Williams news., 1918-12-06
LIEUT.. ..EH.. DUFF|ELD
 WRITES FROM FRANCE

France, II, 1-1S Dr. P. A. Melick,
 Williams, Arizona.
 Dear Sir and Friend:
 had a German private's can which I picked up at a re- gently mopped up machine gun nest which I was going to send you as a souvenir but on my way back to camp our engine turned over and 1 had to leave it behind me, but l will try again. May get something of more value next time.
 We have been trying out the German narrow gauge tracks that had been taken away from them, and had gotten clear across their narrow gauge area to the beginning o their standard gauge and had done quite we'll and it was we'll back on our return that the turn over occurred. This was the second place that we had followed drive across No-man's land and beyond.
 In some places No-man's Land is narrow and other plac- es it is several miles across, all depending upon the amount of movement and fighting. Some quiet places show very little shell fire and others are turned and returned for fifteen to twenty feet deep for miles. Forests are torn out roots and all and all shot to splinters; solid rock pulverized to similar depths; gas mains and tanks torn out and blown to bits half inch shut steel twisted and cut; masses of barbed wire twisted and torn and retwisted and then buried; iron catch hooks protruding; unburied Germans here and there-one dug out had probably 50, the result Of our hand grenades and shell fire: shell holes overlapping mostly. three to five feet deep but once in awhile large one, say thirty feet across and twen- ty feet deep; many of the holes now partly full of water from recent rains.
 We have plenty of the best of food to eat and plenty of good warm clothes to weal. Health is generally quite good. The French treat us very we'll and seem to think that the war is as good as won. I doubt very much that the fight is over. It seems to me the Germans are playing for time and opportun- ity to move back and form new positions and continue the struggle. It appears that they have nothing more to lose and might gain should the Allies become estranged.
 Paris is a nice place but all very much alike and the build ings are connected and of the same height, of the same gray rock, same design, mostly seven small stories high. Very little or no paint, streets nearly all narrow and crooked, stores small cramped, crooked and poorly lighted, but after all one must remember that Paris is very old city and was a city long before modern times. The things beautiful are of ancient and medieval times and have historical value rather than modern one.
 The country is small. Rivers are narrow. canals narrow. The Marne at Chateau Thiery is not over 100 feet across. The coun- try is rolling with wooded patches along the steep sides where side washing might oc- cur. The hills are big in small way, not as high as the range east of Williams but lower and more rolling. Still it would be quite a job to get up some of the steep sides if a bunch of guns were splitting down at you.
 We'll, Dr. you can judge what the narrow gauge railroad is intended for-to haul stuff right up toward the front. Some times we go right there and some times we deliver our cars well back all owing to needs. One night 1 wanted to unload some trench material on both sides of the car and could not understand why not until was