Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-02
TAKES WALK ON
BERLIN STRASSE
Harrisburg Soldier Writes of
Life in. Interesting
Old Town


rather DIR. c. Z. Phillips, of this
city, tells of conditions following the
war in France and says the Huns
hao everything in the world to fight
the war for a hundred years" ex-
cept men. His letter follows:
! Montme'dy. lie 10 Dec, 1918.
| NO. IL, Kronprincen Strasse,
boulevard de lie Montme' dy)
Dearest Folks:
Class, eh? 1 should say so. At
last have come into my own. A
: real live city, stores and every
/ thing. Yesterday 1 saw civilians
and inhabited towns for the first
time since September 13. Can you
imagine that? Been at the front
| Tor that long. But, early yester-
day morning, before daybreak, we
broke camp and started. We COW
ever about eighteen miles by dark
when we arrived here.
| We live in an immense old house,
four stories in height and must
contain nearly one hundred rooms.
| Everything is made fine. Marble
window sills, glass door knockers,
marble fire places fine paper on
the walls. great. full length mirrors
with gild edges, and u million and
one other things that denote class"
This town was held by the Ger
| mans Tor four years, the last of them
leaving the 17th of last month. All
| the civilians stayed here during the
: occupation and were forced to cater
I to the Huns. Everything in the
stores is Dutch. Small German SOL
diers for the children, post cards
with pictures of the Germans. etc.
The streets. as you see, We're re-
4 n n 1aH ar hn In,
At the back of the city is the
tremendous Fort of Montme'dy. 1t
( played an important role in the
early days of the war. l want to
go through it and will tell you
more about it then. Just at the
! foot of the great mountain on which
! the fort is placed is a German prison
camp, now being used as barracks
| for our men. l sure would have
hated to have been held by the bar
barians.
1t is strange, but the more I see
of the Huns strategy, the luckier
L think ourselves for their early de-
feat. Except for men, they had
everything in the world needed to
fight this war forever. Their ma
chine gun and artillery emplace-
ments were absolutely impregnable
if they would have had the men to
hold them. The French think that
/ the battles of Verdun licked the Ger
mans. 1t was there that the flower
of the German army, as well as the
! French was lost
| Will close for this morning and
go next door to the lady barber for
my shave. then to the "Cafe'de lie
f! American" (mess halD for lunch,
after which / will add more.
or I want tn
say TO the men folks that it sure
is a good thing the war didn't hit
us hard enough to make the wo-
men become BARRIERS. L don't be-
lieve the French men will ever
get their trade back. | get shaved
every morning now instead of three
times u week.
Aho, before l forget. just before
! leaving the front ! received on last
Friday the first box of candy from
Wanamaker's in London. On sun
day l. received the second box, a
pound of nuts, from London and
on Tuesday l received my Christmas
box. So you see 1t was some big
week 1t sure tastes good when
all you have to eat is corn beef and
hard tack. / am going to take time
out now and get chocolate cookie.
Had a card from Marcy the other
day. | sure do appreciate all the
little remem brances, including the
handkerchiefs. They are the first
change l have had since / came
over. Almost as soon as L got to
France | lost all but the one hand
kerchief had in my pocket and that
one l have used evere since. About
time for a change.
Most of the people in the city
speak German. so with little
German mixed with the little Eng
lish they know, / speak as tluently
as though l was home. 1t is ter
Irible sounding language, but they
understand it. AS you know. or
don't know, my German is fairly
good and so when / meet a person
who speaks high German L get
along very well.
| took q walk this morning out
Berlin .Strasse. to KronprinZ Boule-
ward and then over to Kaiser PlatZ
This is in the great residential sec
tion. The people dress very well,
YOU would almost think yourself at
home except for the number of SOL
diers. most of them French, who
may be seen in the streets.
Am hunting some appropriate
Christmas gifts, that don't cost a
fortune and am having trouble to
find them, but If l do you will get
them sometime between Easter and
Fourth of July.
You can realize how shortly the
Germans left here when ! tell you
that when l bot this papier L asked
Cam bien?" the girl said "Wie viei?,'
I said yah" She said "Une Sou"
Then 1 gave her a franc and she
gave me pfennig in change. Hair
Dutch, half French.
Well, remember me to all:
SAMUEL.
Am still we'll, happy and fat.