The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-12-03

% ,AC III 81 HOuSe you come 10 on the
| edge OF town. Before the war it was
! a school for nuns but not so now The
wall is shot away in places but that
is not all for the church on one side
| is entirely in ruins and there are three
families living in this building We
nave one large room on the second
moor where we sleep, cook and eat.
1t is like living in barracks for our
cots are arranged against the wall
The windows are all out so we have
put paper up. We have the pleasure
OF having four holes in the walls and
Two large ones in the ceiling. When
you look at the ceiling you imagine
that you are likely to be hit on the
head any time because the broken
rafters are hanging down but SO far
nothing has happened
In the afternoon Doc Calvert and
Don kellum came over They are in
charge of the agricultural department
here. The next morning they moved
their things in with u.s. We could not
SIT around when there was so much
TO De seen here so we started off af-
ter arranging our cots, etc. The town
was our first shot. Before the war
there were about 300 people here in
Vliiers but there are only d few here
now. The town is mostly on riddles
some houses are not so bad but most
OF them are beyond repair with only
one wall. standing. The first people
10 come back came to this house as
tnelr nome was absolutely destroyed
lhey think this was used as a hos
pltal for the beds were full of Boche
RI
row OF crosses along the wall back
OF the house. Pleasant thoughts!
AS it was the 31st we had to cele-
brate, but there was so much damage
done that we thought we had better
uplift the town by giving them some
music. Brown. one of the truck driv-
ers. has cello so we had lots of
music.
Friday was All Saints day which
is sort of an affair in France as i'm
portant as Christmas, so we did not
work, Jack, from the hills of N. c.,
and l took a walk up the valley of a
small stream which runs nearby and
were gone all morning. We explored
the dugouts, trenches, shell holes and
such things. We found a large can
non down in one hollow which had had
the end blown off so was just left
there. There are loads of ammuni-
ton everywhere, in the woods and
even in town
1T is for all sizes of guns, both
Boche and French. If you are looking
for souvenirs there are all kinds
around here. l believe you could get
complete outfit if you wanted to- 1t
looks as though there is enough wire
around here to wire the City of New
York. 1t is stretched out all over the
hills and usually leads to a dugout or
trench. In some places the ground
has been torn up by shells, but on the
whole it is rot so bad. The woods
have not oe cut except by shell.
Saturday morning we started to
build place to run. the cars in, but
it rained in the afternoon and we had
to quit. Today was a fine day and
We worked ali day. We circled in the
woods south of town in the morning
This afternoon, ten of us went to
Chatillon about three miles away On
top Of the highest hill there is a statue
of pope which was not hurt, al
though everything around it was shot
Tomorrow VIC begin work. Some are
going to thrash wheat. They have
two machines and have arranged to
get some Boche prisoners to do the
work. There are two camps near
here. Several houses have arrived
at the station from Dole, SO we are
going to haul them up and start put
ting them up as soon as we can
"At present there is one Englishman
on the joe. He is at the head He
seems to be pretty good fellow
even If he is a vegetarian and needs
hair cut.
There are fourteen of us now. but
lot more are coming soon. It is
quite cool here now and the cooking
stove does not heat the room to a
very great extent.
Supplies are hard to get out here,
so we are rationed on food We had
some meat this noon, which cost ten
francs kilo. Bread is the only thing
we are not rationed on
UVO O~...y.> Aun.