Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1918-08-28
CLAIRE THORPE
WRITES FROM FRANCE
MEMBER OF MACHINE GUN COM.
-spANY TELLS OF HIS EXPER.
.{|stt,- FENCES IN FRANCE.
FRANCE A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY

FRANCE A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY
People of France Conserve Forests
| J. COmmends Work Of Salvation
Army and Y. NJ. G. A.
Corporal Claire Thorpe, member OF
machine gun battalion, Somewhere
in France" writes his parents as fol-
lows:
II have moved from my last camp
and at present, I am located in fine
forest. I can hear the roar of the
guns every night. The past two days
have been extremely hot, the nights
cool.
ION the 4th of July, the French
soldiers decorated the camp very
artistically with flowers, flags and
branches of trees. They made a
wreath with the following inscription:
Yive la Wilson, also great many
others. "
In the morning, the battalion .sld
a field meet, consisting of running
races, tug of war, mule race and a
baseball game. Our company was for
tunate enough to win the majority of
the prizes.
I'VE had a big dinner that day, con-
sisting of roast beef, mashed potatoes
with gravy, corn, lettuce salad, straw
berries, bread, beer and coffee. The
French people are very loyal toward
the Sammies and certainly show their
patriotic spirit. ..
ION the 14th Of July, we helped the
French celebrate the day of Indepen-
dence. Well, we decorated the place
lup in great shape. In the afternoon
went by foot to small city about
four miles away to celebrate or rather
to see how the French celebrated. Be-
i ing at war, no demonstrations were
made more than decorating with the
French and American flags.
France is a beautiful country and
think l have right to say this as
I have seen more of it than you would
imagine. The country is very rolling,
and through each valley is a small
stream, railroad and roads. On the
steep hills or mountains are very
dense forests. AS I understand it, the
| people Of France are not allowed
| to cut down tree without permission
of the government. The result is that
the forests and groves are beautiful
The people gather branches, such as
we burn up. and tie them in bundles
for winter USE Coal, l understand
| is very expensive and in certain Sec
tions it is almost impossible to buy
it.. 1t seems rather strange to buy
little bundles of wood for the kitchen
'The villages or towns are very
close together-say about one-half to
! to mile apart OF course, here every
place is so many kilos away, as they
use the metric system. The peasants
live in the villages and towns. have
mt seen farm house by itself, such
as we have in dear old Iowa. All
the houses and barns join, usually
being built in U or L shape, the
house being back from the road with
all the barnyard animals and imple-
ments' in front. Along the road is a
solid brick wall and heavy iron gates.
Perhaps you can't picture this scene,
but you will agree with me that the
people have not progressed, merely
using the same methods as their
Sanitary conditions are very poor,
in fact, I don't see how they live.
I have been in a great many towns
and small cities and have never seen
what even looked like new building.
For this reason it is very common to
see buildings a thousand years old.
/ have in mind one cathedral built in
the year 500. I think this is what the
tourists come over for. Electric
lights and telephones are not COM
mon, only found in places the size
Of home.
cat the present camp we have a
Salvation Army tent and two
| Y. NJ G. A tents very near. 1t is
surely pleasure to go in one Of these
+places and buy can of JAM baked
beans, peaches or chocolate. They
certainly are doing a great work and
the prices charged are less in great
many instances than in the U. S. OF
course, the French people have been
charging us enough for preserves and
candy, due to the fact that some of our
soldiers want to throw their money
away and they are taking advantage
| of it.
II forgot to tell you had some trou-
BILE with creeping freckles Qice) about
three weeks ago Big chump, Ididnt
know what they were. Believe me,
lit didn't take long to get rid of them.
l have my hair cut off close to keep
them off.
81 am feeling fine. I haven't been
sick since leaving the U. S. At pres
[ent, am acting supply sergeant.
The work is rather hard as l have to
look out for 172 men with clothes
and equipment.
Send the home papers as they
come through O. X"
LIMITED SERVICE MEN HOLD
YOURSELVES IN READINESS.