Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-06-27

full time. The state rooms were
! lovely, large and airy and the din
ing room and salon were simply
grand. There were seven plate
glass windows four times as large
as the window in the front
of our house. Also plenty OF COM
Portable chairs where one could
lounge all day and watch the
beautiful villages along the banks
of the volga drift by. We lived on
the boat two weeks all together.
We arrived here Saturday night
and found a lot of Y. M. C. A. men
who had rooms reudy for US and
a car chartered to leave today for
Vladivostock. 1t is to be hitched
on to train carrying Bohemian
soldiers who are trying to go to
France to fight. IL will take them
twenty days to reach Vladivostock
because the road is no longer
open through Manchuria. So il
would be two months before we
could reach home and we have
been six weeks coming this far,
l am afraid that you will be
awfully disappointed that we are
not coming with the rest of the
crowd. But if we came it would
mean that Carl would go direct
| ly to the work in France and
would take up some kind of War
work in- the United States. Ever
since we left Alexandropoi I
have been singing to myself, II
am going home, I'm going home, .
but it has always been tinged with
something that wasn't just exact
ly happy note. guess it is be-
cause l can't quite forget that we
have Travelled far and spent a
great deal of money and have
been of so little use. l did not
know how could explain our
home coming even though am
dying for chance to tell you our
experiences. They have certainly
been wild. The hardest of all is
the fast that l have not heard a
word since the 23rd of December
and it may be months before do
here. Sometimes l feel that
can't stand it but do think that
in these times of extreme need,
we must stay on the Job whether
it is entirely to our liking or not.
When the rest OF the party
leave | will be the only American
woman in this part of the world.
But Russian women are very at
tractive and will probably make
some very warm friends among
them shortly.
l will be a Y. M. C. A. Secretary
as we'll as Carl. Both of us will
study Russian for a month and
then do some definite work. Even
this morning Carl had to help to
find food for 800 Roumanian
refugees, so you see he is tax
ing up the work here where he
left off in Alexandropol.
There are lot of Americans
still here. One boy is a frat bro
ther of Curtis Amen. His name is
Gustafson. In another month an
other train load of Americans will
leave for Vladivostock and we can
send more letters directly to you.
That is one advantage of being
on a direct line.
If the work doesn't seem to turn
out TO fit us we might just hap
pen to take the train ourselves,
but have little hopes of that.
Anyway we are lined up with the
Y M. now instead of the Ameri-
can Board, so perhaps you had
better write to headquarters
there and ask them to give you
any information they may have of
US.
We are sending our diary and
a copy of letters we wrote you
from Alexandropol. They will tell
you more fully than | can now
just what we have been doing.
When you have read them as
much as you like send them on to
Carl's family and then they can
be returned to you to keep until
we want them again. We are both
perfectly well and never felt any
better in my life and know we
will be coming home sooner than
if we had gone to Turkey. l am
simply crazy to hear what all Of
the family are doing. And how are
you? think of you every minute
of every day and wonder what you
are doing. Tell every body to write
as the more letters that are sent
the greater the chance to receive
one. The Archangel route is now
open and we will also send letters
that way by Englishmen going
out.
Did Stanton graduate? | am so
Interested to know. We are down
at inc station now to say goodbye