The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1918-11-22

Anyway they take care of it and have,
! as a result, wonderfully fertile lands.
Now you must not get the idea
that because these people live in the
barn, or keep the stock in the house,
which ever you prefer, that their
homes are not nice and clean. They
are wonderful housekeepers, with the
cleanest floors and walls, and the
snowiest curtains at the windows you
ever saw. Bedsteads, wardrobes,
and chests of fine carved woods. They
have books and papers on the walls,
many nice pictures, copies of famous
paintings, and everything about the
house is arranged with perfect taste.
l have been "billetted" with Fren-
CHI families and they have treated me
as nice as they knew how, and that
is saying lot because it is instinc-
tive with the French to be polite.
/ get my meals at the officers mess,
but these pleople would insist of a
morning that l have a bowl of hot
milk, off the stove, with tiny bit of
sugar and loaf bread. (It's good, try
IT'D Or a cup of coffee with bread
and preserves. They will not ac-
cept any pay for the room or what |
eat. At night before going to bed
they very often ask me to join them
in a pie and some wine. They all
drink wine which is usually light, or
without "kick." 1t is a part of the
regular meal
Worlds of grapes are grown, and
of course, lots of wine is made. The
vines are hanging with grapes now
They don't have any trouble with
them rotting, like you do back there
in the States. l must tell you they
have roads of stone which are as near
perfect as can be built. Alon" ~
way each side of the roads are rows
of fine trees, with the branches lap
ping over the road A Frenchman,
as we'll as an Englishman, has great
love for trees. The woods are so
thick you can hardly get through
them, but not a twig is allowed to
waste. Everything is saved for fuel,
No one here ever heard of burning
a brush heap.
Fuel is very precious here now.
No coal for fuel purposes to be had
for any price. They have just enough
wood for cooking. 1t is cold and
raining, but l haven't seen fire. |
am anxious to get into the dugouts
about next-because they are warm.
Please don't judge the officers and
men over here by the stories of the
environments back there. l can hon
estly say that I doubt if the people
back there on an average are living
as clean lives as the soldiers are here,
and that means both officers and men.
| know whereof / speak. They may
drink a little of this wine, but every
body does, and they don't get drunk.
Some Of them may swear but no more
than back there. This gang is over
here for business, and they are going
after it in a determined, business
like manner. The temptations are
many in a great city like Paris, as
we'll as New York, but away out
here nothing but work. The officers
and men in the regiment to which l
am attached are from the northwest
and are as fine a bunch of fellows as
| ever saw. They treat me nice and
do anything l want done. Of course
it is nv business to do all that l can
for them, and | find there are many
things I can do. I am on the job by
my lone self as far as the Y. M. e. A.
goes. / expected to be a part of
local organization, but instead, l am
part of a very inadequate divi-
sional organization. do my best to
supply the men with paper and en-
velopes. I've had no paper for
week nor envelopes for two weeks;
l can't get them No other source OF
supply. They want to write letters
home and it looks hard that they
can't. When | can get them | have
for the men cigars, cigarettes, tobac-
co, gum, shaving soap, razor blades,
matches, cookies, candy, etc. How
we all do want candy, and its the
hardest thing of all to get. Lack OF
TRANSPORTATION is the main reason we
can't get these things. When l have
them I sell for a little more than
half the price back there. This, of
course, is by government arrange
ment, and the people back there by
their contributions pay the expense
of handling and getting the things
here. While l am writing would
like to nail another popular lie that
was current back there before l left.
That is that the soldiers over here
are living high on the fat of the land,
and wasting quantities of good food:
All wrong. l haven't seen piece OF
white bread since l left the ship at
Liverpool. It's dark and SO scarce
that we have gone for three days at
a time on "hard tack" Sometimes
we have sugar for the cuffee, when
we happen to have coffee. Sometimes
we have beef or pork, but more often
we have canned meats. We have
sirup sometimes, but butter is a
dream. If it wasn't for the French
vooetables | don't know what we
would do. With all of this, these
fine soldier boys, who have always