Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1918-08-14
R. c. HARGREAVES
NOW OVER THERE
Writes His Parents MIR. and Mrs.
John Hargreaves A Very In
teresting Letter From
Somewhere i'm France
GETTING BUSY NOW
LEARNING FRENCH
Anxious to Get to the Front to DO
His share in Driving the Ger
mans Back
Somewhere in France
July 10, 1918

Somewhere in France
July 10, 1913
My Dear Folks:
Well, / suppose that you are get
ting little worried about me, but
we have been on the road now for
over one month and we just reach
ed our destination yesterday. 1t
would take several pages to tell you
all about the trip, so TO make long
story very short will say that we
had very enjoyable trip, both on
land and water. L, hope that you
have received the letter that I wrote
you while on the boat and that it
found you both well, that is the only
letter have written since l left the
states SO hope you wrote to Maude
and told her was all right and get
ting along fine.
i suppose you will think it very
funny that am writing on type
writer, but as Lam trying to become
the Company Clerk.iI therefore have
to use the machine that the COM
pany has. The little practice that ]
had on the one which we used to
have in the Office helps me out quite
ia bit, and with little more prac-
tice / think can get along alright.
We are located in a small place
here, but it sure is fine. We do not
live in barracks any more, neither
do we live in tents, but in French
houses and barns, which are all made
of stone, even the roofs. am
afraid that if it rains very hard a
few of us will get little wet. The
drinking water here Is sure fine,
much better than expected to find
lit. There several springs here where
! we are, one of them being of inter-
est as it comes out of small hole
in rock, running at intervals. 1t
will run for about a minute, then 1t
stops. Each time it runs 1t will NIL
a good sized pail. 1t is quite conli-
cal to watch the fellows standing
around waiting for it to come.
Everything looks fine around here
in regard to crops. Another thing
that is very noticeable is that every
inch of land is put to good use,
along the railroad tracks and along
the public highways.
= There are not very many men
around. About all that one can see
is young children and old men and
women, and the women doing just
as much work as the men.
The language is quite difficult to
understand but nearly everyone Of
us has a little French guide and we
manage to make them understand
what we want l hope to be able to
talk it pretty good by the time we
get ready to come home. From
what little conversation have had
with French and English soldiers,
lit don't seem that the war can last
for any length of time, as they say
that the Germans are being fast
driven back. We are not at the
front yet, but we are all waiting
for that time to come, when we can
do our share in driving them back,
and I know that you will feel proud
that you have a SON "cyer here"
doing his little bit
/ can not tell you any direct news
about our movements or our ioca-
tion, but only that we are somewhere
in France and feeling fine.
We did not stay long in England
|but came right on through and II
sure Is a beautiful country. The
railroads are very different than our
own, the engines are smaller and
also the coaches. The coaches do
not. open at the ends but are entered
from the sides. The car Is divided
into compartments As
there were five of them, each one
seating eight persons.
Well think Unjust close for this
time, as it is commencing to get
dark and when It gets dark over
here it is pretty late. One can al
most see to read at ten o'clock;
Give my love to Agnes, also to Maud
and Leslie and tell them that Nam
getting along fine and will write to
them as soon as can spare few
minutes. surely hope that this
finds you in the hest of health and
not working too hard.
With lots of love, from your loving
son ROBERT G. HARGREAVES