The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1918-03-16
ACROSS THE POND.
Former Deputy in County
Clerks Office Visits
Historic Places

This letter was written to John b.
Slater by Ted Richa rdson. a well known
Colville boy who is now in France, and
is of interest to his many friends here.
Some parts have been omitted for pub
fishing.
Dear John b.: I have been threat
enng for some time to take my Rem
ington in hand and write you a little
ditty to tell you, and through you per-
haps some other Colvillians, about some
of my experiences since leaving the U.
S. and some of the interesting things
l have seen and done and am seeing
and doing every day. I certainly did
have a long respite from actual work
from the time l was sworn in at Wash
ington till l was assigned to duty here,
but you couldn't exactly call it a vaca-
tion. for some of the stunts we did and
the situations We We're thrown into
were more strenuous by far than any
work it was ever my misfortune to en-
counter. To put it briefly. the easy,
comfortable life we average Americans
have always been used to isn't much
good as preliminary training for rough
ing it and undergoing the inevitable
hardships incident to such an eXcur-
sion as this but I've enjoyed every bit
of it and we can always find something
funny in every situation to laugh about
and keep our spirits up.
To begin at the commencement, I
fooled around New York for nearly a
month getting outfitted and sort of
onto tie ropes at Governors Island. and
incidentally having rather good time.
There We're "a lot of good fellows there
in the same fix. and we naturally got
quite we'll acquainted and stuck around
together and are working side by side
in this little old French city not great
many miles from the firing line. l may
have told you that while there in New
York went out to Camp Mills and saw
the Colville delegation in the field ar
tillery. and we sure did have fine
meeting there in Dean Clark's tent
Among those present were Dean and
Curry Clark. Chubby" Droz Jack
Walsh, Frank Starr. Frank Potter. Dud
Mckinney, my kid brother, Alf Carlin
and several other Stevens county boys
They weren't as comfortably fixed there
as they might have been, but they We're
soon moved to a better camp, for the
next time I went out to see them they
had pulled up stakes and gone. I
rather ina CINE their division is some
where over here now. and it wou'fbst
surprise me a whole lot to run ac -
them some day. for I've met any ND ii
ber of fellows from our neck of tGSi
woods, may of them who know folks |
know. That makes it nice for fellow,
believe me, as only one can realize who
has been this far away from home and
under conditions similar to these. For
instance Evan Morgan. Jr., of Loon
Lake is a sergeant in the headquar-
ters troops here. and is acting as chauf-
feur for the ma jor who is chief of the
section I am working in. 7 have also
accidentally run into several George
town law men whom 7 knew in Wash
ington, three of them from my own
class, and none of them knew the others
were in this part of the world at all.
"well next in order of events is the
boat trip, which wasn't by any means
uneventful but I am afraid I would
get in Dutch" if I were to tell you
what I would like to. Enough
of the boat ride The pirates didn't get
u.s. anyway but you bet the last couple
of days We're interesting ones. with
destroyers racing up and down all
around us in beautiful green sea and
the weather perfect for life outside
But the prettiest thing we saw was
good old honest-to goodness LAND,
and 7 never realized before what a
sight it could be until | had been
out in the middle of the drink for so
long We couldn't help thinking of
old c. Columbus and what terrible
nerve he must have had on that three
months journey when he didn't even
know where he was going or what he
was going to bump into. But who
wants to be a Christopher Columbus?
The Trip Through England.
"The next thing of interest was the
trip through England to the port from
which we crossed the channel. We
were on one of their funny looking
little trains all day, passing through
historic and very beautiful country,
made all the more interesting for us
because we had a good guide book
with us, which told us all about each
famous place we passed through. Then
came the first real bit of unpleasant
going we had bumped into. We got off
the train about 9:30 at night In a
driving rainstorm boarded some OF
their dinkey double decker trolleys and
took a long ride up to a so-called rest
camp, I being one of the misfortun-
ates who had to ride up on top in the
rain without any cover over us. or
course we were soaked and almost
frozen in no time and when we marched
into camp, we found that they weren't
expecting us there but had prepared
for us at another camp, so we piled
into cold barracks, with no fire or
light, waited for blankets, and then
those who could grab cots did so and
the rest rolled up in their blankets on
the floor and waited for morning to
come. I was lucky enough to get a
cot so didn't catch anything worse
than a bad cold at least / don't think
l did. Next morning after breakfast OF
bacon. potato bread and tea we ex-
plored the city for a few hours and
then we were marched onto the boat
which was to take us across the chan
mel Everyone knows that they're US
ing all sorts of boats in the congested
condition of transportation. but we
didn't look for a cattle boat, although
knew that other fellows I knew had
crossed in the same Kind of tubs Bur