Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1919-04-30
PAGE SEVEN
Soldier Writes to Victory Girl

1 SchooI IN Albany, received the toi-
lowing letter:
Brest, France Mar. %, 1919.
| Dear friend Doris:
| 1 guess you will think l am a good
soldier for not trying to get letter
to you when | knew you never re-
ceived the one l wrote you a long
time ago, but | thought you might
| get 1t IN time.
| l was very pleased to hear from
you and l know by the way you
write you are a very good little girl
and friend of the soldiers.
The Boys and Girls club over
there is good organization and it
has been a great help to the soldiers
in France.
You know a soldier has courage
anywhere when he knows the folks
at home, old and young, are behind
him.
You young patriots in America are
wonders.
l will tell you about the part of
France / am in. 1t is very old part
of the Republic and is called Brit
tany, getting its name from race
of people who settled here before our
own America was discovered. Some
/ of the people here are very ancient
in their customs yet, and don't seem
and really some of the systems they
use in doing their daily work are
laughable. The way they wash their
clothes is funny. They take them to
pools of water which have a roof
over them, and get down on their
knees and scrub the clothes with a
brush and cold water until they are
I clean. No washing machines or
wringers around this part of France.
/ CHI hn ,f
the women carry on their heads.
They are heavier than most men in
America would wish to carry on
their backs. When we were at Camp
Devens we would go on long hikes
with packs on our backs, weighing
about sixty pounds, and we thought
they were some load, but since seeing
the loads that are carried here by
women and even small girls, l don't
think we had much of load to carry
You have probably read in the pa
pers about Camp Pontanezen. This
camp is located about three miles
from this city and was at one time
used by Napoleon. There are some
old stone barracks there which were
used by his soldiers and around the
barracks is a stone wall about Is
feet high and five or six feet wide,
which | think is a wonderful piece of
work considering that it was built so
very long ago.
At this camp now are hundreds of
barracks built blythe engineers. When
we landed here in July there weren't
any buildings there only stone ones
but since then the camp has grown TO
be a good-siZed city.
Brest has a population of $4,000
people so you see we are in quite
town. There are many interesting
sights to be seen in Brest, too. Old
chateaux, art museums and whole
lot of other things. Small street
cars, and two-wheeled wagons which
looked very funny to US when we
first came, but now we are quite ac-
customed to them. We see ships
coming in and going out every day
with soldiers, and we are patiently
waiting our time to get on to one OF
them.
| like the army life, but now that
the war is over, of course, everyone
of US would rather be at home in
America.
People will never realize what
wonderful country America is until
they are away from it for a year or
so and see the difference | am real
glad that / had the opportunity to
come to France and regret that more
of the boys could not come over.
think the Germans are glad they did
not come as the few who did come
upset their plans and are going to
teach them what the word Democ-
racy means.
There are hundreds of German
prisoners here doing work for the
Americans, French and British, such
as building roads.
You have heard all about the
weather we have been having here,
haven't you? At present it is fair
ly good, but the way il has rained in
the past few months was very dis
couraging. Only once in a while the
sun would shine for an hour or so,
then it would rain again and keep it
up for days at a time. We just made
the best of it for no matter how we
talked the rain would not stop. It is
much better weather now so we can
go about our work in a much more
cheerful manner.
/ hope you boys and girls in Amer
lea will keep up your good work un-
til every soldier in the army is again
in civil life. You have all been a
wonderful help and we won't soon
forget those very cheerful letters you
sent US in France.
I will close now with best regards
and many thanks 10 you for writing.
! am your chosen soldier,
Pvt. Thos. p. Hullaney,
Co. F, 33d Engineers,
A. E. F.
When this club was organized last
fall the Victory Boys and Girls each
chose a soldier boy Over There TO
stand behind, donating the amount