The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-12-20

The following letter was received
recently from Stanley Haynes, of
France, by his father, Howard Haynes,
of Route 2:
Chatcauroux, FIR, Nov. "a, 1918.
Dear Papa:-lt seems that there are
days for everything, nowadays. | see
in the paper that the oath is to be
Dads Day., and it is asked that ev-
erybody get their writing artillery in
action for great Christmas drive.
don't know that one day is any better
than another; but I've been thinking
of writing for several days, and seems
that I've got into that old habit of
putting off writing from one day to
another, so | guess falling in with the
writing squad will be a good way of
getting a letter written.
They have lifted the lid on the CEN
soring little. But there isn't much
more for us to write back here, than
usual. l might tell a little about the
trip over here; it is ancient history
now, but guess it will be news to you.
We sailed on the 21st of May, and
landed in East London on the fifth of
June, being on board ship fifteen
days. We had fine weather all the
way across, with the exception of
| about two days, when it rained, and
the sea was quite rough Everything
went fine until about seven O'Clock on
the eve of the second of June. Then,
for the first time, we realized that we
were in dangerous waters. There
were two or three SUBS" sighted,
and there was considerable excite
ment for a while, but the destroyers
were right on the job, and after they
had sent down about thirty depth
bombs, there were no more SUBS"
seen. | wish you could have seen
those destroyers work. 1t was mar
velous how they got around. There
were eight of them and they were all
working for all they were worth. And
they were worth quite a bit, for they
were guarding sixteen big trans
ports. So you see if it hadn't been
for them, before sunrise the next
morning, the last of the transports
would have probably submerged and
the U-boats have been floating around
rejoicing over the victory; but as it
was, they got an awful shaking, if
they didn't take up their abode in the
bottom of the sea. Those bombs GER
tainly have some force. When they
exploded it would jar the big ships
like big explosion jars house; and
the whales would come floating to the
top like fish do when a stick of pow
der is thrown in the water. This took
place just off the coast of Ireland,
where the "subs" have gotten in
quite a bit of their deadly work.
We only spent two days in England.
We went from London to Southampton
and rested up for couple of days and
then crossed the Channel to lie Harve,
France; stayed there one night. That
was the only time | heard the guns.
They were rumbling all night like
distant thunder. But in the day time
you couldn't hear them. | guess it
was because there was 500 much other
noise. We loaded in box cars at La
Harve, and went to Blois; stayed
there four days. in some of Napoleon's
old barracks. Then we moved on up
here where we are now. Since we've
been here we have had plenty of work
to do. Just about the time we would
begin to get some of the patients out,
and think we were going to have it
little easy for while, train would
come in with three or four hundred pa
TENTS; then we would have to get
busy again.
l guess it will not be so bad from
now on. All the patients we get
now, will be from other hospitals, and
will be fixed up in pretty good shape
before we get them
We are having fine weather now;
think it will check the influenza and
pneumonia epidemic.
I don't know when we will be home,
but guess we will get back next sum
mer, if not sooner.
There is lots of work to be done be-
fore we can leave. We still have |
about seventeen hundred patients, and
expect another train any time.
! Well, i WIN close for this. 4 time, |
% T.