The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1918-09-12
A Waldo County Boy in
England.

Horace Barker, only son of Mr.. and
Mrs. Charles Atkinson of North Sears
mont, writes home from somewhere in
England under date of August LIST:
! Dear Mother and Alive have landed
safely in England and are now in a rest
camp for awhile.
There was only one day that | was
anywhere near being seasck and then
kept going Before we landed got so
did not notice the rough seas and enjoyed
the latter end of the trip.
The port at which we landed gave us a
great reception, or rather the people did.
They turned out en- maSse and lined the
streets on both sides. We were treated
to soft beer, crackers and cigarettes.
The first march we made was quite
hard on us as we had been so long on
board and did not get much exercise.
This country, or all that have seen of it,
is really wonderful, the land being nearly
level with but few rolling hills and the
valleys have small quiet streams Every
foot of land available is under cultiva-
ton and in pasture. The farms are small
but nearly all taken up with gardens
which are laid out just exact, every row
being as straight as it could possibly be
made.
1t is the latter part of the haying sea-
son here and grain is being cut also.
There is lot of grain raised, rye, wheat,
oats and barley. | noticed that most of
the hay rakes used were of the side de-
livery typ and they leave the hay in
small windows SO that the hay carts
with loader on behind can be run di-
=
everywhere.
The roads are in fine shape, mostly of
stone, but they are narrow and there is
not much traffic over them. The houses
are small and entirely of stone, owing to
the scarcity of wood. In the villages
they are close together and all look alike,
with their red brick and tile chimneys.
The teams are mostly one horse bitches
and the wagons are two wheeled iaunting
cars, but their hayricks are four wheeled
and short bodied.
The railroads are narrow gauge and
the cars and locomotives are small but
make wonderful speed Each car is d.
vided into several compartments, seating
eight people facing front and rear. They
are easy riding and the third class
coaches are nearly as good as our first
class ones. There are tunnels all over
the kingdom, some long and some short,
and where the cars are the only light to
be bad. The weather is warm here, about
like the August weather we have at home.
The women work everywhere and on the
tTains-the trainmen are nearly all boys,
excepting, of course, the engineers, fire.
men, conductors and all responsible off
GERS.
We have good food here. The coffee is
better than that of Camp Devens but
that camp has, of course, more conven-
fences. l changed some money into Eng
lish money to buy a few articles, candy,
ETC., from the Y. M. c. A. canteen and
can now tell the value very readily.
The English money consists of halfpenny,
1 cent; penny, 2 cents; three pence, 8
cents; sixpence, IL cents; shilling, "a
cents; half crown, 90 cents; crown, $1.20;
and sovereign, 90 cents. The French
money will be harder to reckon, think
as it takes centimes to / cent, and SO
on.
We have no less than four BARRIERS and
several would-be BARRIERS in our battery,
so we will be sheared easily enough The
English papers give good accounts of the
Allies, but the British are quite prone to
exaggerate some on their side as are the
Germans for themselves.
These letters that l write for awhile
will have to do for the whole family but
J when get settled down somewhere will
! write to different ones at home. Isuppose