The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-02-22
LIEUTENANT HILL
GIVES PERSONAL
OBSERVATIONS OF
TRIP over THERE
Tops of Street Lights In
England Darkened For
Fear of Raids
NOW LOCATED IN
TRAINING CAMPS
Skies GLOW From Flashes
of Firing and Rumble
of Big Guns Heard

a letter received in Fargo from Lieut.
r. s. Hill Of Company B of Fargo
with the 164th infantry, now In
France, to his wife. Mrs. E. s. Hill
709 Ninth street SOUTH Moorhead.
He writes that in Liverpool the
street lights were very few and far
pbetween and those which did burn
were in painted cages, the tops being
blackened entirely and the lower por-
tons painted thfnIy with a blue paint
which killed the glare Of the lights
and made the streets very dark and
dingy. He says the same method of
protection from air raids Is followed
out in Winchester only to a greater
extent. Stores open in the evening
have all shades pulled and often the
only way Of knowing whether or not
place is open is to try the door.
There have been no raids on Liver
pool or Winchester yet, but, accord
ing to Lieutenant HILL the people are
scared for fear there might be one.
we did not go through London
but passed some distance to the
SOUTH" writes the lieutenant in tell
ing of the trip from England to
France. "It was about o'clock
when we reached Winchester and so
dark we could not see the town, ex-
cept that the streets were crooked
and narrow with practically no side
walks That is the quaintest old
place / ever saw. In various pictures
at different times / have seen old
places shown but never realized
that anything really existed quite as
odd and oldfashoned as that. Some
Of the buildings are hundreds of years
old and most of the newer buildings
have been put up in the same style
as the old ones, probably to preserve
the old fashioned appearance, or
possibly because the people there are
so slow that they cannot grasp any
thing new.
Old Castle Interesting.
The old castle was very interest
ing not that there was much to see,
but il was worth while to hear the
old man who acted as caretaker ex-
plain the history Of the castle. Two
OF the walls are said to be the
original walls of the room in which
King Arthur and his knights sat at
the round table. The top Of the
table is hanging up on the wall
where it was put some 400 years ago,
by one of the English kings. 1t is
an immense thing some Is feet in
diameter and the oak OF which il is
made is said to be so hard that 1T is
impossible to even start a nail in 1t.
There is a short section of the old
castle, although the moat was filled
in almost entirely and buildings
erected close in to the castle. Some
OF the streets are hardly wide en-
ough for a. full, grown wagon to pass
between the buildings, and some OF
them are very wide. The sidewalks
are seldom more than four feet wide
and pedestrians use the streets more
than the sidewalks. One custom
r4@m IL Gy-aTA
the English idea of taking the left |
hand side OF the road.
THE port Of Decentralization |
in France looked better to
me than the English towns where we |
stayed. There seemed to be lots |
more life and evidences of depression |
on account of the war were not so |
noticeable. We put in only about |
one day before starting, which took !
us from Thursday afternoon until |
Saturday morning. The French |
trains are surely fine to travel on.
The passenger coaches are similar
to the English, but not so good. /
Owing to the shortage of equipment /
there were not enough coaches avail
able for the men and they were load
ed into dirty little boX-cars which
had benches built in them. The cars
were smaller than the smallest Am
erican boX-cars and thirty eight men
We're put in each car. The weather
was cold and, Of course, there was no
heat in the cars. felt sorry for the
boys for they surely had hard trip.
Even in the first-class coaches, oc-
cupied by the officers, we were so
cold we all were mighty glad when
we unloaded. Luckily our baggage
travelled on the same train and we
had our bed rolls within an hour aft
er getting into camp and had COM
Portable beds to sleep on.
Camp 3 Beautiful Place.
1.-The camp would surely be a
beautiful place in the summer time,
on a high plateau about 81
600 feet above sea level with hills all
around. / was surprised to And so
much snow in France for had
always thought of France as being
a. southern country. But after /
stopped to realize that the longitude
OF Paris is almost exactly the same
as OF the northern line OF North Da- |
kota could see some reason for the j
Is nothing like what we have at home /
though and 1T lis said that the snow /
never lasts very long.
After ten nights in the comfort
able quarters we had at that camp !
the bunch Of us started for the {
school, leaving our companies there.
It took us from Monday evening until 6
Thursday evening to get here, but as {
told you in my last letter we had [
.wo nights in towns on the way and 1
1t one place / had a warm water Z
bath In a regular bath tub. That {
vas the first tub bath had a shot at
since leaving Camp Merritt.
Might Win Photo Prizes But s
The town. on the outskirts OF a
which this school camp is located in T
queer little place. No sidewalks at a
III and very narrow streets. There
8 no regularity in laying out this I
treets, which run hither and thithe, I"
With crooks and twists and joys In l.
very direction. There is a wonder r
hi chance OF getting pictures that o
would take prizes in any picture con- q
est IL only picture taking was per- Il
nittad. This afternoon three OF us ii
tut in q couple OF hours rambling a
round the town. We have lots of q
i'm going into the stores and buying "
title odds and ends we need from o
lme to time. In most Of the stores d
here isn't any chance OF making =
hem understand English so We have
b rely on the sign language and on
he book The French system of n
oinage Is much easier to get along D
nth than the English. X
While we We're travelling we used n
. slip into restaurants ait most Of 81
he stops and in that way picked up
ute a little French, but since COM q
as here we have been i'm town so eli
tile I have little occasion to use II
nv French 50 1 am forgetting what W
tile ! dla know. We are working n