Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1930-11-13

pilgrimage to France have been GOV.
cred by feature writer's, but it re-
manned for the mothers themselves to
find the chuckles and humor that ac-
companied them On the journey to
the graves of their sons. Mrs. A. A.
Ness of Wolf Point has just receiv-
ed a letter from her mother, Mrs.
Mary MCGOWAN of Phoenix, Ariz., who
made the trip. Mrs. MCGOWAN lived
at Redstone, Montana at the time
her son., Terence, enlisted with the
Sheridan county contingent. He was
with the 30S infantry and was killed
in action October, 1918. Mrs. Nc
Gowan described her trip in detail.
The scene in the lobby of the Penn
sylvania hotel, New York, Mrs. Nc
Gowan said, was one of the funniest
she had ever seen. The party of 237
mothers were all talking at once, no
one listening. When the officers who
called the names there was so much
din that usually he was not heard,
and the sorting out and getting the
women on to buses to go to the dock
was filled with complications. They
were to be on board by 9 o'clock, but
reached there a little after II.
Three in Cabin
There were three in my cabin"
said Mrs. MCGOWAN, =" a French, an
English and an Irish We
had a fine dinner, then went out on
deck where chairs and rugs were re-
served for us. On board they serve
crackers and consomme every after
noon and tea or coffee and cakes
every afternoon. They brought it on
deck to US or anywhere we happened
to be. ! was sitting by Mrs. McCabe
on one occasion. She looked up and
said, Here ome tea, I must take
out my teeth which she did. She
wore them in her purse while she was
eating.
1.-TWO priests went over with us.
We had two masses every morning.
There were no priests on board when
we came back. Mrs LeMay asked the
steward if there was a priest on
board. He said Mo- What will we
do if we are going to die?' she asked.
The captain will do as WE'LL replied
the steward. She said: Yes, I would
like to confess myself to the cap
tain. / guess not
There was some entertainment go
ing on every evening, both dancing
and movies. One Afternoon we were
called up to the social hall to meet
the captain. He said a few words to
us. then gave us each a medal. Some
one else put it around our necks. That
was all right-but we missed our tea.
Pictures Taken Daily
"There was a photography fiend on
board. Nearly every afternoon he
would want US to come on top deck
to have u pictures taken. / will
w have my picture taken again.
"The nurses told us we were the
cleanest and incest bunch that they
had taken over. The first that went
over seemed to be afraid, wouldn't
talk and scrapped among themselves.
We didn't scrap and we sure talked.
"We were all tagged again and
ready to go ashore at Cherbourg. Ev-
erv time we made a change we were
counted and tagged. It's the only
way they could keep track Of us. We
were worse than children. I hated
to leave the ship, we had such a jolly
good time on board. We went ashore
on a French tender-and such a noise
whistles blowing, airplanes circling
around, everyone trying to talk loud
enough to be heard above the din. I
sat back and laughed"
After a six-hour trip they reached
Paris. Mrs. McGowan's comment on
French walters was:
"The walters in the hotel wore ev-
ening clothes, only the coats had brass
buttons wherever a button could be
placed. They looked like cockroach-
es. The head waiter wore a heavy
chain with links about three inches
long with a big medal around his
neck. Can't say I like French cook
ing. There was lots Of food, but not
cooked like we cook it.
Took What She Got
"Ice cream is a very popular dish
in France. You always get a table
spoon to eat it with. Sometimes they
ask you what you will nave but they
bring what they want to. I always
took what l got and said nothing.
Sunday, after reaching Paris, we
started for Verdun with buses, about
$50 miles. We went through a beau
tiful farming country. Every thing
looked SO green and nice. They had
almost too much rain this summer.
They raise wheat, sugar beets, and
muctard poHatnao eaem RI he scarce