The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-03-26
HARD WORK GOING TO DANCE.
Newell Parker, with the A. E. r.,
"Biked" It rs Kilometers Through Mud

Pvt. F. Newell Parker, with the A. +.
F. in France, has written his parents,
Mr.. and Mrs, S. n. Parker, of Spauld-
| ing street, letter which his acquaint-
ances in Barre will be glad of an oppor-
tunity to read. 1t is dated Feb. %. He
says: .--t
Last Saturday was a holiday for us
and believe me / made the most of it.
There is a bunch of fellows in our de-
partment that call themselves the Cootie
club and they decided to hold a banquet
and dance Saturday night at st. Honorie
Les Bains, town about 25 kilometers
away. I was one Of the lucky ones to
be invited and believe me | had some
time We tried to get a couple of
trucks, but it was impossible, so we de-
cided to get there any way we could,
foot, train or bike. Sergt. Jack Bauer,
friend that l have made in the NJ. T.
c., and myself decided to try and make
it on bikes.
'For wonder, Saturday morning the
sun came out and it was very fine, so
we started out about o'clock and took
the road along the canal. 1t was pretty
hot and tiresome after we had been rid
ing a short time and when we got to
Cercy La Tour, seven kilometers away
we were willing to stop for a time and
have a drink of wine.
After a short rest, we started on our
way again along the canal, but soon had
to take the road. We hadn't ridden along
the road for more than 100 yards before
we came to a place where the fields and
road were covered with about three feet
of water. We didn't know just what to
do, as it was the only road that we knew
of and the village of Vandenese was just
around a bend. We waited a while,
thinking someone might come along with
a donkey and cart and carry us over,
but nothing doing, 80 we decided to ride
along the canal little farther and then
try and cross the fields. At last we came
to another road, but that was also COW
cred with water. As luck would have it,
we met a French soldier, who showed us
how to ride through it, but both of us
had to get off and walk when we got in
the middle of it.
"At last, after a long and mighty tire
some ride, we arrived at st. HonOrie,
pretty near all in. We rode up to the
hotel about noon and the lady came to
the door and began talking to us in Eng
lish. You ought to have seen the dinner
that she set before us. Gee, it sure did
make me homesick, as it was the best
feed that l have sat down to since I
have been in France-two or three kinds
of meat potatoes, salad, wine and real
pie. 1t seems that this woman used to
be in Boston and came back here since
the war.
after dinner we dried our clothes and
then went out to look the town over.
There isn't much doing there now, but
it must be a wonderful place in summer,
as there are mineral springs and baths
there. There are about 80 hotels and
some of them are very large and hand.
some. Believe me- | am going to find my
way up there again this summer, if am
not transferred somewhere else by that |
time.
AT o'clock about 40 Of us sat down
to a swell banquet and without any ex-
ception it was one of the SWEETEST feeds |
that / ever sat down to. You sure have |
got to hand it to these French women |
when it comes to cooking pastry and |
such.
I'VE were seated till about 10 o'clock, |
when the young ladies came and we be- |
gan to dance Don't think much of their |
dancing and was pretty tired, so sat |
around and looked on. About one [ went |
up to my room and gee, what a bed |
had. First came springs about a foot |
high, then a mattress and on top of |
that was a big feather mattress, with |
real sheets and pufs. That sure was |
hard to take, after sleeping between !
dirty blankets for several months Be-
lieve me, if ever get home I'll never