Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1919 — INSTRUCTING IN MUSKETRY [ARTICLE]

INSTRUCTING IN MUSKETRY

COL. HEALY HAVING VARIED EXPERIENCE IN MILITARY DUTIES. The following letter written by Colonel Healey in his usual entertaining manner has been received by B. F. Fendig, and contains much of interest to all:

Serrigny, Yonne, France, March 22, 1919. My Dear Ben: Your letter of Feb. 17th reached me the 20th of this month, having been forwarded from place to place after reaching France. While I have on three or four occasions had letters only three weeks old they are generally from four to six and some times four or five months. For instance, I had two letters from my wife on March 10th. One Was written F.eb. 7th and the other Oct. 6th. I have had a rather varied experience in France, having been a regimental and brigade commander, a school lecturer, a student, and now an instructor in Musketry. My last school was at Chatillon-sur-Seine, where aeroplane observation was a part of the course and I had several flights. I bad made some good trips while in the states but I can not say I am ready to enter that service as a regular game. Last December I had a good trip over the Argonne, Verdun and St. Mihiel American sectors and since then I have had command -of a §outh Carolina regiment that did good work alongside the British

and the New York national guard, so I have learned quite a little about the part America played in the war. Now I am serving with a Texas regiment that was in the fight for only 23 days hut which performed a good work. It’s colonel was relieved after the tljird days’ fight and a regular army officer placed in command and he is still in command and was decorated two days ago for conspdcious gallantry. I witnessed the ceremony and it was a very pleasing one. Other officers and men of the regiment are to be decorated soon. Yesterday I drove the colonel to Bar-sur-Aube to witness the 36th division football game, which was also witnessed by the king and queen of Belgium, by General Parshing, Lt. Generals Liggett and Bullard and a large number of Major and Brigadier Generals. The 36th division, the one I am temporily with, won the football game and this puts them into the finals with the 1 89th division. The queen, who is very attractive and apparently sensible little lady photographed the football game from her station in a .special stand and General Pershing proposed three rousing cheers for the king and queen of Belgium and thir-ty-five thousand joined heartily in the cheers. Then General Pershing and the king shook hands with the captains of the teams. The French people surely turned out in fine shape for the king and queen, showered them with flowers from the windows as they passed through the streets and presented the queen with great boquets of flowers. Royalty is still greatly admired here as the fine reception gave evidence. Our drive was some 80 kilometers, (50 miles, and we stopped at Bar-sur-Seine for supper. The town has a population of 2,000 and we paid 6 franca for the meal, that is about sl.lO. We had soup, veal with sweetbreads, potatoes and gravy, salad, rice prepared in meat dripplings, another course of veal, bread and for desert cream cheese. The French are wonderful cooks. No pastries are yet served except m a few of the very expensive cases in Paris. Deserts are either cheese or oranges. They are wonderful olieese

makers here in Europe. We encountered a snow as we left Bar-sur-Seine and the driver had a hard time of it, having to get out of the car and wipe off the windshield many times. The roads here are Wonderful, all macadamized, and generally 16 to 20 feet wide. Our big American trucks are cutting them up a lot -and about half of our army is working on road repairs. It would be a great thing to tour through Prance and Italy and Switzerland with ones family. 1 imagine the tourist trade will be very extensive during the next few years. I hope to have a leave and spend it either in England or Italy and southern France and plan to apply for it right soon. I am one of very few national gaurd surplus colonels left in Prance and presume they will be shipping me lome quite soon. My French is very limited. I have been thrown with them very little and have not Jiad an opportunity for instruction. There are a number of expresssions which every one learns and I am sure they will be popularized in America. Probably one of the most used in theif expression for immediately or at once. It is “tout de suite” and is pronounced “toot d’sweet” or even very generally just “toot sweet.” This was the name of the play Jimmie. -Hanley wrote the music and most of the songs for. I saw him and had a good talk with him. There are many soldier shows in the A.E.P. and one very interesting thing is the impersonation of girls. Certainly there are some remarkable results. Jimmie says that he will move his mother and the family to New York when he gets back and that he is making a lot of money from his music. He wrote “Indiana,” and that made him a good sum. He works with Joe Goodman, who is a well known New York musician and composer. . , Presume Dr. Washburn is home now. I am glad he had the experience and wish he might have visited Prance. Some way I can’t get myself entirely straightened out to know whether I like these people or not. The better classes are surely fine but the peasantry, which constitutes the great majority in the sections I have been in, do not meet up with my expectations. Seen conditions, however, when not depressed by the hardships and sacrifices of a long war, they might be more attractive. Pans is a wonderful city and I have also been in a number of other good cities of from 60,000 to 100,000 that are fine. Everything is built of stone, there are no porches, the houses are poorly ventilated, bathtubs are almost unknown, inside toilets are rare, outside ones are filthy, walks are inadequate, but the beds are the finest imaginable. Those who drink say the wine and cognac are fine also. The cooking, as have said, is excellent. They make wonderful salads, splendid omelets, prepare •their meats most tatefully, garnish them attractively, serve promptly and with a fine charm of manner. The homes of the better classes are wonderfully furnished, and there is a fulsome manner of reception that we would call extravagant but with them perfectly sincere and graceful. But I am making my letter too long and it is near supper time. I can hardly tell you how much I appreciated your letter. I don't get enough letters. Some times it is two weeks between them and then I get a number all at one time but never as many as I should like. Have not seen a paper from home for three months. Leland Jessen showed me a number of Republicans last December. He told me Ross Benjamin was near where we were at the time but I was transferred before I could look him up. Sincerely, GEORGE H. HEALY, Col. U.S. Inf.