Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1918-12-27


have anything on the bunch that ar
rived in France on the President
Grant on the fourth day of March.
BY 5:O0sthat evening we laid anchor
in the harbor of Brest. Anyone who
has never had a trip like that can not
realize how tiresome it is to be on a
boat and see nothing but water for
is days. OF course, if we had been
on first class liner and had all the
| cOnveniences they have we no doubt
would have enjoyed the trip.
There was no dock at Brest so we
had to so ashore on tug boats. 1t
| took us three days to unload. The
coast cities here are somewhat diff
| ferent than some of our eastern coast
| cities. A person could hardly realize
| that they are so far behind the
| times when 1t comes to modern con-
veniences. Brest is about the same
| size as Spokane. 1t is very busy
place, as many boats land there. 1t
| Is like other coast cities in France,
not a very pretty place. Everything
| around the town is dirty and the peo-
pie are all of a poorer class than
what you see in the cities of the in
terror. ! used to read about the peo-
pie in Holland and their wooden
shoes, but | never expected to see 1t
in France. But at Brest the biggest
share of the people were all wearing
them and | have found it to be the
same wherever | have been-leather
is a very scarce article over here.
We marched through the city of
Brest on our way out to camp and
that was all we saw of it, as we were
only there three days, and during
that time we were not allowed out of
camp.
After our arrival at Brest they de-
cided we had had a pretty hard trip
of it and thought they had ought to
give us a few days rest before send
ing us on. SO they marched us out
to an old fort out of town about
three miles and we stayed there for
three days. VIII have to say that
they have some great ideas of a rest
camp. We slept on wooden floors
all the time we were there and
were not allowed outside the walls of
the camp--it was more of a prison
than a rest camp.
The third morning we got orders
to roll our blanket and get ready to
leave and we were all anxious to
leave. We hadn't the least idea as
to where we were going and we
never did know until we got orders
to get off the train that we were at
our destination. We had another
gentle surprise of our life when we
reached the station ready to leave
Brest. In our trip from Seattle to
New York we had a fine time, all
Pullman coaches, and we enjoyed the
trip very much; but in France, for
Transporting the troops. they use the
slde-door Pullman, more commonly
known as the boXcar. To us it looked
more like a toy train than anything
else. The trains here are much diff
ferent and very small, compared with
ours. On the outside of the boxcars
they had written on the doors eight
horses or 40 men. So we all piled
in. 40 to the car, and were given
three days rations of corn woolley
and hard tack, and started on the
| rest of our journey.
We were all feeling pretty good
so we had lots of fun and really en-
joyed the trip, although don't think
| would care to travel very long that
year. 1t was pretty cold, so we took
| boxes and filled them half full of
cinders and built a smudge to keep
| from freezing. OF course sleeping
| was out of the question and we were
getting pretty well worn out by that
time. too, but we thought we might
| be given an opportunity to rest
| day or two when we reached our des-
| tlnatlon, but such was not the case.
| We went direct to Chaumount. Il
have never been allowed to tell you
| that was there before, but that wal
| where we first landed, and stayed
| there until the time we went to
| Tours, and from there we came to
Bourges, and | hope our next move is
| Tor base port, for | have seen all of
| France | want to see.
| General headquarters was at
| Chaumont and it is a very pretty lit
tie city of about $4,000 population.
| and there was many places of inter-
est to go to while there. You can
look at your map and see where it is
| located We have travelled over a
| large portion of France now and
have seen some very pretty places.
but | have not had the opportunity to
| go to Paris yet, and it looks as
though we would never get there.
and | hate TO think of coming home
without getting to see it. We are
| supposed to get a seyen-days leave
every three months while in foreign
| service, but up to date we haven't
had a day off. And now they are
| rushing things so as to be in shane to
leave, so | doubt very much if we
ever get furlough
The day after we arrived at Chan
mont we were put to work in the Of
nee and have been hitting the ball
ever since, so | figure when | Get
nome | will be entitled to a pretty
good vacation. We stayed at Chau-
mont until the organization got so
'arge they could not accommodate us
there, so We we're sent to Tours. We
spent about three months there and
lhen had to move on to Bourges
where we are now stationed and
imagine we will be here now until
we get ready to leave for the States