Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-08-13
FROM A SOLDIER IN FRANCE

Frank Synnott has received letter
from one of his nephews in France,
which he gives the Pilot the privilege
of publishing. Frank has two nepheWs
over there. One of them is Matt
Synnott's son of the town of Texas,
who is in France; and the other,
William Synnotts son of this city,
who is in England and both, as
Frank puts it, 'are after the kaiser's
scalp" The one in France is cruis-
er, having learned the work from his
uncle and also the secrets of tell
ing how much timber there is on
land and price to pay for such timber.
His letter is as follows:
July 18th, 1918.
In France Somewhere
f. f, Synnott,
Wausau, Wis.
Dear Uncle
Well how is everything going with
you? The last letter | got from
Willie, he said you were out cruising
timber near Merrill How were the
mosquitoes this spring? l only saw
one since / have been in France.
The horse-fiies though are something
fierce. They are about the size of
bumble-bee and accumulate in clouds
about the horses and set them crazy.
| During clear, warm weather we work
early in the morning and late in the
| evening and avoid the heat of the
| day, when the flies are the worst.
| We are handling round stuff on
wagons. eLoading with single line.
| We have no chain so we use cable
| 1t is pretty hard seeking when it
rains much as the ground softens up
| quick. L have had as many as eight
horses ON wagon trying to plough
| through the mud with a load, and
the rain just pouring down. We are
not quite equipped here. We are a
long way from U. S., so we just have
to get along with what we got. We
have plenty of hay wire so guess
everything will be all right. We
have tractor now to haul with. 1t
hauls two loads at once. This makes
it very much easier for me to keep
the mill stocked. We have plenty of
good horses and fine harness.
All things considered there isn't
much we can complain about. The
fourth of July we had little celebra-
tion. French and Americans Joined
in celebrating. The 18th is Frances
day and the Americans joined them
in celebrating.
1t is hard to be among people you
can't converse with. | have several
French books, but | haven't time to
study them.
Their crops are just as far advanced
as ours are. Haying is on full blast
| have done little haying myself
here evenings and Sundays to help
| "a
have to do the work.
Over here, everyone that is at all
fit, is in uniform, old and young
But they are not all fighting at one
time. They get home quite frequent.
ly. All the way across France, we
saw soldiers home on leave. Up on
our front here they don't do much
: fighting. They lombard each other
occasionally to relieve the monotony
| of trench life and have few night
raids on each other for the fun of it
Occasionally the Germans come
over in aeroplanes but the anti-air
! craft guns make them keep pretty
high. A Frenchman brought down
? a German plane not far from here
I'VE could see the fight plainly The
FTenchman got above Fritz and dived
SOIdiSIlG OOWH dO nIu1 IIUul1DR It'll
, with machine gun. The German
landed all right; one was killed, the
, other was not hurt.
The guns have been silent for quite
|, a while now. Both sides are taking
a rest. The people have become SC
accustomed to the war that they
don't seem TO mind it. They have
enough to eat and everyone is dressed
well. Everyone gets bread tickets
each family gets so many tickets SC
; everyone has the same amount OF
bread. 1t is dark, thick-crusted
bread, but it tastes good. / would
like to eat it all the time
Everyone drinks lot of wine.
/. win Rouge" is the popular drink.
They soak their bread in it and then
eat it. They have kind of thin,
: weak beer also, and for hard stuff
rum brandy, and sometimes Scotch
whiskey. This hard stuff is very ex-
pensive. Well, that is about all for
this time. / suppose you will get
this about the middle of August.
Regards to everyone. / hope Aunt
Molly is feeling good.
Your nephew,
Sergt. Edward j. Synnott,
Co. a. 9Th Bait.