The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-12-31
81 Bit of France
and French :.
BY Mrs. Byrd Trego.

| President Wilson and his party
landed at Brest when they journeyed
to Paris couple of weeks ago.
Brest Is the most important naval
harbor France owns; has a popula-
ton of more than 10000. You know
the old child's story that France is
shaped like teapot? Well, Brest is
located at the spout exactly, just
ready to be spilled out in the pouring.
The most of our soldiers landed
there,tho many who went via Eng
land were taken farther up the cham
mel to Havre, couple hundred miles
northeast of Brest. The people of
Brest do lots of things. There is q
naval school and arsenal that en-.
ploys 5000 hands. There are large
hospitals there too: They make
candles, cork, hats, rope, soap and
leather. l do hope you will read
about the wonderful naval battle that
took place there in 1912, between the
English fleet and the French. What
battle-scared old republic France
is anyway isn't she? One can
scarcely read story of France with
out having a battle or hanging on
the fringe of one. Religion used to
figure largely in her wars too. In
1894 Brest was held by the Catholic
League and Spanish sympathizers,
then there seemed no end of trouble
with the British blockade, but we
hope France has had her last war.
Did you ever read, IAN Iceland
Fisherman" The scene is laid at
a small fishing town near Brest, only
mile or so east by north. The
name of the place is Ploubazlanec,
but I can't tell you how to say it.
There are perhaps half dozen or
more fishing villages near by, all
beginning with Plou which means
padding or shallow, and for fishing
in those home waters they use plou-
nets. The real fishermen, however,
went over about the shores Of Ice
land in years gone by and presume
will do so again soon. They cruised
about there for months, many going
down in the fierce gales. These
women see the men off quite cheer
fully when it comes time for the
fishing season to OPEN but there are
many months of waiting for the
sail of the smack to appear, that per-
haps has gone down at sea. The
men never see a summer in France
for they leave early in the spring and
are gone until real winter sets in.
wish you would go round to the
library for this book, "An Iceland
Fisherman written by a French
man named Pierre Lott. The de-
v;,,%; - I,
those fishing folks is very interest
ing, not at all related to the southern
or inland portion of France except
in language and In that too, there
is vast difference for local dialect
changes the manner of speech of any
country. Indeed l cannot urge you
too strongly to read this book.
This French Brest is pronounced
just easy like you are doing 1t now,
but there is another one up in Russia
that is different. We have been quite
confused at times with the two places
until we remembered that, the Rus
sian word was compound one like
this Brest-Litovsk.
When you go up to Russia you
will try to say it like this brest-le-
IOV-Shl, uSlHB LIE lOIlS SOuUu OIL =
and accenting TOW. She is a very
good sized city of more than $1,000
was captured long time ago by
the Swedes-more wars you see.
Really it is very interesting to read
history now with this wonderful big
war as a background. We SHOULD
all use our spare time that way this
winter.
Well, if you remember it was at
Brest-Litovsk that Germany coaxed
those Russians to journey for some
sort Of fake peace treaty-let me
think momentum sure | do not
know If that took place under the
pressure brought to bear by Trotsky
or Lenine, do you? Anyway that
much quoted Brest-Litovsk treaty
has caused lot of trouble to us
ALL
I hope we will soon get Russia
going in the straight and narrow way
so those boys of ours may come
home "..