TRANSCRIBED FROM THE DEQUEEN BEE FEBRUARY 7, 1919 P. 2
Daan, Germany, Jan. 3, 1919.
Dear Mr. Pearre:
For some time I've been thinking I would write you something of my work and experiences over here, and now that the censorship rules have been so modified that you can tell where you have been and where you are, I'll write you tonight and if you will be so kind as to publish this letter, or as much of it as you have space for, I'll write also to my friends in De Queen, about whom I have thought very often over here. I am sure I don't know whether this will reach you on or before "Wednesday noon" or not, but it will keep, if it is late, until the next week's issue. I have not gotten any copies of the Bee over here, although I asked that it be forwarded to my Paris address for the remainder of my subscription year--however, I charge that more to the irregularity of the mails than to any carelessness on the part of the business management of the paper. But it would have looked mighty good to me. I got on board the British Steamship "Canada" at Brooklyn on the morning of the 8th of September and left port at noon on the 9th, arriving at Glasgow, Scotland, on the morning of September 21. A Rev. W. O. Davis of Kansas, came over with me on a transport and we worked among the officers and men coming over. This Mr. Davis, by the way, is a son-in-law of Rev. M. M. Lawson, pastor of the Presbyterian church of Nashville, Arkansas. We left Glasgow on the night of Sept. 21 for London, arriving in that historic metropolis on the morning of the 26th. I saw the most noted sights there--that is most of the noted--such as Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, the King's Stables, the Tower of London, the London Bridge, and the Old Curiosity Shop, immortalized by Chas. Dickens. And I must not forget to add that I walked across the London Bridge I thought of an old tale I used to hear when I was a child: "I rode across the London Bridge and Yet walked," which, of course, is very simple, meaning that my little dog named "Yet" walked across the bridge as I rode.
I did not get to enter the parliament building, as it was closed at the time. Some of the most interesting and historic objects in the city were covered in sandbags to protect them from possible air raids. I had as my companion in London an attorney, one Frank L. Morgan of the state of Washington, a very companionable fellow, and one who has the gift of getting and keeping his bearings in a strange city. So we spent two afternoons just riding on top of sight-seeing busses and in this way got to see some of the most interesting features of London life. I took dinner one evening at the famous Cheshire Cheese--the restaurant at which old Dr. Samuel Johnson and other great lights used to "hang out," and I saw his favorite chair, and, by the way, got some of the best hot cakes that I've had since I left the U.S.A.
The Y.M.C.A. is doing a wonderful work for the soldiers in London and the Eagle Hut, where the activities of this organization are centered, is, I think, the most famous of its kind in the world. A program is given every night, or rather was at that time, for the soldiers of all the allied countries who were there on leave. Stationery was furnished them, magazines and books, and splendid meals served at very cheap rates. There were a number of London men and ladies who volunteered to look after the needs of the men gathered there and were thus "doing their bit" in a very real way to help win the war. Something like this was done on a much smaller scale in Glasgow. From London we took train for Southampton, and there a steamer across the English Channel for Le Havre, France. The voyage across the Channel was rough and some who had escaped the "mal-de-mur" across the ocean fell heir to its attractions. But I was very thankful to escape it both times, though on the ocean I didn't miss it much, but I am rather proud of my record on being at the table for every meal on the voyage across. We landed on French soil in the city of Le Havre on the morning of the 27th of September and never shall I forget the thrill that came over me as I began to realize that I was actually in France. As I remember, there were some fifty "Y" men and women that were in the group that day, a very congenial crowd. After signing some more cards and giving up some more photos to a "Y" representative there to meet us and after lunching at a hotel, we took train for Paris, which we reached at about 10 p.m. We were escorted in automobiles to a hotel and there had dinner and there were assigned to hotels to remain while we were waiting for our assignments. I cannot describe Paris. There are streets and squares and gardens there beyond compare and I suppose it deserves to be called the most beautiful city in the world, and if so in time of war when at night its streets and stores were as dark as pitch, what must it be in time of peace when it is all ablaze with light?
I shall not be satisfied unless I return to that city before I sail and see it in all its glory. But London is more interesting to me than Paris. On the Sunday I was in the city I attended a worship in an Anglican Weslyan church and heard a Y.M.C.A. man from Los Angeles, California, preach. At Paris we got our final equipment for our work and were assigned to our field of labor. I was assigned to the 90th Davision and was to report at Toul. Consequently I left Paris on the afternoon of that day. We passed through Chateau Thiery and there I got my first view of the devastation of war and saw the signs on every hand of the severe fighting that had occurred just about two months before and which marked the beginning of the great offensive that never stopped until victory was won, Nov. 11. I reached Toul, a city of perhaps eight or ten thousand, just as the 90th Division was returning from the St. Mihiel front and consequently we waited there for the men to become settled, so we could join them. One week from the day I landed in Toul, we started out in trucks to meet our men who were moving to the Verdun-Argonne front. After traveling all day and camping at night, we came to them near the village of Biercourt and there we began to size up the situation and try to render the service for which we had come so many many miles. And such mud as we had to wade through there! I had heard of the mud in France, now I was experiencing it. The other "Y" man, Mr. Ford, and I were fortunate enough to get a pretty good billet with some officers. I stayed at that place for a little less than a week and the, Friday, October 18, we began our march to the front. We hiked all day, much of it through mud and water and only struck camp after darkness had fallen. I was just about all in and my feet hurt terribly but I thoughtI shouldn't complain, when the dough boys had the same hiking to do besides carry a heavy pack. We landed in a wood near enough to the front to hear the big guns "bang, bang" all night as they _____death and destruction into the enemy's lines.
I thought I would be up against it for a place to _____ that night so I ______ containing all my blankets with the Y.M.C.A. to ______me and had left my ____with one of the _____that night, so I had _______absolutely no shelter as I ______. But to my great joy ______ took pity on my and I _____ and had plenty of blankets. He ______and never ----------- did that night. The day we arrived still closer to the front and it was then that I heard the ______of the first German shells that were coming over our heads. The next_____I heard them a-plenty and some of the shells were uncomfortably close. I was never right at the front, but the artillery working as it was, I might almost as well have been as far as the excitement is concerned. I did not enjoy the "whiz-bang" of the enemy's shells one bit, but our own guns could not beat too strong a tattoo with theirs.
On the morning of the 11th of November I crossed the Meuse river and it was about 9 o'clock that morning when I heard that the armistice had been signed and would go into effect at 11 o'clock. What a glorious thrill of joy came over me when I heard it, and yet it seemed almost too good to be true. Would the guns that had wrought such deadly work for all these years actually cease firing, and the wounded and dying cease to be brought into the hospitals? Yes, the best part of it all was that it was authentic, and as it all began to dawn on the soldiers and civilians they smiled and laughed and showed in every move their gratitude. I was at Mouzay, France, that morning a town that the Germans had just left the day before.
Soon after the armistice, I found that the 90th Division was to be a part of the army of occupation and I was glad of it. And on Sunday, October 24, we started on our march into Germany. I find already that my letter is becoming too long and it seems that I haven't gotten anywhere, but I must get to Germany, for here we are and have been since the morning of the 7th of December. when we entered its borders across the River Moselle from the village of Greven Mocher, Luxemburg, which is a very small spot on the map, but it seems some bigger when you try to "step" across. I found it, however, a very picturesque country and the people very friendly seemingly. I have no complaint to make of my treatment in Germany. I have been in one pretty good town, Trier, one of the oldest of the cities of the country, and which is about 50,000.
The town I am stationed in now is a very pretty little town of perhaps 1800 or 2000 people and is right in the hills. The weather is much milder than I expected. We have had very little freezing weather and only one snow of any consequence which fell Christmas Eve night and gave us a white Christmas, but it went away in a very few days. Of course, the days are very short and the nights very long--it getting dark about 4 o'clock.
But I find I haven't told you anything of my work. Well, it is our business to serve the men and anything that we can do to make it a little less lonely for the fellows, and any service that we can render--it is "up" to us to do that service for that is our only excuse for being here, and if we do the work we should, we are kept busy and we have no idle time on our hands. Dr. George Truett, the famous Baptist minister of Dallas, Texas, is over here in the service of the Y.M.C.A. and he delivered a stirring message to the men here last night. Our work goes on even after peace shall be signed, and it will not be finished until complete demobilization has taken place. I think now it will be early or mid-summer before I can return to the States. During June I hope to visit some of the interesting places of Europe that I have not yet seen. I wish I had time to write you something of the money over here which seems so strange to us and which is so constantly changing and which I only know a little about, and this language which is still stranger, and which I know nothing about. but before I close let me say that I am mighty proud that Arkansas went over the top in the War Fund Drive and I am sure Sevier County did her part in this under the leadership of her splendid chairman. I read with great joy last night some of the issues of the Arkansas Gazette that were sent over to a friend of mine who is from Little Rock. I heard from Lt. Fay Park recently and he said that the only Sevier county boy he had seen since coming over was Street Harris whom he had seen at Toul.
I hope it will not be many more months before I can see the Statue of Liberty and even better than that walk the streets and roads and byways and bridges of good old Arkansas. Let me in closing extend to all my friends the very best wishes of the new year.
With warm personal regards, I am
Your friend,
Jas. I. Paisley.
NOTES: James Ira Paisley was born on August 23, 1884 and died in 1952. He is buried in the Redmen Cemetery in De Queen, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
Daan, Germany, Jan. 3, 1919.
Dear Mr. Pearre:
For some time I've been thinking I would write you something of my work and experiences over here, and now that the censorship rules have been so modified that you can tell where you have been and where you are, I'll write you tonight and if you will be so kind as to publish this letter, or as much of it as you have space for, I'll write also to my friends in De Queen, about whom I have thought very often over here. I am sure I don't know whether this will reach you on or before "Wednesday noon" or not, but it will keep, if it is late, until the next week's issue. I have not gotten any copies of the Bee over here, although I asked that it be forwarded to my Paris address for the remainder of my subscription year--however, I charge that more to the irregularity of the mails than to any carelessness on the part of the business management of the paper. But it would have looked mighty good to me. I got on board the British Steamship "Canada" at Brooklyn on the morning of the 8th of September and left port at noon on the 9th, arriving at Glasgow, Scotland, on the morning of September 21. A Rev. W. O. Davis of Kansas, came over with me on a transport and we worked among the officers and men coming over. This Mr. Davis, by the way, is a son-in-law of Rev. M. M. Lawson, pastor of the Presbyterian church of Nashville, Arkansas. We left Glasgow on the night of Sept. 21 for London, arriving in that historic metropolis on the morning of the 26th. I saw the most noted sights there--that is most of the noted--such as Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, the King's Stables, the Tower of London, the London Bridge, and the Old Curiosity Shop, immortalized by Chas. Dickens. And I must not forget to add that I walked across the London Bridge I thought of an old tale I used to hear when I was a child: "I rode across the London Bridge and Yet walked," which, of course, is very simple, meaning that my little dog named "Yet" walked across the bridge as I rode.
I did not get to enter the parliament building, as it was closed at the time. Some of the most interesting and historic objects in the city were covered in sandbags to protect them from possible air raids. I had as my companion in London an attorney, one Frank L. Morgan of the state of Washington, a very companionable fellow, and one who has the gift of getting and keeping his bearings in a strange city. So we spent two afternoons just riding on top of sight-seeing busses and in this way got to see some of the most interesting features of London life. I took dinner one evening at the famous Cheshire Cheese--the restaurant at which old Dr. Samuel Johnson and other great lights used to "hang out," and I saw his favorite chair, and, by the way, got some of the best hot cakes that I've had since I left the U.S.A.
The Y.M.C.A. is doing a wonderful work for the soldiers in London and the Eagle Hut, where the activities of this organization are centered, is, I think, the most famous of its kind in the world. A program is given every night, or rather was at that time, for the soldiers of all the allied countries who were there on leave. Stationery was furnished them, magazines and books, and splendid meals served at very cheap rates. There were a number of London men and ladies who volunteered to look after the needs of the men gathered there and were thus "doing their bit" in a very real way to help win the war. Something like this was done on a much smaller scale in Glasgow. From London we took train for Southampton, and there a steamer across the English Channel for Le Havre, France. The voyage across the Channel was rough and some who had escaped the "mal-de-mur" across the ocean fell heir to its attractions. But I was very thankful to escape it both times, though on the ocean I didn't miss it much, but I am rather proud of my record on being at the table for every meal on the voyage across. We landed on French soil in the city of Le Havre on the morning of the 27th of September and never shall I forget the thrill that came over me as I began to realize that I was actually in France. As I remember, there were some fifty "Y" men and women that were in the group that day, a very congenial crowd. After signing some more cards and giving up some more photos to a "Y" representative there to meet us and after lunching at a hotel, we took train for Paris, which we reached at about 10 p.m. We were escorted in automobiles to a hotel and there had dinner and there were assigned to hotels to remain while we were waiting for our assignments. I cannot describe Paris. There are streets and squares and gardens there beyond compare and I suppose it deserves to be called the most beautiful city in the world, and if so in time of war when at night its streets and stores were as dark as pitch, what must it be in time of peace when it is all ablaze with light?
I shall not be satisfied unless I return to that city before I sail and see it in all its glory. But London is more interesting to me than Paris. On the Sunday I was in the city I attended a worship in an Anglican Weslyan church and heard a Y.M.C.A. man from Los Angeles, California, preach. At Paris we got our final equipment for our work and were assigned to our field of labor. I was assigned to the 90th Davision and was to report at Toul. Consequently I left Paris on the afternoon of that day. We passed through Chateau Thiery and there I got my first view of the devastation of war and saw the signs on every hand of the severe fighting that had occurred just about two months before and which marked the beginning of the great offensive that never stopped until victory was won, Nov. 11. I reached Toul, a city of perhaps eight or ten thousand, just as the 90th Division was returning from the St. Mihiel front and consequently we waited there for the men to become settled, so we could join them. One week from the day I landed in Toul, we started out in trucks to meet our men who were moving to the Verdun-Argonne front. After traveling all day and camping at night, we came to them near the village of Biercourt and there we began to size up the situation and try to render the service for which we had come so many many miles. And such mud as we had to wade through there! I had heard of the mud in France, now I was experiencing it. The other "Y" man, Mr. Ford, and I were fortunate enough to get a pretty good billet with some officers. I stayed at that place for a little less than a week and the, Friday, October 18, we began our march to the front. We hiked all day, much of it through mud and water and only struck camp after darkness had fallen. I was just about all in and my feet hurt terribly but I thoughtI shouldn't complain, when the dough boys had the same hiking to do besides carry a heavy pack. We landed in a wood near enough to the front to hear the big guns "bang, bang" all night as they _____death and destruction into the enemy's lines.
I thought I would be up against it for a place to _____ that night so I ______ containing all my blankets with the Y.M.C.A. to ______me and had left my ____with one of the _____that night, so I had _______absolutely no shelter as I ______. But to my great joy ______ took pity on my and I _____ and had plenty of blankets. He ______and never ----------- did that night. The day we arrived still closer to the front and it was then that I heard the ______of the first German shells that were coming over our heads. The next_____I heard them a-plenty and some of the shells were uncomfortably close. I was never right at the front, but the artillery working as it was, I might almost as well have been as far as the excitement is concerned. I did not enjoy the "whiz-bang" of the enemy's shells one bit, but our own guns could not beat too strong a tattoo with theirs.
On the morning of the 11th of November I crossed the Meuse river and it was about 9 o'clock that morning when I heard that the armistice had been signed and would go into effect at 11 o'clock. What a glorious thrill of joy came over me when I heard it, and yet it seemed almost too good to be true. Would the guns that had wrought such deadly work for all these years actually cease firing, and the wounded and dying cease to be brought into the hospitals? Yes, the best part of it all was that it was authentic, and as it all began to dawn on the soldiers and civilians they smiled and laughed and showed in every move their gratitude. I was at Mouzay, France, that morning a town that the Germans had just left the day before.
Soon after the armistice, I found that the 90th Division was to be a part of the army of occupation and I was glad of it. And on Sunday, October 24, we started on our march into Germany. I find already that my letter is becoming too long and it seems that I haven't gotten anywhere, but I must get to Germany, for here we are and have been since the morning of the 7th of December. when we entered its borders across the River Moselle from the village of Greven Mocher, Luxemburg, which is a very small spot on the map, but it seems some bigger when you try to "step" across. I found it, however, a very picturesque country and the people very friendly seemingly. I have no complaint to make of my treatment in Germany. I have been in one pretty good town, Trier, one of the oldest of the cities of the country, and which is about 50,000.
The town I am stationed in now is a very pretty little town of perhaps 1800 or 2000 people and is right in the hills. The weather is much milder than I expected. We have had very little freezing weather and only one snow of any consequence which fell Christmas Eve night and gave us a white Christmas, but it went away in a very few days. Of course, the days are very short and the nights very long--it getting dark about 4 o'clock.
But I find I haven't told you anything of my work. Well, it is our business to serve the men and anything that we can do to make it a little less lonely for the fellows, and any service that we can render--it is "up" to us to do that service for that is our only excuse for being here, and if we do the work we should, we are kept busy and we have no idle time on our hands. Dr. George Truett, the famous Baptist minister of Dallas, Texas, is over here in the service of the Y.M.C.A. and he delivered a stirring message to the men here last night. Our work goes on even after peace shall be signed, and it will not be finished until complete demobilization has taken place. I think now it will be early or mid-summer before I can return to the States. During June I hope to visit some of the interesting places of Europe that I have not yet seen. I wish I had time to write you something of the money over here which seems so strange to us and which is so constantly changing and which I only know a little about, and this language which is still stranger, and which I know nothing about. but before I close let me say that I am mighty proud that Arkansas went over the top in the War Fund Drive and I am sure Sevier County did her part in this under the leadership of her splendid chairman. I read with great joy last night some of the issues of the Arkansas Gazette that were sent over to a friend of mine who is from Little Rock. I heard from Lt. Fay Park recently and he said that the only Sevier county boy he had seen since coming over was Street Harris whom he had seen at Toul.
I hope it will not be many more months before I can see the Statue of Liberty and even better than that walk the streets and roads and byways and bridges of good old Arkansas. Let me in closing extend to all my friends the very best wishes of the new year.
With warm personal regards, I am
Your friend,
Jas. I. Paisley.
NOTES: James Ira Paisley was born on August 23, 1884 and died in 1952. He is buried in the Redmen Cemetery in De Queen, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD