Mexico weekly ledger., 1919-05-01
SID HOUSTON TELLS
OF FRENCH SIGHTS

letter to his parents, Mr.. and Mrs. A.
S. Houston. He speaks of having had
dinner with Carter Vaughn. Both Sid
and Carter are former city editors of
tie Ledger. The letter follows:
Treves, Germany, April 9Th, 1919
This is a beautiful day, just like
Spring at home. l mention this be-
cause until today we've had rotten
weather with considerable snow. I
hope this is the beginning of Spring
here for I've had enough of the cold.
l had dinner with Carter Vaughn to-
day at one Of the barracks in town.
! There are any number of boys from
aroung home here and l see new ones
every day.
Two weeks ago today March 3rd)
I went down to Nancy, in France, for
/ some baggage which 1 took to Cob
lence. At Toul l saw Anderson Gibbs
but only for a few minutes. I en-
joyed my short stay in France very
much as / prefer the French to the
Germans in every way. At Cob
lence / saw Cave johnson and
we too the boat trip up the Rhine
as far as Lorelei Rock. The day was
! rainy but it would take exceedingly
bad weather to take away the beauty
| of the Rhine with it's old castles and
| other interesting landmarks so full of
| delightful legend. A Y. NJ. c. A. man
| on board the boat explained the var
ious points as we passed them and he
| appeared to kno W what he was talking
about. One thing, the Konigstuhl,
(my spelling in German may be incor-
rect. However this means Kings
chair) was especially interesting to
me. The stuhl, a sort of a small stone
padoga-like affair, stands on the river
! hank far from any city, but here The
electors of the Holy Roman Empire,
German mobiles and bishops, met and
I carried on the business Of this organ
| ization which some French cynic des-
, cribed as neither holy, Roman nor
an empire. One of the castles, not far
| this is another inscription, also in
to father for there twelve Knight
Templars gave their lives defending it
| against one of the old French kings
who was confiscating all property be-
longing to that order.
In Coblence is a small tablet in
/ inscription in French which Napol-
| con had placed there on his way to
| nussia for the campaign which ended
so distastrously for the Little Cor |
poral. His inscription reads some
thing like this: "In memory of the
| victorious Russian campaign" with
the date, 1912, l believe. Underneath
by me" with the Russians name and
| French, which the Russian comman-
| der, who was pursuing Napoleon on
| the return trip, had put there. 1t
! reads like this: "Seen and approved
| office here and myself started for
| the date. A bit Of irony 1 would say.
Coblence was the birthplace of the
| author of 1.-THE Watch on the Rhine"
l wonder if the old boys shade is not
somewhat shocked at the present !
Watch.
Last Sunday n of the boys in the
office her and myself started for
Brussels in a Ford. The first night
we stopped in Spa, a little town just
over the Belgian border which was
| German General Headquarters during
the last five months of the war and at
present the seat of the international
Armistice Commission. There I made
one of the prize faux pas of my life.
In looking for a hotel 1 went into one
where l was met by a boche general
who informed he had no rooms for
| EOIll. i IHuSI give liz Oid ivy NltulbS 1
though. He was very decent with me
and spoke French far better than !
did. l visited Hindenburg's chateau
where the American Commission is liv-
| ing and saw the German C. C..'s dug
out which he had built below the cell
lar of the house. He was well fitted
! out down there, with an electric fan
flor hot weather and electric heater
for cold, a telephone, electric lights
and comfortable wicker furniture.
The kaiser's abri was not nearly so
| spacious but a little safer, I believe.
l saw the hotel where the kaiser abdi-
| Gated and his chateau and that of the
| Crown Prince. People in the town
told me no one was allowed on the
! streets and all blinds had to be down
when the kaiser or his infamous son
drove through the town. Apparently
they lived in continual fear of their
lives. On our way back we stopped
' at Spa again n saw Marsnal foch
and the German foreign minister,
Erzberger, who was there to receive
the Allies, ultimatum concerning the
landing of Polish troops at Dantzig.
From Spa we drove through Liege,
where the Belgians held the Germans
at bay IN the early days of the wal and
then on through Louvain. Here l
| saw my first evidence of German bar
barism. Hundreds Of buildings were
torn down absolutely for no cause at
| all. What was once a thriving little
| city is now a mass of ruins except
where the Belgians have begun re-
| buiIdinp- The heautifuI city-hall, a