The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-01-07

A letter under date OF Dec. 10 was as
follows;
Dear Folks: It grieves me deeply to
have to write this letter Not that there
is anything grievous to write about, but
simply the fact that it is necessary for
me to write again from France
| / have been thinking for the past few
weeks that ! would be in the states for
Christmas, but am beginning to think
that / will be very lucky if get there
this year However, am one step near
| er home than | was for time, for at
present | am in Bordeaux They call it
Bordeaux, but it isn't really. | am in a
hospital that is about FIVE miles out from
the city. And there is just about as
much chance for me to get to Bordeaux
as there is for me to skate across Hades
| Therefore | can't write much about the
place. But judging from other places
have been in, | will say it is a pretty
good town to leave. At least / would be
nightly pleased to leave It.
] don't suppose it will surprise you in
the least to hear that have moved since
last wrote. That is about "al have
done since / came to this mans France
First was in BeHavre, then - Grand
and after that moved from one place to
another so fast that | actually got dizzy
| And | can't remember all the heathenish
places that / stopped in for one night
| ! do remember that we were always
on a hay loft in some barn. No, not
always, for a great many times hay
| loft would have been a room in the Wal.
dorf beside some of the places At times
have actually enyied the pigs. And
this is fact, there were coolies in those
places that came off Napoleon's men. /
| hope that the cootie plague is all over
! for us.
Strange and funny things happened in
some of those barns where we slept We
would wake up in the morning as like
as not and see a fair mademoiselle milk
ing the family COW. And it would be
nothing unusual if she was using some
soldier for a milking stool. And it was
bit embarrassing at first if we had our
clothes off Everyone was trying to get
covered up with the same pile Of straw
| Then the whistle would blow and when
she wasn't looking we would try to get
| into all of our clothes at once and find
that we had pulled our pants over our
heads and stuck our legs into the sleeves
Of our shirts. And the French maid
would simply give us a sweet smile and
saw, "Bon jour, Monsieur"
Another delightful thing is the system
of transportation of soldiers The cars
they Use are about as large as an ice
chest with four wheels. They put 40
men in car, slide the door shut and
there you are. The first two hours are
spent mostly in oussing and fighting
| And believe me, it is not place for
| Quaker in that car if there are two fell
lows that are DESTROYS of a pugilistic
combat. You are Just as apt to make a
swing at your opponent and catch your
! best friend in the ear as not. But finally
everyone gets tired and succumbs to
their fate. The iolliest time of all is at
! night in one of those boxes. Everyone,
eventually, lies down from exhaustion
You may have your head in somebody's
lap, your rear extremites in somebody's
stomach and your feet beating tattoo
on somebody's physog. But those are
the least Of your difficulties, for you
must remember that someone may be
sitting on your head. 1t is really sur
prising but man can actually do I'M
der those conditions. Even the square
wheel on one corner of the car will not
keep him awake.
But the grand time comes when you
have to get out. You will start button
ing up your clothes and find out that you
have used somebody's overcoat buttons
| in your button holes. You will lace up
somebody else's shoes with your shoe
| strings and put your leggings on some
body's arm.
And about that time the sergeant
comes down to your car and quietly in
forms you that you have got about two
minutes to get out and lined up. But it
is a great life.
] think / viii close now, hoping l will
be in the states soon. Everett.