Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-06-10

perfectly just criticism. Sunday Is a
day of comparative rest In the milit5ry
camps and naturally therefore S.n-
day is the day on which most of the
soldiers find it convenient to visit
the home and the grave of the great
George. 1t is hard to understand why
the rule Of peace times has been con-
tinued in war times and visitors still
are shut out from Mount Vernon on
the Lords Day.
At Its Best in the Spring.
The pilgrimages to the Potomac
mansion still are continuing. In this
spring season Mount Vernon is at its
best. The old hedges which were
planted by the hand of George, hin-
self, still are green and flourishing,
and several great trees which as sap
lings he planted still cast their shade
over the historic mansion.
The soldiers outnumber civilian Wis
itors to the place today certainly ten
to one, and it is an agreeable thing
to say that virtually every soldier of
foreign army who has been in Wash
ingtOn with the various missions here
present has made it "a matter of con-
science, sOf heart, and of interest to
go to Mount Vernon as a mark OF
respect to the man under whose hand
the chains of monarchy dropped from
the limbs of the American colonies.
Living in France to Be Better.
A bulletin just issued by the de-
partment of labor carries this head
line: British Housewives Want
American Conveniences."
The department of labor might have
gone farther than this, for it truth
fully could have said that the French
housewives and the Belgian house
wives want American conveniences.
The American soldiers ideas of living
conditions took hold of the men and
women of France. One thing was set
down as a truth: When the villages
OF France and Belgium are rebuilt,
bathtubS therein will not be a curl
oSity as in former days.
The wonder is if Americans who
have not travelled abroad have an I'M
Outstanding of housing conditions in
France outside of the big cities, and
to a considerable extent in the big
cities themselves.
Everybody read at the beginning OF
the war how amazed the villagers
and the farming people in France
were "a the determination of every
British soldier to have bath daily if
he could get it by hook or by crook.
The water-drinking habit of the Brit
ish also was hard for the French and
the BelgianS to understand.
Getting a Drink in Brest.
One can speak from personal eX-
perience of certain things which hap
pened after the American army got in
TO French territory. In hotel in
Brest it took me forty-five minutes to
get drink of water. l asked young
woman acting as what we would call
bellhop if she would be good
enough to get me a drink, or tell me
where l could get one. Her answer
was a question in French:
"What sort of wine does Monsieur
wish?"
When / told her that 1 wanted "a
drink of water she looked perfectly
fiabbergasted. A request of that kind
probably had not been heard in that
hotel for many moons.
There was consultation of young
women on the subject of how TO get
me u drink of water. 1t must be saiC
that this request was made between
meals. On the French tables there is
always a caraffe for ornamental pur
poses, but brought into occasional
use by Frenchmen who like 70 mix
their water with their light wines,
although the wine is so innocuOus
that dozen glasses of it will not in.
tOXicate.
After the consultation was over a
glass of water was produced, but the
young woman who gave it to me said
that she didn't think it was quite
fresh.
No Ventilation for Peasants.
In France the peasants have had the
centuries long habit of sleeping with
all their windows and doors tight
closed. This fact probably is respon-
sible for some of the tuberculosis
which exists in France. American
soldiers asked the French people in
the village in which our boys We're
biIfeted why they did not ventilate
their houses. American doctors, vol
unteering to care for some of the sick
among the French peasants, insisted
on ventilation and many a French
man. woman and child, under the di-
rectiOn of American physicians, slept
with windows. open for the first time
in their lives. The report is that they
liked it. The word is that the French
people in some sections of the country
are going to demand American inn
movements and are not only going
to demand them, but are going TO get
them.
When once the bathtub, the venti-
lator, modern washing appliances AMI
other modern things are taken into
parts of France and put into use, the
people of the other parts of the coun-
fry will demand them.