The Ordway new era., 1918-06-14
Walker Writes
From Overseas

The following Is letter from WIN.
C. Walker written to his mother.
Mrs. A. w. Bartlett. The letter is
dated May Sth in France.
Dear Mother and Dad
Your letters of March 31st and
April 9Th and the papers all came in
yesterday and I've read and re-read
them all till my eyes are about all
in.
I'm certainly glad that you are
both well and that the valley in gem
eral is looking SO good.
Since my last letter to you / have
done more or less travelling and have
seen some OF Sunny France. / have
also had to change my opinion of
this countr, and I'm glad to say it
has been for the better. When l last
wrote YOU we were in a part of the
country whose people were of the
lower class and where the crops were
few and poor. But since that time
think I've been in the cream of the
country and met with the higher
classes of people.
The country is low. rolling and the
soil seems to raise anything that is
planted in 1t, which is mostly grape
vines. Just as far as you can see on
all sides is vinyard after vinyard
with just once in while a small field
of grain or potatoes. But when a
patch of wheat or oats is found IL
looks as good as any l ever saw in
the u. S. and 1t looks to me like the
bread question would be solved If
about 95 per cent of the grape crop
was put into whea.. So far l have
never seen a corn stalk in France
and the people don't seem to even
know what it is.
We have always heard that the
French were strong for their vim
range but one canno; realize the hold
it has on all people here until you
have seen 1t. The children taking
their lunches to school all have their
bottle of wine and II you stop in a
farm house for drink, 1t is wine that
you get. When you enter hotel
dining room, instead of the water
bottle, you find litre of wine. Water
is used merely to wash with and for
stock. Il mean live stock; not the
kind they use water for in the
States.)
The people are very primitive in
their dress, mode of living, farming
methods and most everything else.
Men, women and children all wear
their big. black aprons and clumsy
wooden shoes and the big object in
dressing up is to get as great var
iety of color as possible.
The farming is done entirely with
oxen and the most crude implements
imaginable. The plows are simply
piece of sharp iron with one handle
and the cutting and harvesting of the
grain is all done by hand. The wag-
ons are great big twO-wheeled carts
and carry some loads that would
make Jack Mast's six-ton loads look
sick.
But even with all their old fashion
ed methods they know how to en-
ploy them and get some surprisingly
good results. However, think they
have commenced to see the light, for
the other day l saw an /. II. C. rake
ina store and it loked mighty good.
The houses ere built entirely of
stone and cement. with red tile roofs.
In one town of 5000 which l visited.
there WAS one frame house and 1t was
one of the town curiosities. II
farmer has water trough for his OK
en- 1t is made of stone. II he has
bench or table in his yard 1t is al
ways made of stone. and they GER
tainly know how to cut them.
The roads here are the finest l
ever saw any place. France is COW
cred with a vertible net work OF roads
running in all directions and paying
no attention to section lines and every
one Is built of crushed rock and re-
mind me of the Pueblo-Denver road.
A man Is In charge of each mile and
always keeps it up in tip top shape.
One thing I've noticed here that
the Denver Post might be interested
in, and that is that fences are al
most unknown and I've never heard
of the herd law in France and still
the farmers don't have any riots that
have seen.
When get to scouting around
the country and see old grave stones