The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-09-24
CUSTOMS IN FRANCE.
Of Them Homer Bassett Writes in Lat
est Letter to Parents.

est LeIter TO PARENTS.
From her son, Pvt. Homer L. Bassett,
Mrs. H. S. Bassett of Fairview street
has received the following letter, dated
Aug. 20:
1T has been some time since wrote
you, but I've been very busy. We have
been getting up by turns every other
morning at 5 a. m. and the other 5;45
a. m. All day long it is run first to the
store, then to the battery, for provisions,
and most Of the other time we spend
cooking meals As supper is served late,
we have no evenings to ourselves and
it is naturally rather hard to get time
to write.
First, | suppose you want to know
Am | well?' Yes.
1--WE are not yet in training camp,
but they are drilling ON the guns and
with gas masks. As soon as we 20 to a
training camp, imagine we will get fir
ing practice.
MANY of the people here wear wood
en- shoes. Others wear some made of
cloth tops and sole of braided grass or
straw. Black is worn a great deal Ser
wants wear sort of black kimona in
some instances and children almost al
ways. Even boys of 10 or IL wear them
outside their trousers and shirt. Many
go barefoot The girls are all friendly
and although I've had lots Of chances
to get married / haven't considered any
of them seriously yet.
"The tools and implements here are
all quite crude. tSept. l, 1919 I've seen
moving machine of American make
on the estate where we are camped, but
the other haying tools are domestic man
ufaeture and good enough. Most Of their
shovels are very clumsy and their
scythes are something I should hate to
have to use. They are short and broad
of blade and the snaths very little bend.
As for hoes, haven't seen anything like
one.
"They grow immense quantities of
grapes over here and little else. Pears,
peaches and plums think are shipped in
for the most part. Apples, am told,
were spoiled by the frost this year. They
have small quantities of snow here in
winter and one fellow told me this was
about the same latitude as New York
City and New Jersey.
"The houses are all cement or stone
and their outside walls are about Is
inches thick in some instances. The poor
er class of people have their stable in
the same building as the house, but
doubtless the thick wall eliminates part
of the bad odor. The castle here does
not resemble pictures have seen of
them, but the real castle may have
burned down, as | thought they tried
to tell me. The buildings are around a
rectangular court as Roman history de-
seribes castles of those days. Part shell
tiers the family of the owner. Other
compartments, in one of which | am
cooking, are designed for the servants
The rest consists Of stables and store.
rooms. There are few buildings of more
than one story and / don't think they
know what a cellar is.
Il believe / wrote that all carts are
two wheeled and horses driven tandem
if the load requires 1t. This is true of
all saw of England and France. There
are no oxen in this particular section.
but they fasten some beams onto the
collars of pair of mules and drive them
much after the manner of steers. A
pony, donkey or burro is to be seen. oft
en-, but for the most part there are good
big Percheron horses. Most cows / have
seen here were Holsteins, but from the
train coming here / saw Jerseys and
some red breed. They have some Jer.
sey eoored oxen of immense size, but
perfectly docile. In England there were
lot Of red cattle, but some Holsteins.
o+s of haaf xyras IN ba sanp and errao#
number of sheep. I've seen few sheep
and not many goats in France so far
and what pigs have seen are Of the
bacon type from an American stand
point
"Tell Dad have seen nobody keeping
honey bees, but saw some honey and a
few bees yesterday. Homer"