The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1918-12-26

/ OCTOBER 31St. This is a much larger
place and is situated in much better
part of France. We are now only a
! few miles from Paris and on the bank
of the Marine River which has be-
come so famous in the history of this
war. Here all of us non commissioned
officers are billeted in very nice lit
tie house which happened to be vacant.
Of course we haven't got beds to
sleep in but we each have a bed-sack
filled with straw so we sleep pretty
comfortably on those anyway. Sew
eral of the rooms have fire places in
them, so. we have means of keeping
warm.
The climate in this country seems
to be very much the same as in Min
nesota, but they have considerably
more rain than we do. 1t is getting
pretty chilly now and there were a
few snow flakes around here the other
day.
The chief industries in the sections
where we have been seem to be dairy
ing and farming. There are couple
of tanneries in this city.
At the place where we were before
coming up here there were an awful
lot of blackberries and there was no
objection to our picking them SO we
had several good black berry "feeds."
Being right in the farming district we
were also allowed to buy milk and
eggs. Milk was about II cents a
quart and eggs were. sold at from 70
cents to $120 a dozen, although the
government had set the price at 70
cents per dozen. A bunch of US boys
use to get together Sunday after
moons and fix up "feed" and we sure
did enjoy them. l don't mean to give
fed enough for on the whole our army
"chow" has been good and we have
had plenty of it as rule. Of course
there have been few times when they
were short of trucks and could not
get the stuff to US so the "chow" was
pretty slim then, but that has been
the exception and not the rule. The
government also keep us we'll sup
piled with clothes so we have no kick
to make.
l was in Paris about ten days ago
so had an opportunity to see some
of the more important places there.
While there / saw great quantity of
captured German war materials.
You might be interested to hear
something about our daily life here.
The bugle blows at six o'clock and we
have to get up right away, as we only
have fifteen minutes to dress in and
get out for revielle. "Chow-call" for
breakfast blows at 7 o'clock. We then
have to clean up our billets and fix up
our beds before drill call which is at
8 o'clock. Then it is drill from 500
to 1870. "Chow-call" blows again at
1900 then drill-call again at LOO. The
afternoon drill period is from 100 to
3:45. We stand retreat at 4:20 and
have supper Immediately afterward.
BY the time we get through with sup
per now it is already dark. "Call-to-
quarters" blows at 9:00sand "taps" at
9:15. We have all got to be in bed
when "taps" sound.
I am company mail orderly and
carrier, so l have to go to the next
city up the line here every day to get
the mail and take up the reports, etc.
Now that the war is over the pop
ular topic for discussion is "when will
we go home?" Before the armstice
was signed we were all trying to
figure out when it would be our turn
to go up to the front lines. AS to
going home there is no telling when
that will be. Some seem to be of the
opinion that we will be leaving here
sometime this month and others think
that we will be here yet the first of
April. l don't think that we will be
here any more than three months
more at the most and certainly hope
that we won't be here that long.
1t is now getting about time for me
to "roll in" so l will have to close.
With best wishes for Merry Christ
mas and Happy and Prosperous New
Year to you and Bohall, and all the
rest of my friends there, l am still
the same old John.
Corp. John H. Hansen,
| Co. G. 158th INIT A. E. F. France.
| Hono m hear from Won soon