The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1918-10-03
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SOLDIER BOY LETTERS
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Prof. T.. II. Menefee Writes From
England.

Prof. T.. Il. Menefee Writes From
England.
August 90, 1918.
Miss Hattie r. Lockwood and Pu-
pills of Decatur High School.
Dear Friends: Well at last l
will try to write to you again. 1t
doesn't seem possible that it has
been more than three months since
| last wrote to the school, but such
is the case. School will, no doubt,
have been going on for some time
doubt it will start next Monday.
1t seems strange in a way. for this
will be the first September since |
was five years old that ! have not
started in school of some kind or
other, but | would not have it 9TH
erwise if ! could. | shall, OF course,
be very glad when the war is over
and | can again take charge Of some
school for | love the work. But as
long as the war lasts | want to be no
where else than here. like the
army better every day and consider
myself very lucky to be in this COM
pany for we have a most excellent
set of officers and jolly bunch of
enlisted men.
Our trip across the Atlantic was
very interesting but very uneventful.
We had nothing at all to disturb
the calm Of the trip not even
storm. There were over two thous-
and soldiers on our boat so you can.
imagine we didn't get lonesome.
were all hung up we had big time
rocking with the boat as we were
packed in quite closely. l cannot
tell you much OF our trip for. IT
would describe the interesting things
! saw it would give you an idea OF
the route we took and that is not
landed in merry England all safe
and sound and happy as could be.
Every man proceeded to fall in love
Immediately but it was in love with
the country, nothing else. The Eng
land that we have seen has certain
ly been beautiful place. every part
which we came were immensely in
teresting. The one thing that i'm
pressed me as much as anything
else was the clearly appearance OF
everything. We came through quite
a number of towns and cities, for
they are very close together here,
and didn't see single trash pile
or dirty back yard. The yards,
both front and back, are full of
flowers or garden truck. But even
the vegetabltAbeds are as pretty as
flower beds. They are absolutely
cleaned of weeds and everything is
so green here. You see no yellow
grass at all, but the vegetation is as
green here as it is at home, in May:
seen a frame building since landing
in England. TIL are Of brick. stone
Or cement. Any number of them
have the matched roofs, which look
very strange to me on brick house.
The style of architecture is very
familiar with pictures OF English
houses so l will not attempt to de-
t f6f1ee ab snem them Ane is that IN the
same town they all seem to be ex- !
actly alike Inc style will vary "a !
little in the different towns but in i
the same town the no.. houses ,s are very
son would do if he went home on a
dark night especially if he had in
dulged too freely in this English ale |
which l hear is around here. The
front yards are verv small but are !
always filled with flowers as are the
back yards and such gorgeous col
here are very interesting. The pas !
senger coaches are not at all like
ours. They are divided into eight ,
separate compartments be t w e :
which there is no connection. The 7
doors are on the side of the cars in
stead of the end. There is door
for each compartment. There is
about room for ten in each compart-
ment but we rode eight to a COM
partment. So we had plenty of room
and besides the compartments are
naturally comfortable to ride in. :!
must stop for mess now but will
continue this after supper.
Well, mess is over and | will try
starts at the "Y." was describing
the trains and will try to finish that.
There is a great large hook extend
ing out from either end of the
coach and when they desire to con-
meet up several coaches to make a
train. they take big chain of three
links and hook it over these hooks.
II certainly does look strange. The
freight trains are very comical in
deed. The cars are such tiny things.
I don't think they are over fifteen
or eighteen feet long and have only
either end. The wheels are not
solid but have spokes. The flat cars
look like one of those low wheeled
broad tired farm wagons IN America.
The whole train looks like toy
train. They even have little rub
Der cover made to put over the flat
cars to keep out the rain. have
been writing mostly of the towns
but believe the country is even