Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1918-10-08
LETTER FROM FRANCE.

Our nephew, Sergeant George L.
Haines, of the American Army, writes
us from France as follows:
France, Aug. 26th, 1918.
Dear Uncle Clayton and Aunt Annie
| have finally gotten down to letter
writing and / have your names on my
list with others to write to, so here
goes for an attempt. Gee, it is so hard
to get down to it and then after that
there is SO much we can't write about
that there is little of interest to men
ton.
1t has been awfully hot here for the
past two or three weeks that we have
been too uncomfortable TO do much of
anything. Have been going down one
of the rivers nearby nearly every
morning at reville and taking swim
to start the day off well. Had very
good effect, but these French rivers
are so swift we can do very little
swimming before we are played out and
have to stop.
/ spent practically all of the month
of July in one of the advance ordi-
nance depots. | was there for the pur-
pose of studying the French artillery
material. You have no doubt read
time and again of the famous French
ISIS. Well | have learned the 75's
from A to z and it is interesting in
deed. l never in my life believed q
few years ago that | would ever get to
know anything about artillery. But
things come about unexpectedly, don't
they.
While l was there / had some. very
exciting times, the remembrance OF
which will never lose. | cannot men
ton anything of the details now but
maybe | can relate something about
them around the freside "apres la
guerre."
| spent the Fourth of July there too.
While they were celebrating in Paris
and Marseille and Tours and all over
France, my side pick and | obtained
passes and quietly strolled down to a
little village about IL kilometres dis
lance and spent the Fourth laying I'M
der the trees. Ate dinner at little
cafe there and had "eoups ct prunes de
terre ct vim rouge" but we had "pas du
pain" because we had no bread tickets.
Now wasn't that an exciting day? Ill
say so. At the Y M. C. A. that night
| though they had little celebration.
1t was rather interesting to look at
the nations represented. There were
Americans, Tommies, Poilus, Italians,
Spaniards, Belgians and a few other
nationalities.
Since l have been back here. l have
been working pretty hard and haven't
had hardly a minute to myself. Oh,
this is rough war, and gee, the mails
are so slow. found out when the first
announcement came out in the papers
as to the number of Americans in
France that l was among the first
100000. Then the mail service was
fairly good but now | have to wait a
couple weeks between mails, and sure
do get blue in the meantime. | have
been over here quite time now, and
am wearing the war service chevron on
my left arm for six month service, and
| will be wearing another one before
| know it. But dread the thought of
winter. The time passes so slowly and
| it rains nearly all the time and we
hardly get peep at the sun.
Two Sundays ago my pal and | pro-
cured "bicyclettes" and took a 40 kilo
ride through several French towns.
All the French villages are on the
same order. They have their "hotel
de vile" and their "vin" shops and
possibly theatre if the town is large
enough to warrent. At one of the
towns we stopped at there are the
ruins of an old chateau. 1t was built
in the ninth centuary. Can you ina
CINE it?
Some chateaux | have been through
and which are still standing and in
habited were built that long ago and
longer. They are just like the one
we used to read about-they have
their meats and dungeons and beauti-
full coart-yards and towers, etc, and
are real interesting.
| visited friend of mine last Sun
day at city about two hours ride
from here on a train. | liked the trip
as far as seeing my friend was con-
cerned but these railroads al
ways did get my goat.
L have seen lot Of France and a
lot of the war and about everything
there is to be seen. The untouched
part of France is very pretty and well
worth fighting to keep. But the de-
vastated parts are in such shape that
one cannot conceive of their condition
until he sees it. | don't care how soon
the war is over. And if we continue
to get good news as we have now for
over month believe it will be over
"toot-sweet." Let's hope so.
When | enlisted knowing that I was
to leave for France Immediately, | was
overjoyed, but | have not had quite as
good time as | had anticipated. How
ever, it is an experience which | would
not take a fortune for but which
wouldn't pay cent to have again.
Well it is almost time for taps. I
believe call to quarters has blown, so
/ had better meander over to my six
poster and turn in. We don't have
long so sleep here, it seems like the
whistle is blowing for reveille before
we have turned 'over-so l will move
"toot-sweet.
Write me soon for you know how
much mail is appreciated over here
and and tell me all the news. Love to
all. Am well and content.
GEORGE,
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