Somewhere in France

May 7, 1918

May Dear Cousins:

You've no idea how very much pleased I was to get Ethel's letter from Camp Merritt. It was among the first I have recieved [sic] in Europe and was all the more highly appreciated for that. You most certainly would have been raised to the nth power in my estimation (if you aren't already there) had you have gone to work at Mark Twain school. You'll never know how to appreciate Mark really and truly until you read his Innocents Abroad & Tramp Abroad and then get to come over on a Government boat with all expenses paid and an almost really truly salary in the bargain. I had a great experience comming [sic] over. It was almost like an Italian summer cruise you read about as far as the weather goes. Almost like one

I said. We landed safely as you have perhaps guessed from the start at one of France's beautiful ports. Spent a week there getting used to things and then had one grand tour of France. Road [sic] all around in a real French train. You know they have little bitsy engines like we used to wind up when we were kids and thier[sic] cars are all divided up crossways with the world about as some of our old electric cars are with seats clear across with a step along the side. Only two seats are turned together and boxed up with a door at each end. The first class coaches have about four compartments and look like the buses they have in most small towns to meet the trains and haul people to the hotels at home. They are upholstered about like a Pierce Arrow Limousine and ride very comfortably. The second class ones are about like a Ford Sedan and the third class ones are about like the

front seat of a spring wagon. I was with a Major and road [sic] first class.

I stayed at a hotel in the town where I landed. Had a room about the size of your dining room with the sitting room thrown in. The floor was as slick as glass; there was a marble wash stand a couple of meters long by about one wide with a couple of bowls and pitchers big enough to take a bath in and a cut glass water bottle. The bed was about six feet above the floor and they use pillows for cover. I had to orient myself every time I came in. There was a mahogany wardrobe with a full length mirror in which I could admire myself in my Sam Brown belt (may the devil fly away with him). I visited a castle said to have been started by old man Julius Caesar himself and occupied by various King and queens by ancient times. I have since discovered that most French towns

are saddled with some such musty old building with dungeons that had stakes stuck up to catch unlucky prisoners on and that Ceaser [sic] or Augustus or some other old Roman had something do about (In all probability never even saw or heard tell of it). Things age mighty quick over here. There is always a keeper who goes around with you for a small consideration say ½ a franc nearly nine cents in real money.

If you buy something and give a five or ten dollar bill for it you get back enough colored paper and copper cents to load down a pack mule. The coppers are about the size of a half dollar and are worth ten centimes, two cents in money. A French man can buy a paper a square meal a bottle of wine and get some change for one but it takes dollars and francs for an American to get along.

They are sure good to us though and are the most polite people I ever saw. They don't seem to be able to do enough for us especially here at school where they haven't been spoiled by having tourists and army officers around.

I am living at a real Chateau with a park, a moat and a cute little picture book village out in front. There are marble stairs hand cared wood work and every thing like you read about and I'd give a lot for a base [illegible] or some steam heat. There's a shower bath that has water right out of the Artic Ocean in it. Of course the place was built back in 1550 by Catherine de Medici or the Duc de [illegible] or Henry II, IV or Cardinal Richilieu [sic] or somebody or other who was ruling this glorious old country at that time. Some low down cuss burned up most of it in

1789 and a rich silk merchant rebuilt it in 1903. There's a rock over the door with MVCL on it and I can't tell how much that is. Evidently 1650. I suspect that Henry of Navarre maybe or some of his three musketeers were all around here. There's the cutes[t] little branch that runs down through rows of trees. It is about a foot deep and ten wide and the French call it a river. It is sure a pretty little stream. I took a walk through an adjoining Chateau Park the other day and there was a swan and some green & white ducks floating on the river and it sure looked like a picture. There are old mills all over the country both water and the wind kind like Holland pictures show. You'd never think that war is raging in this same land it is so peacable [sic] and quiet and pretty. You never see any Frenchmen. It isonly women and children and old men. The rest are whipping Dutchmen. They are sure making soldiers out of us too. I never walked or studied so hard in my life. I'll be strong enough to whip a sack of wild cats wise enough to be either county surveyor or a horse doctor when I get back.

About the only things that bother us any are the town clocks. There's one on the church and one on the Hotel de Ville. They are never together and they each strike the quarter hours and when the City Hall clock strikes the hour it always hits off the four quarters on chimes and then strikes the hour. It'll wait about four minutes and then bang away the hour again to be good and sure that everyone knows it's on the job. The cussed church clock is not far from our windows (We have double French ones that Bertha M. Clay write about) the chimes are

cracked and insist on going off five minutes later. The hours are struck on the church bell, a beautiful toned bell that can be heard I'im sure about 50 miles. It usually strikes two for twelve o'clock and about 18 or twenty for five A.M. Sometimes it'll strike the whole twenty four and then some about that time in the morning. Then at 5:30 they insist on ringing it and another one tuned to it for about five minutes and it sure creats [sic] a grand cussing bee in our room instead of prayers as its intended to.

I am fat healthy and working hard and I hope you are the same except the first. Be sure and write because we're all crazy for letters. I'll write you as much and as often as the censor'll let me. Tell all the family hello.

Sincerely,

Harry S. Truman

1st Lt 129 F.A

Via New York. American E.F.

(Be sure & use this address.)