The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-09-12
LETTER FROM FRANCm.
(Concluded.)

and Mrs. Elwood Balderston OF
Colora, who has charge of the Trans
portation Department of the Amer
lean Friends Service Committee
with headquarters at Grange Ia
Comte, France, where they have fit
ted UP a large cheese factory as Q
garage and repair shop, writes inter
estingly to home folks of his work
The numbers of .demountable houses
they are handling; the tons upon
tons of seed they are distributing,
indicate the work the Unit is doing
in putting up the villages and in
sowing the seed.
Grange la Comte, France.
5-31-1919.
Dear Mother
Our first run was from Grange to
varennes. }. was the best run
have had over the battle fields. OF
course these soixante tracks were
the main means of front line ap-
proach. Some of the woods were
beautiful in their spring foliage
while others were torn and burned
so bare that nothing could grow for
some time. Across the open 'no
mans land" we saw the worst sights
of the war l have seen. That land
cannot be titled again for centuries
at least it looks that way. In one
place we passed close to a German
''pill box" with its concrete work in
tact except in one visor where egg
had torn the machine gun to rits
and undoubtedly put an end TO the
poor souls inside. 1t was probably
an American shell for there was lots
of U. s. fighting there. Often this
narrow gauge forked into many gun
pits or ammunition dumps. We
went miles out of our way reaching
varennes after hours of steady
running. The machine ran fine ex-
cept that we ran out of oil, but for
tunately found a barrel of heavy oil
and we soon filled up our tank. Our
only troubles with the little speeder
now is that the army boys and our
boys take turns swiping it from each
other. 1t has been salvaged for JOY
rides three times and twice recover
ed. I hope to find it tomorrow.
1 spent all yesterday afternoon
and evening going around in a Ford
We had big hunt for more 40 c. m.
gauge track curves to make two
more turn tables. One at Chatel
CHERRY and one at Grand pre-. In
our search we went over road sc
badly shelled that We had to run
thru lots of the shell holes. We
even started to ascend Vanquors hill
which is said to be lowered a hun
dred feet by shell fire. The pretty
town on top of course is stoneless.
1t was there that the Americans by a
counter attack around the hill man
aged to drive back the Germans
after the French had tried to go over
for months. We drove on to Chatel
and Grand pre- to look over the r. r.
and arrange for the turn-table. To
day we sent seven boys with a truck
and Ford to get the track and needed
materials for the first turn-table.
may get out on motorcycle and
look up some material for the next.
We had an interesting time at
Grand pre- after very good supper,
walking around the town, which is
horribly destroyed by American
shell fire, being held for long time
by Germans. Selected sight for
the next large equipe> or perhaps
Unit headquarters.
This eve we have had a meeting
of the. transport. We surely are
keeping on top of the job, but we
need more men all the time. see
no chance of the mission closing by
fall as some hope. We must push
on fast and do our bit in every town
so that the men and women and chill
dren can be housed this winter
Hundreds of acres of land would
never have been sowed if the Agri-
cultural Department had not gotten
the seed to the people. We hauled
tons and tons of seeds for miles into
the Ardennes over roads that we
often had to repair as we went. Miss
Fry, at the had of the Relief, reports
the need of 1000 houses this summer
in the Ardennes alone. We seem to
be the only organization that is
ready to handle the need right now,
for we are stronger than ever before.
l wish you could cast a glance across
the destruction and see so or Is red
tile roofs over satisfied and com
Portable families as at MELVILLE,
When we sent the first two boys
there, there was not soul about,
now there are over ESQ and nice
school is started for the kids. 1t Is
the work of only three months Gid a
dozen men. A house day is slow
work in these equipes. One morn
ing the boys challenged US at Grange
n