard, cashier of the First
Nonal bank, is in receipt of the
towing letter from his son, Grant:
iomewhere in France, June 9,
19-I wish to announce at the start
til I am now in the war zone and
aEermitted to say very little about
WI lie am and what am doing.
Re left Paris Wednesday, a. m. at
6:1giving us one day short of q
wei in that most wonderful city. Il
thit of all the cities / ever saw,
Pan is by far the most artistieally
beal full The foliage is very heavy
andreen. Trees and shrubs grow
eveEhere and are very well kept.
All ings green are well watered and
havd1e appearance Of being perfect
ly pit. All of the old historical
builds and parks are so arranged
and btected as to show them off to
the bs advantage. That the Champs
Elysis is the most beautiful tho
rouglFe in the world cannot be dis
putedI From the Arc de Triumphe de
PEtoilone can look straight down
this hutiful street for at least a
mile 1.-THE Place de la Concorde, a
beauti square, reputed to be the
finest Europe. And / could go on
ravinglbout everything we saw in
Paris 1.-The same fashion. 1t being
necess$ to stay pretty close to our
headquters we didn't have a great
deal dtime for sightseeing, but
were nSr idle during our spare mo-
men!s. ,f
Net Miss BIaisdeiI. M.
"Satuhy afternoon a few of us
went QUITO a Mrs. Gibbs for tea and
whom shld l meet there but Miss
Blaisdell The old world isn't so
large aft ALL Made an appointment
with hefor last Monday but was
unable tIkeep it because we were
notified at we would leave Paris
the mex morning and l was busy
making operations. Complications
ensued fh prevented our leaving
until WeSsday. / wish now / hads
seen her. -
There hs so much to do / didn't
get aroun{o call on the tractor peo-
pie but sll certainly do so when
we returnb Paris in three months.
II wish could picture to you as
best l cd our present location.
Suffice it say that it is a beautiful
country PILE many miles from Paris.
Our quartz are clean and whole
some. Ouchiefs are fine and we
are now uer strict military regula-
tions. Allf the boys are not here
yet but wexpect the remainder to
arrive tomfow. The purpose of our
being herd to get into good physi-
cal conditi for active work at the
front. TIL first section expects to
leave for front next week. l hope
to be req to go with the second
section VIII leaves. We are now
engaged inoing all manner of man.
ual labor, rom peeling potatoes to
saving tin pr.
n Sprained Ankle.
"SpeakiI of saving timber re-
minds me lat / am writing this let
ter from ; hospital where l have
been co1ed since yesterday with
another sIined ankle, or rather the
same old tained ankle. It's nothing
serious. simply jumped from
limb of be we were making tooth
picks of q landed ON a Dough and
turned mynkle. They certainly have
taken go care of me. Tomorrow
they plan taking me into Paris to
have the arned thing X-rayed. 1
shall be ~ much disappointed, if
they don'tt me get back on it in
couple of US. They have a regular
doctor outhre but / don't believe he
has an atl lot of confidence in
himself, she is going to turn me
over to a iris DOCTOR l don't want
to go in ait but orders is orders in
a military mp.
please II all my friends that l
am well ID as happy as circum-
stances wipermit and that letters
and paper Ire very much appreciat-
ed. There nothing Iwant in way
Of clothing Sweets are always very
welcome where in France. Good
American hooking tobacco is very
much in dand.
Tell M Patterson that the fly
ing corpsIn France are doing a
tremendothmount of good and that
many of boys who came over
with US dted to that department"