Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1917-10-26


Railway Engineers and is now
Somewhere in France"
Sept. 10Th, 1917.
Dear Frank and Iva
1t has been a long time since | have
had an opportunity to write you and
am obliged to use the machine in
order that l may finish before dark.
Not much light allowed after dark
and the days are getting short so
have to make use of every minute.
You know by his time no doubt
that we saileo from (censored)
Made only one stop on the way
across and that was at Halifax. Was
not sea-sick. and enjoyed the trip
verymutb as. l had good state
room md plenty good eats. Had
very litsle to dpandl the hard,
est part ctltf joarneg aswearingEl
life BELT ana dksepspg ia.ssAdir essforl
a quick 1ash Had % sfand aby OH
deck the latter part Of the night
ready k0g get into the life boats. The
(ceHsored) which took US over is a
good sEkd boat and from the upper
deck to ! be water is some drop but
we, we kfortunate enough to get
across Without any mishap. Landed
at (censored) then proceeded by
train t5S Bordon, Eng, ride of
about twelve hours and went into
camp where we remained for about
a weebse During our stay there we
took a trip to London, paraded there
and sen the King and Queen besides
several other distinguished persons.
Game directly to France few days
later and moving about from place
to place has taken up quite a lot of
our time.
We are in no particular danger in
our present location but there is
plenty of action most of the time.
The big guns roar almost constantly,
aropIanes fly around like so many
birds performing all kins of stunts,
and shells screech through the air.
Sometimes they explode in mid-air
but more frequently when they land.
This is no place for a nervous man
but we do not mind it more than Cr-
dinary street travel at home unless
it gets to close for comfort. feel
fine and am getting along good.
We have comfortable quarters,
plenty of good wholesome food and
the working arrangements are very
agreeable. Expect to move again
very soon but we are used to that
now and do not mind it much. We
seldom see any civilians except when
we get leave to go to the city and the
surroundings are very dreary.
Everything has been demolished for
miles and miles, not even barn left
standing and very few trees.
We have been on leave once and
visited the city where found con-
siderable of interest and the French
people used me like a lost brother.
Do not have any trouble talking
French with them although they
speak it different than we do in
America.
We are restricted somewhat in let
ter writing and all our mail has to
go forward without postage so do
not blame me if you have to dig
down to get this letter. A number
of things that would be of interest
to you we have to Withhold. The CEN
sor does not permit us to give names
of places, ETC., so that somewhere"
is the name of all places so far as we
are concerned. Do not hesitate, to
ask questions when you write and
! will answer as many as possible.
Write as often as you find time
and let me know if you have to pay
postage to get my letters, also if the
censor does any trimming. Did any
of the boys l know around there get
hooked in the draft? Campbell,
Putney and the other G. 7. boys are
all 0. X. and wish to be remembered.
Will close now with very best
wishes to you all.
1