The Belding banner-news., 1919-07-02
PAT ROE GETS AFTER-THE.
WAR LETTER
lContinued from page

to meet her gaze. She asked me many
questions about myself and when
tcld her that my home was in Seattle
but that | had joined the army in
San Francisco, the lady with Der at
/ once claimed me for a fellow towns
man. The Duchess said that she her
self was a great admirer of the Paci-
fic coast and asked me if were aware
that the district on which the hospital
stood was named California. She
left me some daffadills. After she
had gone the nurse told me that the
lady was the sister of the king of
Belgium.
The last week | was at the hospital
the Red Cross took us on an excur-
sion to two small islands that lay just
off the coast 1t is a temptation to
go into lot of details about what
we saw but am stretching this letter
out to such an extent that am afraid
of tiring you out, so | shall condense
it. On the first and smallest island
we visited Cisterian monastery
where the Red Cross girls had to wait
outside for us. Women are net al
lowed. The story is that Queen Vic
toria, under a special dispensation
was received, but that after she left
the pavements that she walked over
were torn up and destroyed and the
place throughly purified The story
goes big especially if you tell it to
some of these travel-hungry school
teachers and Librarians. There is a
large fresco in one Of the halls de-
picting the founder of the monastery
driving the snakes off the island
felt my Irish rise and at once regis
tered an objection only to have the lay
brother, who was showing us through
that st. Patrick had studied at this
monastery before he went to Ireland
and that as the monastery was several
hundred years old then it was quite
evident that the founder was the or
iginal exponent Of the art of snake
driving and that the Cleanser of Ire.
land was only an imitator although
On the larger island we inspected
the prison where the Man in the Iron
Masque was imprisoned and | spent
about seventeen minutes in the cell
where he existed for seventeen years.
The lodgings seemed rather cramped
to me and | am free to admit that l
never let my gaze wander very long
from the door by which / expected to
get out.
Shortly after this a convey of us
were sent on hospital train from
Cannes, by the way of Marseilles, up
the Rhone Valley to the Base hospital
at Tours. Up until this time / was in
hopes of rejoining my unit. While
was at Tours / got pass to go into
the city and l at once looked up a
friends of mine at the Engineering
headquarters. He informed me that
the transportation fer our regiment
had been cancelled and that they had
been put to repairing roads. The sup
position they would not leave for
home until late in the summer if this
year. so when ! got back to the hospi-
tal that night / changed my plan of
However it needed nc urg-
ing on my part. Some days later we
again moved forward on a hospital
train closer to the coast, this time to |
the hospital center at Savenay. An
other two week stay, all this time un-
tergoing various scrts of treatments |
Tor our ills, in my case process of |
that was stEengthaninH
my wrist and arm. On the twelfth of |
March we took our last train ride in
France down on hospital train to |
St. Nazaire, were loaded on the "Sus-
Iuehanna" (the former North German
Lloyd. freighter "Rhein") and sailed |
for home. The trip was fairly long,
days, but the course was the |
southern run that took through the |
Azores and into the warmer and cal
ner water. The north Atlantic course
s considered little zoo strenuous for
hospital cases and we had some men
aboard who were in bad shane. The
'hird day out, the George Washing
on passed US taking the President
Jack to the first sitting of the Peace
Conference.
The morning we came up Ambrose
.hannel into New York harbor was
.Inor Nd /.t