Imperial Valley press., 1918-09-18
CHAP LAIN LETTER
TELLS INTERESTING
.FACTSFROMF FRANCE

! Something of the life back of the
lines, of both civilians and soldiers.
is told in letter from lover there
received by Merrill, d. Davis, pub
Usher of The Press, from his brother
Ralph E. Davis, chaplain of the Saith
Machins Gun Battalion of the Amer
lean Expedi,ionary Forces.
/ The letter, which will be of inter
est to mothers and fathers of boys
who are facing the great adventure on
the firing lines, as it deals with the
surroundings and life of their loved
ones, follows:
Somewhere in France-Dear Broth
er Merrill: Well, the story of my life
since l wrote you last is something
like this: After. landing in France
we were taken to a rest camp to re-
cover our lost vitality. There is no
question but that it was lost. The
trip across the Channel was enough
iself to deplete whatever vitality we
had. We had been on the trip over
"a month and everybody was tired out
in soul and body. But so far no.
body has been able to discover Just
where the rest of that rest camp came
in. During cur entire stay there we
were all busy drawing material and
equipment and because of the great
.hrongs of troops continually coming
in and going out there was no rest
to be had. The rest idea was little
more than & beautiful theory and the
prospects are now that it will not
be consummated until after the war.
j Nevertheless, | was glad we made
the stop, because it enabled me 70
isit a nearby French city-a famed
seaport of F'rance-and this was well
worth my time. These Old World
towns and cities are SO different from
those you and | are accustomed to,
Most of the buildings are over 200
Years Old and about ready to toppla
Ger into ruins. All Of the streets
..re ridiculousiy narrow and winding
i although not quite as bad as those
of Boston, All OF the population eX-
sept one little boy who had just had
swim were dirty. Everything was
Id and quaint and crude; monuments
and shrines of various descriptions
were sticking around everywhere and
the whole city seemed more like an
attraction for a worlds fair than a
sure-enough real city Of today. Ger
ran prisoners of war were doing
most of the manual labor Of the town
and al the people of the city were
speaking a very strange language to
me.
A lieutenant and myself went into
was a genuine French place and there
was nobody around to talk English
lou cannot imagine our predicament
unless you have been in like circum-
6 s,ances. BY referring to diction-
ary and using our hands rrofusely we
managed to sustain our lives. We
only made one mistake and that was
when he asked US if we wanted wine
Thinking it was soup, | said "Yes," :"
and after he brought it | had hard
time explaining that | did not want
it. We finally had to pay for it
anyway, although we eft it un-
tDuched
, The one salvation of the rest camp
was the good food. For days we had
been existing on the English rations,
and they were far from sufficient
Every man in our organization was
hungry from head to feet. One even
ing. | walked an hour and a half
for sandwich and then failed to
get it. But at the rest camp we had
all we could eat, served by nice Eng
lish girls who had enlisted for that
service just as the men. They were
not allowed to receive tips and con
Quoted themselves very properly. !
wanted to get acquainted with some
of them. bat left before | got a
chance.
The one dlsagreeab,e feature of our
stay in the rest camp was the serv-
ing of liquor. The months of prohi-
bition in the U. S. army camps seemed
to react here in a gluttonous desire
for the dirty stuff, and many of our
own officers were prone to satisfy
their own appetites. Some of the
things ] saw were not exactly graft
flying and | am sorry that they oc-
Cured. However, is assured me Of
this: That the first objective to be
reached over here is the entire elm
ination of John Barleycorn.
We were at the rest camp two days