Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-03
Escadrille NJ. S. P. 1856,
Secteur Postal 12,

| Secteur Postal IL,
May 10. 1918.
Dear Mother: Just came back
from looking at a plane which
smashed up" as we were eating
| dinner. For a complete wreck
have yet to see the equal, and yet,
the pilot got away with only cut,
due to his goggles breaking. 1t
was one of the type of planes that
are rarely seen on the front any
more, their lack of speed and sta
| bility being the reason. We often
watched them fly slowly and labor
iously around the "piste" and laugh
! ed at the way they floated down to
a landing. They were so enormously
| big and slow that we could not
imagine any one being hurt in one,
even If he did smash. But if the
! pilot was not broken up much, the
airplane sure looked just as if some
one had rolled it up in a ball, and
| like a little boy who throws up
stone, yelling What ever goes up is
sure to come down." had chucked it
| up and let nature do the rest. The
result sure proved Newton's law.
Playing tennis, and eating roast
chicken and floating island" doesn't
sound at all like war, does it, or,
what a soldier on active duty at the
front should be doing? but 1 did
both to-day. The tennis came first,
as it should, since it made the
chicken taste better-and what a
strange way to play tennis too, be-
cause we used cement court with
heavy hobnailed Poilu shoes for
sneakers.
Twas indeed impossible to sneak
upon ball with so much foot armor.
and when one tried to stop-ye gods
and little fishes, it was impossible! I!
The hobnails having nothing to catch
hold of made a noise like a saw hit
ting nail as they slipped, and let
me bring up ignominiously in the
net. which fortunately was made o
chicken wire, so it didn't hurt it
much. We had quite a fast little
game, and drew many Poilus, who
looked on in wonder as we three
Americans whanged that white pill
so numerically, or they saw me
charge in to follow up a swift volley
and end uD by getting tangled in
the chicken wire when my armored
shoes played me false. And now ]
have small headache on account
of the unusualness of the exercise
Snails For Lunch
OF course, the snails may have
had something to do with it. for ]
ate several dozen to-day for lunch
Yes, l said snails, and it is spelled
s-n-a-i-l-s," and means that soft
Shiny animal that carries his shell
with him and is always used to COM
pare the speed of things, or rather
the lack of it. Hope you don't read
this right before lunch as your
imagination may play havoc with
your "inwards" and give you what
is known on the ocean as "sea.
sickness" But really. after one
gives his imagination rest he finds
them very well tasting indeed. Wher
| began to eat them, l did so with
an open mind, as we'll as mouth. an6
thought my imagination was secure.
ly tied down to last out the meal
but after l had eaten half dozer
1t wriggled loose and nearly ruined
my enjoyment. But I quickly put
him under leash again and ate some
more. Snails are considered a French
delicacy and are much in demand
don't wonder they eat them here
as they seem to multiply faster than
the ploverbird flea. One could gc
right outside the door and gather
a bushel. They are everywhere here
and one cannot sit down under a
pine tree without crushing several
dozen.
In fact I would not be surprised
to wake up some night and find
one "faire une petite promenade
! over my face, like the curious rat
at Avord. I hope it don't occur be-
cause that would be my idea of an
awful nightmare.
Yankees Drop In
To-day an American dropped in
for dinner here, aboard one of the
| fin NiapAa,-te r,Io
| to see him, as we had known him
at school and promptly invited him
to dinner. That was the day we
had snails, so you can see at what
pains we were to please. This
American, having accepted a sec
ond lieutenancy in the American
army. and being situated at a big
American training camp, we had
| lots to ask him about the other fell
lows there whom we had gone to
school with. AS is always the case,
he had lots of stories to tell of fly
| ing experiences and therefore we
had a very pleasant dinner indeed.
| for we kept urging him right along.
asking where this man was and that
one. and so on. Some had Joined
the navy. One in particular, big,
| husky six-footer who had played
| football in Yale and been on all
American teams several times as a
result, and whom I remember as the
man with the heartiest laugh I ever
heard. He was flying a big seaplane
one day, trying out the engine, you
know, when the engine did the un-
expected thing and quit work. Right
ahead of him was big steamer and
not having height or speed enough
to turn he obeyed instructions so
/ i'm nraGGiValU oriUan n nc t. coT.1aI