The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-04-18

before coming on board the ship we
did our best to protect ourselves from
both these families that bring ty-
phoid and small pox." Well, when a
doctor will take his own medicine
am willing to take it, and so were sew
eral others and we gave the ships
physician little business right there,
didn't sleep much that night, and
would have reta1iated the next day
by vaccinating the surgeon a thous-
and times a piece if we could have
had the chance. At any rate it is
all over now and not a pirate left
among the passengers. But after all
what numbers of lives have been saw
ed by this simple treatment. Vaccin-
alton for small pox is we'll known and
the disease is little feared today.
But unimunization against typhoid
and few of the latter's cousins is
new. Typhoid carried off thousands
of splendid American boys during the
war with Spain We did not know
how to vaccinate against it. We
learned this later And by applying
what we had learned to the soldiers
of the United States, only three cases
of typhoid occurred in our army of
nearly a hundred thousand men on
the Mexican border, and typhoid is
almost unknown in our army in
France today.
Approach to Brest
AS we approached Brest a heavy
fog prevented our seeing in any di-
rection more than a few hundred
yards. The first glimpse l had was
the intermittant flash of light from
light house on an island to the
north. Brest is situated in Brittany
at almost it's western point. The har
Dor is well protected by points of
land that extend miles into the sea
and that have much the shape of the
claws of a lobster. Beyond the points
of the claws are small islands. The
light house was upon one of these.
Pretty soon | saw a fishing smack
and then another and pretty soon
a fleet of them. The fog lifted some
By eight o'clock in the morning the
sky was fairly clear and the coast
lines of La Belle, France distinctly
visible. The point of land to the
south is called the Point of Spain.
The harbor was deep and our ship
approached rapidly. We were sew
eral miles from Brest and l looked
upon world that was centuries old
before our America was known to a
white race. | saw quaint old stone
buildings, small tracts of land that
seemed to be farms, the ruins of alb
andoned forts that told the story of
mans prowess in the days gone by,
forts from the time of Louis XIV,
and ruins from fifteen centuries be-
fore in the time of Julius Caesar. At
our left we passed the great wireless
station of the French government,
and then the harbor proper with
Brest lying on the hills beyond. AS
we approached the harbor our ship
carried the stars and stripes and also
the flag of the secretary of the navy,
the latter a flag of blue with an an
Choir in the center apd four stars sur
it,. one on each corner of
the flag. 1t now looked as though |
we were entering an American port |
There to our left lying at anchor was
a battleship of the United States
navy, on the right were three U. S.
battle cruisers and beyond one or two |
Golfers, and numerous smaller craft |
bearing the flag of the United States
and as it were, dominating the har-
bor. Best of all was one of the large |
of the navy loaded with
brave American boys, happy beyond |
measure to return to their native
land.
AS I finish this letter we are at rest
in the harbor and it will be about one
hour before we shall be met by a
narbor vessel and taken on shore,
etc. being attended to in
The meantime
Very truly,
RTTPTON r. ERENCH