Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-08-10
With Islanders
In the Service
France as a Country.

James A. Ives, formerly of Rock
( Island, writes an interesting let
/ ter to his sister, Mrs. a. a. Eli
| son, 624 Thirty eighth street, tell
| ing of the country in France. Mr..
! Ives was for Is years an engineer
/ on the Rock Island road between
Rock Island and Des Moines. He
| enlisted in Des Moines and Is with
| the engineers corps in the Ameri-
can expeditionary forces. The let
ter, which is appended, was writ
ten shortly after his arrival over
seas and is the first that has come
to his sister and parents in this
city. He writes under date OF July
2:
Il landed here after fine trip
across the ocean and expect to be
settled and at work soon. The trip
on the water as well as in France
was wonderful and interesting. We
had no bad weather and after few
days out we got tired and wished
for a little excitement, but had
none. We saw some large fish and
turtles, also some whales spouting
water in the air.
This is pretty country, but
so far behind the times. Every
thing is very ancient, although the
houses are very pretty. All have
tile or slate shingles and are built
of stone or smooth plaster. The
houses and barns are one contin-
uous building, the barn being at the
back or on one side if facing the
road All that l have been in have
square red tile for floors, beamed
ceilings of large timbers, the side
walls are plastered like ours. They
all have large fireplaces and DO
some cooking there. There are the
most beautiful andirons, old style
and made of good metal. On one
pair was shown the bust of wom-
an and on another there was an
old castle. The cook stoves and
ranges are like ours and shine, but
| can't say the houses look clean.
They make good bread of potatoes,
corn meal and flour, large round
loaves with thick crust. The peo-
pie are allowed only so much flour
and get very little meat. They also
make a fine cheese of goats milk,
there being lots of mich goats here.
Everybody has plenty, but every
thing is sour because there is prac-
tically no sugar to be had; candy is
almost out of the question.
THE farm machinery is joke
for most hay and grain is cut by
scythe and raked by hand. have
seen only two One-horse mowers
and one hayrack since l came. No
corn is grown around here. l have
seen some fine gardens in which
grow carrots, potatoes, beans and
most vegetables that grow. Every
body has enough grapes for their
own use and some make wine to
sell at 80 cents a bottle. The beer
is fine and with anywhere near
good sense, no one will get drunk.
In fact, you don't see any one
drunk here. Very few men are
around, the women do all the work.
No autos are used except for mill
tary purposes. Every one has a
horse and dog cart. No four wheel
ed wagons are used, all are carts
and they haul about as much on
them with one horse as we do with
two. It's a trick to load one and
get it balanced evenly on two wheels.
A load of hay and loose looks as
A load of hay and loosen looks as
large as it does in the states, and
pony or donkey pulls it along.
All roads are good rock ballast and
have hardly any ruts and bumps.
Farms are small and all fences are
rock l have not seen a wire fence
on farm yet All stock is herded
or stall fed, so no fences are need