The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1919-01-22
WRITES Of WAR
WORK K. OF c. AND
OTHERS ARE DOING
ROY HOWARD HAS BEEN OVER
IN KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
SERVICE FOR SOME TIME

IN KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
SERVICE FOR SOME TIME
The following letter, written by Roy
Howard, former Grattan resident,
to one of his relatives in this vicinity,
is interesting and will be read with
relish by Roy's friends and acquaint-
ances:
16 Place de la Madeline, Paris, France
Nov. 10, 1918.
Dear Niece and All;
Well, L will now try and answer
your welcome letter of Oct. / which
came at hand last week. ! was pleased
to learn you are all well and that you
are enjoying school work as for me
/ am well and never so busy in all
my life; there is always some work
awaiting me. / have seen so much
and did so much since leaving Ameri-
ca / hardly know what to write about
and not have the received of the mis-
sive. First of all the war news is
very encouraging as there is cam
mission of the allies and four Ger
man ENJOYS here in Paris in session
now, and the allies have given the
Huns until IL o'clock tomorrow morn
ing to except their terms of peace.
There is great speculation as to what
they will do at this time, but if they
do not accept the terms now it will
be only a few months before they
will have to; the people in America
do not begin to realize what this war
is like, to say the least, it is terrible.
/ was sent over to Brest two weeks
ago on special mission and while
there visited five American hospitals
and at one alone saw them taking out
1877 dead to bury that had died the
night before; counted % boxes on one
truck headed for the cemetery and
here in Paris / have visited three Of
the American hospitals and have seen
much. They are shot and mangled
in every way besides the sickness,
you will find from 1900 to as many
as 1000 in a hospital but they are all
brave and want to get back at the
Huns. The one satisfaction is that
the enemy is getting the worst Of it
and are suffering so much more than
we are.
People here are much more en-
couraged than when / arrived here and
have borne their troubles wonderful
ly; the last week is the first there has
bCCiA all likiltc vi Lit StIttlS Oh
since i arrived and they are not very
we had was on Sept. Is, about 2 at
night and lasted one hour and as min
utes, the bombing and cannonading
was wonderful sight, but | think
Paris is out of danger now as the
front lines are long ways off now
and the Hun planes are not able to
get here any more. France is beau
tlful country and / think Paris is
rightly called the most beautiful city
IN the world. The architecture, boule-
Yards and gardens are exquisite. We
have not had frost as yet but lots
of rain and many of the leaves are
still on the trees; but the air is chilly
and damp. There is but very little
fuel here; hard coal is SOS and $40 a
ton so you can imagine we don't have
warm house to live in. The tenn
perature now is about like the last of
September in Michigan, only more
damp. There are but few wooden
buildings here or in England. II
didn't see any in England and but
very few in France. They are made
of stone, brick or cement. Fences
are of hedge and very beautiful. Most
wagons are of two wheel type as there
is tax according to the number of
wheels, the trains are very strange
to us. Freight cars are of 10 to 20
ton capacity in England, mostly 10
ton. Locomotives are about like a
large traction engine. The passen-
ger cars are built in compartments
IN France. first class are very nice
and seat eight people in a compart-
ment and are beautifully upholstered;
CapnnA oil oh =
with seats of wood and third class
about like cabcose if it had benches
crosswise. Wine is very plentiful
but l have not seen but very little
drunkenness. Living expenses are
very high as~well as everything else.
The street car service is about like
America but Paris has some wonder
ful Metro system that is under ground
street car system much nicer than
New York but not as speedy. This
week am to go to Bologne on an in
vestigating trip which will give me a 4
trip through the old battlefelds and
is not far from the Belgian border.
My duty here is bookkeeper at the
headquarters warehouse but have an
assignment occasionally to other cities
inspecting the work of our organiza-
ton. am in hopes / will not have
to go away again after this trip a.
our work is so heavy here that il piles
up fast when am of the Job am
usually at my desk from 10 to 14l
hours a day and hustle all the Tina |
We have a warehouse here about the |
size Of the Phelps hotel in GreenvilIe |
and certainly handle a lot of mer-
chandise. We ship by train and aiso
have fleet q about 80 auto trucks |
going and coming from the front ali |
the time, besides the small cars. We
have about a million dollar stock on |
hand most of the time which is dis
tributed to all parts of France where
there are American soldiers. Our
men are doing a wonderful work at |
the front which the American people |
Will hear much about when the SOL |