Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 19??-1918, 1918-07-29
SOLDIER LETTERS
June aa. 1915

June 22. is1,
Dear Mothers
received letter from you y,
viii answer without any delay. Tn,
more letters write the more let
ters | will receive. and a soldier II
France knows what letters from
home mean TO him. | shall try I,
describe some Of my trips In thI
part OF the world. which think vii
interest you, though my descrip
tive ability is very poor.
We landed in certain port not
great way from England. across tn,
channel. and after we disembarke,
we were loaded on a train, and no
much OF train. as II seemed to III
then. but we are used TO such thing
now. The coaches. second class, ar,
divided into compartments. some o
four and some OF more. dependini
upon the size OF the car. We wer,
divided off and eight men In eacl
compartment. OF course we wer,
not In a comfortable position by an,
means. To show you the crsmpet
position we we're In Is almost i'm
possible. but anyhow we all had I,
stand up until the whole bunch oI
eight men were In and then all sl
down together: we almost had I,
do this to get a seat. We travele.
most OF an afternoon and all nigh
that way until we we're unloaded and
then we marched in formation thre,
miles to our first camp In France
We stayed there. doing pick ant
shovel work for about two weeks
which seemed hard then, but now. 4
would be easy compared to what W,
have had since then.
After leaving there we travelled In
box cars which had printed on tn,
sides. rs horses or 40 men," w,
wern't hardly as cramped on .hii
trip as on the other. but II was YER,
tiresome before We arrived at oul
next camp, which so far has beer
our best camp In France. We are
camped In the outskirts OF a small
city which is very interesting In tn,
way Of relics and buildings OF Caes
ar's time. II Is said that We are
camped on the old camping grount
OF Caesars army. which may b,
true from what I've read OF the his
tory Of this country visited {
cathedral I'm this place and II GER
tainly Is a wonderful building. The,
started this building In 500. and I
small part OF It was built then, bu
later. about the 18th century. q
larger part was added to 1t. The
carvings are certainly wonderful or
the outside as well as the inside.
Another building has some grea,
pictures. l would say the best works
in art had ever seen.
We we're in this last camp abou,
two months and from there we NOV.
ed in trucks to an aviation field
which Is about so miles. and II sure
was a great ride. In this camp tn,
airplanes were OF great interest tt
us. On fair day they were in tn,
air just like bees, steady hum al
the time. Some of the aviators wer'
very good at doing trick stunts
After leaving that place ",
travelled As hours on the train anc
we sure were q tired bunch wher
we arrived at camp. Since then We
have been real busy on some work
that seems very important. | sup.
pose We will stay here until this jot
is completed. at least haven't heard
any rumors of us leaving. That is a
question: that we cannot decide. We
may get orders to leave at any time
The French seem to be queer lot
and l cant exactly get used to them
One thing In the older towns. every.
thing seems so dirty and can't say
that | like their ways Of living. Give
me any little town in the U. s. after
this war, and am satisfied.
Most of the women here are
dressed in black for the memory OF
some one dear to them lost at the
front. The young men here are
very scarce and those we do see are
In uniform and are back from the
front on leave to rest up. Oh
France has sure used all her man.
power, and 1t shows il In this sector
The peasants mostly have little
,donkeys, or really little burros
hitched to cart and the whole fam
lily go ioyriding just as though the,
had something really worth while
These peasants, in most parts veal
large wooden shoes most all the
time, which seems very awkward tC
me, but suppose they are not able
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