News you can use
News you can use
By Emily Mayer
News from the war came to Havre via Sen. Morris in a letter written by former Havre resident Bee Hall. The letter, printed in the August 10, 1918, edition of The Havre Plaindealer, is a lengthy one, but here is some of that letter. Of France, Mr. Hall wrote:
I have found France a very interesting and beautiful country and just now while the weather is so fine it makes one glad he is here. It is extremely interesting because things here are so old and have come down through so many centuries. There is a fine old church down town that I understand was built in the tenth century. I went through a chateau at Blois on my way here and from what little I could understand from the French guide, I gathered that certain parts or additions to it had been built by different French kings during different centuries and in one room Queen Catherine had died, in another a duke was murdered, etc. There were other interesting things about it, but so many it would take a long story to tell.
His letter went on to tell about his boat ride to France, that they were quartered with the officers and had good food to eat, moving pictures every night and even an orchestra playing at meals, even breakfast. Mr. Hall has not seen action yet as he is not at the war front, but their work is very important-so important he can’t say the name of the town his is in or what he is doing lest that information be leaked to enemy hands (“Loose lips sink ships.”) But, they get newspapers daily, have good food in the mess hall, nearly everyone has a room somewhere in the town rather than staying at the barrack and “…you ought to see the heavy linen sheets these people keep on their beds.”
Mr. Hall also reports that “There are lots of girls here” and the American males seem to be getting along with them well, most men having a steady girlfriend and they seem to be very eager to learn English and of course, the men French. The men spend time playing baseball, which is something the French citizens had never seen, and of the hooting and hollering during the game, one girl remarking “… the Americans were a lot of damned fools at a base ball game.
Letters like this give great insight on what some of our boys “over there” were experiencing, and I find these letters much more interesting than the war strategy we learned in school.
Here in Montana, a “Lightless Night” was ordered for all towns not powered by hydroelectric plants. Havre was not on the list, but all towns from Chinook east along the Hi-Line were included in the list.
Montana Food Administrator Atkinson was urging Montana women to can vegetables to preserve food, because “Women of Germany Have Kept the German Army in the Field By Means of Their War Gardens” and we should, too, for our troops. Don’t know how to can? “Free pamphlets on cold pack and other canning methods are issued by the department of agriculture and free recipes for the use of preserved and other foods are issued by the food administration.”
Remember the loafers mentioned in previous columns? Well, here is some welcome news from the state:
NO TRAMPS ABLE SINCE WAR BEGAN
HIGH LINE IS FREE OF THE PROFESSIONAL BOX CAR ARTISTS
Demand for Labor and the Town Marshal Has Put Weary Willies Out of Commission; War Time Conditions Make His Vocation Impossible.
Have you noticed that war has virtually blotted out the grimy trail of the professional tramp through Montana?
The northwestern tier of states, long the summer playground of the box car transient, have rigorously enforced the “work or fight” order and other war measures that the tramps, who formerly appeared in droves after having wintered in the cities, have been reduced to a few lonely stragglers. Last year tramps were thick on the high line of the Great Northern.
’And the demand for labor is so keen that town policemen and village constables are quick to draft those stragglers and put them to work,’ declared an official of the railroad.
’The armed guards about railroad yards, bridges and tunnels have also been a thorn in the side of the carefree wanderer. He is in constant danger of becoming a target while loafing around his old haunts.’
In past years towns which were the headquarters of farm laborers were packed with professional gamblers, gun men and thugs who devised various schemes of fleeting the worker of his money. They mingled with the men, wore clothes of the worker and could be weeded out by officers only with difficulty.
In Havre, fun was coming to town in the form of the Chautauqua. A full list of speakers, concerts, readings, and impersonators was published as were the prices for each day to attend, “War tax included in single admission prices.”
Sadly, there was no Society column again this week, but here are two little paragraphs printed:
The Lou Lucke and George Langston camp in the Bear Paws has been opened and Mr. and Mrs. Lucke and their children and Mr. and Mrs. Langston are now enjoying a vacation there.
Miss Gladys Mathews, who won the scholarship given by the Montana Woman’s Club Federation at Great Falls, has selected the Montana State College as the school which she will attend, and the secretarial department of the same.
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