The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-02-07
FROM THE BOYS IN SERVICE
Recent Letters Descriptive of the Life of the Boys
in Army and Navy .

OVlSL cHgHecfS, VINO IS WITH lNe LulIu
army of occupation in Germany, writes
interesting letters of activities of his
regiment, of the surrounding country,
and of friendly treatment by the Ger
man people The letters, which were
to his mother, Mrs. James n. Better
ley of Dummerston hill, follow, in part:
Somewhere in Germany.
Dee. %, 1918.
Dear Mother and Home Folks:-
Merry Christmas to you all from this
land of chaos and restitution. ! am
still detached from the regiment with
my company and am operating this long
pontoon bridge across the Moselle, some
% miles from the Rhine. We woke
up this morning with the ground white,
the first real snow of the season, and to
think il came for us at this time al
most seemed as though it were sent
specially for the day. Most of my
outfit are New England men and |
think they were as much pleased as
myself. The old bridge had to be oper-
ated of course as usual, the water IS
rising and falling all the time. 1t is
coming up now, and had to put in an
extra boat and rebuild the approach on
account of it, but / let them all off as
early as possible.
The mess sergeant did his best to fix
up a good feed without any extras and
he did have ripping dinner. Best
beef steak in the world, onions, gravy
that would make a New England house
wife jealous, rice pudding, mashed po-
tatoes, real American coffee with sugar
and canned milk What more could
mortal ask when surrounded by starry
ing population Although they artn t
starving, apparently all have plenty,
hut you see no luxuries or many things
we call necessities Potatoes have been
good and are dirt cheap-about 30
cents a bushel l know, for / bought
10 bushels for the company mess. Not
very big, but passable, very good cook
ers mealy and what / call good. Their
bread is limited in quantity and is dark
stuff like graham, only not soft. But
there ism t nearly the privation there
was everywhere we touched in France,
or even England. l don't really think
the average German has deprived him
self as much as the people of either
France or England. OF course we don t
know the state Of affairs across the
Rhine, or in and around Berlin.
Did | tell YOU of a nice old lady
sticking her head out of a window
when | was asking some small boys
where to go to get to the railroad sta
ton? In excellent English she asked
If she could help me and soon a young
damsel stuck out her head and | knew
right away they could help. 1t was my
first dav in COblenz on railroad guard
duty and wanted to know the way 10
the station. She told me and | asked
of course, where she got it. They had
both lived in a little town near Pitts
burg, but on account of the husband )
health returned 10 years ago. Now they
wish to return. Were here during tht
war; They are disguised with thing:
on this side and / don t blame them
But to get back to the day Aftel
dinner two of the heutenants-Star
and Bowler-and myself went down t
an old castle, built in l450 by some OLE
sport and always been carried down Il
the same family. 1t was like the oil
ehateaus in France This one was lit
tie more primitive inside, perhaps. /
was enormous, great rooms, with lit
lie narrow door leading to a narrow
winding stone stairway. There wer
tables. carved wood sidebOards, won
derful inlay work on bedsteads, some o
them five, some six hundred years ole
That means il was made before Amer
ca was discovered. They could tell m
thousand years old and | would BIZ
leve it as soon. Took train dow
and back and had four miles to walk Il
pretty little valley, almost a gorg
no meadow, just like following pat
MP the old pond brook from Taft y.
narrow road led into the place fro
over the hills so the old duchess ca
ride TO town if unable to ride a hors
She lives in Austria, her son Is an cal
now &c, and they spend the month
August here each year.
Orders came while / was away
90 TO Brohl, on the Rhine, Saturd;
with the company, being relieved
Company A, they coming up in true
and we returning in the same on'
Can put almost 20 men into one tru
comfortably, 25 if necessary, and t
time we ran up to the front line, t
dav of the St Mihiel drive, l had Gig
trucks with 80 men in each and y
couldn I see the truck hardly. III
win get us back with the regime
much pleasanter in many ways, bel
with the other officers, but the duty
always harder, more drills. more
poIlHt uIolt tNti y lHihS. hIll ulpp y
a note from there to let you know WI
the place looks like.
This little town is one of those O
way villages, houses on both sides
the lone street. One general store w
generally nothing in it, one drug st,
that has none of the beauties of ours
no soda or ice cream, just rows of
ties that give a man a SILVER to re
the names or even look at And
don t look for much more in the n,
one. Gee, but the boys will be pleas
to get back to the states and see sol
thing up to date; get away from t
everlasting old stuff and the atmosph
of desolation and privation. | can
see myself walking into one of tn
drug stores, the one under the Bro
House for instance, and asking fo
SODA or creaml In this big town
Coblenz, $4,000, not a pound of eal
4 Ns..w1