The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-08-05
SAILOR in FRANCE
JACK STAHL, OF THE NAVY,
TELLS OF HIS OBSERyA-
TIONS ABROAD.

TIONS ABROAD.
Pauillac, France, June 26.-Dear
Folks: Well this is my first letter
to be written in France. l suppose
you knew that / had sailed when you
didn't hear from me for so long a
time. I sure did enjoy the trip cross.
The sea was as calm as Lake Mad
son. 1t ever wasn't rough enough to
make me seasick. | saw a few
whales and a school of sharks. /
never felt better in my life. The trip
through France was great. This sure
is a beautiful country, especially in
the part where | am stationed. One
of the hardest things for me to get
used to is the French system of mon
ey. You might be short changed if
you are not on the lookout. Every
so often we are given shore liberty
and permitted to go to the city of
Bordeaux. 1t sure is a beautiful city.
All the people drink here is wine,
but as for my part I'll take water.
Ii is a PRETTY hard thing to make the
French people understand you. When
l try to talk to them / have to make
motions. l suppose they have to
laugh at me, but that is the only way
you talk with them.-Jack.
Pauillac, France, June 29.-Dear
Folks: AS / am unoecupied for a
while l might as well write another
letter. II is about 8 a. m. now. l
suppose you folks are still sleeping.
You see the time is about six hours
earlier than in good old South Da-
kota.
Last night there was a fine show
at the "Y." 1t was put on by an
American vaudeville troupe. 1t sure
seems good to see someone from U.
s. A. besides sailors. As / didn't say
very much about my trip in my last
letter / will tell you more.
We left Great Lakes the day |
wired you. There was such a large
number of us they had to divide the
train into two sections. The trains
were first class Pullmans. The trip
to (deleted by censor) was swell. At
Buffalo the Red Cross workers met
us at the station and handed out
sandwiches and candy. / wrote a
card to you there. / suppose you re-
ceived it o. K The next stop after
Buffalo was Elmira, N. Y. There
the Red Cross gave us sandwiches
and hot coffee. 1t sure tasted good
after riding so far. The Red Cross
also gave us a hand-out at (deleted) !.
OF course you know how / enjoy trav-
cling so you can imagine how / en-
joyed this trip through the east. The
scenery through the Allegheny noun
tains was beautiful. We reached
tdeleted) during the night SOL didn't
see much of It.
Well, it is just sever weeks since
l landed at Great Lakes and here |
am in France. l can hardly realize
that | have travelled over one-sixth of
the way around the earth in seven
weeks. / sure have seen some coun-
try since / have joined the navy. but
/ don't regret that I joined a bit. OF
course the only bad feature about ii
is being away from home so long, but
| suppose things are going along just
the same as If l were there When
landed here l sent a postal TO all the
relatives / could think of, so they can
write. You know il Is a treat to re-
ceiye mail when you are so far away
from home.
france is a nice little country. but
the people live much different than
they do in the states. Everything is
done much slower over here. Their
railroads run very slow. The ears
are only about half as long as our
cars. They are set up on high wheels
with spokes in them. A first class
train over here looks like ours did so
or rs years ago. The principal crop
OF the country is grapes. You can
ride for miles and miles and see moth
ing but vineyards. All of the build
ings both in the country and cities
are built of white stone which looks
to me like limestone. The roofs are
either matched or made of red thing.
Each house has a lot of little chin
neys on it, probably about six or sew
en-. The people here are very good
masons. Ali the roads crossing the
railway are bridged with stone
bridges. One of the interesting
things about the rural districts is
that there are no fences. They use
either stone walls or a thick hedge to
divide their land. When you look al
the side of a hill at a distance il
looks like a checker board. All that
you can see are numerous little plots
of land divided off by walls oil
hedges. Sometimes the plots have
different colors due to the different
varieties of crops, thus making 8
beautiful sight. The peasant class OF
the farmers all wear wooden shoes
Even the little tots. 4 or S years old