The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1918-08-22

next stop. ... ...a
am still acting corporal but as
yet have not been appointed. My
commanding officer was considerate
enough to list me as first class pri
vate and he is up against one real job
in handling company of green men,
Won't be disappointed if he overlooks
my permanent appointment. I'm
here to stick and serve the best | can
in any capacity until its all over.
With love, GEORGE.
= - -
located in Camp.
PerigueX, France.
.r July IS, 1918.
Well, here | am located at last, at
least for time The five days since
my last letter were moving days and
for the most part not on de luxe
trains. You will notice. | am allowed
to give my location here in southern
France Would like to send you
some psot card views of the city but
that is forbidden. l will however
mention few things to lend local
part. 1t is a town of about 35 to 40
thousand inhabitants and typical of
French cities. A river which runs
through the city is very beautiful
and clear stream. BY the way, it
is only couple hundred yards from
my barracks and | am now writih.,
this letter in a wet undershirt in the
sun on the west barrack steps, jus:
after an evening swim.
| must try and tell you something
about France. | could sit here and
make letter of my view across the
river, toward the setting sun and the
rocky, wooded hills, studded with
chateaus and the white cement and
stone houses of the city. Within
300 yards of me is a small Oat field
with four women and man pulling
weeds. 1t is now s o'clock by the
! French time as they run to "a o'clock,
our midnight, so you see they keep
| long hours. The women now do ev-
erything at home, truck, freight, run
street cars, work in the fields and do
manual labor of all kinds. The men
are fighting. Practically all of the
three or four hundred miles of
France which | saw was virtually the
same. 1t is mostly hilly and dense
| ly wooded. 90 me it seemed wood
ed land that could be put to better
iuse. | don't believe they ever cut a
tree down, they just trim them VI
use the branches for fire wood and let
/ them stand, in the center of fields
and any place they happen to be. The
fences are all hedge and stone, fields
and pastures are small, to Is acres,
ana in all shapes imaginable. nothing
! is in straight line.
There are many herds of fine stock.
cattle especially. They are all white
spotted and always look to be fat ana
in good condition. Don't see many
automobiles, practically all two
wheeled horse drawn vehicles Many
little carts with burros dragging loads
ten times their weight.
Everybody carries a bottle of light
wine. Water is very hard TO got for
drinking purpose unless boiled. There
Is IO lCc DIS dill duiIuUHld Is uScu ny
! the government.
Seen Along the Wav
Railroads are all double track but
the equipment looks like a play road.
Our ride through France lasted the
most of two days and nights aud we
viewed the scenery from our Army
Pullman, little cattle car with 50
men each on board. seats, but be-
'lieve me I enjoyed every minute and
had my eyes open for everything
there was to see. Country roads are
narrow, some places only wide enough
lined with uniform growth of hedge
or trees. Small grain does not look
as heavy as that in the States. The
soil is hardly like Mahaska dirt.
Wine is hauled on railway cars
built for the purpose, two big barrels
about ten feet in diameter on a car.
Outside of wine the main substance
of living is black bread, baked in
big round loayes and never carried
wrapped Tin cans are at a premi-
UNI. The army saves them all.
All along the entire trip no one but
our commanding officer knew our des-
tination. Our first guess was 20
miles south of Paris. Then, when
we kept going for hours and hours,
we all decided we were going to the
Italian front, but here we are in a
southern French town farther from
Ihe battle front than you are. When
you write be sure and say something |
about the general conditions of all |
the battle fronts. While we get some |
real information on the war 1t is al |
ways reports from individuals coming |
from some special sector. Don't |
have time to read papers and couldn't
II we did. All French and even the
largest OF English papers are no
larger than half Herald.
Building Camp.
Our battalion is now split up, our
Is operating as a separate
A and B are CHARTERED In
IN older camp on the other site OF
he city. The camp we are in IL now
In course of construction Other