Daily Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1918-191?, 1918-08-08
Somewhere in France July 9TH.

Dear Mama:
We have done some more travelling
since my last letter and I had good
chance to see some Of the good agri-
cultural districts Of France Our
mode Of transportation was. accord
ing to the manner Of travelling here.
in magnificent palace cars equipped
with two side doors and soft floor
Of pine planks. which afforded excel
lent sleeping quarters. provided you
could stretch out There were so
many in the car though. that is was
difficult TO find a place to sleep and
when you did get settled there was
danger Of being kicked in the eye
with hob-nailed shoe. We had to
detain about one o'clock and hike
several miles up long hills, which are
quite numerous here. | hike the place
fine there are as many conveniences
here as in the camps at homeland
more than in most of them. The
country we passed through coming
here was certainly beautiful. and IL
II were not for seeing so many sol
diers you would never think the coun-
try was at war.
The people gave US n very hearty
welcome all along the way and the
soldiers we saw seemed very glad to
see u. There is. but one man in the
battalion who speaks French and we
kept him busy interpreting for US.
was impressed with the way the
people farm here. You neve rsee
large field Of any certain thing There
is a small patch Of wheat here and
vegetables there and maybe hay be-
tween them. There is no corn or to
bacco here and YOU never see over
an acre Of ground in one certain
thing, The ground seems TO be very
productive though, and ! guess II a
man owns fifty acres he is quite rich
and is considered a big land owner
Our routine Of training is so var
led and we have had so many differ
ent things to do that il is not as
tiresome as ordinary infantry drill.
We do almost anything from dig
ging into solid rock TO running an
Irish monoplane.
The port we are located in is very
convenient and il is so much better
than | was expecting that II seems
like living in a luxurious apartment.
or course the hunks have boards in
the bottoms Of them in place Of the
springs. but when our bed sacks are
filed with hay they sleep like an air
mattress. Water, Of course is
scarce, but we manage to get enough
TO battle quite often.
There are several villages near
here and there is one pretty good
sized town about kilos away. The
villages appear to be very old and all
Of the buildings are made Of stone.
have seen several meats and some
Of them are made through solid rock
and range from 20 TO 30 feet deep,
and fifty TO seventy feet wide. We
had a field day here the Fourth and
we tied another battalion for the ban
ner The tie was played of this
morning and we defeated our oppon-
ents "a to 4. which sounds like a
foot ball score. The different events
Of the day we're: Relay races. 100
yards aud 22Q yard dash. shotput.
tug o war, and baseball game in the
afternoon. There was no eating con
test but IL there had been ! would
have bet Sc to 81 odds on Battalion
G.
Most Of the men wore overeoats
out TO the games. and the weather
felt more like November than July.
We are working pretty hard and
there are 10 many formations TO at
tend that We have no spare time in
the day hardly.
| am getting along fine but have
received no mail yet, and | think
there must have been a wreck some
where. Some Of the men In France
ihough have not heard from home in