The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-11-29
FROM CAPT. w. L. HEMPHILL.
He Writes Mother of the Pleasures of Army Life-Coee
Without susar-He Look. at Their Teeth-The English
Channel a Nshtmare-No Trouble to Make Love to the
French Girls, Everybody Being Wiling-A French
Bed Conducise to Psty-Through Paris With
tho Colonel.

The roads here are unusually
good: The Routes Nationales are
beautiful. These radiate from Paris
to, and connect up with each other,
the important cities Of the Repub-
hque. There are enough Of these to
reach around the earth at the equa-
tor, 1900 miles.
Next are the Routes Department
tales County Roads) which are the
roads which radiate from the differ
ent county seats, or "Chiefs-lieux".
There are 1880 miles Of these.
Then there are second class county
roads-village roads, and farm roads.
An auto trip over France in peace
time certainly would be wonder
full experience.
! Nearly every letter I have to CEN
sor describes the French railways
and trains as dimihutive and play
thing affairs. True, the rolling stock
Il. lighter than. ours and the engines
have no cow-catchers nor bells and
the whistles remind one somewhat of
the whistle on a street corner pop
corn roaster, but for all that they
do the work and do it very efficiently
too, which: in the end Is all that
counts. The roadbeds are good,
safety devices numerous, the guage
broader than ours, and wrecks al
most unknown. The trains here are
very fast-ride easily and In first
,(they have LIST, End, and 3rd) class
at least are comfortable. The year
bkfors the war the railroads Of
Trance carried 425 millions Of pas
sengers or 1887 per mile. The sta
tions are all very pretty with fow-
ers; hedges and trees. They remind
me Of the Pennsylvania stations and
are always fenced in and your ticket
is punched az you enter. It is taken
up as you leave the station Of your
destination. The conductor does not
come around and punch it enroute.
One Of the ieutenants said to me
when I arrived from Paris: "Say, you
don't mean to tell me you actually
paid for a ticket, do you?" I sup
pose it really wouldn't be difficult to
ride without paying.
The express trains have diners on
them. They serve a regular table
d'hote dinner which with wine costs
about $500. You are served by
women.
Some of the fast trains have sleep
ing cars. They have also an ar
rangement called couchettes (from
coucher to sleep). They are some
what like our reclining chair cars.
I haven't tried either of these yet.
We get the military rate which is
about cent a mile in first Gloss.
The women over here are wonder
full. The younger ones are stylish,
7retty and charming. Almost all Of
the work formerly done by the male
population is now being done by the
female population. And they are
doing it well too. You see them as
street car conductors, baggage
smashers, taxi drivers bartenders,
and farmers. They certainly love
the American soldier-and judging
from what I see and hear-the Am
erican soldier doesn't let anybody
outdo him.
AS for my French. Well, I am get
ting along fine. I can talk to them,
joke with them and even make love
to them. We get the French papers
in the morning and the Colonel usu-
ally sends for me to read it to him.
In the evening we get the English
papers-The Paris editions of the
New York Herald, The Chicago Tri-
bune and the London Daily Mail.
They consist usually of one sheet
only, printed on both sides, Of
course, and cost 4 cents in our
money.
The money over here you know is
the franc. 1t is divided into 100
centimes pronounced Sahn-teem)
The smallest piece Of money tho is
the S centime piece called "sou"