The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-01-01

ting cool here now; got up the other
morning, the hills were white with
snow. Well, dear mother, / feel fine,
hope you people are the same. Will
now go to bed. From your loving
son,
Willis.
Lee j. Blanchard, nephew of Mr.
and Mrs. Robert PEBBLES, writes the
following letter to his parents, who
live at Grand Rapids. Lee is well
known here and makes an extended
vacation here each summer and his
letter, like many ether letters from
the boys overfhere, will be read with
great interest. 1t is as follows:
Nov. "a, 1918. y
Dear Dad:
Prepare. yourself for at least one
solid hour of reading matter This
is your Christmas letter and is not GO
ing to be smeared by the censor. In
fact they tell us to tell you anything
that we want to so / am going to tell
you nearly everything from the time
we bearded ship in New York until
now.
We got on board the u. S. S. Won
Steubon on Aug. II at 2:30 p. m.
This boat was formerly the German
raider "The Crown Prince Wilhelm"
but when war was declared it was in
termed by our government and has
since been used for the transporting
Of our troops. On Aug Is at dusk we
left New York up past Ellis Island
and past the Statue Of Liberty On our
way to France.
We had no bad weather during the
trip and, did not once sight a, sub
marine. All the way we had very
good food and it was well cooked. On
Aug. 10 late in the Afternoon a sailor
fell overheard but was picked up by
the destroyer which served as our
convoy until we we're two days out at
sea. / made one mistake We did
sight a sub but it was 80 miles away
and not chance of catching us.
Toward the last of our journey we
had to remain on deck one hour be-
fore sunrise and one hour before sun
set. There were seven torpedo boat
destrcyers came out to meet us be-
sides an observation balloon and three
planes. 4if $50
On Aug. q at $3.50 a. m. We sighted
land and believe me, I'm not lying
any when / saytit was one of the most
welcome sights ever saw. We came
into the harbor of Brest, France, un-
der our own power and anchored at
10:45 a. m. Then we laid aboard
ship until afternoon when we were
transported to land. We then march
ed a few miles to the Ponthangar
barracks. These barracks were bull
by Napoleon and were two-story af-
fair of stone. We slept on the floor
all the time we were there. This is
the place where we never got our bar
racks bags back and all of US lost
most~of our personal property. The
only thing l got back to amount to
anything was my pictures and the
sweater Aunt Lynn sent to me-
Sept. 3 we left Brest for st. MAX
ent. We travelled in box cars, ar
irving late at night on Sept. 4. Here
We were once again fully equipped
including gas masks and guns. We
stayed here and drilled and did fatigue
until Sept. Is when we were once more
loaded into box cars and started on a
long, warisome journey to Colomby
Les Bellies. All along the way we
saw numerous German prisoners,
many of them being mere kids and
others cid men. After living on
corned willies Canned beef for so
long / would be ashamed to look COW
in the face because it tasted more
like horse meat and the hard tack
would loosen your teeth We arrived
on Sept. 10 at little station quite
Always from Colombrey and it was
raining. Then all tired out = and
nearly dead for sleep we marched to
Colombey and were billeted in barns
and believe me we all hit the hay as
soon as we had good warm meal.
\ The next morning, my goth birth
day, / awoke to the tune of bunch
Of big guns booming and / was all
full of straw down my neck and every
where and this is how spent my 10th
birthday. In the morning helped to
build kitchen CT canvass and we
had corned willie and more corned
willie. In the afternoon / went on a
detail to get supplies from the @. M,
All Of this time had received no mail
from the States but on the 21st l re-
ceived FIVE nice letters and two of
them from you and mother. Then /
took the old bugle job to keep from
working too hard.
Sept. % I was sent on detached
service with five other fellows to Bor-
deaux to get touring car and four
motorcycles with sidecars More
corned willie and hard tack. We
were five days on the train getting
there and to think this whole dam
country isn't as large az, the state OF
Texas. The train service Is just 20
rotten that II takes by the day. or
week to get just few miles. Then
we went through nearly all of the
large inn sities Of France ex-
cept Pa e always wanted
TO see Z than any other.
Oct Bordeaux and
~ " 7apext day all