Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1918-05-20

ceived letter from a friend who has
been over there for five months, and
he said everything possible is pro-
vided for the comfort of the boys, the
only thing lacking is American to-
bacco, and even that is being shipped
in large quantities. The Durham To-
bacco Company's factory. as you
know, has been taken over by the gov
ernment, and the entire output goes
across. The French tobacco, l un-
derstand is so strong that. an Amer
lean tobacco user can hardly smoke
it.
1t is about time FOR retreat, so will
have to stop and get ready to fall
in" don't suppose the mail service
is very good between Oregon and
France, but l will write as often as
can and l want you to please do the
same. guess it will take at least
month for letter to reach you,
so you see they will be far between.
Write good long ones and tell me all
the news, not only of Ashland, but
any important happenings in the dear
old U. S. A.
Au revoir now, dear ones, and
think of your son who hopes God
may permit him to come back to you.
Write to your loving son,
PVT. ELMER H. KETCHUM,
Co. f, 10th Bri., Goth Regt. Eng.
A. e. F., via New York.
(From Harold Simpson, son Of Mr..
and Mrs. Thomas H. Simpson, of
Ashland.)
Somewhere in England.
Dear Mama and Papa:
Well this is England although It
is difficult to realize it, we have just
had tea, which is the same as supper
(orly less of it, Our tonight's ra-
tions consisted of rye bread, cheese,
lam and coffee. The English saem
to be strong for jam.
We had occasion to see some of
England. The cities are smoky and
dirty, with many poor people. Much
more so than any of our American
cities that we saw. Everything looks
old and seems to be built for per-
manence. The houses, even in the
country, are built of brick or stone,
and all appear so similar in architec-
ture that one is hard to tell from
another The city streets are all cob
blestone and all we saw were dirty.
The stores are mostly small, dark and
dirty, although several we saw would
be credit to any place. The street
cars are two-story, something like the
sightseeing cars we rode in in the
village back in U. s. A., and almost
all have women conductors. In most
of the cars the lower story CD is for
first-class passengers, others ride
above. Everywhere is class distinc-
tion. First-cass railroad compart-
ments, third-class restaurants, etc. |
don't like English cities, the country
is better, however. Every available
space is cultivated and at this time
of year, very pretty, tidy houses and
door yards, neat fences Of hedge and
stone, well kept up roads and lanes,
sturdy stone bridges, cattle and
sheep grazing about. Children play
ing in the dooryards-all not greatly.
different from the England | had eX-
pected to see.
We rode on one of their trains with
its many compartments, the English
railroads have a good road bed and
make good time, but | don't think
much of their rolling stock" the
engines are small in comparison with
the ones at home and the freight cars
are about the size of the dump cars
they use up at the Ashland mine, We
passed several long freight trains of
these, good many of them carrying
coal.
1t is difficult to tell an Engllshman