Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1919-05-16
E. R. GENTRY
Writes From Germany

bitourg, Germany,
April 20. 1919.
Mr.. E. S. Albright,
Mt Vernon. Ky.
Dear Edgar
1t has been almost four
months since / wrote. you but I
can hardly believe that l have
beer in Germany that long. We
have had a pretty bad winter
here, although not extremely
cold. Spring seems to be late as
We have only recently had Snow.
Farmers are getting busy and
there must be great deal more
being done than there has been
since the war began, as the men
are back home. l see acre after
acre of land being turned this
Spring which has evidently not
been cultivated for three or four
years, being mostly in grass
While the men are back home,
the woman all work in the fields,
and children of all sizes. l can
not see where we got our idea of
German efficiency. l have been
all over this side of the Rhine,
occupied by the American army
and l fail to see any evidence of
It, In fact I have never seen
suck a waste of labor. You
never see a man blowing without
another man driving for him, or
perhaps woman. The work Is
mostly done with cattle and when
say cattle I mean COWS, be.
cause it is quite as common to see
them doing all kinds OF work
with COWS as it is the other sex.
In fact they mix them up every
way. The other day 1 saw a
team blowing which consisted of
a mule hitched up beside a jersey
cow and an old poor horse in
front. Their large towns look
very well, but the smaller vii
lagos, say from one thousand
people down are the dirtiest
places I have ever seen. Practi.
cally all the farmers live in these
villages. They build their houses
and barns altogether, the en-
trance to the barn being right
along side the front entrance to
their house. Where I billeted
this winter in Baden, there was
only a wall between my room
and the stock in the barn. In
this same town the Burgomaster,
who is the big man of the town,
has a door opening from the
main hall OF his dwelling into
his barn. The toilets are built
in front of the houses instead of
the back and the refuse from
the barns is placed in a place
especially prepared in front of
the houses and barns This place
consists of an enclosure of stone
about two feet high under which
is a large pie into which the ma
nure drains This pit is reached
by a large pump and in the spring
this drainage is pumped out and
hauled to their farms in large
tanks made for the purpose. Can
Iyou imagine the kind of odor
which is around one of the towns
during these spring months
Now to prove to you that / am
not lying about this, I9am enclos-
ling you Q picture of nv billet at
Baden. where I spent two months
tais winter. At your left You
will see the toilet and at your
night the entrance to the barn,
my room being right next to
the barn. In front you see, the
indispensable manure pile. How
they keep from dying in summer
time Is more than / can under
stand The Major commanding
this town got mad awhile back
and made all of them go to the
woods and get evergreens and
cover ali the manure piles which
account for tne appearance of
this one. Their farm machinery
Is mostly of the crudest type.
Occasionally you see a horse
power threshing machine. but
most Of the grain is threshed
with hail. which surprised me
very much, in fact for sometime
/ did not know what the thnmp,
thump. thump in the barns
meant. as / passed by. / tell
you 1t all makes me feel more