TRANSCRIBED FROM THE MOUNTAIN ECHO MARCH 7, 1919 P. 4
I arrived home from France on the 12th of this month, and was sure glad to get home to my friends I left behind. All the boys I know in France are happy and wanting to come home. I sailed from France the 17th of January and landed the 26th. got awfully sea-sick. Have been asked many times how is France compared to this country. I was there two months and eight days, and I never saw the sun shine long enough at one time to dry a silk handkerchief, and it rained most all the time I was there, and was so muddy that a soldier was in danger without a life belt. The boys are all expecting to come home at any time, great numbers leaving every day, and there can’t be a happier day for a soldier than the one he leaves there for home.
France is so far behind this county it will never catch up. The people wear wooden shoes most all the time, and you never see a wagon—all carts, and one horse carts at that. My trip was worth more to me than I can explain, but I don’t want to go over it again, unless conditions are like they were this time. I feel like my trip was the best six months schooling I could have taken. I learned more in the past six months than I could learn in this country in all my life.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by O. Rutherford of Oakland, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON
I arrived home from France on the 12th of this month, and was sure glad to get home to my friends I left behind. All the boys I know in France are happy and wanting to come home. I sailed from France the 17th of January and landed the 26th. got awfully sea-sick. Have been asked many times how is France compared to this country. I was there two months and eight days, and I never saw the sun shine long enough at one time to dry a silk handkerchief, and it rained most all the time I was there, and was so muddy that a soldier was in danger without a life belt. The boys are all expecting to come home at any time, great numbers leaving every day, and there can’t be a happier day for a soldier than the one he leaves there for home.
France is so far behind this county it will never catch up. The people wear wooden shoes most all the time, and you never see a wagon—all carts, and one horse carts at that. My trip was worth more to me than I can explain, but I don’t want to go over it again, unless conditions are like they were this time. I feel like my trip was the best six months schooling I could have taken. I learned more in the past six months than I could learn in this country in all my life.
NOTES: This partial letter was written by O. Rutherford of Oakland, Arkansas.
TRANSCRIBED BY MIKE POLSTON