The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-06-18
savenay, France. May 25.

ae at home again:
Savenay, France. May 25
Dear folks: Things have been hap
penins to- me in true army fash;c,l
Monday, May II, the order came
through that all searchers should re-
port. TO Paris the following Monday to-
sail in three days. Allyn and TX.
Sansberry left that evening and Elcar
or and l instructed them to phone
oHr families that we would follow
vc~y soon. Later in the week we vent
to ST. Nazaire, the head Of our Zonc.
ard. were there informed that we
should remain at Nantes until Wei
nesday. Tuesday our travel orders
came in to proceed 10 Paris. and at
noon Tuesday we were ordered tO re-
port for duty at Savenay. To be &c
assigned at this stage of the game is
little short of .. S. Gas the Red
Cross has to get all of their personnel
out of France by a certain date. and
they are sending their workers home
as. ia pidiy as possible. Fatty, Elean-
or: and together with one Of the
former Savenay searchers are wind
ing up everything. checking up death
lists, visiting patients and doing
the usual odd-jobs allotted to search
ers. Savepay is the largest hospital
center in the entire A. E. +. There
are. L believe. seven hospitals Tic
Red Cross maintains nine recreation
huts The Y. n. c. a. Is. of c. and
Jewish Welfare Board also have huts.
The American Library Association
piled by them are also found in all
the huts The T. w. c. "A. has rec
reation hall for nurses. The Red Cross.
auditorium is the second largest in
the A L. +. The Educational Corps
of the army has schools Of various
kinds. such as art, agriculture. man
ual training The main hospital is in
a. building originally a French Normal
School Part Of the school, the pri-
still in use We can watch French
children at recess from our office Win
dow The other hospitals arc spread
III oIEr the countryside and in be-
tween the wards you may find a
farmhouse and the farmer grazing his
COW. Save,lay is really a charming lit.
tie village. and think what it must
mean to, the inhabitants to have the
largest American hospital in. France
dumped in their midst. Commercial
ly. it helps the shop keepers. Every
thing on display in their windows Is
placed there with a view to catching
the American eye.
We decided to stay in the village
and the three of us have rooms with
Madame Clavier. Madame is widow
who has recently met with revcrses:
Her home is charming, and so.zis.
Madame. -Fatty's room IS at the front,
but Eleanor and 1-haxe q large room
overlooking the garden. From our.
window. we can see the Loire and the
opposite shore. The landscape is dot.
Ted with windnaills and spires. In the
hStance,, the huge cranes and chin.
aeyssof st. Nazaire may be seen. To.
one side of our. window is pink
horse ,cheStnut in full bloom. and the
garden also boasts 81 large magnolia.
.Vistaria in bloom trails over the ter
race. Every shade Of the rainbow is.
represented by a flower Of some kind.
After the noise, excitement and gen
eral atmosphere of camp life you can
scarcely imagine what a haven of rest
this is. Eugene serves us breakfast
in bed at seven-thirty. We get lunch
con and dinner at the nurses mess,
Dinner is at five-thirty so we have
time for a long ramble and manage
supper in our room at ten. These
;uppers we buy at funny little shops
md they consist principally OF cheese.
bread and vim rouge. We bought
.arge bottle of vim rouge for one franc
sixty centimes Qess than twenty
cents) If Americans drank more
vim rouge and less bottled soda, they
would be better off. Vim rouge is "a
light wine. of the country. You can
drink it as it is or mix it with water.
The average Frenchman drinks it with
water The water here is not good,
so we always put wine in it to kill the
fishy taste.
We are d little homesick for Nantes
this Sunday afternoon. and we hope
to get a ride down to the city. Quite
d few people from our old center came
down Thursday to see the baseball
game. 1t was between the 8O9th Pi-
oneer Infantry and the picked team Of
this zone The negroes won nine to
nothing and if they defeat Bordeaux.
they will go to Paris to play for the
championship of the y. T.. +.
Eleanor has lust come in and an
nounced that q captain and a looey
are taking us down to dear old Blot
tereau.
Yesterday evening / did something
l have wanted to do all my life. cX-
plored q Windmill. 1t is II genuine
old ore, built about 1910. ] am 2ut-
ting q little diagram at the bottom
Of the letter to give you some ittc;,
Of how it works. but Of course he
dia gram is not very accurate. There
IN ha wind 1n1