The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-05-31
ALETTEH FROM FRANCE.

lives south OF uOWn ana VINO gave us
the letter for publication:
Somewhere in France, April % 1918
Dear Father
/. received your letter Of March 18th
con the l7th of this month-just lit
! tle over a month after-yo wrote it,
50 considering the distance it had to
travel, it made pretty good time. !
was wondering if you had ever re-
ccived the one | wrote you while at
headquarters. and am glad to know it
came through all right. We moved
down TO this post from headquarters
on the nth .of March, andlI have
been ds busy ever since as the pro-
verbal cat with her kittens. Since
coming here ] have department of
mv.own, the Precedent and Research
Branch, and that naturally has add
ed to my work. Besides, the volume
of work we handle here is very much
larger than what we handled former
~, and it keeps us up to all we know
to keep the wheels moving.
This is quite large city-at least,
it seems very large compared with
the little town in which headquarters
is located-and is also very pretty
one. 1t is quite well south, SO the
climate is usually warm and very "a
greable-in fact, when we first came
and until the end of March, it was al
most like the middle of summer back
home, With the beginning Of April
however, it changed, and has been
chilly and rainy all this month, with
only one or two really nice days i'm all
that time. You will be much sur
prised TO know that 1t actually snow
ed a little today, and the last couple
Of days, especially, 1t has been very
cold. don't Imagine 1t will last
very long. for the French people tell
us it Is very unusual to have this sort
of weather this time Of year. and that
their springs here are very nice. All
the trees, shrubs. etc, are full OF
leaves and bloom, and it certainly
seems as If it should be much warmer
We have our sleeping quarters here
in what used to be French cavalry
stables, but they have been carefully
cleaned out and whitewashed, so arn't
half bad. Are pretty cold these nights
though and if we are over here next
winter, | want some place more tight
y closed in. We have very good
mess" with lots of good food, well
prepared and well cooked, and of good
variety, and when the spring or sum.
mer vegetables begin to come in, it
will leave nothing to be desired.
There are lots of interesting places
and things to see around here, but we
have SO little time to ourselves that
haven't seen nearly as much as /
want to. Tomorrow If It Is nice
day, one Of the boys and are going
out to an old monastery just outside
the town, which Is supposed to have
been built about 100 years ago, so it
ought to be very interesting place
to see. ! have seen bed in the
musemum here which Napoleon. is
supposed to have slept iD near here
on the sth or 9th of:August, 1868, and
it certainly is a curiosity, 1t is so
small that am sure no real life sized
man could yet into 1t, so l am in.
clined top put a little truth in .he
story that 1t was Napoleo,,'s bed,
So far have succeeded in keepinp
very well, except .'tor one or two bad
colds' The .ast of which / am just now
recovering from. When the warm
weather comes l think / shall be all
right, and will feel O. K. in every
way, for now 1t is not only chilly and
cold, but very damp, due to so mucl
rain.
Today had most intere sting let
ter from Sam Reyd. He was at this
post while l was headquarters, and
| was countingnn seeing him when
we moved here, but he was transfer
red from here just a couple OF weeks
before we got here, so l missed seeing
him. He is in the finance work, and
in that he has to travel around the
country in an automobile, paying of
the men in the different camps where
he is located, and when he wrote this
letter he had just come back from 2
trip which had taken him right up
to the front line trenches from where
he was, and there were shells burst
ing all around him, and of course all
the usual roar of battle, SO he had
fine chance to get right into the thick
of things, l envy him his experiences
and wish l could get a chance to 60
up to the front, also. They surely
are doing things up there these days,
and we are all hoping 1t will mean an
early end of this war. lam most anx
ious to get home and see my family,
for l miss the youngsters very much.
to say nothing of how much | miss