Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1919-05-26
VISITS. WHOLE 4.
!. A ! { I. film! /! |
Herbert Selby, Born in Web
,ster City, Writes Inter-
esting Letter From
France.
HE HAS SEEN J: !. MUCH
Visits Many Battlefields of
Which he Writes in
Letter.
HE HAS SEEN MUCH

~ --------s
The following interesting letter from
France was written by Herbert Selby,
born in Webster City twenty-one
years ago, later going to Des Moines,
where lie still resides and where both
his parents died some years since. He
is nephew and ward of John e.
Quackenbush Of this city, his mother
being the former Miss Della Quacken-
bush. Herbert was educated in the
Des Moines schools and when he. left
school accepted a position as assistant
editor of the Des Moines Capital.
When the war broke out lie enlisted and
was among the leading spirits in start
ing the publication of the Camp
Dodger. He went overseas, was inethe
wireless service and took the message
at GondrecOurt announcing the sign
ing of the armistice and the consequent
cessation of hostilities. The publica-
tion Of the Camp Dodger was continu-
ed by the SSth Division in the Gondre-
court area and Mr.. Selby was one of
its editors.
The following letter was written to
Mr., Quackenbush in this city under
date of Gondrecourt, France, April 10 !:
My Dear Uncle: Two letters from
you found waiting for me when l
returned from recent three weeks
journey over the entire "A. f. f., S. o.
s. and Germany. Was mighty glad to
hear from you, and enjoyed reading
the letters very much.
The trip spoke of was given by
G. II. q. to a party Of newspaper men
serving in the ranks of the A. r. f..
1t was, for the purpose Of furnishing
us with actual and accurate informa-
ton of the work Of the army in France
SO that our future remarks on it, after
our discharge from the service, would
at least not be Inaccurate No ut
tempt was made to bias our Judgment.
or to make excuses for any mistakes
which might have been made in the
organiza ton of the, "A. Il. II. They told
us that it was merely to furnish us
with accurate information, and no eff
fort was spared to give us just what
We. wanted wherever we went.
Special Hospital Train. .s.
we had a special hospital train, OH
which we slept and ate, and colonies.
majors, and other officers slept and ate
with the buck privates. There was. no
rank distinction on tile trip. At every
place we: inspected or visited, the Off
Ger in charge talked to us and explain
ed in detail the work of organizing
and perfecting the particular system
with which he was concerned. He
answered all questions we wanted to
ask, and we were furnished with vol
luminous printed statistics at every
stop.
In the case Of our visit over the
battleields, we were accompanied by
officers who had fought over those
fields, and each historic place was
shown to, us. Previous to visiting the
battlefelds, we spent two days Mt G..
H. O., Chaumont, where the head of
each department outlined his work
during the war to us. We were
furnished with confidential military
maps and detailed explanations of all
the American operations to help us
when we later went over the battle
fields themselves.
Trip Interesting.
The trip was an invaluable one to
newspaperman, or to any other man,
for that matter, and in addition was
one of the most pleasant and admirably
conducted expeditions was ever II part
of. We first visited the s. o. s. dis
tricts, the base ports of st. Nazairc.
Brest and bordeaux, where we saw the
great engineering feats that Americans
nave HlJ dCToSS tuCiC III Sioit SpoSS
of sometimes weeks. We, saw docks,
for example, the Bassens docks ut
Bordeaux, built entirely by Americans
in few months. capable of accommo-
dating ten ships, with huge cranes
three to ten to a ship-capable of uns
loading ship in Il space of hours. We
saw railroad yards larger than any
we have i'm the states, bllilt by Ameri-
cans soldiers and handling American
cars. American engines, American sup
plies. Every bit Of work was done by
soldiers We saw 1900 latest type
Baldwin locomotives hogs
that arrived after the armistice, and
have since been sold 10 the French.
SO huge Is the scope of the work that
books. and books can be written and
will he written about it. One plant |
went thrOugh--built In six weeks
was n refrigerating plant capable of
freezing millions of tons of beef u week
bigger than any similar plant in
Europe, civil or military. These are
Just part Of the things we saw in the
S. @. s. Similar huge plants for stor-
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