The Seattle star. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947, 1918-09-19

The following Is. in part. n highly
interesting letter from First-Class
Private Manuel NJ. Segel. who liz with
the United States Army Base HospI.
tai No so. in France. written TO his
mother and sisters. who live Mt 1915
T.. Alder st:
The ship we were allotted TO was
an English boat which used to run
between England and India as n
freighter. Some one. | recently
heard. when he wrote home about his
trip across and the boat he was in.
stated that both were 'indescrib-
able That's the word. all right
It is very applicable. but ! can't tell
you very much more about IL. How
ever. I'll mention a few things.
Two features of the life on board,
IL they were not kind OF ludicrous.
would be rather very Objectionable.
and they were the various restric.
tons and the eternal standing In
line. There were a great many
places on board ship where one was
not to go--certain stsirways were
designated to ascend-and to descend
and guards were stationed every.
where, eternally crying: You can't
go there You can't come here Get
off OF there Get out OF here. Get
off that hatch, etc. so much that
some OF the fellows put the above
phrases to the tune over There and
were singing IL all the time. Try II.
And then the standing in line, To
eat, to get away after you were thru,
TO wash your dishes. TO wash up.
and even to obtain n drink OF water.
you had to stand in line: practically
the whole day was spent so. The
rest OF the day was spent in looking
over the rail. However. nothing
went over the rail as regards myself
i was fortunate enough TO weather
II out fine. altho we had a very
smooth voyage over.
otherwise our trip across was not
entirely devoid Of excitement. We
had our encounter-and we're here
and they aren't! Talk about excite.
ment! l wish l could tell you. but
I'll do that when I'm able.
Finally. after 10 days on board
ship. 1t taking IS days to cross the
sea, we landed in England and hiked
right from the dock quite a ways to
what was called a rest camp. Alto.
gether. before we reached our final
destination. we hit three of these
camps. but our experiences in them
led us to christen them rush camps,
which is more applicable.
Girl Halls "Chicksn-
ION this hike we encountered n
great many English people as we
marched by and they were wildly
applauding and cheering us ut every
step. Many OF them were singing,
and the popular song. queer to note.
was over There Most OF the kids
didn't know all the words, so all they
were singing was The Yanks are
coming repeated over and over
again. Some OF the girls had already
acquired some American expressions,
and as we were passing by one called
out, Hello. chicken / don't think
she was talking to me. However.
will say that neither the English nor
the French compare, as a whole.
with the Americans, in my estima-
ton. / hate us. don't /?
From the rest camp we Travelled
thru England by train for eight
hours during the best part of the day
In comfortable but very queer side
door Pullmans.' They are made up
of compartments that can hold eight
people to the compartment, and to
inside passage thru them, so each
compartment was separate. One of
our freight cars will lose about ten
of theirs in one corner and never no.
tice it, and everything seemed SO old.
fashioned and puny.
Our route lay thru n beautiful,
fertile green country, all cultivated,
and laid off by stone fences. Every.
thing Is built OF stone in England.
for wood Is very scarce, and we
passed towns and villages that look
ed like veritable brick piles. These
little villages were the only places
In which there seemed to be more
kids than in the East of the States
Our stay in England was very inter.
esting, but as you now know, our
destination was France.
THE trip across the channel was
very interesting. l had so often
read Of 1t and heard OF IL so much
that ] was on the alert every min
ute. AS we left England behind, the
scenery was very beautiful. low,