The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-03-14

I.
t Letters From and Abosi Soldiers /
The following arcticle, taken from
the Boise, Ida, Statesman, tells of
Col. l.. K. Holbrook. brother Of Mrs.
George Galloway:
Mrs. L. X. Holbrook has recently
received series of photographs of her
husband, Colonel Holbrook. and his
regiment. taken upon their arrival in
France, sent her through the courtesy
of Harris Dickson, the war CORES
pondent tor Golfers. who accompan
led her husbands regiment, the Sew
enth artillery, L. S. A.. and who has
recently returned to the United States.
one of his articles having appeared al
ready in the magazines.
One of the pictures represents the
colonel alighting from an airplane. All
the officers of the regiments, the
colonel writes, are obliged to make one
flight day, with pilot, in order to
accustom themselves to making obser-
vations of the enemy. A French pilot
accompanied Col. Holbrook in all of
his flights, he wrote.
In letter written on Thanksgiving
day the colonel says
I'VE had very bountiful dinner to-
day. Uncle Sammy sent turkeys and
cranberries for all the soldiers almost,
but incidentally we had geese in our
regiment. Unfortunately about half
of them were spoiled, but we had
plenty to eat, all the same, and al
though we could hear the intermittent
laundering of cannon and beyond the
horizon, all was calm and peaceful
chez nous.
when | returned home tonight |
heard many of the men singing IN
their billets and in the cafes, but all in
good order, and was glad they were
SO happy. My regiment has behaved
SO beautifully in all the billets we
have been in that | almost hate to
speak about it without striking wood,
for the boys (and they are boys) cant
always be So good. They have helped
the old people thresh out their grain,
always with fails and hand power ma
chimes, split and pile their little stores
VI WOou lOl llC RuI away IAiNii
vegetables and haul the manure from
the streets.
'ln this way we have always gotten
in the good graces of the inhabitants,
and they have always expressed great
regret when we have left, although
they looked at us with mistrust upon
arrival. Inhabitants have told me that
nv solderis have acted better than the
French, and since arrival at my winter
billets we have had but one single case
of drunken, disorderly solder, and
he was an old offender that | canned at
once.
Yesterday | move out Of my bat
taions to another town farther away,
the town formerly occupied being so
filthy and unsamtary that 1t was con-
demned. The creolin placed in latrines
spoiled the drinking water in the
wells, so goes the native complaint,
and the water test was something aW-
full. But somehow We pulled through
and have had no serious results from
the bad water. We don't boil it. but
put tubes OF chlorine in it, which is
said to be perfectly effective. The
new town is much cleaner than the old
one, wider and less muddy streets. and
more room for men and animals.
Tell the boys that many of the
French children. many of them small
ler than Roy, are taking the places of
men in this war. Many a night at
dusk, in returning to my billets, have
seen these poor little fellows standing
in the cold rain, herding the sheep and
cattle to the last minute of day light
before driving them home for the
night. At railroad crossings little fel.
lows smaller than Roy take charge of
the gates and close them for protec-
tion against passing trains, and hold
the responsible positions of their faith
ers. who are at the front
''In the camoufage factories their
nimble fingers tie the bands of grass
about the chicken wire and carry ma
terials as busily as bees in hive. By
the way, the grass | tied the Christ
mas packages with is 'camout1age
grass, in reality strips of palm leaves
imported from Madagascar and dyed to
| correspond to the several colors Of the
| ground. Thousands of women work as
| have never seen human beings work
| before, painting canvas, etc, about
| which | will tell you when ! get home,
! but the tricks of camoufiage are be-
yond anything you can imagine and /
am hardly at liberty to say anything
about this work. Every where we see
the sign of caution, 'Taisez Vous.
| Mefez Vous. Les Oreilles des ennemi's S
vous ecoutent The Boche spy sys-
TEN, even here, is really remarkable,
and the above sign is good caution.
ary measure.
| at is nearly midnight, and | must
close, as ! require every officer to be
early in the saddle. am putting the
screws down tight, and every man will
at least take home the remembrance
| that he once served in the Seventh
and that the old man led them mer-
ry chase.
| In his Christmas letter the colonel
says;
MY command is in three towns,
and between times have attended the
early Christmas trees that we got ur
for the poor little refugee children and
| for the others here, and we gave them
| the most happy Christmas they prob
ably have ever known. In this towr
| we spent at least 1000 francs on about
60 children, giving them shoes ano
lsweaters and sabots, IN addition t
candies, nuts, etc.
'The Christmas tree was placed ou
! in front of the church, and the village
cure handed out the presents. Tht
band played, we did few stunts, anC
a little boy delivered recitation, o.
which | will send you copy, and tt
which | replied in my best French.
81 visited my far away battalion
today, and was present for the Christ
mas tree, which was even more elab
crate than here. A little French cir
: about nine years old recited. and agail
mon colonel had to respond.
: "Never in this world will these poo
little children forget the Christmas VI
. gave them. Officers and enlisted mel
contributed literally, and did every
thing to make the affairs success an,
1.-The hne feeling produced cannot b