Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1919-06-02
SOLDIERS AID SAILORS
Writes From the Rhine


The following interesting letter has
.been received by member of the BuI-
letin editorial staff from Private Earl
J.. Sparks, Co. B. M. G. Bin, who is at
Andernaek on The Rhine,
+ Dear Mr.. -: AS usua of q
morning l am at the X Of c. rooms
where [ write letters from $50 to $50
d. m, then l meander down to the y.
NJ. G.. A reading rooms and read till
11.30 when ] so to dinner Saturday
evening after showing to the 18th Inf
at the Hangar Theatre with our Of.
fering Of six acts vaudeville. Echoes
From Broadway. we enjoyed moon
light sail up the Rhine as far as Ben
dorf in the patrol boat, a Gmall motor
yacht, First Lieut. Thornton, Marine
Corps. of Missouri. being the host
The Rhine flows at the. rate of eight
kilometres an hour or miles Zone
kilometre is SIS of a milel. The boat
! is capable of 20 kilometres an hour
On the return we shut off the engine
and drifted down stream. Yesterday
Mothers Day we left, Andernach az
$50 q. m. by the steamer Albert Man
gus, sailing uD the river as far as Bin
gen OF Fair Bingen on the Rhine fame
A lunch on board consisted of bean
soup, cold roast beef sandwiches
stewed prunes and coffee. IN all there
were $50 on board from the Ind and
Sd divisions. We passed a number of
old castles, many of them were built
around 1900 A. D., and a few from So
Is. c. up to the year 1909. They are all
located atop the high hills which rise
/ from the Rhine. and on these slopes
are countless acres OF grape vineyards
with here and there a plot of plough
ed soil. All of these castles have some
legend attached to them, the one with
which we are all familiar being the
Mouse Castle which the story created
| in those distant days when facts yields
to fiction, tells US of one Bishop Hat
to Of MainZ, miser. who shut his
| people UP in a large storehouSe after
! promising to give them grain. and set
| fire to the building. men, women and
| children perishing in the flames, after
which the rats besieged him in his
castle, where he met and earned an
untimely and much merited demise
| Other castles of which |, remember the
names are The Cat and the Mouse.
| Stosenfels, The LoreiiIi and Ehren-
| breitstien, one of the largest forts in
| the world. We arrived back at Ander-
| mach at , d. Then we visited the
| Rhine River Hut, one of the Y. NJ. c.
! 4. recreation buildings and enjoyed
| hot chocolate and doughnuts served
| free every afternoon. This building
contains an immense ball room where
every night dances or masqueradeS
are held with music by German Or
chestra or one of Uncle Sans military
bands. The y. NJ. C. a. also runs a
| cafeteria here and for d mark or two
one can buy real old fashioned ice
| cream, cake, pie. hot cakes or a reg
ular dinner, including everything from
soup to nuts for from to marks At
| the K. of c. rooms can always be
| found a large number of soldiers writ
| ing letters or playing checkers or
| dominoes, putting puzzles together
| and enjoying the movies in the X. of
| C. theatre which start at 2.30, $50 and
! 8 p. m. Each day the Knights of CO.
| lumbus give away large quantities of
soap, Bull. Durham and Piedmont to-
| bacco, Nebo and K. c. brand cigaret-
! ties, including the standard brands of
! pipe and chewing tobaccos. Now and
| then the men are treated to bars of
milk and nut chocolate and recently
at Coblenz the K. of G. disposed of So
900 doughnuts in week. The Jewish
| Welfare Boards have a pleasant coy
place for the men to spend their leis-
| ure moments and all the various So
cieties, etc, are doing wonderful work
to keep up the morale of the men, not
forgetting the Greatest Mother in the
] World who kept us supplied with
! smokes while in action and now con-
tributes magazines for our enjoyment
The Second division will probably
leave here about the first week in
June and according to Secretary Ba-
ker the entire A. E. F. forces will be
| home by September The End. whose
| home has been at Syracuse, n. Y. will
go to- Fort Dodge. Iowa. Time has
passed swiftly since we arrived ir
Germany last December It, Trust
this will find all of The Bulletin staff
in good health and enjoying life at its
| best -.--
Yours very truly,
/ PVT. EARL l.. SPARKS,
Co. B, 9Th NJ. 3. B'n, a. E. F.. A. P
O., 10.