The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1919-02-14
From France.


My Dear Mother: This beautiful
night while everything is so quiet
I'll spend a while writing to you
The little village we arc in tonight
looks very beautiful, all nestled at
the foothills of the prettiest chain of
mountains imaginable, and to gaze
at this village from the high noun
tain slopes, which must be at least
1900 feet above the village, when
the moon lights up the wide valleys
and canyons and slopes for the fire
spruce and hemlock, their dark
masses in the moon light makes
such a wonderful picture, contrast
ing it with the many little red roof
houses in the deep valley. This lit
tie village seems almost to be asleep,
and such wonderful time to write
mother, and l wonder tonight if
you are well. l know you will al
ways be glad to know | am having a
good time, mother. This is such a
wonderful country. l mean it's
antiquity. The people here seem to
have the same customs as they had in
Biblical times. It's nothing to see
the French maiden ell arraycd in
ewooden shoes, blowing horse and
milk cow to the same old wooden
pillow. Real humCr to watch their
customs. They can't forget their
antique ideas, which America has
laid aside for at least 200 years.
The French vender cart drawn by
large dog, and the owner of tho dog
bent and stopped until he he looks
almost inhuman. These people
actually live with their stock. From
the living room, which they use for
living room, may be seen three doors
one leading to the family horse
from the right, from the left the
next room the cows, chickens, hogs,
etc. l forgot to mention the wine
cellar, which is directly under the
stone floor, and you may find this
cellar we'll stocked in wine blonc
beer. They use this as VIC do tea or
coffee. But since the Americans Wis
tied these villages they dcvour wine
in such quantity until the French
soon tell us wine blonc finish"
Their few words in French are easily
taken up by the American soldier.
Yes, mother, you should have seen
us when we first landed in France.
Everyone wore such broad smile,
for madamoisellcs were just plenti-
full and not bad at all to look at. We
soon learned to speak few words in
French, such as bon soir (good
evening", bon jour (good morning),
madamoiselle. etc. But when they
marched us up on the freight depot
IN
rible little cars, which hold eight
horses and forty men, then you
should have seen those smiles turn
into a fierce grin, and some of the
boys actually used words which they
didn't learn at Sunday school. No
wonder Now imagine forty men
and equipment in car by 16. But
we would consider those cars now
very comfortable, for on a twelve
days hike across these mountains
these kilometers are very tiresome
walking, and each soldier would
dream of these cars as you would a
big coy pullman in America. L
have not told you about my expert
ences on the front. You can imagine
me ON the front. The first morning
we were near the firing line we heard
shots in the air and of course
we ran to see the trouble. We saw
Fritzie like huge bird in the sky,
lodging the shrapnel from an anti
aircraft gun. He seemed to be
daZed by the shots and blind as a
flying bat trying to elude his pur-
suers. But finally F'ritzie's machine
caught on fire and down he came in
the far distance. The next morning
we started for the Lorraine front, and
such a terrible experience we went
thru that night. The flying and
squealing pigs seem to rain on us.
But none of them did any damage
From there we wont to the Verdun
front where the Crown Prince lost
his army. We occupied a strong
position on Dead Mans hill and
finally went over the top just two
days before the armistice. They
tried to keep us from advancing with
their artillery, but advanced on. You
can't help from hunting shell hole
If it's full of water. Don't have to
have directions for you to jump
in. You hit the bottom, for there is
nothing that goes as cruel as one of
those Austrian SS zip bang, and then
you can guess the rest.
Mother, I wanted to be home by |
Christmas, but fate is against me. |
Although old Santa did not forget |
me. l got big dinner and also got |
chocolate buco. l hope to be home |
soon, then I'll tell you more about
the life over here. My love to all.
Your son,