The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1918-09-11
His Scant knowledge of
French Helped Him
When the Train
Got Separated
VILLAGES WELCOME
SOLDATS AMERICANA
Already for the Celebration
of the Fourth of
July

Thro the kindness of Mrs. III. F.
Warren of Lunenburg we are allow
ed to print the following interesting
letter from her nephew, Donald A.
Thomas:
France, Sunday Evening,
June 80, 1918.
Dear ALI:
Well, I've been up there-nearly
to the tront-and | want to put
down all my impressions while they
arc fresh in my mind. | got back
carly in the afternoon and have
spent part of my time cleaning up
ana removing the dirt and dust, and
with a bath and some clean clothes
OH [ feel quite in the mood Ito write
and l only hope l can put on paper
ali that is running in my mind.
It all came about this way; it was
necessary to convoy several cars of
material to a regiment at the front
and l asked for the opportunity to
go. Before I go farther l must ex-
lpIain that practically all shipments
Of whatever nature going towards
the front are conveyed. That is, a
man is sent along with a group Of
cars under his care. Otherwise, due
cars are quite liable to be set off or
TO any one Of a hundred causes, the
delayed. II fact this matter Of con-
voying cars is quite common thing
among the French and it is because
we have found it quite necessary I'M
der the present conditions that we
have adopted the same method. To
ibegin with, as do ali the rest that
&c up, l hauled down my tin hat,
gas mask and gun, rolled up my
blankets and thus equipped I went
down to the yards and got on to my
charges shortly after noon on Fri
day. Trains are made up in the
yards by American crews, but are
taken to their destination by the
| French. Everything must be just SO
before the French will accept. the
train. All clearances must be right,
all loads fastened down, Especially
with references to wagons, etc., on
hats), all tarpaulins securely tied.
might say here that great many
shipments are made in open gon-
dolas which are covered with tar
paulins and lastly but far from least
ali couplings must be screwed up
and the two chains on each car
which serve to hold the train in an
emergency or through failure of the
coupling, must be hooked up. I'm
like the makeup of our trains, there
is a caboose, such as it is, at either
end, that is, one just behind the en-
CINE and one at the end. The con-
ductor stays at the head end. The
iccnductors dress much the same as
a passenger conductor does in the
States with long frock coats with
many buttons, red stripes down their
trousers and the name of the road
deliberately worked into the collar.
And the brakemen are quite as fas-
tidious. They are really quite i'm
portant personages. tell you all
this just by way of contrasting the
French methods and the American
land shall continue to do so as go
or because those things, too, formed
q part of my observations.
Soon we were rolling northward
over a country that I had never seen
Ibefore-a billy region, now fully
clad in it's coat of green, with here
land there a lighter color from the
fields of ripening grain in tho val
lleys. Now we crossed a highway,
one of those white ribbons of. ma
cadam which reach everywhere. Usu-
ally the highway crossings are an
underground OF an overhead one but
when at grade there was always a
gate and this closed, the attendant
living in a nearby house. With
all these provisions and precautions
one can readily understand why it is
that the percentage of grade cross
ing accidents are practically moth
ing.
Gradually the country became
more hilly and rugged and the sur
roundings were such as / know
you've seen pictured often before
little hamlets, clusters of houses and
j, chalets snuggled away on the hill
lIsides, wide level valley skirting the
hills, and swift shallow stream
/, winding and twisting about. 1t
iseemed, too, that never had l seen
: houses so white or roof tiles so red.
The letter UedwinseeETAO
} The beauty of the whole scene was
{ emphasized as the sun sank low in
: the west, the last rays lingering on
the hilltops while below in the valley
, lone could sense certain peaceful
ness that came with the twilight.
Darkness came. Having been as
sured that the caboose which was
next to our cars would go straight
Through, we scattered some hay on
the floor ard spread our blankets.