Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1919-02-21

and, of course, he is anxious TO get
home.
Mrs Tenant has received a letter
from her son Benjamin, who was sent
to the hospital just as his associates
were starting out homeward bound
very recently, saying that he has not
been at all i'll, nothing more serious
than a severe cold. He is at Camp
Paulliac, about sixty miles from Bor-
deaux, and is working in the hospital
He has been put in the casuals and
has no idea when he will be home,
but he is well.
Miss Lydia Sylvester reports having
received two letters last week from
her brother Walter, who is located at
Archangel, Russia, after having re-
ceived no word from him since Octo-
Der 2, with the exception of short
cablegram at Christmas time. Both
letters were very cheerful and show
him to be in good health and fine of
spirit. He speaks of daylight lasting
from 800 a. N. till 200 p. m.-rather
a short day. In telling of the meals,
he expresses the opinion that the
bareback is the most durable material
to use in building of sidewalks, and
tells that their bacon is placed on
stick and held over an open fire-when
it is we'll blackened it is considered
sufficiently cooked. They are in close
proximity TO the ammunition shacks,
hence are not allowed any fires in
their own shacks and sleep with all
their clothing on. There is little
about them but swamps and spruce
trees, and not so very cold at his writ
ing, but more severe weather expected
any day. For ten weeks he and few
companions were separated from the
company, without baths or shaves, and
ii sure did seem good when they got
back to the camp again, over a trail
of fifty miles or more with only two
stops, riding from 100 o'clock in the
afternoon until 1000 the next morn
ing; quite little snow but only one
tipover. He says he experienced the
queercct sensation while under fire.
lie is getting mail in good time from
home, even when he has not been so
situated that he could write home
He is feeling fine and rather thinks
they will be back in the States by
June, but nothing definite.
Under date of Dec. 2, Willard Spor
Ieder writes: Now that the war is
over / am in position to tell you
thing or two about this place (Bor-
deaux). Ii is large, to begin with, the
largest in France. We can berth TWEEN
ty of the largest ocean liners at one
time, and at all times the twenty are
in the process OF unloading. When
you consider that the average daily
discharge of cargo is 10000 tons and
that the average load on freight car
is about sixteen tons, you can readily
appreciate the amount of work the
railroad end of the place has to do in
order to fill the bill. The placing of
the cars at the boats is the easiest
part of it. We have to make up trains
for the different parts of France, and
the French railway requirements are
so strict that it is nearly impossible to
please the Frenchmen. Furthermore,
the equipment is so frail that the av
erage American trainman is con
stantly smashing some of it some
where. We use American engines of
the smallest American type for rail
road work, and are again handicapped
because we cannot send out more than
forty cars to the train. At present
We are up against the problem of re-
ceiving maintenance supplies for the
feeding of the army and at the same
time loading boats with material going
back, such as shrapnel, construction
material, railway rails, aeroplanes
and aeroplane hangers. Since this
place was made a port of embarkation,
we also handle troop trains directly to
the boats and have four hospital trains
in operation between the three base
hospitals in Bordeaux and the docks.
One of the warehouses has been made
hospital for the receiving of the
wounded, pending their being put
aboard, while another has been made
the receiving station for mail arriv-
ing on the transports. Have not had
a night off for the past three weeks,
and even had IL miss out on the
Thanksgiving dinner. Capt. Gleason,
the superintendent, and | were down
town all ready for a big celebration
when we were informed that the place
was tied up with seven wrecks, so
back we came and went to work !
still have hopes of getting that din
ner. The railroad has been run
ming pretty well for the past month
so wen in fact that we have been com
plimented from general headquarters,
and this means a great deal, as it is
next to impossible to get anything
done with all that we have to handi-
cap US" On Jan. 2Sth he tells that
One of the big nasal guns came in
this morning from the front. 1t is i'm
mense. belongs to the railway artil-
lery regiment.