The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-07-25
Letter From Julian A. Boland.

Letter From Julian A. Boland.
savenay, France, June 20, 1919.
Dear Papa and Mama: Just few
lines tonight so you will know that
your boy in France is still getting on
fine. And hope you both are enjoy
ing the best of health and life.
Well Papa things begin to look
pretty good here now. Seems as II
though l may be on the way home
: shortly. Now here is what l have
heard, whether it will come true am
not in position to say, but here is
hoping.
The news around here is that after
July S there will be no Americans
handling trains on the road. Also
the company I now belong to is
scheduled to be on the boat and
ready to sail for America about the
fifth of July. So that sounds good to
me, if only to goodness it will work
out that way. But this army is a
wonderful being. You can never tell
what is going to become of you until
it has already happened.
t But anyway everything looks pref
ty good for this reason, we are not
handling any troop trains at present,
! and the French are now running
good many of our American engines
and they are taking them over just
as fast as they possibly can.
We are all very happy anyway
even if we are still in France. Why?
Because the peace treaty was signed
yesterday evening, and it is certain
ly great to realize that we are now
existing in a period of peace, after
feeling the effects of war for four
long years.
AS Sherman, said war is hell. I
can readily see now that he gave a
very good definition. Papa, it is i'm
possible for me to describe the old
battlefelds to you, in fact, you can
never realize what destruction it
really is, until you have seen the old
battlefefds with your own eyes.
Cities, towns, factories, forests, rail-
roads, land, and everything that is on
the battlefield is a complete ruin, alb
solutely not fit for anything. Even
the farming land which was once fine
territory for cultivation, is now not
fit for anything, it is completely
ruined with shell holes, dug outs and
trenches, also barbwire entagle-
ments. In fact it is horrible sight
to see.
I just came back few days ago
from a three day, leave to Paris.
That is a wonderful city, believe me,
although the Germans were getting
pretty close to her. There are sew
eral big shell holes in here where the
Germans dropped the shells over into
Paris from q distance of about 81
miles. I suppose you remember the
big gun the Germans built and NAM
ed it the big Bertha, do you not? l
saw several of the buildings in Paris
where they sent the big shells in.
Believe me when one of those shells
hit building there is nothing but a
big hole left.
While in Paris I went out to Yer
sailles, the place where the peace
treaty was signed. That is a great
place also, the beautiful palace of
Louis XIV is located there. The
palace is wonderful construction.
It is built of marble, and beautifully
decorated with large marble columns.
The yard is nothing but complete
assortment of beautiful flowers, in
fact / guess every kind of flower in
the world can almost be found there.
Also there is a beautiful lake just
ok of the garden Of flowers. And
\ back of the lake there are very
|s> streets running all through the
eeeAo md so forth and so on. 1t
orest, & Ne for me to describe the
impossiL merry. And all over the
SC. of France it is the
'uthern part
me. for this time as
Well, I will close previous letter
have told you in nv the first of
hope to be home by eceived all