Arizona republican., 1919-01-12

island most wonderful week of my life! I got a leave of seven days from the execu tive officer. There were about 16 had a similar leave, and another bunch went to London, via the destroyer ferry serYice.' We left the ship De- cember 6, and were due back Friday, the 18th. Our tickets cost us If francs and a few centimes each way. The franc is approximately IS cents. When We first came here we got francs 80 centimes for an American dollar; now the rate is ) francs 20 centimes. The train left at 5:30 p. m. and reached Paris about a. m. We rode second
 class, as first is reserved for officers.
 The trains have a passage down one
 side of each coach and compartments on the other side. These contain two seats and seat eight. Part of the time we had II; as you may know, we slept little en route. On arrival in Paris we reported to naval headquarters and
 were checked in. This was Saturday morning. Walking several miles, past | the opera, Madeleine, Eifel Tower, l Concorde. Champs Elysees. The Con-
 corde is full of captured German guns, l tanks, etc. and the Champs Elysees is l lined for blocks and blocks with cap- l tured artillery.
 That afternoon I looked up Sam 1 Haldiman. He was certainly tickled to 1 see me, and I can assure you it was mutual. We had a dandy day together 1 Sunday. Saw the Tuilleries, the
 Louvre, the Invalides, and several | other beautiful places. During the war | all the statutes were protected by | sand-bags. They have most of these removed now, so I saw more than I
 could have month ago. We had a
 nice supper, walked down the Seine,
 and I went up to his rooms in the
 hotel and slept. They have the army | postoffice in the old Hotel Mediterane
 a nice building near the famous l bastile.
 Monday morning early I took the
 train to Chateau Thierry, where the
 marines and doughboys stopped the 1 German drive on Paris last July. It
 is simply demolished. Some of the 1 ladies in the war relief committee were
 taking some furniture out to dest-
 tute French family in the town of l VeauX, and asked me to come along. They were very surprised to sec d
 sailor and so showed me a royal good
 time. They showed me hill 204. 209.
 and Bailleau woods, where a lot of
 fighting took place. There are lots of l trenches and many graves, French, 1 American and German. That night I
 went to army headquarters, where they 1 gave me a bed and supper. We all
 went over to the committee house, as
 it is called, and had a fine time
 l haA to IaI
 there was a commotion outside and the | captain came up to turn out all hands
 to go to a fire in the Hotel du Vile,
 over across the Marne. Chateau
 Thierry is a town of about 16,000, you
 know. We'll couldn't see myself miss a perfectly good fire, so got up and
 went over. It was a farce; a pail of water finished it, but it shows you
 how the French have learned to de- pend on the Americans for everything Next morning about s, we boarded a big army truck and started northeast If you can get a map of that sector known as the Chateau Thierry front and the Aisne sector, yous can trace our ride. We passed through Mezy Cierges, SerZy, Coincy, St. Giles and d lot of towns I cant recall. Sergy was the town that was taken and retaken
 seven times. After we passed Mezy
 the towns were demolished, and al- most empty of inhabitants. Every where were barbed-wire entangle- ments, trenches, dug -outs, partially
 destroyed wagons, trucks, etc. At Sergy the clock is still running, although the tower is full of holes, and the church partially destroyed. At Fishes we saw more recent signs; railroads and bridges blown up. Three miles beyond this is an army camp, where we stopped. At this point we were about 95 miles from Paris, and close to Bel gium. Over the next hill, the soldiers told me- is the famous Hindenbure line, with it's concrete dug-outs and trenches. They had walked over there a number of times. and said it was about nine miles. We took a walk UT throug the densest, wetest woods
 ever saw. It was strewn with equip ment of all kinds, and lined witt graves. saw two good Germans, very much dead, partially buried. In the woods we crossed the Vesle river. They
 say the Germans held out in this vicinity until some time in October. I had a dandy feed at the army camp, got a gunny sack full of sou venirs, and we started back. I forgot to tell you what saw on the way up We saw Lieutenant Quentin Roose, velt's grave; it is not far from the
 main road Also saw the building that was the American army headquarters
 and saw the hospital the Huns bombed The huge white cross is still on the
 ground, and the building had a dozer
 holes in it. A little farther was the hill with row upon row of dug -outs 1T
 it's face. AS a guess, would say there
 were 1,50O or 1000 of them Signl
 were posted here: Dead Mans Curve,
 Distances to Paris and New York, 'Nt
 Mans Land, 900 miles," Wear you
 gas masks north of this point.''
 On the return trip we took a differ
 ent route, passing through the Trugn. | woods and San Fere en Tardenois. II Trugny woods we stopped and wen over into the woods about half a mils
 Here. concealed behind the trees, wa Big Bertha's emplacement She wa v that huge gun that shelled Paris. A