The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1918-03-08
NO STRONG DRINK
PERMITTED BY !. S,
IN FRENCH CAMPS
SOL plERS DRINK LIGHT WINES
JUST TO BE FRIENDLY WITH
THE NATIVES.
HEALTH OF men IS GOOD

-
George L. McFalI Writes Interesting
Letter to His Father, Geo. c. Nc
Fall About Life Of Soldiers In
France.
Geo. L. McFall, former Maury
county boy with the American expe-
dictionary forces somewhere in France,
writes an interesting letter to his
father, Geo. McFall, which is in part
as follows:
r Sunday Afternoon
Somewhere in France
Dear Papa:
1t has been long time since !
wrote you letter, but have been
writing them to the family in gener-
al, so you have been hearing from me
In that way. There are SO many of
you that l cannot write a letter to
each one of you, so write to the
family.
Weather-the old standby when
conversation runs short, in Sunday
school party where you are supposed
to be at your best and talk of reli-
gious things and play checkers, etc.
We have been having some pretty
weather, but cold, and the ice is three
or four inches thick in places. Sup
pose it was something like ten above
zero, but the weather is much better
for us when it gets cold and the at
mosphere is frozen dry. Usually, as
to night, the weather is foggy, rainy,
and a little cold, with sometimes a
combination of the three. A few of
our boys have died with various dis
eases, but taken as whole, we have
been in good health and are all hardy
and happy. The winter here lasts I'M
til sometimes in March, but is not
usually as cold as it has been recent
".
Il & Would like to tell you where we
are and the size of the town but that
might give out some information, so
cannot tell you. The town here is not
SO good as some towns we have been
ia, and as there are a good many
soldiers here, naturally, there are
plenty of civilians who have come
here to live off of them. The town is
4 several times as large as G. and
has not much beauty attached to it.
Most Of the French towns are all
alike and the people here do not place
much stress on the kind of house
they live in. Most of the country peo-
pie keep the cow in one part of the
house and live in the other. Some
Of the houses have no floors, which in
fact seems to worry the people very
little. They do not have much fire
and sit around with rosy cheeks and
cold hands. If their feet get cold,
they back into their huge wooden
shoes until they warm up.
From a moral standpoint, the town
: has improved some since we came
here. When we first arrived here the
town was wide open, but the Govern.
ment has issued orders that three
houses be inspected each day and that
any woman that was the least suspi-
cous, be removed. OF course this
kept down most of the disease, but it
did not give satisfactory results, so
on Jan. 1st, large part Of the town
was placed under restriction and no
soldiers allowed within the restricted
part. The sale Of strong drinks is
ilsO prohibited, effective Jan. LIST, SO
the number of DRINKS has decreased
considerably. / think within a few
months, most Of the camp followers
will have been run out of town and
the boys will not have so much trou-
BILE avoiding the few temptations
they try to avoid.
We noticed in the paper where Con-
gress was making kick on General
Pershing permitting us to drink with
the French. l mean by this-to drink
wine at all. He was right when he
said the French would mot understand
IL we failed to drink with them, and
would feel insulted. There is very
little danger of any of them having
their feelings hurt by any of us. One
fellow wrote to friend in the U. S.
and told him that General Pershing
need not worry about him and that
he would never give French soldier
the least cause to feel hurt. They
have all kinds of wine here, but gen.
orally take Porto as it is a comprim-
Use between the strong and the Hard
Cider stuff they have here. do not
care enough about any of it to drink
too much. and when l drink my glass
or two Of Porto, l am finished for the
day.