The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1919-03-26
Supply Co., 363rd Infantry.
American e. F., A. p. o. 776.
February 22, 1919.
Dear Larry:

,
country, and not merely to the sec
tion that we are now in. | have
been fortunate to have been over
practically the whole country, and
the statement that made holds
good for all but one part, that part
being the Mediterranean region
That country down there has a eli
mate that is absolutely all right. It
has, in the winter, the sunshine of
Nevada in the summer. and the
warmth of Southern California
That seems quite strange when you
stop to consider that Nice is in the
latitude of Nova Scotia. In other
parts of France it rains not only in
the winter but all the year. In that
respect it is worse than tie State Of
Washington. which l thought was
bad enough.
We are now located in the Depart
ment of 0rne, which is in the south
eastern part of the old Provincial
division known as Normandy. The
town. or rather hamlet that we are
in is known as La Rouge. II has
should say about 500 people. They
are entirely the wooden shoe ee-
ment, which might say from my
observation compose about so per
cent OF France Extremely ignor-
ant, unprogressiYe and dirty, they
have as far as can see no redeem
ing characteristics This country is
called a republic, but it is far from
our idea of a republic. They still
have the old class distinctions. For
instance a peasant would never con
sider calling himself a "bourgeouse.
That would be pretending too much
Nor would a member of the nobility
allow himself to be classed in the
same category. That would be inf
nitely beneath his dignity. These
peasants cultivate the soil. but
would not call them farmers, at
least not in the same sense that we
speak of farmers. Their agriculture
is of an extremely primitive sort
Their land holdings. when they are
not tenants of some member of the
nobility. amounts on an average to
about Is acres a family. In this
section the principal crops are wheat
and apples The apples are not eat
ing apples but are used for the pur-
pose of making cider.
The city dwellers are of an entire
ly different sort from the peasants.
In fact one would think that they
were of different nationality. They
are the people that think that they
make up France. They are the peo-
pie that fondly imagine that they
have a republic. Perhaps they have,
but the peasants are not in on it. II
is very rarely that a peasant ever be-
comes a city dweller. That is one of
the principal reasons that bar us
from thinking of this country as a
democracy; the fact that only a very
small percentage of the ignorant
class better themselves.
AS fighters the French are o. X
AS money grabbers they beat the
Americans
An American in this country is
stung from the time he lays foot on
France until he leaves the country.
The French have an insane notion
| that all Americans are millionaires.
AS road makers the French have
us beaten. Their roads are excellent.
They cover the whole country, and
are always kept in repair. The
builders and upkeepers of the roads
are specialists in that line of work
and are not a bunch of farmers
working on the highways to pay Off
their taxes. They also have the
necessary apparatus to repair roads.
AS aviators they have us beaten.
We are amateurs compared with
them.
AS cooks IL is we'll known that
they excell.
We are at the present time In the
LIE Mans Embarkation center. This
leads us to. believe that We are to go
home. However, we know nothing
OF the details, The newspapers In
the United States seem TO know all
about that. In fact some OF them
have lis already on our way. OF
course we have ruhiors that fly about
from day to day. But we never pay
any more attention to them than we
do the American newspapers.
understand that some of the re-
turned men from this division are
/ wearing a 81 WV on the left arm,
in San Francisco, as the insignia OF
this division. This is not the true
i insignia of the division. The insig-
! MIA that we are wearing on the left
arm is a pine tree, or a fir tree, OF
something of the sort This is sup
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