Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1918-12-23

flew out and searched all around III
for subs and then few back and diri
gible balloon came out and hOyere(
about until we were out of danger.
We landed in Liverpool October !:
and in three hours were in train fol
London. We got there about II p. m
and they had not been looking for us
Again l was one of twelve selected tt
go to hotel filled with English ant
Australian officers 1--WE We're supposed
to be able to conduct ourselves in &
military manner) called the Taristock
near Covent Garden. We remained il
London seven days.t l saw the tower
of London which covers several acres
of ground and the walls are II to II
feet thick. 1t has vast store of treas.
ures inside-armOr and guns, behead
ing blocks and torture racks. will moi
try to describe it now.
In London.
sat in Charles Dickens seat at s'Ye
Old Cheshire Cheese" the inn where
he and Sammy johnson used to dine
1T is very quaint and old-sawdust or
the floor and little high backed seats
really making a little box about each
table seating six, three on each side
Every day they open the old Cheshire
building, just as they have done for
hundreds of years.
l saw Westminster Abbey, Hampton
Court, the former palace of the kings
(now an art gallery. Here in the
court is a grape vine $50 years old all
under glass. The trunk where it comes
from in the ground is about nine feet
in circumference and the vines are
trained under glass arbor many yards
long. The one vine produced twenty
tons this year, which were given to
soldiers.
London is very dark and dirty. The
streets had lights, but they were all
so covered that very little light came
out. You could not read the street
signs and if you did it wouldn't help
you much for the same winding streets
have different names for different sec
tons of the town.
We had to report and get bread and
meat cards, emergency travel rations.
The food was good and good average
meal would cost about $1.OO to $1.5O of
our money. saw very little of the
country from Liverpool to London as
It was 5 80 when we started, but from
London to Southampton we saw many
beautiful views. The great difference
IS in their method of building. All
their tenement districts in the cities
IRE of brick and stone, as are their
farm buildings. You see few fences
unless Of stone or hedge. In one field
saw six men blowing with five teams
and walking plows.
The trains make very good time but
The cars are only about half the size
IF ours and you enter most of them
from the outside through door for
each compartment, seating about eight
people. The engines look like toys be-
side ours All freight cars were mark
I'd something like this: IS horses or
10 men," SO you see what the demand
las been in this country. 81
At Southampton we went aboard a
)oat about one-tenth the size of the
me we came over on and sometime af-
er dark we slipped away for lie Har-
'e ON what was probably the most dan
,erous part of our journey. | went to
,ed and slept, being one of the lucky
mes again to draw ticket not blank.
The rest slept on deck or in the slnok
ng room. When woke up, we were in
4e Harve.
Many were sick, as the channel was
ough and the boat very fast, so we hit
he waves pretty hard sometimes, but
slept through it and have never miss
d n meal through sickness since leav-
ng New York. At lie Harve we took n
ar going up the hill-on cable-and
Doked over the harbor. 1t was beau
iful view.
Everywhere you go you find hOspi-
ais.
Liverpool Docks.
/ meant to tell you about the docks
It Liverpool. The tide there falls
many feet, SO to enable them to UNI
DAD without trouble, they have eight
niles Of docks with water tight gates
When the boats are anchored at high
ide, the gates are shut and the water |