TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT FEBRUARY 18, 1919 P. 2
The Germans take two days for Christmas and have some queer ideas about how to celebrate. The first day is given up to church and other meetings, and the second night is the big social night. Then the old men and women, too, go out to big beer and wine parties while the young people have great entertainments.
Some of those German girls are real good looking, too, if they had all the clothes and things that you girls have to make them pretty they would be some “sweet Janes,” but German girls and women certainly know how to work and are at it from early until late at night. We call the German children “square heads,” and they stand around and look at us eat and drill in great wonder.
Doubtless we will not make it to Berlin, but we are in Germany all right and just 10 or 12 miles to the Rhine river. Some of our men have crossed it and hold the east end of the bridge at Coblenz.
There are two girls where another “pal” and I are billeted. They are very nice to us. One did my washing and laundry and charged me only one mark (about 23 cents before the war and 12 cents now). Everything is high here except labor, and they seem to put no value on human labor at all.
On Christmas eve night a snow came to maket it more like Christmas. About 10 o’clock the next morning the sun came out and such a beautiful sight I never saw in all my life, for we were located down in a nice little valley and on each side are long, slanting, high mountain sides, all trees and such like, so that you can see right from the foot to the very top. On some of the mountains are fir trees and these looked like great white sentries standing there in the distance.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Rucker Carlisle Carmical. The editor called him Prof. but at the time he was a Pfc. in the infantry, Army of Occupation. He had been superintendent of the Kingsland High School, Cleveland County, Arkansas before entering the army. He was born on March 12, 1890 in New Edinburg, Arkansas and died on March 8, 1984 in Rison, Arkansas. He is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Rison. He was described as being of medium height and build with brown eyes and black hair.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT
The Germans take two days for Christmas and have some queer ideas about how to celebrate. The first day is given up to church and other meetings, and the second night is the big social night. Then the old men and women, too, go out to big beer and wine parties while the young people have great entertainments.
Some of those German girls are real good looking, too, if they had all the clothes and things that you girls have to make them pretty they would be some “sweet Janes,” but German girls and women certainly know how to work and are at it from early until late at night. We call the German children “square heads,” and they stand around and look at us eat and drill in great wonder.
Doubtless we will not make it to Berlin, but we are in Germany all right and just 10 or 12 miles to the Rhine river. Some of our men have crossed it and hold the east end of the bridge at Coblenz.
There are two girls where another “pal” and I are billeted. They are very nice to us. One did my washing and laundry and charged me only one mark (about 23 cents before the war and 12 cents now). Everything is high here except labor, and they seem to put no value on human labor at all.
On Christmas eve night a snow came to maket it more like Christmas. About 10 o’clock the next morning the sun came out and such a beautiful sight I never saw in all my life, for we were located down in a nice little valley and on each side are long, slanting, high mountain sides, all trees and such like, so that you can see right from the foot to the very top. On some of the mountains are fir trees and these looked like great white sentries standing there in the distance.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by Rucker Carlisle Carmical. The editor called him Prof. but at the time he was a Pfc. in the infantry, Army of Occupation. He had been superintendent of the Kingsland High School, Cleveland County, Arkansas before entering the army. He was born on March 12, 1890 in New Edinburg, Arkansas and died on March 8, 1984 in Rison, Arkansas. He is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in Rison. He was described as being of medium height and build with brown eyes and black hair.
TRANSCRIBED BY CAROLYN YANCEY KENT