The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1919-01-02
Ben Hall Writes
OF Experiences
In France

Of the Z. M. e. Headquarters OF the
Third division. A. H. C.. 740. with the
American expeditionary forces in
France. bearing date OF November "a,
in which he describes some OF his OBJ
servations and experiences over
there" that will be interesting to his
friends. He says:
We have been on the go ever since
last wrote to you. This letter
leaves me in excellent health and feel
ing hne. Hope II finds you In per
feet health and enjoying the pleasures
OF life. guess you are all busy now.
We are not idlIng here. as we are NOV
ing most OF the time and that means
a lot OF work. for we have to load up
our baggage and equipment, then un-
load IL and establish an office every
time We stop. which represents lot
Of labor. to say nothing Of the march
ing.
We are wishing and patiently wait
ing for the time to come when we
will be ordered home. but the chances
are mighty good for us to spend our
Christmas in France or. rather. Ger
many. We are in Luxembourg now
and 1t IS pretty country. Yesterday
We passed through fne-iooking farm
ing section. The people here rai.e
II good many grapes and wine In or
binary times is very cheap. You
know the people over here do not live
on their farms. but reside in villages
and travel back and forth from their
work in the fields every day. They
keep all OF their livestock in the
towns and build large stone or cement
TO live in. The other half OF the
dwelling is for the cattle. horses and
other stock On the upper floor they
store their grain and other farm pro
duce II Is very seldom that one sees
a frame house. Nearly all OF them
are built OF stone or cement with tile
or slate roofs When the German
shells hit these houses you can imsg-
inc what they did to them: they just
tore them TO pieces.
The other day ! saw come French
msa threshing grain with an old-fash-
ioned horsepower threshing machine
They use only one horse and you can
have an idea how much grain they are
-DAt 10 lEIffHH III a my Nt1fa
be up against it, II they raised very
much grain 10 get II thneshed. but As
their farms are very small they get
along without much difficulty on thai
score. The fa-mers in this section si
Europe grow little OF everything. o.
practically everything they need for
their own use. One never sees n fence
nf any kind aroond their helds. The
only wire there In in use over here
s. barbed wire and was employed by
the Germans in making entangle-
mants. There II sure plenty OF that
variety. and IL Is no wonder the price
went up In the American markets..
some OF the boys said II might take
. year to lick ths Kaiser. II Will
lake 40 years to clear up all OF the
barbed wire cntangiements in France
and belgium.
The wooden shoes ,oi the French
peasants are sure great In the
house they wear cottnn-knittec shoes.
but when they 20 out they put on
wooden shoes. When they 20 into
the house they leave their wooden
shoes al the door SO as not to carry
any mud or dirt inside with them.
'weii. dad. when was up near the
front We were not allowed to have any
lights. fer IL we did. the Germans
could see them while nysng over in
their airplanes. and a good target
aouid be presented to drop bombs on.
The nIght That we left TO 80 further
back of the lines for few days rest.
spne of the boys lighted cigsrets and
the enemy Immediately began 20 bomb
ms. trit our airmen got busy and drove
the Huns away before any damage
was done. About 3 o'clock the next
morning German ayiators returned In
force ond tore our old camping ground
all TO pieces. brt as we had vacated
II nobody WAS hurt II was fortunate
for us that we left when we did.
"our division Is in the Third army
now, the army of occupation. and we
are on The march to Germany. or some
place on her western frontier. sup
pose we will soon be on the banks of
the Rhine. We Travelled through
Alsace.Lorraine and found them nice
looking states In some portions. They
are shot mp" to q considerable ex-
tent. but not so bad as some sections
In Northern France. II will take
France good many years to build up
her devastated territory like II was
before the war.
THE people OF the United States
can consider themselves mighty for.
tunate that their country has escaped
the fate that came TO France from the
German invasion. II Is 10 be hoped
tt.~t she Irrtsot ot.e.a u-tll rovar