Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-04-26
. GLIMPSE
OF FRANCE
Clarence and Robert Yeager Get Their
First Glimpse of France and Con-
ditiOns in That COuntry-Mrs. John
Jacob Astor Enjoys Their Cornet
Playing-Ready For Other Trips.

Mr.. and Mrs. Charles Yeager were
very agreeably surprised last Satur-
day afternoon by receiving a tele-
gram from their sons, Clarence and
Robert, announcing their arrival in
New York safe and sound, after a
trip to France.
On Tuesday morning they received
a letter written by Clarence in which
some interesting details of their trip
are given.
The many friends of the Yeager
brothers, Clarence and Robert, who
are now rated as first class musicians
in the U. S. Navy, and are assigned
to service on the US. ships that are
now making trips across the Allan
tic, will be interested in the follow
ing excerpts from the letter, that is
worth many times it's weight in gold
to Mr.. and Mrs. Yeager.
Clarence writes:
We pulled into New York this
morning about $50; believe me, it
seemed pretty good to get back in
the old U. S. A. again after being
away little over three weeks.
They were nine days in making the
trip over, and made the return trip
in few hours less than eight days,
remaining in France five days.
They encountered no. trouble on
either the outgoing or return voy-
age, and they have the highest re-
spect for the U. S. Torpedo Boat
Destroyers which conveyed them
through the danger zone, expressing
the opinion that these destroyers
'have the U-boats scared out. u
Neither of the boys was seasick, al
though they encountered some rough
weather, when the waves washed over
the bow of the ship, rising 20 feet
above the bow, and as the bow OF
the ship lay 20 feet above the level
of the sea, one can imagine they
were some waves.
During their five days stay il
France the boys had shore liberty one
day from 9 a. m. to $50 p. M, anc
they improved the day by looking
, about this place somewhere il
France" which presented many inter
esting sights to these Wauseon boy!
l marrow streets and castle built o!
Julius Caesar but what impressed
them most were the people they saw
business: Women as street car con
ductors, and in the markets ant
stores; of men
you see nothing but soldiers AM
sailors some with arms gone
some with heads bandaged other
mutilated in other ways-they hav
been in the thick of the fight; onl
old men in civilian clothes, and i
| the stores only men to old to fight
| Believe me, if people in this coun
try could only see conditions owe
there they would begin to realiz
| what war really is.
Clarence writes of purchasing som
souvenir rings made of metal frol
captured Zeppelins and German all
| planes; also of sending home souve
mir post cards and obtaining som
French money.
III Another shore leave was given whe
members of the ships company CAV
| minstrel show in which the Yeage
Brothers are mentioned on the pre-
| gram as cornetists. A copy of til
program was inclosed in the lette
and Clarence writes of it:
III At the end of the program Rot
| ert and l stood alone and playe
| the "Star Spangled Banner" Mr.
L John Jacob Astor, who was ther
came up and complimented US, e:
| pecially on the way we played tn;
| piece.
l The letter tells something of tt
daily routine of duties aboard ship
rehearsals in the forenoons and hal
hour concerts; hour concerts evel
evening, except when in the dang
zone, when the concerts come in tt
afternoon and all is dark aboa
ship after sunset.
The letter closes with the follow
ing note of concern for the mothe
Don't worry, because we will
all right and are both well al
happy. We are seeing things nc
that we can talk about after t
war, whereas, if we stayed at Gre
Lakes, we couldn't.
When the next trip will be,
course the boys do not know, b
there are likely to be many of the
from this time on.