The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1919-03-20

SOLDIER BOY LETTERS
From John MunyOn.
Vianden, Luxembourg, Feb. lit

you a few lines this evening. to let
you know that l am all o. K. and
. hope this finds you all the same. l
60 back to my company, tomorrow;
machine gun school, and have had a
very nice time since have been here;
I don't have to drill very much and
there are many. interesting sights
here. I sent you post gard OF the
castle on the hill above where | am
staying, suppose you have, got it by
years before Christ, so they tell us
here. You will notice in the picture
that it has no roof on it and the
walls are very uneven. We ask the
fellow here where l am staying II II
had been shot off in war, and ne
said no, that long in the year ] LOO,
. made it his home, but he didn't t
have enough money to pay for it and
the fellow that he owed, came and
tore the roof off to get the nails
which were hand forged and sold
them to satisfy the debt. | was up
and through there last Sunday, jan
2Sth, which cost ne oo 20 ,p ie les
money. The fellow that owns 1t
has a small portion of it rooted and
lives in there; he had collection OF
old Roman coins and such as that,
but when the school first started the
boys got up there and carried a
bunch of it.off with them for souv We
What he had left, this afternoon;
The old man here guided us and
showed us around to different places
so will tell you my afternoon expert
ences which is more like ghostt
story than anything else, but will
tell it to you as It was told TO me;
the mountain side to where there is
small church built. which Will
send you a picture Of, and the story
goes along before the year Of 900,
there was a small statue of the V1r-
gin Mary and Christ which is pretty
nice, SO they thought they would
pitch it down here to the se cn4 tatdh IN
It down here it would go back and
they would find it sitting there in a
tree 90 they went up and built
church around it Twill send you a
Dicture Of It, also). We left there
and came back down over the noun
tain side to a cemetery wnfcn r. mas ahea a
claim about 800 years ago there
was a plague in this town and every
body died but eight men; they stay
ed in a cave in the mountain side on
the other side of the river. Ihey
made vow that If they llved
through! the plague they would p thae,
built. We then came on down the
valley to saw mill which is run, bv'
water power. and the saw looked looked
like a large buck saw, and I believe
they could saw a 1000 feet. Of lum-
Der in week, if they, started 1t early
enough in the morning. There, q
fellow by the name OF vanh4 }%e r;ver
on a foot bridge and went, back up
where the eight men had STAYED
while the plague was on. We clumD,
ed IN the side of the mountain to
the cave and rested there aWhle,
but 1t was so steep we dldn tnlnk
We could go back down, SO we climb
ed on up over the top; in some places
it was almost straight up and down,
but We got hold of bushes and pull
ed ourselves up and we went down
the other side which wasn't SO steep.
This is the Ardeues mountains. MI.
st. Michlas is real close. winch you
might find on the map, and the river
river. This town is about a mile
from the German border. ! met
Lamis that. lives out west ct Grand
River. He said ! was the first one
he had seen from back there since
we met when we were on leave; Dut
he left the same day came mere:
and fellow that used to be In my
company there at Dodge by the name
Of Vanhouse had our pictures taken;
they are no good but will send you
one anyway for luck You might
think that we were looking Tor ar
planesby the way we were looking.
am. sure II we looked like we do IN
the pictures all the Dutch James In
town would be after u.s. Well ex.
pect l had better ring on and vii!
write again when get back and get
my mall. don't know when we
will get back home, but think we
will 70 into Germany or come home
soon don't know which. Will say
good bye to all. Answer soon.
Pvt. John Muynon.