The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-04-22

J time to consider at all. Dwelling
barn, chicken house, hay loft
manure piles and various and sundr,
other establishments are all unde
the same roof. You have but to stel
out OF the dining room to find your
self in the stable. The ladies of tn,
village all do their washing in tn,
community wash house and use tn,
same water for it, I've been il
several houses, but haven't dis
covered anything suggesting a bath
tub, and from what l observe | dom
believe they have discovered thu
necessity for this just yet. But ir
spite of all this, they're a wonderful
people, and are fighting a wonderful
war, and far be it from me to say
that their methods are without
merit, althO | think they have few
things to learn that will save them
a great deal of trouble.
| sat the other evening on the side
of one of Frances hills behind which
the sun was setting and watched the
rim of shadow creep down thru the
valley and up the slope beyond
! We're in the middle of the harvest
season here, and the harvest was
being gathered in this valley as it
is in thousands of other valleys in
France, and the thing that impressed
me was that women, children and
old men were doing the harvesting
Everywhere one sees old men and
women doing the work. OF course,
when we've finally won this war
We'll be loud in the praises of bat
tlefield heroes, but by gosh, the
thought struck me that We'll have
to give great deal of credit to
harvest field heroes too.
But what's the use of my going
to this extent to tell you this stuff
when you've read all about the
country in the Saturday Evening
Post. An ancient copy has. just been
discovered in the office, and it con-
tains an account of an air raid by
George Pattullo, and l think he
covers more ground in his little &C
count than | will be able to cover if
l stay in France for the duration of
the war. Here you and l go plod-
ding along for a year or two in
search of experiences and these birds
pick up more in a week and get
more credit for it than we do for all
our trouble-and they have two mil
lion readers a week too. l betcha if
we ever get to Berlin we'll find that
Irving Cobb and George Pattullo
have preceded us by some two
months and have already interviewed
the kaiser and obtained a full con-
fession from Won Hindenburg. But
by gosh, we're fighting a public war,
and I'm glad to know that the peo-
pie at home are being told about con-
ditions here and not being kept in
the dark. On the other hand, If I
were to write some of the things
that our friend Pattullo does in his
articles I'd have the honorable CEN
sor on my neck P. D. @. But that's
different.
If when this reaches you, you find
yourself contemplating trip in this
direction, please observe the fol-
lowing for your convenience: Bring
plenty of matches. 1t may be truth
fully said of French matches that
they will "not'set the world on fire"
in. fact, it's hard to get one that
will set itself on fire. Tobacco is
being issued now, and is plentiful
also cigars. Bring yourself along a
supply of candy, If your taste runs
in that direction, as French "choco-
late" is a joke. Anything you can
manage to bring along in the nature
of edibles will be of value to you,
but otherwise best cut your kit down
to minimum. A fellows back has
limitations and is poor place to
carry too much junk. Try and get
a waterproof matchbox-also a
waterproof tobacco pouch. Chewing
gums a handy thing to have with
you.
Well, l can think of a thousand
things to tell you, but most of them
would arouse the ire of the censor
who is to be considered always.
Its great sport, writing for the
censor. Sixteen ideas having bobbed
into your brain you are compelled
to select the least interesting of the
sixteen because the others would be
out of bounds. But I'll say again
that you certainly are a lucky stiff |
IN having good working knowl-
edge of French. You'll be the most
popular guy in the village. You'll be
lble to establish "liaison" with the
,illage queen. I'm a wreck from
rying to learn the intricate stuff.
go about with my dictionary in the
alert position" and try to make
hem understand, but no use.
now 1--WE munseer" and mo COM
and that's all. I repeat
rom the bottom of my heart, you're
lucky stiff.
Give my best regards to the
'rego's when you write. think of