Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1918-06-07
NELSON VAUGHN
WRITES FROM ENGLAND
Pullman Boy Tells of Incidents Con-
corning Pullman Soldiers i'm Let
ter to h. of II. Lodge

Nelson NJ. Vaughn. formerly a
clerical employee at the n. p. station
here, who enlisted, along with num-
Der of other Pullman boys, in the
machine gun company organized at
Spokane, has written an interesting
letter concerning the experiences of
himself and the Pullman men with
whom he is associated to the X. of
p, lodge, of which he is a member,
the communication being sent to the
lodge through Clark S. Nye. En-
tracts from the letter follow:
When We landed in France l
could hardly realize that we were
really in the country that We have
read and heard so much about for
the last few years and | had diff
ferent picture of what it would look
like already framed in my mind.
thought of course it would look as
If it had been through a couple of
earthquakes, volcanoes, etc, since
reading SO much about what the Ger
mans had done to the country, not
thinking that they had not gotten
that far into France. Well, anyway.
it looked to me as if there wasn't any
war over here at all and that we had
come over for sightseeing trip
the last part was soon knocked in the
head. 1t was a very pretty city of
considerable people and everything
was carrying on as if nothing was
happening hundreds of miles back.
Absolutely nothing was in evidence
TO show that war was going on fur
Their west. While our boat was lying
IN the harbor waiting to dock numer-
Gus little row boats would come out
from the shore and beg for money
or eats. Some of the sailors would
throw over white bread in small
pieces and the Frenchman would lab
Der his thanks for half an hour Tor
at least that was what | thought he
was trying to get out of himself), for
you see white bread is indeed a lux
ury to the people of France. Cigar
cites are another thing that they are
particularly fond of, especially the
American cigarettes. To smoke a
French cigarette reminds one of his
first cigar.
we had our small Soldiers and
Sailors French Book and when some
OF us went ashore to handle the bag
gage We proceeded to see if the books
were any good. We soon found out
that the books were all right but
that our pronunciation was not. An
the French kids would help as much
as they could and l have Just now
begun to appreciate the pictures in
magazines of American soldiers try
ing to talk to a pretty French girl
1t makes man wish he had studied
French instead of so much German
we did not stay at this town very
long and soon started west. We
marched to the railroad yards. but I
ala not see any passenger cars. How
ever, we found out that it was box
cars for us. You have read about
the French boxcars so | won't take
up time and paper to tell YOU about
them. They were the same 'Hommes
40 to 46, Chevaux s en- long as Won
nave probably already read about.
In our car there were 46 of US. We
left this town at about 400 o'clock
IN the afternoon and travelled till the
next afternoon. 1t was not very cold
but both of my large toes were fro
zen for a month afterward.
We were soon comfortably stu
ated In good barracks and forgot all
about our trip in the boxcars. Some
OF US were a bit stiff but were other
wise alright.
We soon found out that we were
not on pleasure trip as | spoke Of
before, but that we had come there
to work, and work we did. | can't
say exactly what we were doing. but
take it from me it wasn't as soft as
pounding tickets at the N. p. depot
We soon got used to it though and
we all got fat on it and the good
army chow.
We were in one the prettiest parts
oil France, so the natives told us. but
they might have been real estate
agents for all l know and trying to
sell us piece of France. 1t was a
pretty country and the best weather
ever saw for that time of the wear
believe ii had the Palouse country
beaten.
We stayed there for several
weeks and then received orders 70
move. We made bets as to where
we were likely to go-the trenches
England, italy and all Sor+s oF ,,y,