Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1918-10-11
CREsCO HOWARD COUNTY IOWA. FRIDAY OCTOBER H. 1913

tiful conservatory of music and thea
ire with fine sculpturing over the
arcade. Is it not strange to think Of
my being, here as prisoner? have
often thot of sinking with the ship, of
being wounded to death, but never Of
being q prisoner. And as am the
only one of 700 I feel have right to
wonder why it was that this fate
should have been decreed to me. How
ever l shall not complain. OF course it
means just so much out Of my life lost
or at best wasted. but on the other
hand suppose l should be thankful
that was not drowned. ] haves not
written mamma yet, but l know you
will let her know that am all right.
l have written you card and one let
ter, this makes two. There is no news
but shall always write you twice :,
month which is as often as l can. In
my last letter I asked for several
things to be sent, mostly food. You
might get bunch of knitted goods
from the Red Cross and send them to
me or else have them send them. We
have been having very cold summer
here and mind the cold. A hot water
bag might not be amiss either. And
now chum dear must close until next
time"
Paul Geraty, always an interesting
letter writer, under date of Sept 9Th,
sends letter to his parents, most of
which follows:
well am here at last and have
been in very comfortable billet for
about week but we have been and
will continue to be very busy.
This is our second stop while in
France and the fact that this il billet
and not mere rest camp goes to say
that we will do much of our training
here for the present.
Our company is billeted in village
which is not close to the front and al
are very comfortable. Our billet is
the best in the village. There are twen-
ty of US here. It is stone house and
quite old but warm and roomy. have
walnut bedstead and about four mat
resses, plenty Of cover, but it takes me
half an hour to get out Of the bed
though. l have . six foot oak table to
write on and there are two chests Of
drawers in each Of the four rooms.
We all like the country. Everything;
10 green and the flowers are still in
bloom here. The people who own the
house here have violets on their table
but have none. There are plenty of
roses in bloom and oil along the road
here we passed thru some beautiful
scenery but this place has them Ill
bested I believe.
This province is one of the most fa-
nous in old French history but not in
the present war. OF course you would
hardly guess the place by any descrip.
tion might give you as SO many of
the French provinces are proud of their
histories.
The streets all wind and meander un-
al Imagine . surveyor would get diz-
~ and there 10 nothing modern about
the place only the prices. However
there are no sweets to be gotten ex-
cept plenty Of white grapes which grow
in abundance but they cost Franc per
pound which is almost extortion in COM
parison with the supply.
The sale of light wine is tolerated be-
tween the hours Of five and eight p. m.
but Margaret could drink keg of it
and not become intoxicated. So there
is no fear from that side of it.
/ went to mass at an old chapel
about the size Of Mrs. Minty's house
but there was hardly any room for any
soldiers only to stand at the door. And
at that there was nobody there but
women and children, the men are all
fighting and let me tell you here and
now that you people can't realize what
war is over there.
Sherman saw only sham battle COM
pared with those of the present war
and Hoover would die of modification
if he saw what we see. You people
have banquets beside these lunches of
France.
Our landlord has one son, q college
graduate, who was killed at Verdun and
l met IN old woman who had four sons
and her husband pushing up the pop.
pies. You know red poppies grow Wild
in the fields here. But with al the
suffering that France has undergone. in
particular her women, for it is . war
on women in particular - they bear
the brunt Of it, they dismiss it oil with
. brave attempt at smile and say 1T
is war"
At the end of one of the two village
streets there is an old Roman bridge
built about 400 B. C. during the invss-
ion of Julius Caesar who built all kinds