The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1919-02-13
Writes Letter
From France

ceipt OF an interesting letter from
their son, Perry T. Williams. who
is with the American military
forces in France The letter, which
was written from the office OF the
base inspector at Brest, bears the
date of January IA. It follows:
Dearest Folks: During the past
week l have been getting most of the
mail which had been delayed some
where. Received your letter of De-
cember on January Z. ard your letter
of December Is on January IS. l
guess the one or two letters you must
have written between those dates will
show up eventually. Also got several
letters from Helen. and yesterday l
heard from sailor (John Schutte)
who enlisted at the same time did.
and who is now at Cambridge. Mass.
He is one of the BOYS used to see al
San Francisco. He sent me some
Glenwood boys who are stationed
there. and was very glad to get them
Was glad to hear that you have begun
to receive my letters. and am sure the
first letter must have been wished to
you. because it certainly made a quick
trip compared to the usual period of
time required for mail 10 pass between
here and he United States.
Everything is the same here as IT
has been (the same as for centuries
past ! think, ard there is very little
difference either between the routine
or the weather-both seem to be de-
pendable-the job have seems to be
a good steady one. and likely to con-
tinue so for some time. and the
weather. well, we can always depend
on rain every day.
THE field clerk who shared the
same rooms with me. and who has
been in the hospital for over a month,
has at last been classified as due for a
return trip to the States, and expect
he viii leave very soon I got his
baggage together and packed yester-
day morning. He first had influenza.
then bronchial pneumonia, and now
weakened condition OF the heart. Sew
eral times he has been in a very criti-
cal condition. He has been up al
times. but now is a bed patient. and
will go back as litter case. Am glad
for him that he will be home soon.
but sorry TO lose his friendship and
companionship. Twenty field clerks
arrived a few days ago from the
States on the transport George Wash
ington, and among them was one o.
the boys had known at Fremont. and
who had chummed with for a
while until he was transferred TO
Camp Kearney. Thirty more clerks
are rounding up all the available
clerks In the service now. and shipping
them over here TO help out on the
paper work Hope that 1t will help in
getting the boys all home. So far as
we are concerned, however. think we
will be stuck here until about the last.
which / hope will be sometime this
year.
Sunday afternoon was off duty for
awhile. azd went down 10 an old cha
teau near the docks. and with another
of the boys in the office went through
the old dungeon there. The chateau
and dungeon was built (part OF Il at
leasD by the Romans under Caesar.
and later finished by the French. Now
the chateau is rsed as a fortress TO
guard the harbor. They have French
guides to take the boys through. about
Is at a time, and for the time being
we thought we were American tourists
and dropped our real identity. II WAS
like going through cave. and we had
several lanterns. The place was cold
and dripping damp, and built entirely
of stone and mortar. We descended
a winding stone stairway. into a for
bidding looking place or passageway,
These cells were of different sizes.
with only small opening in the cell
ing, where food used to be lowered TO
prisoners. In one room they said an
English prisoner had been kept for
six months, and there was a niche in
ore wall, about five feet deep, that
they claimed he had dug with his
hands in trying to escape. In one OF
the rooms or cells there was date
(1513) carved on one of the stones,
but the dungeon was built much earlier
than that. In one cell. the lowest one
of round tower, they claimed that
Queen Anne of England had been kept
prisoner. ] don't know history well
enough to say whether the guide was
lying or not. We saw the entrance
to the dungeon where prisoners were
brought before the judges II they
confessed( their guilt. ] suppose) they
were taken to a cell. but II they did
not they were tortured. We saw
this torture room also, but the tor
turing implements are supposed to be
in a museum in Paris now. Another