Putnam patriot., 1919-01-31
THE GERMANS
ARE HOSTILE
Stanley Shaw With Army of
Occupation on German
Soil
Fsvorxbfy Impressed With tie
Country

from huDeTdCHI, 1eTUldiis, W S-Ai'
ley Shaw. formerly employed in the
office of the Putnam WOODEN Co. It
vas written to the agent, Silas VI
Wheelock, and is as follows:
AT last z am in German territory,
and, knowing that you made trip
to this country some time ago, | am
wondering If by chance you visited
any Of the places l have been in or
passed through.
This town Is about seven kilomet-
ers from the city of Colberts on the
Rhine. Did you visit that place? |
hope to before we leave here for the
good old q. s.
perhaps it will be more interest
ing. if | start back and begin with the
city | was stationed in before starting
on this trip to the Rhine, as MEM
Der of the army of occupation.
"Our starting place was from the
city of Verdun, now mostly in ruins
and inhabited only by soldiers living
in what is called che underground
city, under the large fortress there
1t is a wonderful place and | am not
one whit surprised that the Germans
were unable. to capture It, Had
chance to visit it one. Sunday and will
tell you about it later.
Left Verdun, passing through Et-
ANNE and Etor, stopping over night
at Boligny. We made the trip by
aaato truck so mads pretty good times-
The road we travelled over was pretty
rough as the trenches ran along par
aIlel with the road and we saw plenty
of German camoufage along with
some pill boxes made of cement.
| These held machine guns. The roads
were rough because torn by shells.
Left Boligny the. next morning
and struck the province of Luxem-
bourg, staying at the CITY of Esch IN
| the very southern part. We put up
| there several days at a. school house
that had been occupied. by the crown
prince and his staff for fourteen days,
! Wish we had found hmm there. 1t
was a very pretty place and not de-
vastated by the. horrors of war even
! though the Germans occupied it all
| the time. They were a neutral coun-
! try. They had to be. as their army
consisted of only $50 soldiers and no
navy or artillery. 1t seemed like
home again to come INTO place with
plenty of stores and especially lights
and steam heat. One could get most
any thing he wanted. | even saw Pc
baco tooth paste advertised. The
best part of 1t all was we met quite a
number Ell people VINO could talk
English and that sure did sound good
after seeing and soaring nothing 5ut
French.
Left there and passed through the
CITY of Luxembourg, a very beautiful
city and worth visiting if one had
time. We went right through to Bi
ar, where we stayed about a week TAX
ing rest, or so it was said. We then
went through Maternach, Wassabil-
ling and Ectenarch. where we crossed
the river into German territory We
lstopped at Bitburg over night and
then proceeded on the way to Budes-
helm, where we stayed again for a
rest Of three or four days. From
there we went to Boose, up through
to Eelberg, Ochterding and Bossen-
helm to our present place of occupa-
ton. Here we expect to stay until
we come hack. l would like to cross
the Rhine Just once, now that we are
up this far, but that remains to be
seen.
My impressions of this country as
regards beauty, scenery, etc, is very
favorable and | wonder if you found
it so. 1t seems a pity after seeing
France devastated that few of these
Germans towns couldn't have suffer
ed, at least part of it. Il makes one
feel mighty sorry for France, after
seeing the country in its present con
dition. and then come up here and see
everything in perfect order and all
going on as if nothing had happened.
1T is somewhat chilly up here, es-
pecially the weather and not count
ing the hostility of some of the people
who make it 20 degrees colder. They
will have TO get over that if we stay
here very long They sure are hos
tile where another fellow and l hive
with some German people. They
hardly deign to notice US as we pass
through the room where they are.
But we should worry, it doesn't both
err us and if anything we ought to be
glad of it, so then we won't frater-
nize with them.
II am feeling fine and having a
mighty fine time, as l am in good
outfit which helps good deal. "