The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-04-24
SAILOR BOY HAS
LEAVE IN FRANCE
INTERESTING LETTER DESCRIBES
HIS VISIT TO CAPITAL AND
THE FRONT LINES
BOYS ALL ANXIOUS TO RETURN HOME
Scenes In The Devastated Country
Over Which Hun Fought Makes
Impression On Sailor

impression On sailor
The following very interesting let
ter has been received by Mrs. Neal
Slocum from her son, Frank, now on
the destroyer SHAW" at Portsmouth,
England:
u. S. S. Shaw, destroyer 68), Ports
mouth, England, March 81, 1919
Dear Mother: AS things are a little
quiet to night, III try to write a few
lines and let you know 10Y things are
with me over here. l suppose you are
tired OF hearing me tell you of our
collision, but anyway our ship is al
most ready for sea again. The dock
yard people promise to have her
ready by May LIST, but judging from
the way they work it will be nearer
July 1st, and then | hope it's the good
old u. S. A. for us. I've had quite a
'suficiency" Of this country. / have
been in Portsmouth SO long now that
| am getting to be quite an English
man.
Did ! tell you in my last letter that
| was expecting to get a leave? Well
| got Is days and decided to spend
it in Paris and try to get up on the
front. Another pal of mine got the
same leave so we went together which
made il all the more pleasant. We
went to Southampton and across the
Channel by boat to LeHavre, France,
from there we caught one of those
fast trains they have in France and
after spending a good part of the
night riding we arrived in Gay
Parie' and must say it sure lives up
to it's name. The Red Cross always
have trucks at the stations in Paris
for the purpose of meeting our boys on
leave. We were about the only sailors
around so had things quite our W
way. | suppose I'll have to admit that
am one of the few lucky ones in
our ortt that have had leave 70 Paris.
We were sure treated fine by the Red
Cross. I think they have done more
for the boys over here than any 9TH
er organization but of course we must
make allowances. We spent several
days in Paris going on sightseeing
parties with the Y. M. c. A. n Red
Cross. We visited the Louvre mu-
scum which is supposed to be the
largest in the world and has the orig
inaI statues Venus de Milo" the
Winged Victory" and many others
of note in it; Napoleon's tomb, Notre
Dame, The Latin Quarters, the church
where the Germans big 80 mi. guns
dropped their shells. Versailles where
the peace conference is being held,
Effel Tower, rode on the Ferris wheel
$50 feet high and saw SO many things
there that / can't give you all the de-
tails. The thing that impressed me
most was the huge war painting called
the Pantheon de Guerre," and COW
ers the. entire walls of a tomb built
especially for this picture. Each gov
eminent of the Allies is represented
showing victory. 1t is $50 feet in
length, everything true to life n a
wonderful work. Some 100 artists
have been working or this master
piece for the last three years, it is
said.
We went by train from Paris to
Chateau Thierry, saw the ruins there
and rode out on one of our army
trucks toward Belleau Wood. This is
where our boys did most of their
lighting in this sector and they sure
did tear things up. We went from
here to Reims which certainly is a
city of ruins, nothing hardly left at
all. Before the war Reims had a pop
ulation of 100, 900 and now there are
about 5000 people in it. We walked
out about 5 kilometers from Reims to
the famous Hindenburg line and was
down in some of the German dug us
some 40 feet underground and 1t may
sound strange but we found telephone
systems and in one compartment a
bath tub, these dugouts were all of
concrete inlaid with steel ties so you
see they were there to stay. We spent
the whole day wandering about exam
ing these things because to a fellow
that has been tossing about on the
llSh sCoc ILLS "oo cehsS
We could have picked. up all sorts of
souvenirs as it had not been policed
up much around there but l didn't have
my trunk with me, guess its home in
the same old place. But we did get
several shells, German belts, buttons
and, oh, yes, l got a piece of the col
pred glass from the ruined Reims
Cathedral which vas built in the 18th
century. From Reims we went 10
scissors and seen some more ruins
and intended to go on up in Germany
but got so disguised with the train
service and trying to make the
Frogs (Frenchmen) understand us
that we decided to spend the remand
er of our leave in Paris. We also dis
covered that it took "beaucoup' francs
Oz-,;v,.oA m Dauo 0-Cnl CN