The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-12-02
A YANKEE SEEING FRANCE.
Sergeant Clarence ]. Bartlett is Enjoying
the Scenes.

Mrs. W. Z. Perkins of Elm street is
the recipient of the following letter
from her nephew, Sergt, Clarence J.
Bartlett, who is member Of of Co. C,
57th Pioneer infantry, and who wrote
from France Oct. %.
Speaking of the weather, Sergt Per-
kins said, "This has been the first real
nice day that we have had since We
landed in France. The old sun has shone
out good and warm all day. Either this
is damp, cloudy country or else we got
here at the time they were having
cloudy, rainy cold weather, but all the
same, Frances is not half bad place to
be in" He then goes on to say, "The
people are very nice and good at making
French fried potatoes. We go out to
little restaurant every little while and
have a good feed of French tripe and
rabbit, real old.fashioned Dutch cheese,
salad. Oh, she fixes us up some pretty
good feeds, but still I'd rather have
your cooking back home. don't mean
by that that | am discontented over
here, for | am not; am having the time
Of my life, seeing new sights, new and
old ways Of doing things. The town we
are in now Is quite an old town, and the
people have stuck to the olden ways of
doing. This, Of course, makes it inter-
esting, but imagine TO be here very
long would be monotonous.
"There is an awful scarcity of every
thing here in France, and what you can
get has an awful price attached to it.
For instance, eggs at IL cents apiece.
If you get a dozen, they knock Off four
cents A cake Of chocolate that at home
we would pay 10 cents for, we pay two
francs (40 centsl for here. Everything
is way up. ! paid SOC yesterday for a
bandanna handkerchief.
"There is not much to write about
the trip coming over. The sea was calm
all the way but that didn't hinder me
from being seasck for a couple Of days.
They allowed us up on deck every day
as much as we wanted to between the
hours of 9 a. m. and p. m. We were
not as long coming over as / had mag
ined it would take. However. | had all
the boat ride | cared for at the time.
1--WE landed in a nice pouring rain
| land it has rained a good share Of the
time sinceD We were all mighty tired
and glad to set foot on land. As soon
as we were billeted you can just bet we
were not long in spreading our blankets
and getting to sleep, and we slept too
wet clothes and all. We hung around a
rest camp for a couple Of days then
came by rail to this place we are in now
We were two days and two nights on
the road. We got a chance to see some
of the country we passed through, as
much as we could from box car.
1--WE are billeted here in barns, which
is much better than it would be to use
our pup tents, as the ground rs so wet
and damp all the time. There is no Y
NJ. G. A. nor any other place to write
here, so Just don't write very often.
81 am going to send you the Christmas
package coupon for the one box we are
allowed II seems like begging for a
Christmas box, but | know that you
Aunt Maude and Gram. B. will want Il
send me little something.
81 am making an awful mess Of thu
French language. l have picked up 8
very few French words and phrases ant
now / tell you when get that Frencl
and English all mixed in together anC
my hands a-going, they either 'compre
or else they don't.
eve haven't anything for light, so w
90 to bed when the hens and goats do
which is between 9 and p. m. l have
fine bed. Sergt Corrigan twho sleep
with mel and bought couple bundle
Of straw for four francs that's so cents
and made us a good bed, after we ha'
slept on the soft side of concrete foo
for couple Of nights Nov we prefe
the straw to the concrete by all mean.
) "Glad you are enjoying the Dodge
There are lot of them used on thi
side by our government and guess the,
stand up well, They also have Ford am
balances here.
81 am in fine health and the best 0
spirits"