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Show liiNT IN FRANCE WRITES HIS SISTER IN OODEN A LETTER Oil FRENCH WELCOME AND SCENES 7etter received here from Vrred Koschwitz, one of the first i Hte EtoOBbarff. New York civilians ! CT. made into an army offlcer. and ,fl fco French front, might be of t 10 t to senator Chamberlain and ! jjjj . mduBtrlonB howlers against the ' SntKoschwitz, a Now York 1 iJB,ae?Vho enlisted to whip the i astonished that the United ', 7 does not'purchase more equip-i equip-i fin Fnco inMead of shipping it ' S s at a higher figure The letter ! "fJrftU January 26. before Cham-' Cham-' !Ja began his crusade for publicity ' Hhe expense of the war department ' Slf armv ofllcer's statement was an j , ,Mitai item of news in a letter to S Sir. Mrs. L. F. Kneipp. 1024 ! ' S I in street. Ogden. and the S of the district forester. L. F. j'.i!SpJ It is reproduced in full: ! W Warm French Welcome. I 'Since writing to you last, I have had quite a lot of moving about to do; a little tiresome, because in war-time, transportation, speed and comfort must be forgotten where the movement move-ment of a number of men is concerned concern-ed the principal thing is to get there. But it has all been very interesting everything so novel and picturesque. And the French people are so wonderfully won-derfully fine to us every one seems to have such a cordial greeting for us. It certainly looks as though the whole French nation had been coached to mako us feel royally welcome. Its just a splendid nature that one finds in all these people of France, and the more I think of the dastardly attempt of the Germans to set upon such a nation na-tion and wreck their fine spirit, the more my blood bolls. "You remember I wrote you last from a French port after a day and a half at an English rest camp (where we were made very comfortable and got a good rest that we needed very much). We moved on to another place In France, very quaint and hospitable. hos-pitable. It was great fun to move about among tho little chaps, struggling strug-gling with the language, which, by the way, is coming along so that 1 can pretty well make myself understood wherever I go. At our second stop, I had my first chance to visit one of tho French chauteaux something quite unlike anything I had ever seen bo-fore. bo-fore. It is quite an historic one and a good 'specimen,' so I am told. It must have been quite a sumptuous placo when going full tilt in all its .royal magnificence. "I have been going around quite a lot with Johnson, one of the men assigned as-signed to the same stateroom with mo on the steamer. He was an architect before going into the service and, of course, appreciated more than most people, places that we have visited, such as the chauteaux. At Grenade Work. "Then we wore assigned to this point where Is located a school for specialists. This morning I was assigned as-signed to a section to specialize In grenades fascinating and immensely Important, increasingly so, In the infantry in-fantry these days, but I had hoped to be detailed for specialization in bayonet bayo-net and musketry. I'm keen for that line of work. The bayonet course is such a splendid training physically and for the development of alertness. Possibly Pos-sibly we all shall be given a chance at the different branches later on. I hope so, and that I may stick with tho bayonet detail. I cannot tell how long I shall be at this place. The- scheme seems to be to spend several weeks here and then be assigned to another school possibly British or French where further specialization is followed follow-ed out. "We are very comfortably located here and well provided for. I understand under-stand tho quartermaster Is well stocked stock-ed up so that I shall be able to make up some deficiencies In equipment, such as woolen underwear, hiking shoes and a woolen uniform for rough usage. And there seems to be no end iO the amount of equipment that we can purchase right here on the spot I've come to tho conclusion that it's a great mistake to bring so much from the states. A great deal Is brought across by most men that can Just as well be gotten on this side and much cheaper. "I wish I could tell you about the little town (city) near which our school Is situated. It's a very historic place In tho rear of one of the most interesting sectors on the western front. Of course, you have no idea where we are, but I can Just see your curiosity running rampant The city has such narrow, crowded little streets plenty of good shops and eating places and a very good officers Y. M. C. A., whore I am attempting to write this letter through a maze of loud conversation conver-sation and thick tobacco smoke. "There's no telling when I shall be moved on from this place, and loss still when I shall be definitely settled in one place so that mail can reach me. r expect that it will be quite some time before I shall get any mail at all. But keep right on writing, because some of it may be lost anyway and there's no telling when a piece might catch up to me. We've had no real work yet but start In tomorrow. There will be more to write about then." nn |