Williams news., 1918-08-30
MCLEAN WRITES Of
 LIFE OVER THERE"

LII l. UVlH IuEII
 Lyle Mclean has written a number of very interesting let ters since leaving for overseas service. which, thru the kind ness of his parents, MT. and Mrs Daniel Mclean, are herewith published.
 Somewhere in England, July II, 1918 Dear Folks:
 I arrived safely in England and had a very fine trip coming across. There was nothing ex- citing. fine weather. and a calm sea all the way. We had plen- ty to eat, and a nice spring bed to sleep on. The sailors gave us a very poor impression of England but we have found out different since we have been i here.
 We were on the train about eight hours and we got to see lots of the country. The part that we crossed was as pretty, if not prettier, than the New England states. There were ranches everywhere, and swell looking crops.
 ] The railroad was the thing that surprised me. The coaches (carriages) are of three classes list. 2nd and 3rd. We rode third class. There are four or five compartments to a carriage and each one seats eioht nen- ple.. They are awfully low, inst enough room to stand I'D. I don't know what is the diffe'- ence between third class and first, only that a first class car riage is a prettier car and is on faster train. The engines are small but awfully fast. We had fourteen carriages in our train and an American five car train is longer by several feet. The freioht cars have only two pair of wheels and three of them would make a real box car. The roadbed is as good, if not better than what we have. I didn't see one steel bridge, all of them are of stone. and some pretty big ones. The country is pretty hilly in places but in general it is rolling. One thing about the towns and cities we passed thru the tenement houses were all of the same style, and block af- ter block of them. All were made of brick or stone. We didn't see over two dozen frame houses on the trip. Every town, large or small. has large churches and they are verv pretty. 1 am going to church the first chance I have and see what they are like inside.
 The sailors gave us the ino- pression that the English didn' t care whether we were here or not. All that I have to say is--- if all the English people were like some of those sailors who
 were English, Germany would have gone thru their lines like
 water thru a sieve.
 T The English people are tickl- ed to pieces to see us and great eobs of them were out waving the Stars and Stripes as we'll as the Union Jack as we went
 thru the towns. We had some
 white bread off the boat with us, and one fellow told us that was the first white bread he
 had seen in two years. We prot ably won't see any more of il
 either, but this English war I bread is pretty fine stuff and 7 the jam the best I ever ate. We
 are learning to drink coffee
 without sugar and it isn't a very hard job. I believe I will like ,, coffee without sugar, in a very short time Also the mush, that
 isn't half as bad as I thought ii
 was, and in all I believe I am
 we'll satisfied with everything
 except English tobacco, and their tobacco is like mule whis key. The mule whiskey has such a kick that it will knock anyone down, and they furnisI whisk broom with each drink l Well, this tobacco is the same I I except they don't furnish the I whlsk broom with it. 1 have 0fc nf 1