The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1919-05-26
OLIVER SHURTLEFF
IS TOURING FRANCE
Incidentally He is Doing a
Lot Of Good for the
Cause.

Few Marion county people are bet
ter known than Oliver shurtleff who
went TO the Normal school here, was
principal Of the schools at Fairview'
q great leader In the activities OF the
boys and girls activities and all
around good fellow. The year before
America got into the war Oliver re-
signed his Job at Fairview and with
his young wife went down to the IN
lversity 10 complete his and her educa-
ton. That plan blew up when the
United STATES blew up and 1t was not
long before Oliver was on the other
side. Now he is.-but let him tell II.
The following letter was written to
his mother. Mrs. e. w. Shurtleff OF
800 Nuzum Place, this city:
April 2s,1s19.
Dear Folks-Whjle the rest OF the
concert party Is out sight seeing, I'll
trv 10 write YOU all little note home.
AS this Will probably reach you about
Mothers Day and my own good fathers
birthday. I'll let this be letter OF
concentration TO my parents In hon7
OF of those two days.
/ am still with the same concert
party but we have a new name. we
are called the American Quintet.
like our name and the work we are do
inc, am fortunate in being able
10 work with good artists all of whom
have made good. Last Saturday night
we gave an exceptionally good pro-
gram In a large hut crowded with an
audience of $500 men. Sonnet mes our
audiences are large. sometimes small.
Sunday afternoon we gave short
program at Jewish Welfare Pond
hut. The audience was small bit We
had delightful time. We will work
every night this coming week as We
have our schedule already in hand.
Quite frequently we give two PERFORM
ances or more in the same camp. One
afternoon we gave four programs in
one hospital. That night we showed
at a X. Of G. hut-making five pro-
grams for one day. We show partly
in hospitals. army huts Red Cross
rooms. X. of G.. huts, ]. w. B. huts
and ". NJ. q. A. huts. We have no.
vet been assigned to Salvation Army
hut but are anxious to play in one.
Wherever we go, however, the enter
tainment is under the management OF
The VI. never was a man before
came over. here but I'm for the Y
now. strong It and the other kin
dred organizations have done lot OF
wonderfully fine work. All Of these
ORGANIZATIONS deserve the faith Of the
American people.
We are in the Bordeaux area now.
(See map of France). The other even.
ing IN going to and returning from an
enlightenment we drove in an auto for
over 100 kilometers. We went through
the sector OF famous Bordeaux vine
yards. We saw literally thousands
ofgrape vines Just beginning to bud. It
must be wonderful sight to see all
these acres of vines laden with ripe
purple fruit Along with some OF
the vineyards we saw hundreds of rose
bushes Just getting ready to be lovely.
Most OF our travel is done with au-
tcmobiles sometimes a truck, some
times an ambulance, some times a
high class American car, sometimes
the ever, present tin-lizzie, erstwnile
known as the Ford automobile. They
are great buzzers and deserve to be
decorated for helping to win the war.
The last two nights our driver was
West Virginia soldier from Parkers-
burg. sat with him and we had a
great time talking about the West Vir-
ginia hills and their riches of coal,
oil and gas. We both decided that
West Virginia was some place and
rood enough for us to come back to.
Some day we viii.
In meeting folks we know I'm better
off than the rest OF our entertainment
unit They all come from big cities,
Boston, New York, st. Louis and Chi
cago and You know in big cities folks
don't know who their neighbors are as
well as we OF lesser and more provin-
cial towns Imet several folks whom
J know directly and several whom |
know indirectly. There are not so
many of us you know and generally af-
ter the program all the snake hunters