Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1918-02-28
SeargTant Mclean Writes
Continued From Page One

not try to talk to them for laughing.
They mix up their hands SO much in
trying to express themselves By
the way, | shouldn't forget that we
have to do a good deal of our talking
with u hands, and then perhaps
they think that we are funny looking
guys. This carrying on a converse
t ion with a Frenchman is sure some
sport.
We have found the Y. M. c.
A., here the same as in every other
camp that we have been and they
sure are an awful good thing. There
is to be a reception tomorrow night
for the boys who came over on u
boat. Last night We saw quite a
good program at the "Y" hut and
today we have had a real game of
basket ball. At this "Y" there are
two American ladies working as we'll
as an old French SOLDIER who has
been wounded. My, but don't these
French people make a fuss over an
American soldier and they sure are
doing the best that they know how
to treat us good. This morning
some of our boys were over to one of
the houses that are close to the camp.
On their return they said that the
people seemed to be in very poor
circumstances, almost on the verge Of
poverty. but they found everything
to be as neat and clean as a pin,
while the house itself was very
quaint and old fashioned. 1 have
seen quite a number of pretty build
ings around here all of an old style
Of architecture and surrounded with
hedges, evergreens and big trees.
This sure is a pretty country and all
you can do is to try to imagine how
pretty it will be when the summer
time comes
I notice that they never drive their
horses. but walk alongside of them
and talk to them and the animals
seem to be remarkably we'll broken.
They drive them one ahead OF the
other. Nearly all of the horses are
Percherons. They have them locked
and I have not seen a poor i'll kept
horse since coming here. I may say
that l have see common work horses
that would compare favorably with
the finest registered stock on the
Evans or Dan McDonald's farms.
We are now in what is just sup
posed to be a rest camp and will soon
be moved to a place where we can
train. We have good barracks and
the grub is good, but there is no
wasting. They r very strict about
that. I now come to realize that
there must have been an awful lot Of
food stuff wasted while we were
coming over on the transport.
Say, l neve, schemed so much in
my life as I did to get somthing to
eat. When we would have a good
meal we would try all kinds of stunts
to get through again. Our bunch
got the reputation of being an awful
bunch to eat. At night when we
were were or guard they always fed
the guardsmen a lunch. We only
had three guards on at a time, but
half of the boys in the battery would
get a feed just the same. Then they
put a stop to that and we had to get
a pass to get anything to eat. We
just had three passes to let three
men in at a time, but as soon as one
bunch went through we would hand
it back to the next man and he would
take another bunch in to feed. One
night l was sergeant of the guard and
1 know, for a fact that my pass, went
through eight times without a single
hitch before they began to notice
that the pass was being worked by
the bunch. I suppose you have
already got my the card I wrote yor
before we left and which was malice
to you after we had safely LANDED
on this side I posted a letter to yol
the day that we landed which should
have reached you before this me.
This is Sunday, but the fact neve,
occurred to me until now that I an
writing as everything is going Of
t about the same every day in the week.
1t is now about seven o'clock in tn.
3 evening and so will be about on
o'clock in the afternoon with you &C
2 cording to the difference in time
While on the boat we had to chang
our watches half an hour every day
4 The first day out I had begun to won
der if my watch had gone sea sick
That was before we found that W,
, had to begin setting them ahead
, We had quite a calm trip coming over
excepting for the first three days
. Just n really rough stormy day an
f that al1re waa q ro10h ono Tho oooo