New Britain herald., 1918-10-03
COOKS GOOD MEALS
 FOR THE SOLDIERS
But Harry" Says Nothing About
 It in Letter Home

Mess Sergeant Leo F. Sullivan has written from France to Earl l.. Hyde telling Of his trip across and other events in his life as soldier. Sullivan was formerly proprietor of Larry's restaurant on Main street, and was one of the first five draftecs to leave this city. He states that men return ing from the front predict that tho war will be over in a few months. His letter 4follows.4y2
 My Dear Friend Bon Jour Ma dame, Bon Jour Monster, Wee. Wee.
 Wee, Ou La La, Gee, I am speaking French, already. We'll now that we are Billetted for the present at & Chateau, somewhere in France, I am taking the first opportunity to write 10 you. We are Billetted in a Chateau and barns near a beautiful French village. But hero | ann putting the cart before the horse. I presume you think our trip across the Atlantic must have been flied with thrills and excitement on account of the popular heIie' that the ocean is q hot bed of submarines and mines, but that is not tlIe case. A moro peaceful trip for such q formidable force of fighting men going 10 war could not be Imagined. We were packed ready to move and sleeping on the floor for three days Ut Camp Deyens, had complete new overseas equipment and when I say complete l mean it. Uncle Sam, certainly sees that his boys have every thing they need before going away. We had inspections and then inspections of our overseas equipment for about two weeks be- fore we left, finally they decided we had everything we possibly could use and right here I want to say some thing about the American Red Cross. If you have given any money to the Red Cross, you may feel certain that M the money was we'll spent. These women that are working for the Red Cross certainly do a wonderful lot of good. Many soldier in his heart has $ thanked these good women for the good they have done.
 We'll, the order to leave came to us
 Sunday night, we were to leave at
 12:30 that night. At that time we fell
 out on our company street, we did
 not know where we were going and
 there was great speculations as to
 where the point of embarkment would
 be- we were told to keep quiet, get
 on the train, keep the shades down
 and not pass from car to car. Great secrecy was maintained throughout
 the trip. Just at daybreak we found
 ourselves at a dock in ---, where 8 the ladies of the Red Cross met us A with hot coffee and buns. We irnme # diately went aboard the ship. This
 ship, they say, carried, besides it's car
 go of humans, one of the most highly valued cargoes that ever crossed the
 ocean. The trip across was unevent-
 full. We had a wonderfully smooth
 sea, bright, sunny days and nice, # moonlight nights. Nothing to do but to hang around, sing songs and watch the sun--a monster orange-drop into
 the sea. These were wonderful sun # set skies, as the gang was singing "Fhe Old Or / Mare Is Not What She
 Used to Be-" Outside of the fact that tho ship was greatly overcrowded, @
 bit dirty, the chow rotten, and the
 boat (12 days without seeing land) it q was a pretty fair trip. Only once did < we have little excitement, that was after about seven days out we sight
 ed two submarines An old U. S. Y tanker" which was hogging alongside of us all camoufiaged up and which looked good for nothin, suddenly
 opned fire. and she sure did fire. That X ship was loaded with guns. The sub- marines suddenly disappeared. We $ could not learn whether the submas-
 rines were sunk or not. At any rate
 we were not troubled by submarines
 thereafter. It was a wonderful sight
 to see so many ships zig zaggin g
 across the ocean.
 After fifteen days on the water we
 finally landed at a British port and
 the boys were made happy when told
 they were going to a rest camp. And N at the station we were handed a let
 ter from King George with his greet 2 ings, and then we started our march
 to the rest camp. It was about 130 < a. m. when we arrived there and it was s there We received our first shock 1t was @ there that we found out that we could N very easily nisinterpret army terms. 2 1t was there we got the full meaning
 of the word camoufiage. If anything
 was ever camoufaged the word rest K was camoufaged there. After a night S
 "rest' we got in line for breakfast. Z England Is sure hard hit for food, if
 we are to judge by our breakfast in 2 the rest camp. I also met my first
 "casuaP' here. One can be a casual < without being killed or wounded. One 2 becomes a casual sometimes by pun @ Ishment and ometimes by misfortune
 The mess sergeant here was a casual # by misfortune. He wore a sad, hope $ less expression on his face,/ / and 1 s don't blame him. I asked what he @ did to be left behind and he replied