Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1919-03-12
l.. L.. Caldwell Received Letter From
His Nephew, Who is Employed
by the Postal Department
in France
SAYS CHRISTMAS PARCELS -
ARE STILL COMING IN
Says He Is Bilf.ted i'm the Home of a
Little Old French Peasant
Woman. House Has Only
Two Rooms


! Dear Uncle-I believe / have not
written letter to you since / ar
rived in France. l have depended
great deal on post cards to keep in
the good graces of my correspond
ents. The post cards are a poor eX-
cuse but better than attempting to
write letters under unfayorable con-
ditions. | have a comfortable Office
and very little work to do, but not
uninterrupted time to myself. The
office being a comfortable loafing
place and our office staff having no
other place to spend their spare
time they stick here pretty closely.
! / had a very comfortable and en-
joyable trip across the Atlantic, and
was never sea sick for a minute OF
the time, though according to the
ships log we had very rough cross
ing. We had some very interesting
people on board, including DR.. Wei
dington Kee, who was on his way 70
the peace conference as the head of
the Chinese delegation.
We landed at Bordeaux the morn
ing of December 18th, and four hours
later j was on my way to Paris TO
become a money order and stamp
clerk. OF the party of 81 clerks six
were selected for the work, and
was one of the lucky ones. Bor-
deaux is the main distributing Office
for mail from the American army ad-
dressed to the U. S. A. and while We
have a large number of distributors
working there and in Paris, they
have to put in long hours of hard
work to handle all the mail. They
live very comfortably, but can not
save much money. On stations like
this one, we live fairly well and at
very reasonable, expense and the work
is easy.
| Getting accustomed to handling
French currency, making change.
and figuring from dollars to francs
and back again was the hardest
thing to learn about the new job.
We travelled in style on the best
train from Bordeaux to Paris and it
is a train that compares very we'll
with the good ones in America. They
make good time and the road bed j.
much better than one would expect
in war times.
! l had a full week in Paris includ-
ing the day that President Wilson
arrived there and then came out here
to open my station. Paris is more
beautiful than l had any idea city
could be made and the French know
how to make their fine buildings
show up to the best advantage, every
one of them being allowed sufficient
space so that you get the full benefit
of it. When l was there they were
removing the sand bags with which
many of their finest buildings and
monuments had been protected from
shells and bombs. The streets were
still dimly lighted at night, though
better than when the war was on.
The village of Montigny is one of
the little French towns clustered
around a fine chateau. The streets
wind and twist around the buildings
and run off into country roads in the
most unexpected fashion. Many OF
the buildings appear to be very DID,
but they are of stone and built to
stand for indefinite time. The chat
eau was rebuilt only few years ago
and is a fine modern mansion, beauti-
fully finished. At present it is the
headquarters building of the Sth
Army Corps and the hob nailed shoes
of orderlies and soldiers are running
the fine marble stairways and mosaic
floors. Uncle Sam will have to pay
rather heavy bill for that imagine
The French people use the Americans
very we'll indeed We have to pay
prices undreamed of before the war
but more than the French people
themselves do, and we can get many
things they have to do without.
The French ways of life seem
strange in some ways to American
but there are many of their ways We
could learn to advantage. l suppose
hardly an American soldier has fail
ed to write home about the houses
barns and stables all under one roo
= and the manure pile at the door
Well, l have seen farms in all OF th'
states l have been in that might JUS
as we'll have everything under tn
same roof, and the manure pile
though not a handsome emblem
still represents the basis of the PEG
pies existance. This part of Franc
is an agricultural country and ha
been farmed for centuries and is bet
ter and more productive today thai
much Of our land that was new sol
thirty years ago. Nothing that ca