The Monticellonian., 1918-03-08
Troops in France Are Training to the Highest Point
 of Efficiency.
KNOW NO FEAR OF FRITZ
Soldier Writes of Work and Expert ences With Army at the Front Old Regulars to Be Used as
 Crack Units of the Unit
 ed States Forces.

Dear -: This is the first time I have had-or have taken-for letter writing in some days. 1 wrote home, and will devote the rest of the minutes between now and bedtime to long delayed letter to you. 1 only just re turned to my company after being away for q month-in q blamed sight colder place. l had u long and won derful trip, the details of which l can't, of course, recount. Let 1t be men toned, however, that among other things I did was sleep in q real steam heated room, with sheets, five electric lights, all going at once, and bath room. I was a next-door neighbor of Hank Wales, of the l. N. S., who, dis covered, worked in Sacramento, taking the job 1 left when I went to Panama. He knows you, and mentioned that did. but didn't go into any details. My trip, my one night of luxury and Fay reversion to the life of the army have brought d realization of one thing, though:
 To pervert the title and main strain of the latest Broadway and frst-line trench hit. the fun is over, over here. From now on it's business.
 France, to the American soldier, never again will be what it has been. This thought began to formulate itself in the minds of the lucky Americans who came over here in the late sum- mer of 1917. about the time the snow began to fall and the fog to come in from the coast Now 1t has crystalized. The grave, whole-souled, sincere six months welcome of France is over. It was welcome not so much regal as it was genuine-not one such as is spoken at banquet when the mayor turns the hypothetical keys of the city over, but of the man who opens his home and his all and says, not in words, but in deeds, You are one with us what we have Is yours." And for tunate were the Americans who were present at this welcome. The army that comes this year will be welcomed, but not as we were
 No Longer Novelty.
 Not that France has intentionally moderated her tone. There has been q merely natural relaxation, of course. and the "soldat Americaine" now is accepted more as matter of course than as a novelty. But the big factors are that the United States is getting into the war-and it is winter There tf. 1n~ hay no all-night passes, and frequently Sunday is broken by inspection and drills. There is no military permis- sion to visit nearby cities except on business. Visiting of the cafes is per mitted only between noon and 2 D. m. enlisted men. Winter has brought long nights and cold days, its Red Cross sweaters and the r pairs of socks from home, and, incidentally, the keen est appreciation of three fruits of civi- liZation which back home" are such common-places that their existence creates no more thought than the flea on Electors back.
 These are light. heat and water.
 War, and its concomitant economies, cause a step backward In evolution and human progress-superficia at least-and luxuries vanish, one by one, while what, the American of today sub consciously considers as necessities are stinted. An aeon or so ago water and artificial heat and light might have been considered luxury, or dissipa- tion by our developing ancestors. But now they are normally in the class of things we must have. There is, of course, no alarming scarcity of any of these things. Merely conservation.
 Over here we hear that the lights are going out on Broadway, and Dear born street, and Canal street. and Mar ~>~~~~~~-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~