The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1919-01-24

! III the army and | think that it won't
be so long until we are home-and we
cheer each other up and one will say:
"Gee, but I'd give my months pay
(maybe he is only drawing about S33
a monthly to get letter" And the fell
lows will say, "Me, too" l understand
we will get quite little mail in few
days. Traffic is so congested on the
railroads until it is hard to get any
thing from France. l anticipate get
ting quite little mail-as l have had
none since about the 9Th of Novem-
Der, and am very anxious to know how
things are in Tarpon. I would GER
tainly enjoy reading The Leader Who
was elected mayor, etc.
The Red Cross has just given us
some chocolate and cigarettes. I will
trade the cigarettes for chocolates or
cookies. Eating the chocolate and
thinking of you, thought of a certain
Ipie-a lemon pie-that you made some
years ago. My, but that was a good
pie! Do you remember it?
I'll tell you how spent Christmas.
Waking, l rubbed my eyes, and
down stairs I heard the Cant get 'em
up in the morning" on the bugle. And
then "Soupe", or breakfast. And up
land at 'em (the cooks) and about 9
o'clock the Y. NJ. C. A. gave us cook
les, milk, cocoa, sugar, cigarettes, and
smoking tobacco; the Red Cross gave
us cigarettes, and the army gave us
some stick candy, and we had a pref
ty good meal--fresh pork, mashed po-
tatoes with gravy, bread and cocoa,
and as much as we could cat. We
thought il was an excellent meal
what do you think? mo lemon pia)
forgot to mention the most i'm
portant feature of the day. What do
you suppose ] saw when | first looked
cut Of the window? Snow! And it
was sure white and pre,ty-rnorc
snow than I had seen in all my exist
ing y and some years. Everything
and everywhere was covered. You
might know what sight it was for
ne. 1t doesn't seem to be very cold,
however. But sunshine is as scarce as
hens teeth-and what little they have
is not of the same grade as ours
Anyway, I think our sunshine is in
comparable to any other-don't you?
The scenery around is very pretty and
must be beautiful in the spring. 1t
it billy or mountainous here, and all
along the sides of the hills are all COW
cred with vineyards. Every little
niche is cultivated, and it must be q
pretty sight when the fruit is ripe.
From Lorraine where we marched
through to here we passed vineyard
after vineyard. We were in Luxem-
burg and in the city of Remick. 1t
is on the banks of the Mosel river and
the Mosel is the boundary between
Luxembourg and Germany Here we
are on the Rhine and Mosel rivers.
Coblenz was founded some hundreds
Of years ago by the Romans, and is
quite a city. The Germans have nu-
merOus forts here and the city was
well fortified. The city is not so very
unlike an American city, especially
some Of the northern cities where lum-
Der is scare and stone plentiful.
went down town the other night
and took in a Dutch movie, and was
able to understand the picture. They
had a good orchestra, so I enjoyed it.
| noticed that the women were dress
/ ed very much as the American wom-
en-, but not-welI, something was lack
ing. Some were very pretty, too, but
they held no attraction for me. Meth
Dutch, French, or English, or Cana
dian-but when an American Red
Cross nurse greets you with a good
old American Hello, boys, it makes
you feel good; and how one likes to
hear that American tone of voice.
There are two hospitals here, and then
there are some Y. w. C. A. girls here.
too. But back to my story of the city.
! The streets are named after the kai-
ser, the princes, and different rulers,
and the kaiser HAD a palace. But the
allies seem to have foreclosed his
mortgage and they have possession of
lit. The shops are all decorated for
Christmas with toys and Christmas
trees and the people could be seen go
ing home with Christmas packages
the last few days before Christmas.
The butcher shops are a pretty sight.
Every time l see one l think it is a
soda fountain, with their mirrors,
brass fittings and marble. 1t sounds
good to hear the street cars come buzz
zing down the streets.
am at present working in this de-
tachment's headquarters as clerk-a
nice place, as do not have to drill or