Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1918-03-07
MORE NEWS FROM FRANCE

Somewhere in France.
January 81, 1918.
Dear Sister:
received your letter of the 3rd of
mail have received from home since
left the states. I was amused when
you said you thought-I never would
leave Frisco and again you probably
had no idea I would be in France
when / received it nevertheless / am
over here. 1t certainly is a great
place and is a great deal different
than 1 imagined it to be.
will tell you about our trip over
here or as much as I am allowed too.
We left Frisco the last of November
and travelled nearly a month contin-
ually Our trip across the states
which took eight days was not very
exciting. We were in Camp Merritt
for four days and the rest of. our
trip was on the water. All that should
occur did on the boat guess anyway
we were all sea sick for a couple of
days. Then we were transferred to a
freight train and we took box car
ride for two days and two nights and
if I ever was miserable in my life
am willing to give up. Believe me,
but we all marked time, the contin-
uous time, its a wonder we didn't
freeze as it was about 10 below zero
and no fire what ever. We unloaded
in a town in France and walked about
5 miles to our Fort where we remain
ed for three weeks, after digging a
few trenches we were loaded up again
for a nights ride for another part of
France and we have a much better
place here, about all the accom-
modations we lack is a place to bath,
from the looks of things a person
would imagine the French soldiers
never take bath. But they have diff
ferent methods than we do. 1 have
seen no shower baths in France and
another thing that is lacking is hot
water, outside of these things we fare
very well.
We have very little time to loaf
now as our time is all taken up in
drilling We have to walk about three
miles to drill every morning and get
back by noon and then we have
school in the afternoon so you see we
have very little time for play and
some of our spare time we spend in
trying to master the French language.
It's great sport to talk it and then
the French people are just as eager
to learn our language. We run across
lots of people who can speak English
that is they have been to England
and they can't imagine our language
is the same, but we manage to get
along very well.
Everything is very scarce here.
You can't buy tobacco or cigarettes
at all, that is American tobacco.
French tobacco can be had but after
we smoke it we are ready for a sleep.
1t is so strong it nearly walks. Lux
uries can not be bought to any ex-
tent in the small towns. suppose
if a person went to Paris they could
be bought but the American soldiers
are all restricted from there of course
with permit from the commanding
officer you can get pass. I expect to
see Paris before I leave for the
states You probably will see by the
paper that an airoplane raid was
made on Paris the 30th. might say
wasn't over a thousand miles from
there
We are all very anxious to get
busy and bring down a few Hun
planes, but we will probably get our
chance before many months. The
anti aircraft is fine branch of SER
vice and / am not sorry that made
the transfer, but Of course it would