Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1918-10-28
Mr.. and Mrs. J. G. Billings
Receive News from Their
Nephew, Floyd
Billings.
is WE'LL KNOWN HERE
Employed by Varick c
Crosley- Private Secre-
tary to Judge Deemer.

Mr.. and Mrs. J. G. Billings are in re-
ceipt of a letter from their nephew,
Lloyd Billings, now in France. Lloyd
is well known in this city, having been
employed in the Office of Varick c. Cros-
ley for some time. He later graduated
from the law department of Drake I'M
iyersity and accepted Il position as pri-
vate secretary to Judge H. T.. Deemer
of Red Oak. Following the death Of
Judge Deemer, Lloyd joined the ranks
of Uncle Sans defenders and was sent
to Camp Dodge. The letter follows:
September %. Somewhere in France.
Dear Uncle John and Aunt VeOla /:
Your letter to Camp Dodge reached me
here yesterday, and that you may re-
ceive a letter from me at the earliest
possible moment, l am going to II off
a few lines this evening.
We left Camp Dodge on the 9Th of
August; was at Camp Upton a week
and then started on our long trip; had
a little sightseeing in America before
we boarded the ship. The trip over
was a success in every way. The wealth
er was ideal and one of the men on the
ship told me that he had never sailed
a passenger being used for transport
service. All accommodations were good
and one could not wish for better eats.
There was very little sea sickness and
1 felt good almost all the time. We
We're on the water a long time with no.
thing to do and 1 got ervou towards
the last. One nice thing about it was
that the fellows who had been together
at the camp were on the ship and we
managed to keep feeling good most Of
the time. Was glad when we sighted
land and when we steamed into the
harbor and pulled up to the dock it
vas quite a relief. ] don't want, YOU
to think ] was afraid Of the trip, for l
wasn't. Didn't seem to have the least
bit of worry about it, but it became so
tiresome that l was glad it, was over.
Z We landed at an English port and
marched to a rest camp. We were
greeted along the streets by the English
people, and the constant expression Of
the children was, Have you any cents,
Sammy Were in this camp a couple
England. England appealed to me as
a very interesting country. OF course,
everything is different than in the Uni
ted States, but many things about it
appealed to me. The scenery through
the country is great. We passed
through some mountain country, a
large number of tunnels and saw many
waterfalls that had the appearance of
being used for water power. The u
try homes appear to be about the same
and the cities are constructed on a
similar plan. They use every avail
able foot of space and it seems almost
to be an endless town. The roads are
of very hard substance and have been
used for centuries, l imagine. The rail
roads are of small construction, but
some of the engines are of fairly good
size. The bOXcars and passenger
coaches, however, are small. The coach
| was in was divided into cOmpart-
ments, each accommodating eight pas
sengers. They do not have a passage
way through the center, but you get in
from each side.
We landed in another rest camp in
England. spent a day or so there and
then went across to France where we
hit another rest camp. We were in this
camp Il short time and then %journeyed
across France, established headquar-
ters and were getting nicely settled