The Holly chieftain., 1918-03-22
A LETTER FROM FRANCE
u. s. Naval Base, Brest France.
Feb. 3, 1918.

Cs Deeil lOIiB tlIne since
I've written at all, but I've been
sort of holding off till l could get
down TO a typewriter and air all
the views and Impressions I've
formed of France and the War in
general. OF course l don't expect
that over third of it will get by
our friend the Censor but thea
thcle's nothing like trying any.
thing once.
AS soon as they discharged me
from the hospital they showed me
into rest camp for day and then
right thru headquarters in the big
town. l was there one day and
found several of the boys from the
gang there, comfortably entrenched
in dandy new Office, roOming and
feeding on the $3.50 per day that
the Government allows them for
subsistence. We only get $1.50 here
and it really costs us about 81. per
day to live like a white man, but
then things are trifie higher in
Paris than here I have a dandy
room. the Y. NJ. c. A. got it for me-
and l feed at the Y. M. c. A. rest
aurant, so you see I'm not so worse
off as could be- We get pretty
good feed for 2 Francs and a half,
or about 45 cents and that is cheap
er than grub was in the Childs
Restaurant in the states that we
always visited whenever we went
ashore. Beefstake, roast beef and
the like are only l5c, French fried
spuds Sc. bread and butter 1Oc and
everything else in proportion, so
you see that isn't as bad as Hoover
might lead you to think. In fact
| think France is doing wonderfully
well, everything considered OF
course tho. Franc means more to
a Frenchman than half-dOllar
does to Yank.
l don't know what we fellows
would do over here If it wasn't for
the Y they keep everything going
for the fellows, entertainments of
some kind about every night. They
are getting American movies over
here now. three nights a week. Ten
cents admissiOn-and everything
else is free, boxing. shows, and all
sorts of French talent, and right
here is something that you'll have
to hand to France Nearly all the
young soldiers and sailors seem to
have a pretty good streak of talent
along some line or other, music,
singing, reciting-and whatever it
lis-they're well worth listning to.
You see, all THE theaters and like
institutions in France have to pay
pretty good tax to the upkeep of
a fund for the establishment of
schools where these fellows are
trained from boyhosd along the
line in which they show most talent
and this work is carried right along
with their regular school work.
Here again is something worth not
ing-when France established uni
versal military training she set the
age at q, and so arranged her school
courses that in the 81 years they
could get regular grammer, high
and college course, and the way
some of these fellows work and
study, night and day is wonder.
There is one drawback to this sys-
tenn however, for the classes are al
ways on the go and the fellow who
is little slow at grasping anything
is just out of luck for they haven't
time to wait for the one or two, and
there are no after hours to pick up
the work in-for the student over
here works all the time. That is
why the Frenchman never has any
time for the sports and games that
are so popular with the Americans
and English maybe, too, that is the
reason that the Frenchmen are so
small, and not nearly so strong,
most of them, as the other men.
But just the same most of these
French Poilus and Tars are pretty
well educated in more than one
language We have an office boy
here who can talk French, English