Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-11
Yours sincerely. -.''
 RAYMOND B. SHERMAN,

| nr T 7 a7' Yours sincerely,
 RAYMOND B. SHERMAN,
 The Story of Rene zimmerman.
 Mrs. Lucia Gager Of Stonington, for merly of this city,, has received the following letter from her son. Leslie Tracy Gager, who is now in France with the American expeditionary Base Hospital IS, |. A.. E. F. France.
 .x.a. ---z------=T-, -:------ Dec. 30a 1917.
 Dear MotEfeF..- s.--2.
 This is the story of how Rene zim-: nlermann, petit enfant franeais, re- turned home from rhopital americain a-and how aide ~medeein M. Gaser took him there.
 The story begins with the beginning of the great war, when the Zimmer- mann family presumably, like most French families who live by toll of hands, was living simply, peacefully and happily in town near the from fties. The family name is typical of the border-of intermarriage between French and German. But this family was French in speech and in spirit, and the father,1a loeksmith, went into the French infanfry, became a poilu. The French scsdat receives sous l Give cents) day: the people left at home are aided by the government to the extent of a few francs day--de- : ]. pending on the number of children; but it is not much to keep a family of ! five children going. In May, 1915, the l father was taken prisoner by the | Boche, aad he remains there, heard | fprlrr nr11- at 1r-~ z,r s :. Next door to this family, war -strick 1 .en and In need, was a bakers wife i who has a daughter in eur village, and { this daughter needed a boy to guard her eowa. help in the fields. So Rene LII yeafss old, became demestiaue in A2rSs, 1917. He drank some polluted vat and came into our ward, thin fever flushed with typhoid, in August He had the last bed at the right ir the ,-corner When came up iron ] surgery in September Rene was stsl |. weak from his fever and still scared of Americans and of American doctors 1 who stuck needle into him to get z l drop of blood. But with increasing strength he got increasingly confiden and more and more active and talka-
 tive. until at the 1ast,- deeked out in 2
 ward suit calculated to fitsa growr
 soldier, in which he was most certain. ly picturesane, he would run tn, I length of the ward a dozen times al
 hour, fetching hot water bags, ol
 dishes, or g clean handkerchief. H,
 was evefybody's pet-but the C. o, de cided that he. had been here lon. I enough and that the U. S. army needle I his bed. His mother made the. lon,
 railroad Journey to get him two day
 before Christmas, but most of ou
 plans for the -grande fete had beer
 built, around him. and ! prevailed el
 her to let him stay over, promising t,
 bring him home the day after.
 He did have a grand Christmas il ] the ward. Four of us went out Sunda, y and brought in enough of. ivy an, hemteck to make wreaths for 20 win
 doWs. We made red shades for tn lamps, we draped hemleck and ivy an
 mistletoe over doorways a big Christ mas tree with angels hair ornament and popcorn strings, and the flags o the allies up high on it's branches
 was the central attraction in the war except Rene! He had. >new sui
 bought by me in town with none . furnished by ,DF. Mason, ward sur . geon, of, the French gray a mflitar , style, and one nurse got him a helme :. and in his stocking was considerabl f assortment of Red Cross toys. an
 candy. Every. patient got Red Cros l bag, as, did all of us, but Rene's be r was covered with his stuff It wa the higgest day, he ever had. Istoo |. him out to hear the engineers ban ! play, and others took him over to tn ' concert and he had a beautiful Noe
 That night Miss Stock head nurs, packed him large and varied assort f. Elent into bag-what she could :. considerable mass of paper ornament
 of many hues5 he had, to carry by han
 --and you couldn't have missed seein the young poilu in crowd of fiy thousand. "Mobiiise" was the srnilin remark of many French soldiers W saw in several towns and cities ths
 day. For we had two waits an I chances to see two interesting citie
 in the first of which we got pair ( : blue gloves and at the next a pair a shoes, besides pocketsful of cakes, ol d anses and chestnuts, most of which W . ate at a cinema in the cantine whel
 the French soldiers have chance 1
 trelax and forget the trenches whi
 waiting for trains. The cinema please
 tRene immensely; we forget that u
 end of the building had been blown c
 by a Roche bomb not so long befor |. Incidentally, it was Rene's first wis
 to a real city-he saw his first electr c car that day. But finally we got (
 another train for the last lap-th
 time travelling. in darkness, for it W. a evening and we were only few mil, s behind the lines, and a lighted trat e would be pie. for bombing squadro E We got into the beautiful old town | !, le- claire de -lun--all white under u S snow, and after many turnings throus : high-walled, picturesque streets, thel : was sthe one ~storied. broad. squat e little hut at the corner which Re1 g called. home. And his greeting was e strong a proof of the bonds that .ho B a French family together in love ar
 unity that I ever wish to see. F
 kissed his mother on both cheeks
 as do the French--and then his sist, d of IS, and then his sister of 5, ar l. then he woke up his brother of e sleeping in his crib in the one roc e that was kitchen, dining room, parl, t and sleeping room for half the famil : and kissed him, and when his sister }, If came in he repeated the procedu q for the fifth and last time. In fiy . minutes the whole family was tryir |. cI the fancy caps and the baby W. l. wearing the helmet and it was a vel y happy family party. The father wou : have enjoyed it,
 - 1 slept that night in q chambre tr r propre. near by. to which the. moth - directs me; chamber with shuttle szl tightly closed and witisa heavy scres