^■'.^ 
 
 .0 v^^* -^' "- 
 
 
 ^ ' 
 
 0" •, 
 
 ^ « • • , 
 
 V.'=>'^ 
 
 
 V<S' 
 
 /\ '.^K-' **'"** '°^W.' /% -.JiBSS*.- > 
 
 .v-^^ 
 
 
 
 ^^'O' 
 
 
 
 

 .'©• ♦i 
 
 
 
 ''°^''^'%o'> V'^^*"y'' V*^''%° 
 
 ^"^^ 
 
 ^P'^^ 
 
 
 % '^^0^ o, 
 
 
 
 
 
 "^<i" 
 .^'% 
 
 '^0^ 
 
 5°< 
 
 <ft 
 
 
 '■°' % ^ 
 
 
 {5o<v 
 
etters trom a 
 {aison Officer 
 
 ^erRinanS. grazier (lelke 
 
 ^ri^atefy Printed 
 
 QdCQiiXIX 
 

 Copyrighted 1919, by 
 Ferdinand Frazier Jelke 
 
 JUL -c: iiid 
 
 eyj.A52928l 
 
TO MY MOTHER 
 
 Whose love, complete understanding, 
 sympathetic and devoted interest, more 
 than all other factors combined, sustained 
 and encouraged me through the trying and 
 unfamiliar demands of my War-time so- 
 journ "Over There," I lovingly dedicate 
 this little volume of experiences. 
 
 FERD. 
 New York, 
 Nineteen Hundred 
 and Nineteen. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 It goes without saying that the letters 
 here gathered were not written with any 
 idea of being permanently preserved. They 
 were merely a progressive recital, in a most 
 informal and unstudied vein, of circum- 
 stances and scenes with which the writer 
 came in touch in the course of his work, 
 first in the ranks of the Marine Corps, and 
 afterward as a Lieutenant of Infantry in 
 the Liaison Service, in France. 
 
 But since the author's return from "Over 
 There" — and in view of the gigantic scale 
 of World War and the epochal character 
 of the events and situations touched upon 
 in the correspondence — members of his 
 family have urged that the series of letters 
 written from the scenes of his activities 
 during I9i7-'i9, be made into a handy 
 volume for the use of such friends as may 
 find in them some personal appeal and 
 interest. 
 
 In preparing the letters for publication 
 an attempt has been made to omit the 
 more private and intimate details, while 
 retaining such of the descriptive text as 
 would aid the reader in gaining some last- 
 ing impressions of the scenes and incidents 
 which rushed by, like an animated pano- 
 
rama, in those days of frenzied endeavor 
 and kaleidoscopic change, beginning shortly 
 after America's entrance into the war 
 and continuing until after the signing of 
 the Armistice, and the return of the writer 
 to America, early in 1919. 
 
 Nothing has been added to the original 
 text, except names of places and certain 
 military data which could not be included 
 at the time, though much has been elim- 
 inated. It has been the purpose to pre- 
 serve only so much detail as would be 
 essential to a proper understanding of the 
 situations described, and there is, of course, 
 absolutely no attempt at literary style or 
 impressive presentation. 
 
 F. F. J. 
 May, 
 
 Nineteen Hundred 
 and Nineteen. 
 
^CzduAai\cC ^. 
 
Sailer 
 August 3, 191 7. at 
 
 .noia-jH 'Jfli JiiOflniinirl; 
 
 Attached to W 
 November 4, 1917 
 
 Attached to Chit f i. Jiricer 
 
 February 12, 1918. 
 
 Commissioned Sf-'V-ru? ; -tepir 
 Infantry, March . 
 
 Attached to staff <■ 
 eral, Fifth French Ar 
 Officer, April 27, 191 ^ 
 served until after the 
 tice, December 12. i 
 
 Landed at Ncv 
 March 6, 1919. 
 
 Discharged froi; 
 at Camp I) 
 
Frtncli Army Corps Staff brassard worn at all formal tun. 
 3!ul when transacting formal official business 
 throujihoiit rhe Rt-gion. 
 
MILITARY RECORD 
 Ferdinand F. Jelke 
 
 Enlisted, 5th Regiment (Base Battalion) 
 U. S. Marine Corps, July 14, 1917, at Wash- 
 ington, D. C. 
 
 Sailed for France on U. S. S. Henderson, 
 August 3, 1917, acting as interpreter. 
 
 Promoted August 17, 191 7, to Corporal, 
 U. S. Marine Corps. 
 
 Attached to War Risk Bureau (Paris), 
 November 4, 1917. 
 
 Attached to Chief Liaison Officer (Paris), 
 February 12, 1918. 
 
 Commissioned Second Lieutenant, U. S. 
 Infantry, March 17, 1918. 
 
 Attached to staff of Commanding Gen- 
 eral, Fifth French Army Corps, as Liaison 
 Officer, April 27, 19 18, in which capacity I 
 served until after the signing of the armis- 
 tice, December 12, 1918. 
 
 Landed at New York, U. S. S. Sierra, 
 March 6, 1919. 
 
 Discharged from service March 8, 1919, 
 at Camp Dix, N. J. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 U. S. S. Henderson 
 
 At Sea, August igth, IQ17. 
 
 HIS is another tranquil August 
 day, when nature seems to be at 
 peace with the entire world. 
 The trip has been uneventful, 
 with the exception of hard work, drilling, 
 holystoning the decks and long hours for the 
 men — really a fine lot who enlisted for 
 patriotic reasons last April. They are 
 from small towns and farms in almost every 
 state in the Union — one hundred and fifty 
 from the University of Minnesota, all in 
 one company. It was said at the Phila- 
 delphia Navy Yard that this is the best 
 bunch of recruits that has gone to France. 
 For three days we have been in the War 
 Zone, but no one is worried, and gives it 
 little serious thought. Every known pre- 
 caution is taken, dozens of men on the 
 superstructure constantly are on watch with 
 field glasses. The gun crews for the six- 
 inch guns are on duty day and night, re- 
 lieved every four hours. Fire and emer- 
 gency drills are held daily, frequently during 
 the night. 
 
 As we came in sight of land, early this 
 morning, the bugle sounded General Quar- 
 
 15 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 At Sea, 
 
 Aug. igthy 
 
 1917. 
 
 ters, and every one rushed to their stations 
 at double-quick. The convoy spread out, 
 commenced maneuvering and circling, and 
 the guns started booming at objects be- 
 tween the ships; aeroplanes circled overhead 
 like birds, dropping high explosive bombs. 
 We were in the midst of a flotilla of sub- 
 marines, our first engagement with the 
 enemy. As the cannons roared and belched, 
 the ship quivered so violently fourteen 
 windows in the officers' mess were broken. 
 One submarine was sunk. 
 
 Lots of love, from 
 
 FERD. 
 
 16 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 4 
 
 
 p» 
 
 Bordeaux^ France, Sept. 20th, 1917. 
 
 HAVE an opportunity this morn- 
 ing to drop you a few lines, good 
 paper with American pen and 
 ink, which is quite a treat. 
 Until within the past week I have been 
 living under such rough conditions, on 
 shipboard and in camp, the life of an 
 enlisted man, there has been little oppor- 
 tunity to write, except to scratch a few 
 lines home. 
 
 Colonel Bearss has been put in com- 
 mand of the largest receiving port in 
 France where the greater part of the new 
 National Army will be landed, and the 
 work of preparing to handle them is most 
 interesting. There is already a large re- 
 ceiving camp at Souges and it is to be en- 
 larged to accommodate forty thousand. 
 There are to be over five hundred thousand 
 men, two hundred and fifty thousand 
 animals, and hundreds of thousands of tons 
 of freight landed here.* There are to be 
 miles of railroads, warehouses and docks 
 built. 
 
 We landed a month ago at St. Nazaire, 
 where about one-fourth of the American 
 
 *Estimated to be half of the proposed American Army. 
 
 17 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Bordeaux, France, 
 
 Sept. 20th, 
 
 1917. 
 
 Army is to be handled. About ten days 
 ago Colonel Bearss, with a staff of six offi- 
 cers, three interpreters (LeGendre, Auguste 
 Ferrier of New Orleans, and myself) mo- 
 tored down from St. Nazaire to take charge 
 of Base Section No. 2. We have requisi- 
 tioned a large four-story office building and 
 there are to be, in all, about eighty officers* 
 and two to three hundred clerks. 
 
 It is the opportunity of our lives to wit- 
 ness and be part of the advance of a great 
 army. Our services as interpreters have 
 really been valuable. This is most inter- 
 esting work, as it brings us in contact with 
 the highest staff officers. As you know, 
 Colonel Bearss is a field man, and has a 
 long fighting record in the tropics, including 
 Santo Domingo and the Philippines. 
 
 None of the American troops are to do 
 any fighting before spring. They are to 
 be sent to training camps behind the lines 
 as fast as they arrive, and the work con- 
 sists largely of bomb throwing, bayonet 
 exercises, machine gun operation and ath- 
 letics to harden them. The infantry fight- 
 ing is all done with machine guns, bayonets 
 and bombs. One hundred and eighty-seven 
 troops of our Fifth Regiment were killed 
 and wounded recently in their camps at 
 the front by German aeroplane bombs. 
 
 *There are now five times this number. 
 
 18 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 The French rarely discuss the possibiHties 
 of the termination of the war, as they have 
 lost hope of it ever ending and just grimly 
 keep on fighting. The press is silent on the 
 subject. The United States is taking over 
 a large part of France and is expected to be 
 her savior. The general feeling among our 
 officers is that the war is to last at least one 
 or even two years longer. 
 
 Our letters are censored by our own 
 officers, and are again subject to examina- 
 tion by the Base Censor at Paris. 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Bordeaux, France, 
 
 Sept. 20th, 
 
 1917. 
 
 19 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Bordeaux^ Fra7ice, Oct. 26thy 1917. 
 
 ^AR makes one a fatalist in a 
 short time, for they Have little 
 control over their destinies, and 
 are tossed about "as jetsam 
 on the waves of time." 
 
 The Antilles, one of the five ships in our 
 convoy, was sunk on her second return voy- 
 age to America. The Saxonia, another, has 
 also been sunk on a return trip.* 
 
 I have had several very interesting days 
 this week, in spite of almost incessant rain. 
 I was detailed to conduct the Paris New 
 York Herald correspondent, Cleveland Cox, 
 on a two days' tour of inspection of the 
 camps and engineer works of this Base 
 Section No. 2, and secured interviews for 
 him with the various Colonels commanding 
 Departments, and many others. 
 
 The whole trip was most instructive and 
 interesting. Cox had just returned from 
 the front where our men are in training in 
 the Vosges. This is a most poverty-stricken 
 part of France, while at the same time the 
 quietest, and the men are quartered in cow- 
 sheds, pig-pens and peasant huts, and the 
 mud and dirt is deep and the odors most 
 
 *This was at a period when the submarine menace was at its 
 worst. 
 
 20 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 offensive. So near the lines they can't Hve 
 in barracks or tents. 
 
 I am astonished to read in the American 
 press that the Germans are practically on 
 their knees, begging peace. The fact is, 
 the subject is rarely mentioned in the 
 French papers, and then only vaguely. 
 Cox said the middle classes want peace at 
 any price, and if they had their choice 
 would not fight for another year, even to 
 secure victory with our help. 
 
 He said recently, when some German 
 prisoners were taken and their officers told 
 that Americans were here, they laughed, 
 thinking it a lie. When shown the Amer- 
 icans, they evidenced the greatest concern, 
 and said, ''Well, we have been deceived." 
 
 Yesterday we took a wandering Ameri- 
 can, wearing a soldier's uniform, who is to 
 be court-martialed as a spy. He had ten 
 thousand francs sewed up in the lining of 
 his coat. 
 
 It is fine to receive such letters and to 
 know the folks at home appreciate us and 
 give us a little blarney. It warms the 
 cockles of the heart, for it is all so sordid 
 over here. 
 
 With lots of love to you all, from 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Bordeaux, France, 
 
 Oct. 26th, 
 
 1917. 
 
 21 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Tours, France, Nov. ^d, iQiy. 
 
 EFORE leaving Bordeaux, I had 
 charge of the polls and held 
 the New York State election. 
 Well, the life of a marine is 
 filled with excitement. Last night Hennen 
 Le Gendre and I narrowly escaped being 
 killed in an automobile accident. I had 
 been ordered to Paris to help in organizing 
 the War Risk Bureau. We did not "push 
 off" from Bordeaux in the Packard until 
 noon Saturday and were ordered to report 
 in Paris Sunday, four hundred miles. We 
 had no time to change the oil in the motor 
 for the trip, and the car was heating and 
 making poor time; so after lunch we stopped 
 and washed out the motor with kerosene 
 and put in fresh oil. 
 
 Hennen was driving and we were trying 
 to reach Tours, halfway, to spend the night. 
 The motor ran smoothly like a watch, and 
 we had just finished one hundred and twen- 
 ty-five miles in three and one-half hours, 
 through towns and all. 
 
 It was already dark, and the headlights 
 had dimmers, but the road was perfect. I 
 had just looked at the speedometer and it 
 registered forty-five miles. The next in- 
 stant the road took a sudden turn under a 
 
 22 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 railroad bridge; there was a terrific crash, 
 and the car rolled over, apparently crushed 
 and a total wreck. It had struck the 
 rock curbing at the side of the country 
 road and capsized, crushing top, fenders, 
 running board, left front wheel, and wind- 
 shield into a thousand pieces. It was a 
 miracle that we were not killed, and the 
 only thing that saved our lives was that 
 the car was of such substantial construc- 
 tion. A lighter one would have crumpled 
 like cardboard and have rolled over and 
 crushed us. The steel fenders which struck 
 the soft, wet earth were completely crushed. 
 The impact was terrific, but so sudden we 
 hadn't time to see it coming. I was thrown 
 over Hennen and lit on my feet and thought 
 at first his legs were pinned under the car. 
 Hennen walked to the next town and asked 
 help, but everyone was in bed (at eight 
 o'clock), and flatly refused. Finally three 
 teamsters with their large, lumbering carts 
 passed and helped lift the car. The left 
 front wheel would still turn, and after 
 refilling her with oil and gasoline (of which 
 we had an extra supply in the tonneau) and 
 water, all of which had run out, we started 
 again for Tours. We limped in, in a badly 
 crippled condition after one a. m. and found 
 caressing beds with clean sheets. 
 
 Tours, France, 
 Nov. jd, 
 1917. 
 
 23 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Tours, France, 
 
 Nov. 3d, 
 
 1917. 
 
 Upon remarking the unusual number of 
 cripples hobbling about the streets on 
 crutches, we were informed that a large 
 amputation hospital is situated here. 
 
 This is the first touch of la belle France 
 in eleven weeks, and it is the first time the 
 people in the streets have been friendly, or 
 the hotel employees respectful and polite, 
 or that we have slept in good beds. The 
 Americans are not too cordially welcomed, 
 as it is thought we will prolong the war 
 without making any material difference in 
 the result. 
 
 Tours, you know, is in the heart of 
 Touraine, the beautiful and far-famed Cha- 
 teau district, one hundred and fifty miles 
 southwest of Paris, so much visited by 
 tourists. It is a refined and beautiful 
 residential city, with fine buildings, miles of 
 old shade trees, and beautiful perspectives. 
 
 Your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 *This condition changed in the summer of 1918. 
 
 24 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, Nov. i6th, igiy. 
 
 US telephoned several days ago 
 that there was a whole wagon- 
 load of mail for me at Head- 
 quarters, including your love 
 letters, all of which I was delighted to re- 
 ceive and am still in the process of digesting. 
 We finished our motor trip from Tours 
 without further mishap — arriving at Paris, 
 after a 400-mile trip, Tuesday evening in a 
 pouring rain and looking like two soldiers 
 direct from the trenches, with our "packs." 
 I am glad to say that the Ritz received 
 us with open arms and the greatest courtesy 
 in spite of our appearance, which was an 
 unusual experience, after three months of 
 incivility and condescension by the ignorant 
 people of the Midi. 
 
 We were flabbergasted to find Paris just 
 as gay as ever, only more so, on the surface ; 
 with the exception of the night life — all 
 of the restaurants close promptly at 9:30 
 and every one quietly goes home with no 
 arguments about serving "just one more 
 drink." The theaters are all open. I had 
 expected to see a martial spirit with war- 
 stained detachments of troops passing 
 through the streets with trucks, cannons, and 
 torn flags, drums and bugles. The stenog- 
 
 25 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Nov. i6th, 
 
 1917. 
 
 rapher says it was that way in the begin- 
 ning, at the time of the battle of the Marne, 
 and that it was awful when the Germans 
 were so near Paris and the Government 
 was moved to Bordeaux for two months. 
 They could hear the roar of cannon. The 
 papers, at that time, referred to the sal- 
 vation of Paris at the Marne as a **miracle.** 
 
 Everyone on the streets looks healthy, 
 pleasant, gay and well dressed, not all in 
 mourning as at Bordeaux. However, when 
 one enters French homes, they find hearts 
 torn with sorrow, mourning over their lost 
 on€s. These people are really Spartans. 
 
 In spite of the high price and scarcity of 
 gasoline, the Government allows taxi-cabs 
 a limited quantity, so this means of con- 
 veyance is not extinct; except on rainy days 
 and late at night when it is utterly impos- 
 sible to get one. The rates seem little 
 higher than usual. 
 
 We dined at Henri's and had a devil of 
 a time getting home afterwards, at ten 
 o'clock, and finally succeeded in recruiting 
 an old man with a horse-cab to drive us up 
 to the Bois de Boulogne. 
 
 There is so much to write about and my 
 mind is in such a whirl, and I am always 
 in such a hurry, I forget to say the principal 
 things I started to write. It is so tedious 
 and difficult dictating to French stenog- 
 
 26 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 raphers as almost every word must be 
 spelled, and it takes too much time to 
 write long-hand. 
 
 You all are hardly ever entirely off my 
 mind, and my one ambition is to make you 
 proud of me; our constant interest is "to 
 please the folks at home." There is no 
 one among ourselves we care about im- 
 pressing. 
 
 We are enjoying immensely our respite 
 of luxury, if not of ease, and Gus and I 
 are thinking of writing a book entitled 
 "From the Clay Hills of Quantico* to the 
 Paved Streets of Paris.'* 
 
 Lovingly, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 *One of the three Marine Corps Training Camps is at Quantico, 
 Virginia. 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Nov. i6th, 
 1917- 
 
 27 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, Dec. jd, igiy. 
 
 HAVE just had a totally new 
 viewpoint on the prospects of 
 peace in conversing with the 
 Vicomtesse de Rancongne, who, 
 you know, is my old friend Giselle Bunau- 
 Varilla, daughter of the Panama engineer 
 and owner of the "Matin," Philip Bunau- 
 Varilla. She is a brilliant, patriotic young 
 woman, thoroly posted on the war 
 and French politics, and her views natur- 
 ally reflect those of her father and the 
 inner circle of the French Government. 
 Instead of expressing regret at the turn of 
 affairs in Russia and their making a separate 
 move for peace, she showed satisfaction, 
 saying that it would "break the ice," to use 
 her own words, and the move she thought 
 would be contagious. There is a deep and 
 longing desire in the hearts of all fighting 
 men on both sides for peace and for the 
 carnage to stop. This is not limited to any 
 set of men or women, but is universal among 
 all nationalities in the trenches, who want 
 to return to their homes and peaceful pur- 
 suits. She says she knows on the highest 
 authority that the Kaiser and the men 
 around him are sincerely willing and want 
 peace at any price; but they have in the 
 
 28 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 past so thoroughly sowed the doctrine of 
 Pan-Germanism and **Deutschland ueber 
 Alles," and have so completely led the 
 people to believe they were going to have 
 a victorious peace, they cannot now con- 
 vince them that Germany is facing a crush- 
 ing defeat. With the German Army hold- 
 ing so much foreign territory, the "Pan- 
 Germanists" refuse to consent to "peace at 
 any price." There is a great wave of the 
 brotherhood -love -of- mankind passing 
 through the armies of Europe, and she 
 believes that all that is needed is the pres- 
 ent move for peace in Russia to fan it into 
 flame. There is a general feeling of the 
 futility of continuing this awful carnage of 
 human lives. Instead of condemning the 
 Russians, she says they are showing great 
 hardihood in making a move that all na- 
 tions wish to make, but do not dare, for 
 fear of not "saving their faces." 
 
 This is to me an entirely new angle on 
 the situation, and coming so frankly from 
 this source illustrates what the Government 
 and people are striving for, but have not 
 yet been able to attain. 
 
 Last Sunday, we called on the Vicom- 
 tesse's father, in their magnificent big old 
 house in the Avenue d'lena, and had a 
 delightful visit. We felt instinctively that 
 we were in the presence of one of the great 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Dec. 3d, 
 1917. 
 
 29 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Dec. 3d, 
 
 1917. 
 
 men of France. The house was just the 
 same as of old, but a Httle dingy and the 
 walls in need of cleaning, showing the occu- 
 pants had had little time or inclination for 
 such things during the past three years. 
 Colonel Bunau-Varilla, the great French 
 engineer, was just home from the hospital 
 where he had laid in a mangled condition for 
 three months. One leg and part of his side 
 were shot away by an exploding shrapnel 
 shell. He was in high spirits and gay, be- 
 cause Etienne, his son, who had been a 
 prisoner since the first nine months of the 
 war, was returning the next day. The boy, 
 whom I had motored with and chummed 
 with the entire summer of 191 2, at Dinard, 
 had won the Croix de Guerre three times 
 (two palms) in the first nine months of the 
 war, before his capture. When captured 
 he was leading, as flight commander, a flight 
 of aeroplanes making a raid on a German 
 camp. He was for five months in solitary 
 confinement in a German prison, the first 
 month of which he was not permitted to 
 even work. After that he was allowed to 
 sew "trench-backs" for ten hours per day. 
 He was moved from camp to camp and 
 suffered the most frightful starvation and 
 hardships. The "Matin" has been very 
 anti-German for twenty-five years past, 
 and this was their means of revenge. They 
 
 30 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 did likewise with the sons of other promi- 
 nent Frenchmen as reprisals. At one time 
 when the French were making raids on a 
 German ammunition plant the Germans 
 placed sixty of these young men in a house 
 nearby and left a light burning in it each 
 night to attract the bombing attacks. It 
 was the only light in the neighborhood. 
 
 Finally, in an almost dying condition, 
 through the intercession of the King of 
 Spain, he was sent to Switzerland. After 
 six months the doctors there have per- 
 mitted him to return home, with the under- 
 standing with the French Government that 
 he must return to Germany after the war 
 to be tried by court martial for some trivial 
 offense for which the sentence is ten years 
 in prison. 
 
 The Vicomtesse's young husband of less 
 than a year was also captured in the be- 
 ginning of the war, when a handful of one 
 thousand French cavalry held Lille against 
 ten thousand Germans for three days. This 
 blocked their advance on Calais, and gave 
 the French time to send up more troops to 
 cut the Germans off from ever reaching 
 Calais. 
 
 Giselle, herself really only a girl of twenty- 
 five, with two other young women organ- 
 ized the **Appui des Beiges" (Help for 
 Belgian Soldiers) at the beginning of the 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Dec. sd, 
 1917. 
 
 31 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Dec. 3d, 
 
 1917. 
 
 war, and now have an institution which 
 takes care of a German prison camp of over 
 five thousand Belgian soldiers, sending to 
 each, by post, a weekly package of food in- 
 dividually addressed, and spends over eight 
 thousand dollars per month, most of which 
 is contributed by the French Government. 
 
 Etienne's cousin Jean, who was such a 
 good friend, whom Jack and I met crossing 
 to China, is broken in health and has been 
 sent back to civil life as a reform^, and is 
 living in retirement with his wife and two 
 children at St. Cloud. 
 
 This letter as I read it sounds sad, but 
 there is nothing unusual about it, simply 
 an every-day account of one prominent 
 French family torn by the war. Is there 
 any wonder these people welcome the pros- 
 pect of peace, the demand for which will 
 some day sweep over Europe like an electric 
 spark .? 
 
 Devotedly, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 32 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, Dec. 22nd, IQ17. 
 
 HE time is flying by so rapidly 
 and we are so extremely busy 
 it is almost impossible to write, 
 although I am writing you in 
 mind every day. Occasionally when I 
 leave the office and do have an oppor- 
 tunity to dictate a few lines to a public 
 stenographer, I am in too great a hurry 
 to collect my thoughts. 
 
 The spirit of military men is "to eat, 
 drink and be gay for to-morrow we may 
 die" and the result is that they all live as 
 well as possible on meager means. Life in 
 camp and in the trenches is so severe that 
 every one lives as comfortably as possible 
 when they get the opportunity. The re- 
 sult is that Gus and I have taken a 
 beautifully furnished apartment near the 
 Bois de Boulogne, expecting to spend the 
 winter here. It was comical to see us mov- 
 ing in our worn uniforms and rough camp 
 equipment with blanket rolls and sea-bags; 
 we felt like a couple of tramps in an 
 Aladdin's Dream. 
 
 We frequently have officers up to dinner, 
 our only diversion, as we never go to the 
 theater. 
 
 zz 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Dec. 22nd, 
 
 1917. 
 
 While it is unknown to the average Amer- 
 ican, the situation is looked upon by the 
 French authorities as serious, as it is 
 estimated that the number of men that we 
 are figuring on sending over by Spring will 
 not be enough to offset the German soldiers 
 released on the Russian front — France was 
 in a better position in 191 5 than at the 
 present day, when Germany has since 
 conquered Russia and Italy. 
 
 Germany is preparing on a large scale 
 to make air raids on Paris before Spring 
 and it is expected that we will get a taste 
 of war here. 
 
 Love from your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 34 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Parisy France, Dec. 26thy 1917. 
 
 ELL, this is the day after Christ- 
 mas, which was passed really 
 pleasantly under the circum- 
 stances. The festivities com- 
 menced with dinner Christmas Eve at 
 Harriet and Florence Burton's apartment 
 and ended at midnight last night at ours. 
 They gave a charming dinner and had a 
 small tree. The guests included a Colonel 
 Riley, Lisa Stillman, Baroness Maxwell de 
 Wardener, Gus, myself and several others. 
 We went over again for Christmas dinner 
 when they had Colonel McCrae, former 
 Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road, Mimi Scott, besides several more. 
 In the afternoon we went for a long motor 
 drive in the Bois, and in the evening the 
 girls went down to the Soldiers' and Sailors' 
 Club, where they assisted with giving out 
 the presents. 
 
 Am enclosing a clipping about the Secours 
 Duryea which you see Florence Burton 
 was Secretary of and one of the prime 
 movers. She is a close friend of Col. and 
 Mrs. House with whom she was constantly 
 when last in Paris several weeks ago. I 
 am also enclosing a clipping in regard to 
 
 35 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Dec. 26th, 
 
 J917. 
 
 "embalmed beef" from which we suffered 
 when crossing the ocean. 
 
 There is so Httle heat and the houses 
 are so cold that we have to dress indoors 
 as if we were out-of-doors. Coal is fifty 
 dollars per ton and can only be secured in 
 limited small quantities by the use of coal 
 cards, as is also the case with wood, sugar, 
 bread, gasoline, and milk. However, we 
 don't buy or use any milk, leaving it for 
 the sick and babies. We have gas in our 
 kitchen, but only a limited amount is per- 
 mitted to be used. By paying the price one 
 can have plenty of everything good to eat, 
 for the French certainly know how to 
 cook. The one thing that a soldier thinks 
 about is his stomach for the life makes 
 him ravenously hungry and he rarely has 
 enough.* 
 
 Your devoted brother, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 *0f what he wants. 
 
 36 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, Jan. 2ist, iqi8. 
 
 UST a few lines this eve, to let 
 \ you know I am well and happy 
 and working very hard, but too 
 tired to write much. I never 
 have an opportunity to dictate letters 
 any more, as we are working in and around 
 Paris, writing insurance for the soldiers and 
 trying to get it all in by February 12th, the 
 last day. We are working in the hospitals 
 at present and it is all very interesting. I 
 am directly under and working with Cap- 
 tain Willard Mack of Cincinnati, who is 
 charming. We have been all day at Dr. 
 Blake's hospital. It is one of the best, and 
 he is a kindly, elderly man with white hair, 
 looking sixty-five, but they say fifty-five. 
 He is considered one of the foremost 
 surgeons of France to-day, especially on 
 fractures and difficult grafting. He has the 
 rank of Major, as all American Red Cross 
 hospitals have been taken over by the 
 Army. Preparations for American hospi- 
 tals are being made all over France on a 
 staggering scale. 
 
 We had cold weather here from about 
 December 15th to January 15th, and 
 chilblains are frequent, but for the past 
 
 37 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Jan. 2ist, 
 
 IQiS. 
 
 week it has been warm and spring-like. 
 Deaths from pneumonia have occurred by 
 dozens daily. 
 
 The following amusing copy of a letter 
 giving an enlisted man's honest impressions 
 upon reaching the front for the first time 
 in winter, was received from a friend who 
 later was awarded the Distinguished Serv- 
 ice Cross, for bravery in action. 
 
 "This is a hell of a hole — mud up to 
 my ears — snow — slush — men sleeping in 
 stables — cow sheds, pig sties — no oil for 
 lights — no wood for fires. Hell itself let 
 loose. We can hear the damn guns on the 
 front all day and night — like distant thun- 
 der. 
 
 "Companies are now 250 men — every- 
 body has a helmet, gas mask, etc., on ac- 
 count of bombs — gas bombs, etc. 
 
 "We expect to occupy the trenches in 
 the ... in about threei weeks. I 
 kiss you lovingly good-bye. 
 
 "Fell in a mud-hole to-night and had 
 to be dug out so am feeling in no cheerful 
 state of mind. Enjoy reading Town Topics 
 and Country Life. Don't believe any such 
 country as America exists — Long Island 
 and New York must be fables. 
 
 "My address is . . . 
 
 "Was very glad to see you and Gus in 
 Paris. 
 
 38 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 **This will be mailed by a guy who is 
 going to Paris to-morrow morning. 
 
 "Best to you and Gus/' 
 
 While Channon's newspaper letter is 
 cleverly and charmingly written, mothers 
 and daughters are not flitting about Paris 
 on the arms of their sons and brothers. He 
 has let his imagination run away with him 
 in order to write an airy and amusing 
 account of something that is quite the 
 opposite. 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Jan. 2 1 St, 
 1918. 
 
 39 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, Feb. I2th, iqi8. 
 
 \0\5 will remember I wrote you 
 two months ago of the contem- 
 plated air raids on Paris by the 
 Germans with air-planes of fan- 
 tastic size. Last week they made the first 
 of the long privately expected attacks. The 
 sirens made a devil of a row at 1 1 130 — like 
 on an old-fashioned New Year's Eve at home. 
 I laid on my bed and waited for the explo- 
 sions as the sirens passed the house on fast 
 motors to awake people to seek shelter in 
 cellars. Finally I got up and went on the 
 balcony. The hand of death and destruction 
 hovered over the sleeping city, nobody know- 
 ing where it would strike nor where the 
 bombs would fall. One by one the few re- 
 maining lights in the neighboring houses dis- 
 appeared and all was shrouded in darkness 
 with the exception of a few stars and a pale 
 moon. The deep intonations of falling bombs 
 and cannons were intermingled. I counted 
 fifty explosions in a space of about twenty 
 minutes. I dropped to sleep again at mid- 
 night and at 2:30 was awakened by bre- 
 loques and bugles — indicating ''all's quiet." 
 One bomb dropped around the corner from 
 Dr. Blake's hospital, which is located about 
 a block from our apartment. Another 
 
 40 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 destroyed the upper stories and blew out 
 the front of a heavy stone building nearby, 
 in the Avenue des Grandes Armees. 
 
 A French air-plane was brought down on 
 the Place de la Concorde, the aviator hav- 
 ing been shot through the head and, the 
 mechanician attempting to land, the ma- 
 chine caught on one of the lamp-posts in 
 the dark and he was severely injured. 
 Another bomb fell within a block and a 
 half of our office, at the Metro Station 
 Quatre Septembre. All the windows 
 within a block were blown out, and within 
 the immediate vicinity the window sashes 
 were empty of glass. At least a dozen 
 bombs did serious damage in various parts 
 of the city. The streets in the Latin 
 Quarter were covered with blood and 
 strewn with dead. 
 
 You will see from this description that it 
 was really a serious attack, and it is just a 
 matter of luck whether a bomb falls on the 
 house where one is living. Our apartment 
 is on the sixth, or top floor. Protecting walls 
 are being rapidly built around the monu- 
 ments on the Place de la Concorde, the 
 Opera, the Arc de Triomphe, and Place 
 Vendome. 
 
 I have not had an opportunity to write 
 you in detail regarding the Russian Revo- 
 lution which, I was informed some time ago 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Feb. I2lk, 
 1918. 
 
 41 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Feb. I2th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 by the Vicomtesse de Rancongne, is ex- 
 tremely serious — far more so than the 
 French Revolution — on a larger scale, as it 
 involves the whole country, which is in 
 chaos and ruled by the mob. There were 
 really leaders of ability in the French Revo- 
 lution and most executions were by trials 
 which were conducted in a comparatively 
 orderly manner. However, such is not the 
 case in Russia, for twenty thousand have 
 been murdered in Petrograd* and Moscow 
 alone. There the banks have been looted 
 and the neighbors take turns at standing 
 guard all night over their homes. At no 
 time during the French Revolution was 
 money stolen from the banks. 
 
 The Vicomtesse has a cousin married to a 
 Russian. They are refugees, financially 
 ruined, and cannot go back. This is only 
 one case of many thousands. Representa- 
 tives of the Kerensky Government are 
 stranded in Paris without sufficient means 
 to live and with no way of receiving money 
 from Russia, particularly as their proper- 
 ties have been looted by the mobs. The 
 Revolution, under Kerensky, was orderly 
 and well conducted; however, he did not 
 have a sufficiently strong hand, refusing to 
 
 *Conditions are now indescribably worse; seventy-five percent 
 of the population of Petrograd has disappeared during the past 
 five years, and from fifty to a hundred thousand per month 
 have died of cold and starvation during the present winter. 
 
 42 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 spill human blood. The death penalty for 
 soldiers deserting from the army was with- 
 drawn, with the result that thousands de- 
 serted, returning to their homes. 
 
 It was fascinating to hear the inside 
 story of the beginning of the Revolution 
 from a high British ordnance officer. Ac- 
 cording to him it was deliberately precipi- 
 tated by the British Government in order 
 to dethrone the Czar and prevent him from 
 concluding a separate peace,* as he was 
 totally under the influence of his wife, the 
 Czarina, and the pro-German court party 
 as headed by her. 
 
 A leading English Duke was sent on a 
 secret mission to see the Czar and instead 
 of receiving the usual courtesy he was re- 
 ceived by the Czar in an audience of three- 
 quarters of an hour standing. After this, 
 he at once proceeded to the British Em- 
 bassy, giving the signal for the Revolution 
 to begin, which the British Government 
 financially backed through leaders of the 
 Douma, including Kerensky. 
 
 The description of the Russian members 
 of the Peace Conference at Brest-Litovsk 
 is fantastic. It consisted of a young work- 
 ingman of twenty-one years, of no experi- 
 ence or education; one young soldier and 
 one old "spiritual" or fortune-teller, beside 
 
 *This has since been authenticated from a more rehable source. 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Feb. I2ih, 
 IQ18. 
 
 43 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Feb. I2th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 a fourth of the same ignorant class. Ger- 
 many, on the other hand, was repre- 
 sented by the best of her brains and diplo- 
 mats, including generals and princes. The 
 Russians in the negotiations refused to dis- 
 cuss at length, but stubbornly said what 
 they would do and what they would not do 
 and could not be shaken from these deci- 
 sions. 
 
 We have had a vivid description of trench 
 life by Gus' cousin, Tony Lelong, a former 
 social leader of New Orleans, who enlisted 
 as a "simple" soldier in the French Army a 
 year and a half ago, and now is a Major in 
 the American Army. He has given us some 
 remarkable descriptions of attacks on the 
 enemy trenches, he having gone *'over the 
 top" several times with the French. Half of 
 his teeth are gone from being gassed. When 
 I inquired if their attacks had always been 
 successful he said, "Of course, otherwise 
 I would not be here." They occasionally 
 caught the Germans unawares in their 
 underground dug-outs and squirted liquid 
 fire on them, burning them alive like rats 
 in a hole. 
 
 In describing the almost abject conditions 
 in which men are reduced in the trenches 
 to living like animals, he said that the soup 
 would have to be brought up from several 
 miles in the rear; and one day, when it 
 
 44 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 was his turn to go to fetch it and the 
 shelhng was continuous, he offered to pay 
 a French soldier to go, but then realized he 
 was asking the man to risk his life in his 
 place and so changed his mind and went 
 himself. He said the shells were bursting 
 around him, and when one burst in front, 
 he jumped back, and when one burst behind 
 him he sprang forward, and then he stood 
 still, not knowing whether to go forward 
 or back, fast or slow. Then he remembered 
 that the boys were waiting for their soup, 
 so decided to run. When he arrived they 
 would reach in with their dirty hands, 
 lifting lumps of dirt out, grunting exclama- 
 tions of satisfaction and joy over how fine 
 the soup was. 
 
 It is a great surprise to find the Belgians, 
 so lauded and regarded as heroes, are now 
 generally disliked. It is said they have 
 lagged and shirked their duty, and are 
 resting on the laurels of their first magnifi- 
 cent stand in holding back the Germans. 
 There are large numbers of Belgian refu- 
 gees here who at one time refused to work. 
 
 My friend Baron* de Wardener, in the 
 coal business, had a number of boat-loads 
 of coal in the Seine, which he was unable to 
 unload owing to the shortage of labor, and 
 the demurrage was costing a small fortune 
 
 *Captain. 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Feb. I2th, 
 1918. 
 
 45 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Feb. 1 2th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 daily. There were over one thousand 
 Belgian refugees at the St. Lazare railway 
 station and De Wardener went down to 
 where they were, and standing on a barrel 
 offered the large wages of fifteen francs a 
 day, but was unable to secure a single man 
 willing to work. They were all fed free by 
 the French Government. 
 
 This is simply a passing phase illustrating 
 how rapidly a people can fall from a posi- 
 tion of idolatry to one of disdain, and how 
 fickle is human appreciation. 
 
 With much love to you all, from your 
 most devoted and affectionate son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 46 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, Feb. 22nd, igi8. 
 
 OTHER'S charming letter, with 
 enclosures of January 28th, was 
 received February 17th, also a 
 long personal letter from Rev- 
 erend John Timothy Stone. 
 
 Another enormous box of candy was 
 received Saturday just in time for the 
 dinner-dance Gus and I were giving. That 
 is, Katherine Force and I each gave small 
 dinners, afterwards going to her apartment 
 to dance as there are hardwood floors and 
 enormous rooms. Gus and I made all 
 the arrangements, invited the guests and 
 provided the music and punch. Harvey 
 Ladew,who is a First Lieut, of Ordnance,* 
 was with us. There were ten couples and 
 needless to say the party was a great suc- 
 cess as entertainments are scarce and much 
 appreciated. There is some entertaining, 
 however, on a small scale, particularly for 
 British officers returning from the front. The 
 men who are still living and fighting want 
 gaiety and do not care to be greeted with 
 long, sad faces when they return on a few 
 days' "permission." For this reason restau- 
 rants are well patronized and private dining- 
 rooms must be always engaged in advance. 
 
 *Later in the Liaison Service. 
 
 47 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Feb. 22nd, 
 
 191S. 
 
 I have been too busy to write in de- 
 tail regarding the interesting work of the 
 last few weeks with the War Risk Bureau 
 while making our final drive before the 
 twelfth of this month. Captain Willard 
 Mack, a Lieutenant, and I covered all the 
 troops in and around Paris, making ad- 
 dresses when possible. I visited a num- 
 ber of detachments alone, addressing them 
 myself. 
 
 The camouflage studio was particularly 
 interesting, with curtains and screens like 
 those used on an enormous stage. The 
 Germans are said to have perfected camou- 
 flaging to such an extent that entire army 
 corps pass through villages near the Italian 
 front without being seen by the Allied 
 aviators. 
 
 We visited the Supreme War Council, 
 held in the magnificent Palace Hotel at 
 Versailles, to write the insurance of the 
 American officers. It was extremely inter- 
 esting and the opportunity of a lifetime to 
 witness such a momentous event. Sentries 
 stopped casual people in the quiet streets 
 within two blocks of the building. We saw 
 the conference, which was quiet and digni- 
 fied, in session in the large salon,* through 
 glass doors. There were about twenty dis- 
 
 *Where the ceremonial of handing the treaty to the Germans 
 later took place. 
 
 48 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 tinguished men seated around a long table, 
 including Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Gen- 
 erals Pershing, Bliss, Foch, and Petain and 
 the British General Robertson. The well- 
 known French crayon artist, Lucien Jonas, 
 was making a book of charcoal sketches for 
 the War Museum at the Invalides to be 
 preserved for posterity. He sketched us as 
 types of Americans, and then had us auto- 
 graph them. There were no visitors, we 
 being the only ones present besides the 
 attendants. Captain Mack secured the 
 autographs of Lloyd George, Foch, Petain 
 and Clemenceau as they were leaving 
 the council room. 
 
 Afterwards we all had luncheon in the 
 same dining-room at the Hotel des Reser- 
 voirs.* It was a glorious springlike day 
 and the little children played in the palace 
 grounds with their nurses, oblivious of the 
 fact that the fate of nations and perhaps 
 the destinies of the civilized world would 
 depend upon the decisions of this little 
 group of men. Life was going on as usual 
 at peaceful Versailles as if nobody were 
 aware that such a momentous history-mak- 
 ing conference was in session in their midst. 
 
 My work under Major H.H.Harjes,Chief 
 Liaison Officer, is going to be extremely 
 
 *Now occupied by the German Envoys to the Peace Con- 
 ference. 
 
 49 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Feb. 22nd, 
 1918. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Feb. 22nd, 
 
 igi8. 
 
 interesting. He is a refined and delightful 
 American of perhaps forty-five, who has 
 lived in Paris all of his life. He is immacu- 
 lately groomed, a fine type of modern 
 banker, extremely courteous and never 
 orders, but with a pleasant smile says, 
 "Will you please do so and so?" It is an 
 inspiration to work for a man with such a 
 magnetic personality, as it was likewise for 
 Major Willard D. Straight (a Yale gradu- 
 ate, formerly Consul General to China, who 
 negotiated the Chinese Loan for the Syndi- 
 cate of American Bankers headed by J. P. 
 Morgan; also Vice-President of the Inter- 
 national Corporation). He gave a farewell 
 dinner at the Hotel Crillon for all the 
 officers and men of the War Risk Bureau 
 before leaving for the Officers' Staff School. 
 Thirty officers and forty-five men sat down 
 to dinner in adjoining banquet-rooms, and 
 afterwards the folding doors were thrown 
 open and the officers came in. There were 
 after-dinner speeches and recitations by 
 several of the men, and Major Straight made 
 a farewell address praising both officers and 
 men in the highest terms. He was pre- 
 sented with the most touching resolutions 
 of appreciation from his men expressing 
 their gratitude for his kindness, generosity 
 and wholeheartedness and splendid leader- 
 ship. 
 
 50 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Major Straight has accompHshed a big 
 work with his small force, and successfully 
 "put the job over," within the time limit. 
 We have covered every American soldier in 
 every part of France and given him his 
 chance to take insurance. This Insurance 
 Act, which includes both insurance and 
 compensation, the modern word for pen- 
 sion, is the biggest and most generous legis- 
 lation of the kind ever passed by any 
 government in the history of the world. 
 Affectionately, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Feb. 22nd, 
 IQ17. 
 
 51 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, March iS^h, IQ18. 
 
 jE HAVE indulged in our second 
 air-raid of the present series. 
 The other evening as I sat read- 
 ing and musing over loving let- 
 ters which had been carefully treasured, 
 and was dreaming of America and France, 
 and incidentally enjoying the Chicago Trib- 
 une, the shrill sirens, the warning of ap- 
 proaching death and destruction, passed 
 the house, on fast fire department motors. 
 
 The great majority of fatalities do not 
 occur in houses struck by bombs, because 
 the number of direct hits is comparatively 
 few, but from the heavy concussions and 
 flying debris hurled several hundred yards 
 in all directions by force of the explosions. 
 
 The bombing commenced early, at nine 
 o'clock, and deep mingled intonations of 
 bombs and cannon barrage fire continued 
 almost incessantly for an hour, and inter- 
 mittently for three hours, before the thirty 
 Boche planes had left and the "all's quiet" 
 was sounded, and people returned from the 
 cellars to their beds. 
 
 The barrage is maintained to keep the 
 avions out of Paris. When they have 
 entered the city they cannot be fired at 
 with shrapnel for fear of killing people. 
 
 52 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 The German planes usually reach Paris 
 about eleven o'clock, as they must cross 
 the lines after dark and it takes an hour 
 or so to reach here. 
 
 Paris is quite different in the evenings 
 from what it was a month ago, for the 
 police are strict about prohibiting light 
 showing from windows, and the streets are 
 in almost total darkness. The few remain- 
 ing dim street gas-lamps have dull blue 
 globes and are well shaded from above. 
 The weird blue-green light is diffused more 
 than white, and scarcely dispels total dark- 
 ness. It evidently makes a target more 
 difficult to locate from the sky. Street cars 
 and metro, which come to the surface to 
 cross the Seine, are similarly dimly lighted. 
 One goes stumbling about in the dark, as 
 in the days of Dickens in London. 
 
 Many buildings have posters marked 
 **Abri — loo persons," or whatever the num- 
 ber may be, meaning their cellars have been 
 chosen and prepared for shelter by the 
 Government, on account of unusually strong 
 construction. Some of the deeper m6tro 
 stations, such as at the Place de I'Opera and 
 Place de la Concorde, have small electric 
 signs, "Refuge," and the public is permitted 
 to crowd in free of charge. The metro 
 trains are stopped during the raids, which 
 causes consternation among parents wish- 
 
 Paris, France, 
 March 15th, 
 1918. 
 
 53 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 March 15th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 ing to get home from the theaters to put 
 their children in a place of safety. The 
 French are un-nerved but take the raids 
 good-naturedly; however, there is consider- 
 able openly expressed indignation among 
 American officers, who are not accustomed 
 to this indiscriminate slaughter of innocents. 
 
 The protecting of famous historical monu- 
 ments and statues and architectural treas- 
 ures is progressing deliberately, even slowly, 
 on account of lack of labor, but most 
 thoroly, as if preparing for a long sum- 
 mer siege. Heavy frame-work is built 
 around whatever is to be protected, and 
 frequently a heavy stone wall ten or fifteen 
 feet high, on top of which sacks of earth 
 to a thickness of four or five feet are care- 
 fully piled. The fine examples of sculptured 
 art on the fagades of buildings, churches 
 and monuments are what is most carefully 
 protected. 
 
 Listening to the buzz of enemy motors 
 and waiting for an air raid to pass is like 
 sitting indoors during a severe spring 
 electrical storm, waiting for the lightning 
 to strike. However, it is rather more 
 serious. It makes one stop and ponder and 
 want to make a hasty peace with his Creator. 
 Nothing has a more sobering and purifying 
 influence than the proximity of violent 
 death. We experienced the same sensa- 
 
 54 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 tions during our engagement with sub- 
 marines when crossing on the Henderson. 
 It makes one reaUze how futile our little 
 lives are, how cheap human endeavor is, 
 and how easily we may be wafted into 
 eternity. 
 
 To speak of something more pleasant, I 
 had dinner the other evening at the Ritz 
 with Elsie Janis and several men, all officers, 
 for that is all the men there are now. 
 
 My work with Major Harjes is progress- 
 ing splendidly and my French is getting 
 well limbered. With lots of love to you all, 
 
 Most affectionately your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Paris, France, 
 March 15th, 
 1918. 
 
 55 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, April nth, iqi8. 
 
 Jour recent large envelopes con- 
 taining letters of February 2nd, 
 1 6th and 21st, with interesting 
 enclosures, also letters of Febru- 
 ary 5th, January i8th, January 28th, etc., 
 have all been received and most heartily 
 appreciated. I am receiving so many long, 
 loving letters from you and some of my 
 friends it is almost impossible to keep track 
 of them and to reply. There are so many 
 things I want to write about I hardly know 
 how to begin. 
 
 In the first place, I was delighted to 
 know that Jack had been commissioned as 
 Ensign so promptly. I cabled you recently: 
 "Commissioned Second Lieutenant Infan- 
 try. Congratulations to Jack. Love. Lieu- 
 tenant Jelke." After waiting all these 
 tedious months, and many times almost 
 despairing of success, my commission finally 
 arrived most unexpectedly. Word was re- 
 ceived at noon and two hours later I took 
 the oath of office. Gus Ferrier was sworn 
 in two days before and has been like a 
 delighted child. 
 
 I am to be stationed in Paris, and 
 privileged to wear spurs, although an 
 infantry officer — staff officers are supposed 
 
 56 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 to be mounted, but have automobiles 
 nowadays — and am to go on special mis- 
 sions requiring the services of a Haison 
 officer any place in France. Had I been 
 allowed to choose exactly what I would 
 prefer to do, of all things this is the best. 
 You understand that this is administrative 
 liaison work between the American and 
 French military authorities, requiring the 
 services of "diplomats," and every officer 
 on the staff is chosen for his peculiar quali- 
 fications for this work.* 
 
 I made two interesting trips lately as 
 interpreter with a Captain Ferdinand Bar- 
 telme, formerly in the lumber business, 
 and who for some years lived in Chicago. 
 One trip was near Chateau-Thierry to in- 
 spect a French military plant for making 
 excelsior used as bedding for soldiers, 
 and another was in a Fiat limousine, over 
 two hundred and fifty miles, near Havre, 
 to visit a civilian plant of the same kind. 
 I secured full technical and practical details 
 for the manufacture of excelsior, and com- 
 plete blue-print plans for the construction 
 
 *"Liaison" means joining, connection, ligature, or slur (as in 
 music, or pronunciation of two French words). 
 
 Liaison Service in the French Army includes all Signal 
 Corps work. Agent-de-liaison means a runner between two 
 field units. 
 
 In the American Army the term "Liaison Service" applies 
 to our special service attaching American officers to French 
 Army and Army Corps Staffs and various Departments of the 
 Ministry of War in a purely diplomatic capacity. 
 
 57 
 
 Paris, France, 
 April nth, 
 1918. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 April nth, 
 
 1918. 
 
 of excelsior plants which they are con- 
 sidering placing behind the American 
 front. 
 
 One thing I was most impressed by in the 
 various towns was the plentifulness of food, 
 and we gourmandized, thinking that per- 
 haps each good meal would be the last. 
 The whole idea of the French stinting or 
 depriving themselves is more or less of a 
 joke, as it is contrary to their natures. 
 Don't misunderstand me; I mean they are 
 easy-going, but at the same time frugal. 
 Food is plentiful, of course at prices higher 
 than usual, which is hard on the poor. To 
 be sure, sugar is scarce, each person limited 
 to one pound per month, and butter is no 
 longer served in restaurants, as it is for- 
 bidden by law. It is a dollar a pound for 
 fresh unsalted. These are the only articles 
 in which there appears to be a great 
 shortage. The consumption of bread was 
 restricted by the use of bread cards the 
 first of April, but this is becoming lax. 
 
 The headquarters of the Transportation 
 of the A. E. F., under Brig. General Wallace 
 Atterbury, former Vice-President of the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad, where Gus is at- 
 tached, has moved to Tours, and we re- 
 cently arranged several small farewell din- 
 ners in their honor and also to celebrate 
 receiving our commissions. 
 
 58 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Lieut.-Colonel* Charles G. Dawes, for- 
 mer president of the Central Trust Company 
 of IlUnois, whom I occasionally see, is also 
 doing some exceptional work as head of the 
 A. E. F. Purchasing Board. 
 
 With much love to you all, affectionately, 
 your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 *Now Brigadier General. 
 
 Paris, France, 
 April nth, 
 191S. 
 
 59 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, April 15th, igi8. 
 
 HE first days of the Big Bertha, 
 no one knew what it was. As 
 I was on my way to my office, 
 and stopped at the boot-makers, 
 the iron shutters were closed; some one 
 volunteered, "You can enter through the 
 rear door in the court." I went in and 
 found the proprietor serving a customer 
 with the electric lights burning. He said 
 "Have you not heard the *alert.?'" I re- 
 plied that it was ridiculous, the German 
 planes were not coming in bright daylight. 
 Upon returning to my taxi, the taxi driver 
 refused to go further, and I argued with him, 
 saying the Bodies will not arrive before 
 half an hour after the "alert." 
 
 The streets were thronged with buzzing 
 shop people and working girls, looking into, 
 the sky, who had quit work and were 
 swarming as on a holiday. I continued to 
 my office, and thought little further of the 
 matter. At noon, there were no taxis to 
 be had. The metro had stopped and the 
 few remaining running taxis were each 
 loaded with eight or ten people. Finally, 
 upon reaching the Place de I'Opera, the 
 streets were filled with people all of whom 
 
 60 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 were to discontinue work for several days 
 to come. 
 
 The next morning our maid, who had 
 spent most of the night in the cellar, 
 talked about the German cannon, and said, 
 **Why, it is written in the papers." I 
 replied, "Don't be foolish, that is impossible, 
 the Germans are sixty miles away." 
 
 For several days every one speculated 
 and finally concluded that spies had seques- 
 tered an air-compressed cannon in a house 
 in the suburbs which was shot through 
 the skylight. This theory was quite gen- 
 erally accepted, and it was fully a week 
 before it became known from whence came 
 the shells that were dropping regularly 
 every twenty minutes. 
 
 The second day, as I was looking out of 
 the fifth story office window, I saw a large 
 sugar factory, on the left bank of the Seine, 
 struck and go up in a cloud of smoke and 
 dust. 
 
 Devotedly, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Paris, France, 
 April 15th, 
 1918. 
 
 61 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Parisy France, April i6th, igi8. 
 
 AST night I had the pleasure of 
 being the guest of honor at a 
 briUiant dinner for twelve given 
 by the Due* and Duchess de 
 Montmorency at their home, virtually a 
 palace, in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, 
 Lieutenant Harold Crandall, who is living 
 with me, since Gus left Paris, and I being 
 the only American officers present. The 
 Princess Lucien Murat,** perhaps the most 
 socially prominent woman in Paris, and one 
 of the most brilliant, was on the host's right, 
 while I was seated on the hostess' right. 
 On my other side was Mme. Vesnitch, the 
 wife of the Servian Minister,*** the sister of 
 the Duchess. They said it is good luck 
 to sit at dinner between two sisters. There 
 was also the daughter of Mme. Vesnitch, a 
 charming girl. 
 
 Dinner was served by four butlers (re- 
 formes), and the house is not surpassed by 
 any in New York or Paris. The paintings 
 had been removed from their frames in the 
 art-gallery and put in the cellar on account 
 of the danger of bombs. 
 
 *Captain. 
 
 **Whose home was occupied by President Wilson during his 
 first trip to Paris. 
 
 ***Dr. M. Vesnitch is the Servian Delegate to the Peace Con- 
 ference. 
 
 62 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 The Princess Murat, who does not look 
 her position (or rather does), is extremely 
 plain and appears more like a litterateure, 
 which she is, than a society woman. She 
 has written a book on ''Rasputin," part of 
 which appeared in the ''Century" last year, 
 and is now writing one on George Washing- 
 ton and Lafayette, for children, which she 
 is illustrating herself. Her conversation 
 and ideas are most original and interesting. 
 Her husband's mother was a Russian from 
 the Caucasus, and the Princess has been to 
 Russia no less than eight or ten times, hav- 
 ing traveled extensively throughout Russia. 
 In fact, the Prince is now living on their 
 estates in the Caucasus, and she returned to 
 France two years ago to place her young 
 son in the French Army as a common 
 soldier. This she did against the wishes of 
 her relatives, because he is not strong, and 
 on account of his birth he could have had 
 a commission in the Russian Army. In 
 this way he could have avoided being sub- 
 jected to the hardships of a "simple soldier" 
 in a Republican Army. However, she said, 
 "I am going to take my son back to die on 
 the fields of France." All of her son's Rus- 
 sian boy officer friends have since been put 
 to death by the "people" in the Caucasus. 
 
 The more the complicated conditions of 
 this vast empire are disclosed, the more they 
 
 Paris, France, 
 April i6th, 
 IQ18. 
 
 63 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 April i6th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 become mystifying, and the more one 
 realizes his ignorance concerning this hidden 
 country, so rich in latent resources, which 
 are the greatest in the world. The revolu- 
 tion itself cannot be attributed to any one 
 cause. It was simply like something that 
 is ripe. The Czar, who had been accus- 
 tomed to absolute power — a thing she says 
 we can scarcely comprehend — and whose 
 father and grandfather before him had 
 known nothing else, might have prevented 
 it by appointing a minister responsible to 
 the people, but this is doubtful. As to his 
 signing a separate peace, his mother assured 
 the Princess, shortly before, that her son 
 would never do that, for, as she said, "Mon 
 fils a donne sa parole d'honneur." 
 
 When the French and English missions 
 came to America last March, a year ago, 
 and admitted the serious conditions, many 
 thought we had been duped in previously 
 being led to believe Germany was about to 
 collapse; however, such was really the case, 
 for if Russia had held out three or four 
 months longer, Germany would then have 
 received the death thrust. Most Americans 
 have only a vague conception of the situa- 
 tion, owing to their lack of knowledge of 
 the geography of the country, its resources 
 and the facts. Many French know little 
 more, and I haven't talked to any one who 
 
 64 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 has so comprehensive a grasp or who has 
 spoken so frankly as the Princess, except 
 possibly the Vicomtesse de Rancongne. She 
 said she would not have admitted it herself 
 a week ago, and it wouldn't do to tell the 
 people the whole truth now, but we are 
 passing through the crisis and gravest 
 period of the war. 
 
 Unfortunately, the Allies have never 
 pulled simultaneously and in full unison, 
 owing to the difference in language and the 
 lack of a supreme commander. They have 
 not been in tune, so to speak. The Ger- 
 mans and Austrians have had a great 
 advantage in this respect. The Kaiser said 
 to his brother-in-law, the King of Greece, 
 several days before the battle, that he was 
 going to win on account of the Allies not 
 having a Supreme Command. Marechal 
 Foch was put in supreme command only on 
 the first day of the battle. Think of it! 
 Even our children in reading history will 
 think we were mad to make so belated a 
 change in organization. But if it had not 
 been made, the battle would have been 
 lost ; it was all that saved the Allies from a 
 crushing defeat — so say the French. Cle- 
 menceau brought his fist down on the table 
 two days before the battle started and 
 said to Lloyd George, "If j^ou don't 
 put Foch in command, I will sign peace 
 
 Paris, France, 
 April i6th, 
 1918. 
 
 65 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 April i6th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 tomorrow." It was the pressure of the 
 Americans that brought this about. The 
 American General Staff and Pershing 
 strongly endorsed one command months 
 ago, which he stated at the time in conver- 
 sation with the Princess. 
 
 Very devotedly and affectionately, your 
 son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 66 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 \r' 
 
 1 
 
 Paris, France, April 26th, IQ18. 
 
 HE average American officer 
 knows very little of the psychol- 
 ogy and the inside workings of 
 French minds, as one soon finds 
 from the general conversation in a French 
 salon. Things which we do not talk about, 
 even if we know of them, are frequently 
 common knowledge and openly discussed. 
 It is interesting to mingle with French 
 whose opinions are of importance, and to 
 hear their ideas, always friendly, regarding 
 us. They speak quite intimately; knowing, 
 I understand and appreciate their point of 
 view, although frequently it is quite different 
 from our own. Studying the French and 
 the developments from day to day is like 
 watching an ever-changing kaleidoscope. 
 It is almost impossible to keep informed on 
 the news up-to-date. Their one and sole 
 topic of conversation is the war: one talks 
 about it before dinner, during dinner, and 
 after dinner. Some one says, "Now, we 
 have talked enough about the war, let us 
 change the subject," and a feeble attempt 
 is made, but always with the same result — 
 the conversation reverts to the war. It is 
 all one knows; it's all we talked of at the 
 last place, or shall at the next; it's all we 
 
 67 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 April 26ih, 
 
 IQ18. 
 
 think of, read of, or care about. In fact, 
 it is the one and only absorbing topic every 
 one is interested in, as it is nearest their 
 hearts. The pros and cons are discussed 
 with all their ramifications, and when will 
 the war end and how? It isn't all one 
 glorious succession of victories, as the 
 American press naively v/ould lead one to 
 believe. There is a seamy side, which these 
 people know, and about which they have no 
 hallucinations. "Guillaume" isn't in reality 
 a tottering, old, senile degenerate waiting 
 to be easily pushed off his wobbly throne, 
 as depicted by the American press and 
 cartoonists; but the German Army, which 
 we choose to personify in him, is a great 
 and powerful machine, a serious menace to 
 the world, and is no joke, despite our 
 caricatures. The foreign press does not 
 speak of the enemy in the jesting, flippant 
 manner the American papers do. 
 
 The French do not differentiate between 
 "William" and the German people. Per- 
 haps they are too close to get this perspec- 
 tive. All they see is a heartless, cruel, and 
 powerful army with hordes of devastating 
 and murdering Huns, fighting regardless of 
 rules of war or code of honor. Trying to 
 lay the blame personally on the Kaiser does 
 not occur to them. They haven't the warm 
 or even neutral spot in their hearts of other 
 
 68 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 countries to explain German rapacity by- 
 blaming this awful cataclysm on one man. 
 
 This leads me to the point that I cannot 
 believe the Germans intend to fight the 
 Americans to a finish; not through purely 
 humanitarian or sentimental reasons, but 
 because of the deep-seated bitterness that 
 already exists in every English and French 
 home. They cannot well afford, for com- 
 mercial reasons, to so embitter another hun- 
 dred million. Every family in America 
 still untouched by the hand of death does 
 not yet have this feeling of hatred, and 
 is only fighting through a sense of duty, 
 of justice and right. When looked at in 
 this light, as expressed to me by a French 
 officer, it is the most wonderful chivalry 
 ever known. The Crusades sink into in- 
 significance. 
 
 While in conversation with a Canadian 
 Colonel, he spoke of how cheaply human 
 life is held. Every English noble house 
 has lost its eldest son. All look upon the 
 body as simply a box temporarily inhabited, 
 and death as a perfectly natural occurrence 
 to be expected. He told a story of the 
 readiness with which many Germans now 
 surrender when given the opportunity. 
 This day hundreds came running into the 
 English trenches with their hands up calling 
 **Kamerad.'* An English sergeant standing 
 
 Paris, France, 
 April 26th, 
 1918. 
 
 69 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 April 26th, 
 
 IQ18. 
 
 at the end of the trench allowed them to 
 pass, stopping each one and making him 
 say, ''God save the King." 
 
 A French Captain whom I met at dinner 
 at the Duke of Montmorency's, who had 
 been wounded three times, told of killing 
 fifteen hundred Germans in one afternoon 
 (official estimate) at Verdun the day he 
 was wounded, with his machine company. 
 The Germans advanced in solid formation, 
 in wave after wave, and were mowed down 
 by his "mitrailleuses," hidden in shell- 
 craters, like wheat before a mowing machine. 
 He and his men had been ordered to hold 
 their places and to fight until death; how- 
 ever, they lost only about ten men. The 
 intrepid bravery of the Germans is spoken 
 of unhesitatingly by the French. 
 
 If the Germans had thrown one more 
 fresh division in at Verdun, they could 
 have gone straight thru to Paris; how- 
 ever, luckily, they either didn't know this 
 or didn't have the division. 
 
 I wrote, during the winter, of Paris being 
 almost gay, at least quite normal on the 
 surface. There has been a marked change 
 since the air-raids and long distance can- 
 nonading commenced,* to which I thought 
 
 *There were over five hundred aerial bombs and over five 
 hundred long-distance six-inch shells, all containing high explo- 
 sives, dropped on Paris. 
 
 70 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 the depression was due, as people were 
 panicky, and a million left the city. The 
 provincial towns, Biarritz and resorts on 
 the Riviera are crowded. At some of the 
 stations are signs, "Don't get off here, there 
 are no more beds." However, the general 
 sadness that has come into everyone's heart 
 is due more to apprehension and the awful 
 carnage of the great German drive. The 
 spring defensive and another season's cam- 
 paign is enough to depress people, but 
 underlying it all is a grim determination. 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Paris, France, 
 April 26th, 
 1918. 
 
 71 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, May 1st, igi8. 
 
 NE constantly must study the 
 courtesies and formalities which 
 are so dear to a Frenchman's 
 heart, for they are quick to 
 imagine a lack of refinement and recoil 
 under the aggressive manners of the Amer- 
 ican officers. It is necessary to observe 
 what seems to us an exaggerated form of 
 politeness — a regular Alphonse and Gaston 
 continuous performance. For instance, 
 upon entering an office, a regular round of 
 hand-shaking ensues, and again twice be- 
 fore leaving, once upon starting to leave, 
 and after much more conversation, again 
 upon actually departing. 
 
 It is most important to delicately first 
 gain a Frenchman's confidence by agreeing 
 with his point of view, and then he will 
 usually reciprocate by conceding your point 
 of view and granting the favor requested. 
 Frenchmen are rather shy of the rapidity 
 with which Americans do business. 
 
 The poorest way to make haste is to show 
 an indication of being in a hurry, or by 
 coming directly to the point, for one saves 
 time in the long run by going over a cer- 
 tain amount of preliminary formalities and 
 
 72 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 lengthy explanations even in the most 
 urgent matters. 
 
 Most affectionately, your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 May 1st, 
 1918. 
 
 73 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, May ^rd, igi8. 
 
 ERE I am on the Staff of 
 General de I'Espee, command- 
 ing the Fifth French Army 
 Corps, acting as assistant to 
 Captain J. Tarn McGrew. 
 
 The shell that struck the Ste. Gervaise 
 church in Paris Good Friday afternoon, 
 killing seventy-five of the worshiping con- 
 gregation, hit not over five minutes' walk 
 from the American Headquarters, at the 
 Hotel Mediterranee, and probably was 
 intended for us. 
 
 Easter Sunday morning, instead of 
 attending divine service, I visited the 
 Cathedral, a scene of horror and destruc- 
 tion. The shell had struck the arch and 
 exploded over the main nave, causing part 
 of the stone roof to collapse, burying the 
 worshiping congregation under tons of 
 rock. It was in a pyramid, ten feet high, 
 like a great funeral pyre, with many pieces 
 of rock several feet square. There were 
 half dried pools of blood where bodies had 
 been crushed. It was a chance hit, and 
 looked like the hand of destiny, striking at 
 this moment and place on so sacred a 
 day. 
 
 74 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 People were feeling pretty blue, and the 
 railway stations and trains were jammed 
 with crowds getting away. The first days 
 of the bombardment the telephones were 
 stopped, the telegraph offices closed, and 
 the railroad stations deserted by the em- 
 ployes. 
 
 At luncheon Monday, which was a holi- 
 day, at the Maurice, every one seemed gay, 
 unmindful of the city being shelled, and 
 that one of the greatest battles in the history 
 of mankind* was being fought at a distance 
 slightly greater than that from Elgin to 
 Chicago or Bridgeport to New York. Ten- 
 sion was relieved, however, at better news 
 from the front, where things had been 
 going "not at all well." 
 
 An unusual thing happened several days 
 ago. I was walking up the street with the 
 Provost Marshal ; he stopped several officers 
 asking where they were going, and where 
 from, and they replied, from the Artillery 
 School at Saumur. I said, "Why, I have 
 a cousin there; perhaps you know him." 
 Upon further inquiry, I found there were 
 several hundred artillery officers at the 
 station on their way to the front, so we 
 walked to the station and lo and behold! 
 there was cousin Ferd, looking well and 
 
 *This was during the Germans' first spring drive of 1918, when 
 the Fifth British Army was destroyed. 
 
 75 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 May 3rd, 
 1918. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 May 3rd, 
 
 1918. 
 
 delighted to see me. The train pulled out 
 in several minutes and it was almost like a 
 fleeting apparition. 
 
 They were a wonderful lot of fine young 
 thorobreds, for, as you know, it requires 
 some knowledge of mathematics to be an 
 artillery officer, and they were probably all 
 college boys. 
 
 Devotedly, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 76 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France^ May I2th, igi8. 
 
 OR weeks since the battle started, 
 one can go down to the railway 
 station in this small city any 
 evening and see crowds of desti- 
 tute refugees huddled together in the French 
 Red Cross Military Canteen awaiting 
 various train connections. The wretches, 
 although respectable peasants and towns- 
 people, feeble old men, women with 
 dishevelled hair, and dirty children, have 
 fled for their lives before the bloodthirsty 
 advancing Huns. They are huddled to- 
 gether like dumb animals in a storm, re- 
 maining mute, neither complaining nor 
 begging. They are transported and fed by 
 the Government and conveyed to other 
 towns, where they again seek work or eke 
 out whatever existence they can. Bereft 
 of their homes, cottages, stores, gardens, 
 and all their worldly goods and means of 
 subsistence, their meager savings of a life- 
 time, and perhaps inheritances of several 
 generations, the poor wretches still almost 
 have an appearance of "Are we down- 
 hearted .? Well, I guess not." The babies 
 and younger children sleep or play, for they 
 are too young to realize the tragedy, and the 
 older girls and mothers have a resigned or 
 
 77 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 May i2th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 despairing look of taking it all for granted, 
 as if it were only natural and to be expected. 
 
 They have become accustomed to this 
 after four years, for it is not their first 
 experience of this sort, when they have 
 been driven from their homes and their 
 country invaded by the enemy. 
 
 The Belgian refugees are unfortunately 
 called "immigrants" by the French working 
 classes. They have not received the most 
 hospitable haven of refuge in France, as 
 they are regarded as lazy. At the time 
 of the German advance through Belgium, 
 there were forty thousand Belgian wounded 
 dumped on London in one week, none of 
 whom spoke either French or English, but 
 Flemish. It was chaos. The mud and 
 dirt was caked on their faces and bodies 
 so thick it had to be soaked loose with 
 vaseline. 
 
 Such sights make one profoundly happy 
 for the very privilege of living. The mere 
 thought of being clothed, well fed, warm 
 and happy, with a comfortable place to 
 sleep is enough to make one glow with 
 thankfulness that fate has not ordained 
 this for him. 
 
 The station is usually swarming with 
 French "poilus," going and coming from 
 the front. You know the meaning of the 
 word *'poilu" is "hairy boys," "poil" mean- 
 
 78 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 ing "hair." At the beginning of the war, 
 before things were organized, they had no 
 chance to shave, and became very hairy. 
 But now all French soldiers, when on leave, 
 have a clean new uniform kept for the 
 purpose, and they are forbidden to appear 
 in the streets in their dirty trench clothes. 
 
 Brussels is used as a clearing house by 
 the Germans returning from the front on 
 leave. They stop there for two days to 
 renovate. This is in order to prevent 
 taking home too strong and grimy a trench 
 odor with all its sordidness. Champagne 
 is drunk freely by German officers in 
 Brussels to liven them before returning. 
 
 Wounded soldiers are no longer brought 
 to the hospitals of Paris, and few even to 
 the big Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, a 
 suburb, as every effort is made to maintain 
 the public morale as cheerful as possible. I 
 understand that even in Dunkirk, which has 
 been constantly shelled for two years, the 
 trams continue to run and business goes 
 on as usual. People have heroically moved 
 their bedrooms to the cellars and **carry 
 on." 
 
 This war has revealed unexpected na- 
 tional traits of character. The French, 
 who are normally light hearted and gay, 
 forbid dancing, while the staid English 
 encourage gaiety. London is livelier than 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 May I2th, 
 J918. 
 
 79 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 May 1 2th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 ever with dances for the soldiers on leave 
 from the front. General immorality in 
 France is surprisingly lacking. I mean 
 aside from the regulars. After leaving the 
 stench of the sea-ports, Paris appears moral, 
 and, until recently, normal. Poor Paris 
 is no longer "Gai Paree.'* Most of the 
 theaters, excepting perhaps half a dozen, 
 after spasmodically struggling to keep open 
 during the past two months' bombardment, 
 are now closed. Some evenings they were 
 open and others closed, one never knowing 
 in advance, depending upon the violence of 
 the previous aerial raid. Frequently they 
 closed during the performance, when the 
 "alert" was sounded and everybody scur- 
 ried home in the darkness, as best they 
 could, or descended into the caves. All 
 theaters have explicit directions and con- 
 spicuous signs posted for reaching the 
 "caves." In fact, the latest is a theater in 
 a cellar, called the "Abri"— "Refuge." 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 80 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 American Expeditionary Forces 
 Office of the Liaison Officer 
 
 Orleans, FrancCy May 2ist, iqi8. 
 
 T'S an odd coincidence; you 
 were in my mind this morning 
 when I awoke, and I looked for 
 your letter of March i in order 
 to write you, and here upon my arrival at 
 the office is another letter which I am 
 really most delighted to receive. 
 
 Judging from your letter, life is going on 
 in New York about the same as usual, and 
 it is astonishing how much so that is the 
 case here, with the civilian population. 
 
 My work is strictly of a diplomatic 
 nature, between the French military au- 
 thorities and commanding officers of Amer- 
 ican troops stationed in the Fifth Region. 
 Owing to the difference in customs, tem- 
 perament, and viewpoint, there are con- 
 stantly many complicated and delicate 
 questions arising to be settled, requiring 
 the greatest tact. Their satisfactory ad- 
 justment without friction is naturally of 
 the utmost importance, and it is the work 
 of the Liaison Officers to be persona gratia 
 with the French and to supply the necessary 
 drop of oil to insure this. 
 
 81 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 May 2jst, 
 
 1918. 
 
 The American Liaison Service was organ- 
 ized during the winter by Major H. H. 
 Harjes of the banking firm of Morgan- 
 Harjes, and of the former Norton-Harjes 
 Ambulance Service, before it was absorbed 
 by the Red Cross,"^ when the United States 
 entered the war. Do not confuse this with 
 the Corps of Interpreters, which is quite a 
 different service. The Liaison Service con- 
 sists only of officers, mostly Captains and 
 Majors, and some Lieutenants. It was the 
 intention to have nothing less than Cap- 
 tains; however, the War Department is 
 reluctant in granting the increase in rank. 
 
 As paradoxical as it may seem, commis- 
 sions and promotion are more difficult to 
 secure ''over here" than in America. Large 
 numbers of officers are being shipped back 
 who have not made good. The weeding 
 process is severe, and officers are returned 
 to America without the slightest hesitancy 
 when considered incompetent. 
 
 I am on the road in my army car three 
 or four days each week, which is most 
 agreeable. 
 
 By looking at the departmental map in 
 the Encyclopedia Britannica, you can see 
 exactly what the Fifth Army Corps Region 
 comprises: the Departments of Loiret, Loir- 
 et-Cher, Yonne, and Seine-et-Marne. In 
 
 *Later by the Axaerican Army. 
 
 82 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 your Baedeker of Northern France you will 
 see the garrison town of Orleans is notable — 
 in addition to Jeanne d'Arc — as being the 
 headquarters of the Fifth Army Corps. 
 General de I'Espee lives in a governmental 
 residence similar to a governor's palace. 
 There are over a hundred thousand French 
 soldiers in the Region and about the same 
 number of Americans. 
 
 My work is never two days alike, and my 
 experiences are like an ever-changing kalei- 
 doscope. Last Saturday, I accompanied 
 the French General, with his Chief of 
 Staff, and others of his staff officers to take 
 part in the ceremonies of the christening and 
 flying of the first American aeroplane as- 
 sembled in France at Romarantin, which 
 was quite an occasion — the General at first 
 giving a luncheon for the members of his 
 party. 
 
 In spite of your finding my letters inter- 
 esting, I can write only in a superficial way, 
 and am compelled to omit mentioning many 
 of the most important things, or only speak 
 of them in a casual manner. 
 
 Sincerely, as ever, your friend, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 May 2ist, 
 igi8. 
 
 83 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, June 2nd, igi8. 
 
 ^OUR charming and loving letter 
 of April 28th, from the farm, 
 was forwarded from Bourges and 
 received on the 25th. It was 
 opened by the French censor. I endeavor 
 to send you a descriptive letter about 
 twice a month, which requires some time, 
 as there is no stenographer in this town 
 able to even copy English writing, unless 
 spelled out in a bold school-boy hand. I 
 always like to mail separate copies of these 
 letters by different steamers, as some are 
 newsy, and may fall under the censor's ax. 
 
 This is a mediocre, uninteresting French 
 provincial city of one hundred thousand, re- 
 taining none of its former medieval splen- 
 dor, with the exception of a fine old cathe- 
 dral, several statues and a museum. The 
 people are provincial in the extreme, and 
 there is not even a good tourist hotel. 
 
 You know the form of government of 
 France tends to centralize and draw all 
 that is best towards Paris. Everything 
 radiates from Paris like the spokes of a 
 wheel, even the railroads. All that is 
 worth while in education, wealth, culture, 
 ability and breeding drains into Paris, to 
 such an extent as is unknown in America. 
 
 84 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 The entire governmental machinery is con- 
 structed with this in view. Civil France is 
 divided into eighty-six Departments, cor- 
 responding to our states or counties, but 
 instead of a governor elected by the people, 
 there is a Prefet, and under him a Sous- 
 Prefet, both appointed by the Minister of 
 Interior, who has been appointed by the 
 President of France, and who in turn was 
 elected by popular vote of the people. 
 While it is a representative republican 
 organization, at the same time it focuses 
 all in a very powerful centralized govern- 
 ment. Such a thing as "states' rights" is 
 unknown. The result is that men of 
 ability aspire to local fame merely as a 
 stepping stone. 
 
 All advancement is towards Paris. All 
 large banks are there. The Credit Lyon- 
 nais, Comptoir National, Banque de France, 
 and Societe Generale handle practically all 
 the banking business of France thru their 
 hundreds of branches. 
 
 There are no colleges or universities of 
 international importance aside from the 
 Sorbonne — University of Paris — where there 
 were over fifty thousand students before 
 the war. Instead of professors and other 
 governmental employments remaining lo- 
 cally prominent to add luster to their home 
 
 85 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 June 2nd, 
 1918. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 June 2nd, 
 
 IQlS. 
 
 cities, they are advanced toward the 
 CapitaL 
 
 Paris is the Mecca of the world of brains, 
 wealth, talent and beauty. Artists are 
 paid little, as they are willing to perform 
 simply for the name — in fact, they must, 
 otherwise they are not wanted by the 
 Provinces. 
 
 The fact is that most prominent Pari- 
 sians, if not themselves born in the Prov- 
 inces, their parents or grandparents were. 
 The difference is like two different races. 
 It is as in America; they quickly lose their 
 provincialism when they move to the 
 Metropolis. 
 
 Military France is divided into twenty- 
 two Regions, each commanded by a Lieu- 
 tenant General who, with his staff is sta- 
 tioned in the principal city. In each Region 
 is the headquarters of an Army Corps. 
 "Etat Major, 5eme Region," means Staff 
 Headquarters, Fifth Army Corps. This 
 Region comprises four departments and is 
 one of the most central and important. 
 The commanding general of each Region 
 occupies a prominent position and has the 
 authority of a small potentate, responsible 
 directly to the Minister of War. 
 
 Very devotedly, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 86 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 ^ "^^^5 
 
 4 
 
 
 Orleans, France, June i8th, igi8. 
 
 UST a line to let you know I am 
 well and happy and too busy to 
 write. I have been fully occu- 
 pied during the past two weeks, 
 since temporarily taking over the office of 
 the Provost Marshal on June 5th, which 
 reminds me it is almost that long since I last 
 wrote. My! how the time flies! It is 
 incredible. Of course we are all very happy 
 over the American successes, because it 
 means ultimate victory. But we are pass- 
 ing through a most serious phase of the 
 war this summer, as the Germans realize 
 it is Paris now or never, and they are 
 making a superhuman effort to get close 
 enough to shell the Capital with heavy 
 long-range guns. It is the Americans who 
 have temporarily stopped the Germans 
 and given them a rude shock; however, the 
 drives are expected to last all summer or 
 until the Germans are exhausted. They 
 bitterly hate the Americans. 
 
 I am unable to write much regarding the 
 military situation, as it is too serious. Or- 
 leans is packed to overflowing, and rooms 
 impossible to get. I have a Corporal out 
 now piloting and interpreting for a dozen 
 officers, trying to get them rooms in private 
 
 87 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 June i8th, 
 
 IQiS. 
 
 houses for the night. When the situation 
 becomes too acute, I send to the Mayor and 
 secure "billets de logement/' which means 
 lodging officers in private homes in the 
 name of the law, without payment. Thirty 
 were lodged the other night. They marched 
 up the street, ringing the door-bells of the 
 places on the list, and handed in the slips 
 with two officers, saying *T have brought 
 two officers to be lodged for the night." 
 The householders could not refuse. 
 
 They were all clean, pleasant homes of 
 the better class, and the occupants were all 
 hospitable in taking in the American officers. 
 
 As I was returning from a motor trip the 
 people called after the passing car, **God 
 bless you," and the little children enthusi- 
 astically waved greetings. We are the hope, 
 I'espoir, the salvation, and they know it. 
 The fighting qualities of our troops have 
 been a revelation. Our men, as new as they 
 are, are wonderful fighters, and whereas 
 there was previously a feeling of indifferent 
 tolerance, there is now one of actual rever- 
 ence for us. 
 
 Lots of love to you all, devotedly, 
 
 FERD. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 u 
 
 1 
 
 Fontainebleau, France, July 20th, iQi8. 
 
 HIS beautiful little city, not 
 so far from the fighting, is 
 peaceful, except for swarming 
 soldiers. The fine hotels which 
 were crowded all winter are deserted. 
 People are fleeing from Paris and the front. 
 The roads contained long lines of wagons 
 and carts of all sorts, loaded with refugees, 
 old men, women, and children, furniture, 
 household utensils of every description, 
 cows, dogs, and all sorts of domestic ani- 
 mals, flying before the onrushing hordes 
 like birds before a storm. 
 
 One marvels at their almost gay look of 
 contentment. The psychology is that after 
 the first panic at the news of the approach- 
 ing Germans has subsided, and they have 
 reached safety, a temporary reaction sets 
 in, almost a gay hysteria. The great sorrow 
 commences after the excitement of the flight 
 is past and they settle down to the realiza- 
 tion of the loss of all their worldly posses- 
 sions, and years of poverty and miserable 
 struggle for existence that lie ahead. 
 
 The flight has been stopped, thank God! 
 for the moment, by the hardihood and in- 
 trepid bravery of the Americans. The 
 French are inclined to save their men, but 
 
 89 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Fontainehleau, 
 
 France., 
 
 July 20th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 Americans threw themselves into the vortex 
 of the fiery furnace and fought regardless 
 of loss of life,* as the Germans do, deter- 
 mined at all costs to stop their further 
 advance on Paris. 
 
 They fought with the dash and courage 
 and keen resourcefulness of our early pioneer 
 forefathers, of which you and I are so 
 justly proud. A year's simple life and 
 outdoor training in the camps of America 
 and on the fields of France has again devel- 
 oped the same latent qualities of stamina 
 and made them brawny, sinewy and hard, 
 able to stand the gruelling strain and hard- 
 ships of the battlefield. 
 
 When they charge, they dash forward 
 with the abandon as if in a foot-ball game. 
 They frequently throw away their coats 
 and helmets, rolling up their sleeves, to 
 the wonder of these foreign soldiers, as they 
 shoot, beat, bayonet, kill and annihilate 
 everything before them with their youth- 
 ful strength and energy, frequently taking 
 no prisoners,** which has terrorized the 
 Germans; but don't think this is done with- 
 out heavy losses. 
 
 Would that I could open up and tell you 
 of all that is going on! I have to be so 
 guarded in what I say, now that the war is 
 
 *About one-half of two divisions was lost at Ch&teau-Thierry. 
 **Owing to German treachery. 
 
 90 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 at the most furious period of the past four 
 years. The Germans, gloating over their 
 successes, are determined to bring the war 
 to a victorious finish this season by taking 
 Paris, and later cutting the American Hnes 
 of communication, before our full strength 
 can be brought to bear next year. 
 
 Lots of love to you all. 
 
 Very devotedly, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Fontainebleau, 
 France, 
 July 20th, 
 1918. 
 
 91 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans^ France^ July 22nd, IQ18. 
 
 HE time is racing by so rapidly 
 it seems impossible to keep ac- 
 count of it. I have been con- 
 stantly in the midst of a whirl 
 since taking over the office of Provost Mar- 
 shal, in addition to my regular liaison duties, 
 attending and officiating at functions of 
 all kinds, including luncheons, funerals, 
 church memorial services, athletic events, 
 receiving guests, military reviews, etc., 
 particularly in connection with the cele- 
 brations on the 4th and 14th of July, which 
 were elaborate. 
 
 I was busy for days in advance with the 
 French Staff arranging the all-day programs 
 for these days. The French are fond of 
 fetes and ceremonies and are anxious to 
 render all the homage possible to Americans 
 on every possible occasion. They have 
 found it easy to handle American business 
 through me, so I am called upon for every 
 possible kind of service. 
 
 On July 14th, the French military review 
 and the awarding of decorations was held 
 by General de I'Espee. The American 
 Brigadier General Vollrath was here from 
 Saint Aignan with a band of fifty pieces 
 
 92 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 and a color guard of sixty. The review 
 was held with a great deal of pomp and 
 ceremony. 
 
 I spent the entire afternoon and evening 
 of the previous day informally with General 
 Vollrath and his aid, showing them all the 
 historical points of interest in Orleans, later 
 dining and attending the theater together. 
 When we entered it was announced from 
 the stage that an American General had 
 arrived and the national anthems of Amer- 
 ica and France were played, while the 
 audience stood. 
 
 After the review at nine a. m. we went 
 to the only Protestant church, where 
 memorial services had been arranged. 
 The church was small and unimportant, 
 as the powerful churches are Catholic ; how- 
 ever a Y. M. C. A. chaplain preached an 
 inspiring sermon. The French pastor spoke 
 in French, and American hymns were sung 
 by a choir of American soldiers. 
 
 At noon a formal luncheon was given by 
 General de I'Espee* for nine American and 
 nine French officers, including four Generals, 
 the Mayor of Orleans and the Prefet.** It 
 was a most distinguished gathering, and 
 although I was the only officer of modest 
 
 *At the commencement of the war he was the foremost 
 Cavalry General in France, but with the introduction of trench 
 warfare his cavalry divisions were dismounted. 
 
 **Local Governor. 
 
 93 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 July 22nd, 
 JQiS. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 July 22nd, 
 
 1918. 
 
 rank present, I was treated with the same 
 kindness and respect as the Generals them- 
 selves. The other American officers were 
 given a luncheon at the officers' club. Dur- 
 ing the luncheon the band played in the 
 square in front of the hotel, and afterwards, 
 during coffee, we went out on the balcony 
 overlooking the crowd, like royalty. The 
 public square below was filled with thou- 
 sands of cheering people. 
 
 At three o'clock athletic events were held 
 between the French and Americans at 
 which the Americans took all first prizes. 
 There were also boxing matches. General 
 VoUrath had brought with him a track 
 team of fifteen, who had captured all the 
 honors at Paris on the Fourth. There was 
 an enormous crowd of thousands of specta- 
 tors and I was the day's master of cere- 
 monies for the Americans, while a French 
 Major had charge of the French. 
 
 At five-thirty the doctors held a recep- 
 tion to inaugurate the opening of the new 
 two thousand-bed hospital. Base 202. At 
 seven-thirty the French medical officers 
 gave a dinner to the American officers, at 
 which there was much after-dinner speak- 
 ing and eulogistic praise exchanged. 
 
 The Fourth of July was even a bigger day 
 then the Fourteenth. The Fourth was 
 
 94 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 arranged in our honor by the French and 
 we reciprocated on the Fourteenth. 
 
 Since starting to write, I have received 
 an emergency 'phone call from one of the 
 many small villages, where we are requisi- 
 tioning horses, to send an ambulance for a 
 soldier kicked and unconscious and in bad 
 condition. We are requisitioning five thou- 
 sand horses in this Region in five weeks, 
 taking them out of the harvest fields to 
 the consternation of the farmers. The 
 horse question is most acute, as it has sud- 
 denly developed that enormous' numbers 
 are needed to move supplies where motors 
 cannot be used at the front. The British 
 lost fifty thousand when their Fifth Army 
 was destroyed in the spring. And now 
 the French are scouring the country for 
 fifty thousand in response to our emergency 
 call. Lieut. Lydig Hoyt has charge in this 
 Region, and Lieut.-Colonel Richard H. Wil- 
 liams, Jr., as head of the Remount Service, 
 and both Liaison Officers, has entire charge. 
 
 French 'phone connection is interminabl)^ 
 slow, so I walked over to the new American 
 hospital, to get an ambulance, where the 
 reception was held on the Fourteenth and 
 the first batch of four hundred wounded 
 was received on the sixteenth. It's a sight 
 horrible enough to weaken the stanchest 
 heart. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 July 22nd, 
 1918. 
 
 95 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 July 22nd, 
 
 1918. 
 
 The small staff of doctors and nurses are 
 working day and night. Fortunately there 
 are several hundred hospital orderlies and 
 men to assist. These soldiers, with the 
 most horrible wounds, many of which I saw 
 dressed, some minus arms or legs, and who 
 were in the battle of Monday the fifteenth,* 
 are positively looking fine and are in splen- 
 did spirits. A peculiar psychological fact is 
 that wounded men with amputations ex- 
 press no regrets for the parts lost, and seem 
 always cheerful. I have frequently noticed 
 this with the French; but to see these big, 
 fine specimens of American manhood lying 
 there, mangled and amputated, without ut- 
 tering a murmur of complaint or remorse, 
 and suffering the most intense agony when 
 their gaping wounds are dressed, is enough 
 to make one offer up a silent prayer to Al- 
 mighty God. 
 
 I am accustomed to hear men complain 
 in camp, but after living through this 
 purge of fire they come out of it purer and 
 more noble. War is a terrific purifier and 
 purger of men's souls. 
 
 Lots of love to you all from your devoted 
 son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 •At Chfiteau-Thierry, 
 
 96 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, July 2yth, igi8. 
 
 HAVE just returned from the 
 hospital and find your charming 
 letter of July 8th on my desk. 
 Your letters and those of some 
 of my friends are a wonderful incentive and 
 inspiration to maintain one's spirits and to 
 keep up the good work. The appreciation 
 and admiration of those one loves is a won- 
 derful stimulus, and is really all we live for 
 over here, and is what many are dying for. 
 Another American sanitary train load of 
 two hundred and fifty, mostly seriously 
 wounded, arrived last night from the front. 
 They were in the battle Monday. I was 
 at the station and it was a wonderful sight. 
 I say wonderful in the sense of awe-inspiring, 
 sublime, to see these great steel cars, 
 especially built by us for use on these small 
 railroads — plainly painted and simply let- 
 tered "U. S.," with nothing more — smoothly 
 gliding and bearing its load of suffering, 
 burned and mangled human freight on 
 stretchers. These hardy, brave and un- 
 complaining Americans are made of the 
 same sturdy stuff that made our fore- 
 fathers famous at Lexington, and made 
 them push later as pioneers across the wild 
 prairies of the Middle West. 
 
 97 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 July 27th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 As a little group of us stood silently 
 around the cars, the hospital orderlies and 
 attendants worked quietly and swiftly, gen- 
 tly lifting the stretchers from the cars, with 
 scarcely a word and without confusion. 
 The officers were all in one car, about 
 twenty, including a desperately wounded 
 Colonel and Major. But there was nothing 
 to distinguish them; all were treated alike. 
 There was never a harsh or rough word; 
 all were spellbound by the solemnity of 
 these wounded heroes returning from the 
 field of battle. Each man was well band- 
 aged, wore pajamas, and was wrapped in a 
 blanket. They lay silently on their stretch- 
 ers, looking worn and pale in spite of their 
 heavy coating of tan, never moaning nor 
 uttering a word except occasionally in reply 
 to a question from the stretcher-bearers. 
 One boy of not over nineteen, who had one 
 leg shot away and the other badly wounded, 
 simply said, when they tried to make him 
 comfortable, "Go easy, pals, I'm suffering 
 a little," and thanked them. 
 
 The first train load of wounded, which 
 arrived a week ago, was mostly gas cases, 
 some light; but as Major Bishop in com- 
 mand said to-day, these are a lot of very 
 seriously wounded. This mustard gas is a 
 dastardly and damnable thing, frightfully 
 
 98 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 blistering and burning the body, especially 
 in the moist and hairy places, and making 
 the most horrible sores. If enough gets into 
 the lungs, it kills either at once or by a long 
 and horrible, lingering death. It burns the 
 lining membrane on the inside, and causes 
 the most horrible agony when on the out- 
 side. In talking with some of the cases 
 to-day that were burned twelve days ago, 
 and are still suffering intensely and linger- 
 ing between life and death, they said they 
 would far rather lose an arm or leg. It 
 is like being horribly burned by fire, and 
 after suffering for days, and the nerves and 
 human endurance are exhausted, dying. 
 
 The installation and management of the 
 hospital are nothing short of marvelous in 
 so short a time. Of course, it was a well 
 organized base hospital unit that was sent 
 from the States with full equipment. But 
 they walked into the bare, barren former 
 Archbishop's palace, which was used as a 
 library, carried out the one hundred thou- 
 sand volumes, scrubbed and cleaned the 
 place and set up their equipment. The 
 iron beds and mattresses and springs and 
 bedding are of the best for the purpose. 
 They had five men on the tables at a time 
 in the operating room last night. There 
 are even two dentists' chairs with full equip- 
 ment, and likewise a very fine X-ray outfit. 
 
 99 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 July 27th, 
 191S. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 July 27th, 
 
 IQX8. 
 
 This is not a gay subject, but a very im- 
 portant part of the war — much more so, and 
 on a larger scale than one at first imagines. 
 They usually figure on a number of beds 
 equal to ten per cent of the army, which 
 means hospitalization on a staggering scale. 
 
 I am happy to know the nation at home 
 is stanchly behind us, as you say and as is 
 shown by the enormous number of well- 
 equipped and trained troops arriving 
 monthly. You can hardly imagine with 
 what a sense of relief we see the pendulum 
 starting to swing the other way. 
 
 One of the men who arrived last night 
 says they took two German prisoners, who 
 were women, chained to a cannon to make 
 them fight. This sounds far-fetched, hardly 
 reasonable. But the fact is there are a 
 great many young boys of fifteen or sixteen 
 among the German troops, who when cap- 
 tured off^er no resistance and throw up their 
 hands, crying for mercy and "Kamerad.'* 
 
 Next week I will have two gold service 
 chevrons on the sleeve of my left forearm, 
 for a year's service in France. 
 
 Poor little Jimmie! This country is full 
 of dogs. I have never before seen so many. 
 The other day, I saw six or eight in one 
 bunch, of all breeds, trotting along dog- 
 fashion, mindless of the war. There seems 
 to be plenty of food — at least for the dogs — 
 
 100 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 and the French resent it if one suggests kill- 
 ing some of the dogs. They must have their 
 dogs loose and without muzzles, even if it 
 is war! You may tell Jimmie that dogs 
 here look upon autos with disdain, and make 
 them turn out of their way. 
 
 Lots of love to you all, from your devoted 
 son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 July 2ph, 
 1918. 
 
 101 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris y France y Aug. I2thy igi8. 
 
 RETURNED last night after 
 a magnificent week at the sea- 
 shore at Deauville,* feeling re- 
 freshed both mentally and phys- 
 ically; the first leave in a year. This week 
 was like a cooling drink of fresh spring water 
 to a parched man. You cannot imagine the 
 elation and sense of relief to have absolutely 
 nothing to do but amuse oneself and to be 
 free from military duties after so long and 
 steady a grind. 
 
 Despite the belief in America the whole 
 of the French male population is not 
 fighting at the front. While there was no 
 dancing nor gambling nor Hungarian or- 
 chestras in the restaurants, there were still 
 a lot of charming and well dressed people 
 taking their summer holidays. Owing to 
 the fear of submarines, the north coast is 
 not packed as is the case at Biarritz. 
 
 There were a lot of beautiful women from 
 all classes, a number of handsome British 
 oflRcers, as this is in their zone and there is 
 a large camp nearby, and a sprinkling of 
 French and Americans on "leave." How- 
 ever, most of the American officers, and 
 there are a lot of them now, do not get 
 
 *Corrcsponds to Newport. 
 
 102 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 beyond Paris, as they prefer to remain there 
 and are not familiar with the beautiful 
 places in the country. 
 
 It seems that almost all the people I 
 know in France were there, at least the 
 most interesting ones, and I, as usual, had 
 a wonderful time, free from anxiety and 
 responsibility. It really brought me back 
 to the realization that there was once a 
 time when all of life was not war. The 
 wonderful communiques of the brilliant 
 successes of our troops have again made 
 everyone take a new lease on life and feel 
 almost light-hearted and gay. 
 
 The French women try to believe this is 
 the end, as they really crave peace at any 
 price; but no American here cajoles him- 
 self into the belief the job can be finished 
 before Marechal Foch makes his grand of- 
 fensive in the spring of 1919, which will no 
 doubt take all of next summer. The war 
 has become a habit and steady grind. We 
 are no longer thinking of advancement and 
 honors. Each individual is a very small 
 infinitesimal part of this great swirling and 
 seething mass, as we have long since learned, 
 each plugging away and keeping up the 
 steady pressure. 
 
 Among others, I had the pleasure of 
 meeting and knowing well at Deauville 
 
 103 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Aug. I2th, 
 1918. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Aug. I2th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 were Baron* Henri de Rothschild, owner of 
 the magnificent home where the Inter- 
 AUied Club is quartered in the Faubourg 
 St. Honore; Baron Maurice de Rothschild; 
 Mme. Bernstein, wife of the playwright, 
 young and beautiful; Mme. and Mile. 
 Vesnitch, wife and daughter of the Servian 
 minister; the Persian minister himself; Mme. 
 Frangois Darblay, the young and beau- 
 tiful wife of one of the richest ammunition 
 manufacturers in France; Etienne Bunau- 
 Varilla, son of the owner of the ''Matin"; 
 Baron de Wardener; M. Letellier, former 
 owner of the Paris "Journal"; the opera 
 singer, Mile. Merentie, who is coming to 
 the Metropolitan after the war; and Lieut. 
 Paul Jentien with whom I went and whose 
 mother-in-law has a beautiful villa. So 
 you see I was in no sense lonely. Most of 
 these names mean nothing to you but are 
 all prominent in France. 
 
 Lieut. Jentien, who has charge of repair 
 parts for American cars in the French 
 Army, of which there are many thousands, 
 says the Pierce-Arrow is the best truck 
 built, but is partial to the Ford for light 
 work on account of its extreme cheapness 
 and small loss in case it is wrecked or 
 struck by a shell. 
 
 ♦Major. 
 
 104 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 The enclosed telegram called me back a 
 day sooner than I had expected and means 
 another advancement, in that there were 
 two Liaison Officers at Orleans, Captain 
 Tarn McGrew, uncle of Mimi Scott, and 
 myself. He has been transferred to the 
 front, attached to General Gouraud, com- 
 manding the Fourth Army. 
 
 I had already asked to be relieved as 
 Provost Marshal, as the double work 
 was more than I could handle, and the 
 Liaison Service is more important, being of 
 a diplomatic nature. I call it the **Mili- 
 tary Diplomatic Service." 
 
 I had luncheon to-day at Giro's with three 
 Marine Corps Captains, who have been 
 through the most desperate of the fighting, 
 and Mrs. Swift Fernald, who is nursing at 
 the Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly. 
 
 They say that Hennen Le Gendre has 
 distinguished himself for bravery and is 
 making good. He advanced alone under 
 machine gun fire several hundred feet to a 
 wounded soldier calling for help and carried 
 him back to safety on his back. He is very 
 powerful, as you know. He is adjutant to 
 the commanding officer of the Third Battal- 
 ion of the Fifth Regiment Marines with 
 which we came over. He was commis- 
 sioned shortly after I was. The fates of 
 war have scattered the three of us who 
 
 105 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Aug. I2th, 
 1918. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, Francfy 
 Jug. J2th, 
 
 JQiS. 
 
 came over together, Gus, Hennen and me 
 to the four winds. We have all made good 
 and secured our commissions wherever we 
 could. Gus was commissioned in the En- 
 gineer Corps and is transport officer at 
 one of the ports. I am commissioned in 
 the Infantry and Hennen in the Marines. 
 Before spring I hope to be transferred to 
 the front so as to take part in Marechal 
 Foch's big final drive. 
 
 Lots of love from, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 106 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Staff Headquarters, French Fifth 
 Army Corps 
 
 Orleans, France, Aug. 2^th, igi8. 
 
 INCE returning from Deauville 
 I am more engrossed in my 
 fascinating work than ever, 
 keenly enjoying every moment. 
 
 While away I spent thirty-six hours on 
 the U. S. S. Matsonia at Brest with brother 
 Jack and his pals, having a very pleasant 
 visit. Brest is as unattractive as all the 
 other seaport cities. 
 
 This is where the largest U. S. transports 
 come in, including the colossal ships taken 
 over from the Germans, as it is the only 
 sufficiently deep-water harbor assigned to 
 the Americans. Before the war, Brest was 
 closed to Trans-Atlantic shipping, and was 
 reserved exclusively for a French Naval 
 Base. 
 
 The smaller freighters land at the miles 
 of modern wooden docks, built by us for 
 the purpose at Bordeaux, which is forty 
 miles from the coast up the Gironde River. 
 
 I have really achieved by a most unfore- 
 seen route a long-cherished desire to enter 
 the diplomatic service. Cutting loose from 
 placid Long Island surroundings, and en- 
 
 107 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Aug. 25th, 
 
 IC18. 
 
 listing in the Marines, I was buffeted about 
 as a Corporal on this foaming sea of 
 humanity, unrecognized and unknown, 
 until, thanks to the judgment of Major 
 Straight I was brought to the attention of 
 the banker, Major Harjes, to whom was 
 entrusted the delicate task of forming a 
 Diplomatic Liaison Service with the French 
 Army. This service was already in exist- 
 ence under the guiding hands of such able 
 men as Tardieu, from the French side, in 
 that French Officers known as "French 
 Mission*' were attached to our organiza- 
 tions. However, Major Harjes* work was to 
 attach American officers to the French Staffs. 
 
 The "Sammie" is loved by the French, be- 
 cause he is a fine soldier and is wrenching a 
 devastated land from the grasp of a treach- 
 erous enemy, and because he is at the same 
 time modest. The French press has de- 
 voted so much laudatory space to Ameri- 
 cans that the awkward tone of occasional 
 apologetic articles complimentary to the 
 English, who are not personally liked by 
 the French, is positively amusing. 
 
 With much love to you all. 
 
 Devotedly, your son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 108 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France^ Sept. isth, igi8. 
 
 OUR two wonderful and sustain- 
 ing letters of August 19th and 
 22nd came this morning, just as 
 I was beginning to wonder when 
 I would again hear from you. You know 
 your letters are like oil on a flame. It re- 
 minds me of Al Jolson of the Winter Garden 
 who, when he has kept the house in roars of 
 laughter for an hour, says, 'That's it! Ap- 
 plaud some more and I will kill myself!" 
 That's the spirit of all the boys over here, 
 and is what makes them unhesitatingly face 
 death for the applause of the loved ones at 
 home. The great majority are thoroly 
 yearning for home, and want to hurry to 
 finish the job, because, despite their home- 
 sickness, no one considers for a moment 
 returning before Germany is thoroly 
 crushed and brought pleading to her knees. 
 We do not seriously expect the war to finish 
 before another bloody season. Unless Ger- 
 many unexpectedly collapses and is con- 
 sumed by internal war and revolution, there 
 will be the most desperate fighting of all 
 when we reach the German lairs beyond the 
 frontier. I expect it to end in one awful 
 internal convulsion. 
 
 109 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Sept. 15th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 Since Captain McGrew went to the front, 
 I have a mass of work to attend to. This 
 region extends from twenty-five miles north 
 of Paris to one hundred and twenty-five 
 south and roughly one hundred and fifty 
 east and west, taking in part of the front. 
 
 Saturday, Brigadier General Scott came 
 from Saint Aignan with his Chief of Staff 
 to pay a formal call and take luncheon 
 with General de I'Espee. There were also 
 several other high officers at luncheon, 
 besides Madame and Mademoiselle de 
 I'Espee. 
 
 Yesterday morning, upon returning from 
 Paris, I found Major-General Bailly, who 
 had motored one hundred and twenty-five 
 miles from Tonnerre, with his Chief of 
 Staff. After luncheon, we held a small 
 private conference at the Quartier General, 
 General de I'Espee's combined headquar- 
 ters and home. 
 
 Devotedly, your son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 no 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, Sept. 20th, IQ18. 
 
 HILE in Paris, the other day, I 
 bumped into Hennen Le Gendre 
 looking happy and well, but 
 more serious than of yore. It's 
 a miracle how I run into friends by the 
 merest chance. There must be a lot of 
 them over here. He had seen Ferdie III, 
 who is also in the Second Division, at the 
 front a month before, looking dirty, cooty 
 and rough but happy. 
 
 Hennen has been through the thickest of 
 all the fighting with the Fifth Marines, and 
 has seen his brother officers and men blown 
 to pieces by bursting shells — the same ones 
 I knew so well. 
 
 The Marines and the balance of the 
 Second Division who are used as shock- 
 troops have had no rest, and are rushed 
 from one battle-front to another to storm 
 the enemy and to instill heroism and 
 desperate fighting qualities into less ex- 
 perienced troops. For days, at Chateau- 
 Thierry, they fought and advanced so 
 rapidly they were separated from the soup 
 field-kitchens and slept uncovered in shot- 
 swept shell-holes, covered with lice, filth 
 and vermin. 
 
 Ill 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Sept. 20th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 We both enlisted together, expecting to 
 remain together in the Marine Corps, and 
 after struggHng for a commission in the 
 Marines, I was given one in the Infantry 
 and landed in a staff position. Hennen 
 said, "For God's sake, Ferdie, don't try any 
 longer to get to the front. Take it from 
 me, as a sincere friend, and stay where you 
 are, where you are rendering better service 
 than you could elsewhere. The horrors 
 have no glamor, and I constantly hope I 
 will not return home terribly maimed, with- 
 out arms or legs, or blind in both eyes." 
 Hennen has the Distinguished Service Cross 
 for bravery. The neck of the friend with 
 him, and who dined with us, was covered 
 with sores from mustard gas, which had 
 penetrated to the moist, perspiring skin be- 
 tween his collar and gas-mask. This gas is 
 in the shape of a very fine powder, and 
 must be dissolved by moisture to become 
 active. 
 
 Pardon me if I seem to dwell on unpleas- 
 ant subjects, but I know you want un- 
 biased accounts of actual war facts and 
 conditions, and are also interested in hear- 
 ing at length about myself. 
 
 Lots of love to all, from 
 
 FERD. 
 
 112 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans^ France, Sept. 2Qth, jgi8. 
 
 N elaborate luncheon and fete, 
 press clippings of which are 
 enclosed, was recently given by 
 the French to inaugurate the 
 opening of the Thousandth French Y. M. 
 C. A. Canteen at Cercottes. The American 
 Y. M. C. A. has donated five million dollars 
 for this purpose. Twenty Y. M. C. A. 
 representatives and newspaper men ar- 
 rived from Paris in a private car for the 
 occasion. 
 
 The tank instruction camp of the French 
 Army is at Cercottes, and after luncheon 
 the small six-ton, two-men Renault tanks 
 were put through their trench and hill- 
 climbing maneuvers for the Americans, 
 who were, much to their amusement, per- 
 mitted to experience the novelty of riding 
 in them. To watch these small war ma- 
 chines, almost like huge beetles, suddenly 
 wheel and turn in their own length and 
 climb and descend nearly perpendicular 
 embankments, is fascinating. They oper- 
 ate in fleets of twenty-five with a large 
 "mother" tank to break down the sides of 
 trenches too broad or deep for them to 
 negotiate. Some are equipped with wire- 
 less, some with machine guns, while others 
 
 113 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Sept. zgth, 
 
 1918. 
 
 have short 75s, used to throw explosive 
 bombs to blow up machine-gun nests. 
 
 The French expect to have twenty thou- 
 sand of these small, deadly engines in the 
 field next spring. The larger forty-ton 
 tanks were not a success, as they were too 
 awkward and more readily hit by the 
 enemy's shell-fire. 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 114 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 OrleanSy France, Oct. loth, iqi8. 
 
 |HE arrival of hospital trains of 
 freshly wounded has become a 
 matter of such regular and al- 
 most daily occurrence that I no 
 longer pay much attention to them. How- 
 ever, Major Bishop, who is a friend, and 
 who commands the three thousand-bed 
 Base Hospital No. 202, informed me of the 
 arrival of three hundred and fifty marines, 
 thinking I might see some pals. There is a 
 great brotherhood among soldiers far from 
 home, as they are dependent on each other, 
 and form many warm companionships. 
 
 Major Bishop said they were the finest lot 
 he had ever seen, and was enthusiastic in 
 their praises. He believes, incidentally, that 
 the usual work over here unfits surgeons for 
 civil practice, as they become careless in 
 performing operations by the wholesale, 
 and operate under conditions that civilians 
 could not survive. The men are brought 
 in like great husky, wounded animals, able 
 to stand almost anything. They are all 
 X-rayed to locate bullets and pieces of 
 shrapnel, and are etherized and operated 
 on without that usual ghastly pallor. Even 
 the following day they have good color and 
 are gay in spite of the daily agony when 
 
 115 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Oct. loth, 
 
 1918. 
 
 their wounds are freshly packed and dressed. 
 They recover rapidly and are transferred 
 to nearby convalescent camps, where they 
 loll in the sunshine like healthy pups. 
 
 The war is making some millions of 
 sturdy, healthy young men, who, when not 
 fighting, have developed a love for loafing, 
 and many of whom will never wish to again 
 settle down to monotonous steady work. 
 
 To talk with these fellows is refreshing. 
 They are free from any blatant manner, 
 and so-called yearning to get to the front 
 to kill Germans. These men who have 
 charged machine-gun nests with bombs, 
 bayonets and shot-guns, slept in shell- 
 craters, and subsisted on "iron rations,'* 
 and dirty water, and again have charged 
 the enemy at daybreak after twenty-four 
 hours' march, or packed standing in trucks 
 without food, rest or water, are modest. 
 These experiences take the dross and desire 
 to boast out of men. 
 
 I enjoy studying the psychology of the 
 French mind, which was apparently sobered 
 beyond recovery, but Germany's peace offer 
 has sent a thrill through the nation like a 
 powerful stimulant to a dying man. To 
 watch the ebb and flow of the public's 
 morale is fascinating. On every side peo- 
 ple are now planning wild celebrations, 
 when peace is signed. It resembles prep- 
 
 116 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 arations for New Year's Eve. However, no 
 one wants an immediate peace; and all are 
 unanimous in their desire to continue fight- 
 ing until Germany is humiliated. 
 
 Major J. Tarn McGrew, the American 
 Liaison Officer attached to General Gou- 
 raud, writes that recently the Germans 
 captured a town where there were eighty- 
 six American wounded. Within a few hours 
 the Americans retook the town and the 
 eighty-six had been bayoneted. He saw 
 this. 
 
 Another interesting bit, before I close, is 
 that America's diplomacy and gold has- 
 tened Bulgaria in signing peace. We never 
 declared war on Bulgaria or Turkey, and 
 did not recall our Ambassadors, as they 
 were left for the very purpose of playing 
 politics and diplomacy — and they suc- 
 ceeded well. 
 
 Devotedly, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Oct. loth, 
 1918. 
 
 117 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans^ France, Oct. i6th, IQ18. 
 
 WAS just about to write you 
 about the epidemic of "Spanish 
 flu," as it is called, when your 
 letter of September 27th arrived, 
 conveying the sad news of Mrs Smith's 
 death. This disease is certainly quick and 
 deadly in its efi^ect and creates a panic 
 among those who have it, as they die 
 frequently in three or four days. My 
 chaufi^eur is just recovering. He was so 
 scared, two days ago, when I went to see 
 him in the hospital, lest he die in France, 
 that he was almost speechless. Four friends 
 of one of the French officers in my office 
 dined together last week, and now two are 
 dead and buried. The French seem less 
 able to resist it than the Americans. 
 
 This reminds me that the Packard has 
 been requisitioned, pursuant to a recent Gen- 
 eral Order, requiring the requisition of all 
 American privately-owned cars in the A. E. F. 
 This is to make the military control of cars 
 and use of gasoline more rigid. I had 
 what is known as an X number, which 
 means a privately-owned automobile in 
 military service, and was entitled to use all 
 the military gas, oil, tires and service 
 needed. I was entitled to appear before the 
 
 118 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 requisition board at Bourges, but was too 
 busy to go, so left the price to their discre- 
 tion. Their word is final, in any case, and I 
 brought the car over for the use of the 
 army, never expecting to take it back. I 
 have been assigned a new closed five-passen- 
 ger Dodge, which is really more practical 
 for long winter trips, so do not in the least 
 regret the change. 
 
 The ever-constant topic of conversation 
 is, of course, the prospects of peace, with all 
 of its conditions and ramifications. The 
 most superb confidence is felt in the ability 
 of Wilson to engineer the situation, and 
 handle the complex questions involved. 
 Not a single envious breath of criticism 
 have I heard.* 
 
 He is the one man on whom rests the 
 responsibility of safely piloting the peace 
 negotiations and exacting humane terms in 
 proportion to the cost of blood and treasure. 
 By the millions of soldiers who have sacri- 
 ficed their life's blood he is regarded with 
 supreme confidence. 
 
 Germany will be in a deplorable condi- 
 tion after the war. It is a pity for her that 
 they were not content with the rapid com- 
 mercial strides they were making, as they 
 have lost all and much more. The Allied 
 soldiers who have paid so dearly in blood 
 
 •Apparently opinion has changed. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Oct. i6th, 
 1918. 
 
 119 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Oct. i6th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 and hardships will feel they have fought in 
 vain if the same terms are not exacted of 
 Germany as she offered France in 1914, 
 and which would have made her a vassal 
 state ! 
 
 Foch, on the other hand, stands supreme, 
 as Joffre formerly did, as the undisputed 
 military genius of the war. It has been the 
 superior ability of the French as strategists 
 that has saved them on numerous occasions 
 from overwhelming defeat, when outnum- 
 bered and almost swamped by the onrushing 
 hordes of Germans in their various drives 
 on Paris. At the first battle of the Marne 
 and Verdun, the German High Command 
 was clearly out-generaled, and the saving 
 of Paris was called a miracle. 
 
 Nevertheless, after the first battle of the 
 Marne over twenty French Generals, who 
 were not considered fit for active service, 
 were retired. In fact there have been over 
 four hundred Limoged* since the beginning 
 of the war! Little wonder that those re- 
 maining after such a strenuous weeding 
 process, and five years of gruelling field 
 experience have developed real genii ! 
 
 Your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 *So called because the proceedings are held at Limoge. 
 
 120 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 . ... 
 
 ^ 
 
 Orleans, France, Oct. 24th, igi8. 
 
 AST evening I had the pleasure 
 of dining with Major Frank 
 Baker, Q. M. C, brother of the 
 Secretary of War. He came 
 from Headquarters at Tours especially to 
 see me about the requisition of a factory 
 needed by the Chief Quartermaster. It 
 was a rainy Sunday afternoon, and not 
 knowing who it was, I had him shown up 
 to my room where we were sitting around a 
 little log fire, three of us. We took him 
 in the Dodge to the country estate of some 
 French friends for tea, with whom he was 
 delighted, and upon returning had dinner 
 at a most extraordinary little restaurant 
 down by the river front, called Auberge 
 St. Jacques, where one enters through a 
 real horse stable past the horses. It is like 
 the unique places one reads about, but never 
 sees, and the food is really the best in 
 Orleans. A Major Clark, from the Inspec- 
 tor General's Department at Chaumont, who 
 is here investigating the Liaison Service, 
 joined us. He is most high in his praise 
 of the Franco-American conditions in this 
 Region, and says he has visited no Region 
 run so smoothly, without friction, and with 
 so little evident effort. 
 
 121 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Oct. 24th, 
 
 J918. 
 
 A description of the Liaison in the Fifth 
 Region would be incomplete without men- 
 tioning such capable French officers en- 
 gaged in this work as Lieutenant Nastrog, 
 in charge of the propaganda of "French 
 Homes," whose purpose is to introduce 
 convalescent Americans to French families, 
 and to conduct motor excursions so as to 
 familiarize them with some of the historic 
 and scenic beauties of France. 
 
 Captain Galezowski of the Service de 
 Sante, a well-known Parisian specialist, 
 who works with the American Lieutenant 
 May, a venerable and loyal American of 
 Alsatian birth, speaking French, English 
 and German, all with equal fluency and so 
 marked an accent that one cannot detect 
 which is easier for him to speak, are doing 
 most valuable work in hospitalization. 
 
 Lieutenant Geniest of the Genie handles all 
 American Requisitions of French property. 
 
 Lieutenant Mossier has been delegated 
 by the Ministry of War to our office to 
 assist the French end of the U. S. Renting 
 Requisition and Claims Service. 
 
 Lieutenant Etienne Jouvencel of the 
 Intendance, who is in charge of all Franco- 
 American Quartermaster affairs, is a young, 
 enthusiastic nobleman with real American 
 energy. 
 
 122 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 In addition to the above officers are the 
 French Missions attached to the American 
 Camps at Gievres, Romarantin, Tonnerre, 
 and Ancy-le-Franc. Particularly promi- 
 nent among these is Lieutenant Bernard de 
 Souches at Romarantin, to whose inde- 
 fatigable zeal is due a considerable portion 
 of the success in building up this enormous 
 aviation construction camp. 
 
 Lieutenant John M. Gundry, Jr., Provost 
 Marshal of Orleans, and Lieutenant Henry 
 Bahnsen, Intelligence Officer, handle 
 Regional Liaison Police and "contre es- 
 pionage" matters in connection with Lieu- 
 tenant Viguerie. 
 
 The above cosmopolitan officers, all of 
 the Americans speaking French and most 
 of the French speaking English, who are 
 subject to Captain de Waldener's and my 
 directions, as heads of the Regional Liaison 
 Service, form a congenial little circle of pals, 
 who keep things running smoothly and 
 handle the multitude of often knotty 
 Franco-American questions arising to be 
 settled. 
 
 To the Chief-of-Staff, Colonel Delacroix, 
 Intendant Militaire Duhamel, and General 
 de I'Espee, the greatest appreciation is due 
 for their cordial and helpful attitude toward 
 Americans. General de I'Espee, whose wife 
 is American, devotes the major portion of 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Oct. 24ih, 
 1918. 
 
 123 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Oct. 24th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 his time to the cultivation of friendly rela- 
 tions and entertainment of American officers. 
 
 As an example of how varied is my work, 
 on Saturday afternoon at two o'clock, I 
 attended the funeral of a French officer, 
 who had died of Spanish flu and pneumo- 
 nia, in four days. As one of the pall- 
 bearers I walked at one corner of the 
 hearse and carried the silver cord attached 
 to the mantle covering the casket. We 
 walked with the hearse, including the 
 family, guard of honor, officers and friends, 
 from the military hospital, to the ancient 
 Cathedral, where the funeral services were 
 held, and from there to the cemetery. 
 
 Upon returning, I stopped at one of the 
 large French barracks, Coligny, which we 
 are taking over for hospital purposes. As 
 usual, wooden barracks are being con- 
 structed in the court yard to increase the 
 capacity. I had secured two hundred and 
 fifty Austrian prisoners of war (P. G.'s as 
 they are called — prisonniers de guerre), 
 mere boys of sixteen to eighteen years, 
 from the French, to aid in the work. They 
 are meek looking, undersized little fel- 
 lows, apparently completely subdued and 
 suffering from homesickness more than 
 anything else. One of our men would 
 be a match for about three of them, 
 and could easily slap him with his open hand 
 
 124 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 and knock him down. One could hardly 
 help feeling sorry for them, the victims of a 
 crushing, steam-roller military machine. 
 They surely showed no signs of malice and 
 stood around in a daze like ignorant ani- 
 mals, willingly obeying the jovial southern 
 negroes bossing the job and reveling in 
 whitewash. I gave them several sharp 
 commands in German to which they have 
 always been accustomed, to cheer and wake 
 them up, and make them feel at home, and 
 they jumped to attention and huddled like 
 frightened sheep. 
 
 When I returned to my office, I found the 
 commanding officer of the hospitals and 
 several others waiting to see me on various 
 subjects and remained until seven o'clock.* 
 Sunday I was with Major Baker, and Mon- 
 day I made a one hundred and thirty-mile 
 motor trip to Montoire accompanied by a 
 French officer, where we are constructing 
 hospital barracks for twenty thousand beds. 
 
 Tuesday morning, I took the train for 
 Paris, to see the Under Secretary of State 
 regarding the subject Major Baker wanted 
 settled. After wiring a favorable report to 
 the Quartermaster General at Tours, I 
 stopped at Prunier's for a good fish dinner 
 and found the place crowded, with a long 
 waiting list for tables. The food is con- 
 
 *The 
 
 I he 
 
 usual nour 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Oct. 24lh, 
 1918. 
 
 125 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Oct. 24th, 
 
 J918. 
 
 sidered good and reasonable. The check 
 was twenty-one francs, including ten per 
 cent taxe-de-luxe and tip, for a dozen 
 oysters, whole broiled lobster, slice of roast 
 beef and boiled potatoes, with bread but 
 no butter. At the Cafe de Paris, Giro's 
 or Henri's it would have been twice as much. 
 
 At the Casino de Paris, later, the most 
 popular music hall, we succeeded by chance 
 in securing two orchestra seats in the 
 thirteenth row for fifteen francs each. They 
 are sold on the sidewalk by speculators 
 for twenty- five francs and the production 
 rivaled in gorgeousness the Ziegfeld Follies 
 in peace times. The place was packed, the 
 aisles filled and standing room banked 
 fifteen deep. It is said by those who ought 
 to know that France, owing to the money 
 poured into the country by the Allied 
 armies, has maintained a very considerable 
 prosperity. The average French individual 
 does not seem to have suffered financially 
 enough to have caused him to make 
 any considerable outward change in his 
 mode of living. 
 
 Already a few brilliant electric street 
 lights are burning on some of the boule- 
 vards, and the nervous strain of Parisians 
 has relaxed. Those with a slight sore throat 
 or grippe, however, work up a burning fever 
 with hysterical fear of "la grippe espagnole." 
 
 126 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris is a city of fads, many of the 
 ribbon strips of paper criss-crossed and 
 fantastically pasted on the windows in 
 the behef that they would help save the 
 glass from breaking from the concussion of 
 exploding bombs, still remain. Some enter- 
 prising shop keepers in their desire to excel 
 their competitors in artistic effects painted 
 the strips! 
 
 Peace celebrations are being arranged and 
 the Minister of War has ordered "Victory 
 Reviews" held in all garrison towns of 
 France on November 3rd to boost the 
 Fourth Emprunt or Liberty Loan. We have 
 already, in America, had as many and as 
 large Liberty Loans as France. Within a 
 week after peace is signed Paris will be as 
 gay as ever, and the year or so following 
 will be the biggest tourist years in her 
 history. I tried at three hotels before I 
 could get a room, the Maurice, Castiglione, 
 and Continental. The Castiglione two years 
 ago was entirely refurnished, as was also 
 the Continental. The artistic effects se- 
 cured by the French in remodeling and 
 redecorating old buildings are remarkable. 
 
 It is an inspiring sight to see the long 
 lines of captured German cannon, hub to 
 hub, lining both sides of the Avenue des 
 Champs Elysees from Place de la Con- 
 corde to the Etoile. They are also packed 
 
 127 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Oct. 24th, 
 1918. 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Oct. 24th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 in the Place de la Concorde almost solid, 
 all descriptions and kinds, battered, camou- 
 flaged and shell-torn. This is the first sign 
 of real war I have seen in Paris, and is done 
 to help the sale of the Victory Loan. 
 
 Your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 128 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, Nov. ist, igi8. 
 
 HE operation of the French law 
 of "Requisition," which em- 
 '^jMi powers mihtary authorities to 
 take any private property 
 needed, and which I am frequently required 
 to exercise, is most interesting. 
 
 The proprietor is simply served with an 
 order to move out. This, however, is done 
 according to definite regulations, and the 
 compensation is later fixed by a commis- 
 sion, consisting of an Engineer Officer, who 
 has made blue-prints of the property, two 
 officers from the Intendance (Quarter Mas- 
 ter's Department) and two competent civil- 
 ians chosen by the officers. The decisions 
 of this Board are always fair and final, with 
 no recourse to the courts. 
 
 "Requisition" is for temporary military 
 occupancy, and the property is returned to 
 its owner, restored to its original condi- 
 tion, when no longer needed. 
 
 This is the only manner in which private 
 property can be taken for military pur- 
 poses. For the construction of permanent 
 public improvements, such as railways, the 
 Government has the right to condemn and 
 purchase outright. This is called "expro- 
 priation," but is more complicated and 
 
 129 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Nov. 1st, 
 
 1918. 
 
 requires a process of law, so is not employed 
 for urgent military purposes. 
 
 Affectionately, your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 130 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France^ Nov. 4th, igi8. 
 
 HEN the time has passed for 
 your letters to arrive, I lose en- 
 thusiasm in my work, as if some- 
 thing were lacking. It is almost 
 a subconscious feeling, difficult to define; 
 but without the regular approbation of the 
 folks at home, the effort all seems so hope- 
 less and vague. 
 
 I was feeling lonely when your letters 
 arrived this Sunday morning, but my spirits 
 have steadily risen all day, in feeling that 
 you, although far away, are earnestly inter- 
 ested and lovingly awaiting my return. It 
 makes the effort worth while. 
 
 The "Victory Day" reviews of troops 
 were cancelled by the Ministry of War 
 "owing to the Spanish influenza," the real 
 diplomatic reason probably being on ac- 
 count of the peace pourparlers. 
 
 The luncheon — of which I am enclosing 
 an invitation, place card and menu — ^was 
 given any way. General de I'Espee said, in 
 his after-luncheon toast, which was made 
 in both French and English, that it would 
 be a calamity to have a premature peace 
 before Germany is crushed beyond ever 
 regaining her power He said, calmly, but 
 with powerful conviction, that after the war 
 
 131 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Nov. 4th, 
 
 igi8. 
 
 of arms, an economic war must be waged, 
 and bitter hatred instilled into our children's 
 hearts. 
 
 I sat at table with six generals, four French 
 and two American, nineteen in all. One of the 
 generals pleasantly inquired why I didn't have 
 more rank, and I replied that my gold bars 
 "must be soldered on." He volunteered to 
 take the matter up and see what could be 
 done. Nothing has come of my recommen- 
 dation for promotion several months ago. 
 
 I have returned from a two-days' trip 
 with a French officer, Lieutenant Mossier, 
 calling on the Prefer, French Mayors, and 
 American Town Majors, advising them 
 how civilian claims against the American 
 Army, for private property stolen or dam- 
 aged, must be handled — not exaggerated, 
 and forwarded to the Renting, Requisition 
 and Claims Service at Tours. There are R. 
 R. & C. officers for this work but I am always 
 careful to see that all Franco-American 
 business in the Region functions well. 
 
 There are thousands of claims pouring in, 
 for every imaginable kind of loss, amount- 
 ing to millions of dollars, which means a 
 great harvest for the French fortunate 
 enough to have had anything damaged by 
 the Americans. Claims are frequently based 
 on sentimental values, somewhat similar to 
 the following: A passing American truck 
 
 132 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 shook out a window pane, which fell and 
 cut the dog, which knocked over an antique 
 table, originally belonging to the great- 
 grandfather, therefore having great histori- 
 cal and sentimental value; and, therefore, 
 the claim for the broken window pane is one 
 hundred francs. One director of a Haras 
 (governmental stud stables) had his chil- 
 dren's pet white donkey killed by a side- 
 car. The donkey had been brought from 
 Algiers when small, and raised, so they had 
 great affection for it, and it would require 
 a thousand francs to soothe their feelings 
 and replace the donkey. The director has 
 since died, while the claim is awaiting 
 adjustment. Claims are also made for 
 stolen bottles of beer, or grapes picked from 
 vineyards by passing soldiers. 
 
 Nothing is too small to overlook claiming 
 for, and exaggerating the amount. I don't 
 know if the R. R. & C. officers will ever get 
 home after the war. But our liberal pol- 
 icy is to pay for anything having the 
 slightest indication of justice, in order to 
 pecuniarily satisfy and maintain the amia- 
 ble feelings of the people for whom our boys 
 are ungrudgingly pouring out their life's 
 blood and drenching the fields of France. 
 
 Lots of love to you all from your devoted 
 son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Nov. 4th, 
 IQ18. 
 
 133 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, Nov. 14th, igi8. 
 
 EACE has come so unexpectedly 
 that those who should know — 
 despite the claims to the con- 
 trary, of those regularly prog- 
 nosticating for the past four years — that we 
 are in a daze. 
 
 Events have happened during the past 
 week with such lightning-like rapidity, and 
 the issues involved are of such magnitude 
 that our minds have been in a whirl. It is 
 almost too much for our mere human minds 
 to comprehend in a few short hours that 
 this strain of the past year and a half has 
 abruptly snapped. It leaves a blank, vague 
 feeling. We devour the one-sheet news- 
 papers and telegraphic communiques as if 
 in a dream. "There must be a catch some- 
 where." This feeling is so strong that there 
 is an impulse to go on — on — on ! 
 
 The peace to follow will impose such 
 drastic terms the Germans cannot recover 
 in generations. Germany is doomed, as 
 none can realize without knowing the 
 French. 
 
 The armistice was sudden, because those 
 here were firmly resolved to continue an- 
 other three to six months. Determination 
 to go on to complete victory was so strong 
 
 134 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 that Americans, especially, did not permit 
 themselves to entertain will-o'-the-wisp 
 peace hopes. 
 
 For two days and nights the people and 
 soldiers have given themselves up to fren- 
 zied celebrations — every one in their mad 
 delight trying to outdo the others in casting 
 aside the mantle of gloom and depression 
 which has so long hung over this depressed 
 nation. 
 
 Paris is more crowded and jammed than 
 ever. Rooms in hotels, and almost all tables 
 in the restaurants, must be engaged days 
 in advance. 
 
 Now that the armistice has been signed, 
 I can describe some of the activities in the 
 Fifth Region. 
 
 At Romarantin is the great aviation con- 
 struction camp where all American planes 
 are assembled. There are miles of enor- 
 mous steel buildings and fifteen thousand 
 Americans. 
 
 At Gievres, adjoining, is the Great 
 Quartermaster Depot where one thousand 
 seven hundred freight cars per day are 
 handled in and out. There are over four 
 hundred miles of switch tracks, one of the 
 largest refrigerating plants in the world, 
 where two thousand tons of meat can be 
 received and shipped daily, and twenty-five 
 thousand Americans are employed. Gievres 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Nov. 14th, 
 1918. 
 
 135 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Nov. T4tk, 
 IQ18. 
 
 and Romarantin camps occupy a strip of 
 land eight by four miles in area, and these 
 plants have risen out of the bare farm land 
 as if by magic. They are the wonders of 
 military France, as are some of our other 
 various engineering, dock, railroad, and 
 transportation remarkable accomplishments. 
 
 At Montargis was the Headquarters for 
 requisitioning the five thousand houses. 
 
 At St. Aignan is the First Replacement 
 Depot Division of thirty thousand. 
 
 At Tonnerre and Ancy-le-Franc and 
 surrounding towns were two training divi- 
 sions. 
 
 At Montoire a twenty thousand-bed 
 hospital camp is under construction. 
 
 At Orleans is a three thousand-bed 
 hospital. 
 
 Besides four enormous French garrisons 
 and the French salvage plants employing 
 seven thousand, mostly women, where 
 clothing and equipment of every imaginable 
 description is received in trainloads from 
 the front and remade to look like new. 
 
 At Blois is the Officers' Casual Camp. 
 
 At Seguerny and a half dozen surround- 
 ing towns is the First Signal Corps Depot. 
 
 And at twenty-five other places in the 
 ten thousand square miles of the Region 
 are hospitals, veterinary hospitals, signal 
 corps, foresters and detachments of every 
 
 136 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 kind, all of which must be visited in order 
 to settle local disputes which have grown 
 beyond their ability, experience or authority 
 to handle, and in all, amounting to over 
 one hundred thousand troops. 
 
 Lots of love to all from 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Orleans, France 
 
 Nov. i<f.th, 
 191S. 
 
 137 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, Nov. 26th, igi8. 
 
 HAVE just been playing "Some 
 Day Waiting Will Cease," and 
 it affects me the same as you. 
 Your popular music has arrived 
 at a moment most opportune. You scarcely 
 can realize what it means to us, the war 
 ending as abruptly as it began. Life had 
 become bereft of all that was sentimental, 
 beautiful and happy, and was one long, 
 barren waste of destruction. Now the most 
 dazzling sunshine suddenly bursts forth in 
 all its resplendent glory, like peace and calm 
 after a mighty tempest, which mocks the 
 insignificance of puny human strength. 
 
 But the air is not entirely purified. There 
 are still distant rumblings of bitterness and 
 hate from Germany, who does not will- 
 ingly bow to the fact that they are a people 
 conquered by force of arms, and who, be- 
 cause their military power is crushed, must 
 descend from their coveted place in the sun. 
 The Allied military leaders harbor no hallu- 
 cinations on the subject, and know they are 
 dealing with a race which does not hesitate 
 to stoop to the lowest treachery. 
 
 The fangs of the beast are pulled, but she 
 dies hard, and in her convulsive death-gur- 
 gle there are many who believe there will 
 
 138 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 still be fighting. It will mean going in with 
 machine guns. The French have been re- 
 ceived in Alsace-Lorraine with the wildest 
 bursts of enthusiasm, but when it comes to 
 occupying Germany itself — and they realize 
 they are under the iron heel of which they 
 have so prided themselves — it is doubtful 
 just how they will act. 
 
 Since the signing of the armistice, two 
 weeks ago, the weather has been brilliant, 
 as if a sign of approval from the Almighty. 
 Paris has burst forth in all her former air of 
 gaiety, and never have I seen the boulevards 
 so swarming with stylishly dressed, happy, 
 beautiful women, like bees from their hives 
 after a rain. I didn't know so many 
 existed, and fail to comprehend where the 
 money comes from. The prices of every- 
 thing are double or triple those before the 
 war, but that apparently makes no differ- 
 ence. I wired two days in advance for 
 accommodations at the Hotel Castiglione, 
 and tried in the following nine: Maurice, 
 Continental, Edward VII, Grand, West- 
 minster, Mirabeau, Majestic, Mercedes and 
 Crillon, on the Place de la Concorde, where 
 I, by chance, thankfully at last secured a 
 place to sleep. This hotel has since been 
 taken for the American Peace Commission. 
 The Elysee Palace has been occupied as 
 American army offices for the past year. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Nov. 26th, 
 1918. 
 
 139 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Nov. 26th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 The amount of money spent in France by 
 the Alhed armies has made her rich. It is 
 the tendency of fighting men to spend lav- 
 ishly, and we and our armies have received 
 nothing without paying for it dearly. 
 
 The boulevards at night are a blaze of 
 light and never have I seen in the theaters, 
 which are packed, more gorgeously staged 
 productions. Uniforms of French officers 
 are conspicuous for their absence as they 
 ravenously seize the first opportunity when 
 "on leave" to wear civilian clothes. 
 
 "Leaves" for the French have been in- 
 creased from one to three weeks in every 
 four months, while ours remain, as be- 
 fore, one week for the same period, when 
 one is fortunate enough to get it. I had 
 one week last summer, during the past 
 fifteen months, but soon hope to have 
 another. There has been a tendency to 
 comment on the number of American offi- 
 cers on leave in Paris, but the poor devils 
 have only public places to go, such as 
 hotels, theaters, and boulevards, while the 
 Frenchmen are absorbed into their own 
 homes all over France. The Englishmen 
 return to their homes in England. 
 
 The one thing that seriously lacks is taxi- 
 cabs, as the cars are all old and worn out, and 
 the cabmen must be paid any price they 
 demand regardless of the taximeter rate. 
 
 140 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 You can count on knitted dresses remain- 
 ing in style, by the way, for some time to 
 come, as most of France's woolen mills 
 were in the North and have been destroyed, 
 but not the knitting mills. One Rue de la 
 Paix modiste received orders for seventy 
 evening gowns the first seven days after 
 the armistice. 
 
 As for my returning home, it will be as 
 sudden as the beginning of the war, sign- 
 ing of the armistice, or my departure for 
 France. But "Some Day Waiting Will 
 Cease" and orders to sail for America, God's 
 Country, the "land of the free and the 
 home of the brave" will come. 
 
 Lots of love to all, from your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Nov. 26th, 
 IQ18. 
 
 141 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, Dec. 4th, igi8. 
 
 OW I do hope Jackie will be home 
 for Christmas. Gracious, how 
 the time flies! Three weeks, to- 
 night, before Christmas! Ac- 
 cording to the "Stars and Stripes," "Dad's 
 Christmas letter" should have been written 
 over a week ago, but as this goes by French 
 post,* it will arrive in time. So many things 
 come driving into my mind, and so much I 
 feel in this lonely garrison town, so far from 
 home and all that is dear. Life is so 
 changed — a year and a half away from love 
 and sympathy and the finer things of life. 
 Yesterday, General de I'Espee enter- 
 tained Colonel Symmonds, commanding the 
 great quartermaster camp at Gievres, which 
 will be a model in the future, at a small 
 informal luncheon for eight. I attended as 
 usual. 
 
 The host always sits at the side of the 
 table — not end — and the hostess, when 
 there is one, on the opposite side, and if 
 there is no hostess, the guest of honor 
 occupies her place, and then the other 
 guests at the right and left of the host and 
 guest of honor, according to their impor- 
 
 *Because attached to the French Army. 
 
 142 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 tance or rank, which is very minutely 
 followed. I was at the side of Colonel 
 Symmonds, who is a plain, hard-working 
 West Pointer, commanding twenty-five 
 thousand men at the enormous plant of 
 Gievres. I know the Colonel well, having 
 frequently messed at his table at luncheon 
 on my many trips to Gievres. 
 
 Gievres is forty-five miles from here, by 
 motor, through the most famous hunting 
 section of France, known as the Sologne. 
 It was here that Frangois I, in the fifteenth 
 century, built the palace of Chambord, in 
 the center of his hunting park, surrounded 
 by twenty-eight miles of stone wall. The 
 stone walls around these properties were for 
 the purpose of keeping the game in. I have 
 eaten a lot of partridge this fall. The game 
 is carefully guarded, and is not permitted 
 to be killed by peasants. 
 
 There are a great many "maisons-de- 
 chasse" — hunting lodges — quite pretentious, 
 and other "properties" and chateaux in 
 this section, and, fortunately I am ac- 
 quainted with some of the most prominent, 
 including the Capitaine et Baronne Charles 
 Pierrebourg, Comtesse de Saint Sauveur, 
 Lieut, et Mme. Serge Andre, Lieut. Guy 
 Arnoux, the well known illustrator, and 
 others, who all have beautiful places and 
 with whom I frequently visited during the 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Dec. 4th, 
 1918. 
 
 143 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Dec. 4th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 summer. They are most hospitable and 
 charming Parisians, although living quietly 
 in their country homes during the war. 
 French family life usually so difficult for 
 foreigners to enter, particularly in the 
 country, is delightful. One wealthy widow 
 with three daughters-in-law, their children 
 and other visiting relatives had a family of 
 fifteen children and ten adults regularly at 
 table. The chateau was amply large and 
 not crowded. 
 
 I couldn't resist taking the delighted 
 children — loaded in the car like a jolly 
 bouquet — some almost for the first time in 
 their young lives, for a little spin on a quiet 
 part of the country road.* I suppose this 
 was in a way pardonable as I was cultivat- 
 ing the entente-cordiale — at least I hope the 
 results of my liaison work have justified 
 it. My camaraderie and close friendships 
 with the French have many times repaid 
 the time spent — aside from the charming 
 associations. 
 
 To-day there was a Staff after-luncheon 
 reception for a French Major who is return- 
 ing to Paris to civil life. They are all 
 frantic to get back to civil life and produc- 
 tive occupations after almost five years lost. 
 "Five years older, five years gone out of the 
 
 *Gasoline is unprocurable for pleasure purposes. This is a 
 great handicap for people living in the country at some distance 
 from the railway station. 
 
 144 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 hearts of our lives," is what one hears on ail 
 sides in confidential conversations. 
 
 The women are older, five years of mourn- 
 ing and sadness, which everyone bitterly 
 regrets and realizes the total loss of 
 these never-to-be-recovered years. "All for 
 nothing." 
 
 To-morrow General de I'Espee receives at 
 luncheon Major-General Wright, command- 
 ing the Eighty-first Division billetted at 
 Ancy-le-Franc, recently returned from the 
 front, at which I shall be present. I am 
 accompanied now by my assistant or aide, a 
 pleasant young artillery officer of twenty- 
 three, from Albany, who fought at St. 
 Mihiel, Second Lieutenant John D. W. 
 Peltz. He was in the class of 'i8 at Yale 
 and his mother was born in France, where 
 he has lived. 
 
 We have a cosmopolitan lot in the Liaison 
 Service, about eighty officers — no enlisted 
 men. They are, roughly, one-third in the 
 Regions, one-third with the chief Liaison 
 Officer and attached to the French minis- 
 terial offices in Paris, and one-third with 
 the armies. 
 
 Thanksgiving I spent in Paris, with Cap- 
 tain Baron de Waldener, with whom I am 
 associated — a charming nobleman of forty- 
 two. I dined with the Marquise de Gasket 
 and afterwards we went to the Cinema in 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Dec. 4th, 
 1918. 
 
 145 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 
 Dec. 4th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 the Champs Elysees and saw Mary Pick- 
 ford. All the best movies now are Ameri- 
 can, and the French producers think they 
 are doing well when they spend thirty or 
 forty thousand francs on a film. They say 
 American movie actors are better than the 
 French, because they are more animated 
 and energetic! The Marquise is a hand- 
 some, stately widow of thirty-five, whose 
 husband was killed two years ago. He was 
 a pal of De Waldener. De Waldener is 
 of an old Alsatian family, as the name 
 implies, and he expects to soon return to 
 buy back some of their properties which 
 were disposed of to the Germans in '71. 
 
 After the Cinema, we went to a dance 
 given by the Henri Hottinguers, for their 
 debutante daughter, in Rue de la Baume. 
 Mme. de Waldener is his sister, and they 
 are said to be the richest protestant family 
 in France.* The house is a palace and 
 two hundred danced on the ground floor. 
 
 Among others present were Ambassador 
 Sharpe's daughter, the daughters of Prin- 
 cess Murat, Mile. Hottinguer — who has a 
 dot of half a million francs' income — and 
 Mile, de FEspee. She was accompanied 
 by her mother, as many were. There are 
 many important dances to follow, to which 
 I received verbal invitations. American 
 
 *M. Hottinguer is at the head of the Bank of France. 
 
 146 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 officers, for whom the dance was said to be 
 given, were in the predominance, as the 
 young French officers have not yet returned 
 from the front. According to French cus- 
 tom, one calls and leaves cards for all 
 ladies to whom he is presented. In prepar- 
 ing her dinner and dance lists, the hostess 
 is then free to invite whom she pleases. 
 
 My prayers and thoughts are always with 
 you, and I hope to return before spring, 
 some fine day when you least expect it. 
 
 Merry Christmas and a Happy New 
 Year, and much love to you all from, 
 
 Devotedly your son and brother, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Orleans, France, 
 Dec. 4th, 
 1918. 
 
 147 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 U. S. Officers' Combat Replacement 
 Depot 
 
 Gondrecourt {Meuse), Dec. 24th, igi8. 
 
 FTER receiving orders relieving 
 me from further duty at Or- 
 leans for return to the U. S. 
 it took two days to make the 
 official round of formal "au revoir" calls. 
 Colonel Delacroix. Chief of Staff, gave a 
 small informal farewell luncheon for eight in 
 my honor, and there was much good fellow- 
 ship and many compliments exchanged. 
 
 This is Christmas Eve, and my mind is 
 thousands of miles from here. It is six 
 o'clock, and the officers, coming from sup- 
 per, are drifting into the officers' Y. M. C. 
 A. club barracks, dripping with rain, and 
 flecked with snow — the first of the season. 
 It has been dark since four o'clock, and 
 supper is served at five-thirty. By seven 
 o'clock it has been dark for hours, and one 
 can truthfully refer to the "long winter 
 evenings." 
 
 The camaraderie existing in the army is 
 magnificent, and is the great compensation 
 for the separation from home and God's 
 country. The realization of this has been 
 more forcibly impressed upon me during 
 
 148 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 the past three days, since returning to the 
 American troops, after passing eight months 
 with the French Army. 
 
 On these bleak, cold, wind and rain- 
 swept hills, past which so recently swept 
 one of the greatest and bloodiest holocausts 
 in history, is established in heart and soul a 
 miniature America — an independent Ameri- 
 can barrack city — far removed from Euro- 
 pean thought, ideas and influences. 
 
 The average American soldier has little 
 opportunity for seeing or knowing anything 
 about the French, except for slight contact 
 with the peasants. This is because when 
 he is not on the battle field he is billetted in 
 the miserable peasant villages behind the 
 lines, and rarely has **leave'* to travel. 
 
 I have been released from further service 
 with the Chief Liaison Ofl^icer, for return 
 to the U. S., as my work is finished, and I 
 am deeply touched at this sacred time by 
 being back among my own people. It 
 again gives me a chance to know and 
 fraternize with these whole-hearted Amer- 
 ican characters, honest, magnificent man- 
 hood. This Army represents the purest 
 and finest we possess in the American 
 nation ! 
 
 While returning thru Paris the other 
 day, I saw Wilson, Pershing and Bliss pass 
 on their return from the formal reception 
 
 GondrecouTt 
 (Meuse), 
 Dec. 24th, 
 1918. 
 
 149 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Gondrecourt 
 
 {Meuse), 
 
 Dec. 24th, 
 
 1918. 
 
 given in Wilson's honor by the City of 
 Paris at the Hotel de Ville. The boule- 
 vards were lined with French troops and 
 cavalry to hold the crowds back and 
 render the guests royal military honors. 
 Wilson has a grace in lifting his hat which 
 no imperial ruler can equal. His famous 
 smile and polished manner immediately 
 endeared him to the French of all classes, 
 who call him Emperor. How they love 
 holidays and fetes! In nine days there 
 were six national holidays, four for visiting 
 Allied royalty, including Wilson, and two 
 Sundays. 
 
 Several days later, upon the arrival of 
 the King of Italy, shortly before the hour, 
 all the side streets leading to the boule- 
 vards were black with tens of thousands 
 scurrying in the rain to see him pass. 
 
 The barrack is now a mass of officers 
 talking, reading and writing, like a college 
 dormitory, with some one drumming the 
 piano at one end and the victrola going at 
 the other. The canteen has been opened, 
 and they are waiting in line and crowding 
 around, drinking hot chocolate. Is a sol- 
 dier's stomach ever filled ? 
 
 Stoessel* has commenced playing, which 
 recalls with a thrill that it is Christmas Eve. 
 The barrack is in enraptured stillness — no 
 
 *0f the Boston Symphony. 
 
 150 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 other indication of the birth of Christ, ex- 
 cept a small tree — but one reaHzes the 
 sacredness of this night in this weird, out-of- 
 the-way place of the world more than in 
 the turmoil of a great city. 
 
 Your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 GondrecouTt 
 {Meuse), 
 Dec. 24th, 
 1918. 
 
 151 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Nice, France, Jan. ^th, IQIQ. 
 
 ERE I am, on a week's leave, in 
 the hospital with a slight case 
 of the mumps. Just arrived, with 
 the prospect of passing ten days. 
 
 Things happen so rapidly and unex- 
 pectedly in the army that I never attempt 
 to forecast the future, as all goes by op- 
 posites. Little did I expect to be a patient 
 in a French Military Hospital, although I 
 have visited many where our men were left 
 in a dying condition by passing American 
 hospital trains. 
 
 The last week at Orleans, I completed a 
 three hundred and fifty-mile tour of inspec- 
 tion, including French hospitals, by auto. 
 Our men were lonely, as might be expected, 
 and condemn the hospitals as dirty and 
 unsanitary. The French haven't the money 
 to do things in the lavish American manner, 
 and the doctors are tired after five years of 
 incessant grind. It is the doctors who 
 have done the most tedious work, and that 
 of the French doctors has been monumental ! 
 One can comprehend only in a vague way 
 what the hospitalization for an army of 
 four millions* means, unless he has ac- 
 tually seen. French trained nurses are not 
 
 *French Army. 
 
 152 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 as high a class of women as nurses in 
 America, and are not as well respected. 
 However, there are usually a few local 
 ladies nursing in the Benevole or Charity 
 Red Cross Hospitals, and one can invariably 
 distinguish them. 
 
 It is like a breath of fresh air to meet and 
 talk with these cheerful, charming, serious- 
 minded girls, doing a work of mercy. It is 
 not a fad or fancy, but after all these years 
 of suffering they take it as naturally as if it 
 were all that is to be expected in life. They 
 have usually lost some one of their imme- 
 diate family — brother or fiance. It has 
 been the old, retired and rich families living 
 on their "rentes*' which have lost most by 
 the war. Their fortunes have been ma- 
 terially reduced, while the high cost of liv- 
 ing has doubled and tripled. It has been 
 the storekeepers and working classes who 
 have profited by greatly increased wages 
 and increased business. Soldiers certainly 
 spend money like the proverbial **drunken 
 sailor." 
 
 Prices of rooms and meals are posted 
 in all hotels and restaurants, as required 
 by law, to prevent extortion, as sentiment 
 has not stood in the way of avaricious 
 tradespeople exploiting American generos- 
 ity — especially in regions not suffering from 
 the invader. I regret to say that the aver- 
 
 Nice, France, 
 Jan. 5th, 
 1919. 
 
 153 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Nice, France, 
 
 Jan. 5th, 
 
 1919. 
 
 age American, for this and sundry other rea- 
 sons, has not a high opinion of the French, 
 and their one desire is to finish the job and 
 return home. The French Government, on 
 the other hand, has carried on a well-organ- 
 ized propaganda, called "French Homes," 
 to systematically introduce Americans into 
 French families. About ten thousand 
 French girls are said to have married 
 Americans. 
 
 It seems that Europe is determined to 
 maintain the same standard of living as be- 
 fore the war, despite the doubled cost, and 
 the bulk of the men having earned nothing 
 for so long. The idea seems to be to spend 
 money as long as it lasts. 
 
 This contagious hospital is a lonely place, 
 an amusement ice-skating palace in a 
 beautiful park in the suburbs of Nice, 
 partitioned into small rooms called "boxes," 
 without ceilings. All that is separating me 
 from the spinal-meningitis on one side and 
 a case of diphtheria on the other are light 
 seven-foot pine partitions! 
 
 I have a Brazilian army doctor; there 
 were three hundred of them sent over for 
 service with the French Army. Evidently 
 the love and sympathy of the entire world 
 went forth to aid stricken France in her 
 dire distress. 
 
 154 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Next Day — ^Tuesday. Well, the novel 
 experiences of a soldier are many. I had 
 to jump out of the bed and pull it across 
 the concrete floor out of the heavy shower 
 that leaked through the roof during a 
 torrential rain. Luckily I wasn't very sick 
 or minus a leg. My nurse has only four- 
 teen patients ; formerly she had thirty-four ! 
 
 Major Willard D. Straight, my former 
 beloved chief in the War Risk Bureau, has 
 died of pneumonia. He had a brilliant 
 career for a man of forty. 
 
 The number of people who have died, 
 owing to overwork and reduced powers of 
 resistance and a treacherous climate, is 
 shocking. I really never realized what a 
 damnable climate this is. Half the bat- 
 tle country is under water from almost 
 incessant rains during the past four months. 
 The clouds raised for only a week when 
 the armistice was signed, as if a Divine 
 token of approval from the Almighty. 
 
 At last the warm, balmy and caressing 
 sunshine of beautiful Nice makes the con- 
 valescents want to bask forever and look 
 out on the clear blue Mediterranean and 
 wonder what it all means ! 
 
 Lots of love to you all, from 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Nice, France, 
 Jan. 5th, 
 1919. 
 
 155 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, Jan. 20th, I gig. 
 
 FIND that some of the French 
 customs are quaint and cer- 
 tainly opposite to our own, 
 for example : 
 
 It is not "etiquette" to wait until all at 
 table are served before one starts eating, 
 each commencing as soon as he is served, 
 thereby avoiding an awkward pause. If 
 one is timid about this he is apt to delay 
 the service or go hungry, for the plates are 
 removed rapidly as the courses are finished, 
 which makes the service almost continuous 
 and certainly quicker and more satisfactory, 
 especially when the meal is divided into 
 many courses, as is customary. 
 
 Forks are always placed with the prongs 
 pointing down, and knives and forks are 
 criss-crossed on the plate — prongs down! 
 
 Neatly written menus are placed on the 
 table in private homes, at formal luncheons 
 or dinners and frequently informal ones, 
 and are carefully read by the guests, — 
 evidencing a polite interest on their part. 
 
 The above usages appear unimportant, 
 but are equally as rigid as our own, and 
 their infraction regarded equally as ill-bred. 
 
 Even in the best homes, fruit such as 
 large apples and pears, is generally cut in 
 
 156 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 half before being "passed," which is surely 
 more practicable than our own extravagant 
 method. 
 
 Coffee with hot milk is served in the 
 morning in a large bowl, similar to a porridge 
 bowl, using a table-spoon instead of a tea- 
 spoon. 
 
 In the Bordeaux district, the ancient 
 peasant custom was to drink white wine 
 for breakfast instead of coffee as it is the 
 product of the country, and naturally more 
 easily obtainable and cheaper. 
 
 One not desiring coffee after a meal is at 
 liberty to ask for a cup of tilleul, a fashion- 
 able and mild hot beverage slightly digestive 
 and laxative in effect. This is a tea and is 
 made from dried linden blossoms; it also 
 acts as a sedative inducing sleep and is 
 altogether a very pleasing beverage, taken 
 after dinner. 
 
 The French always sleep with the win- 
 dows, iron shutters, and draperies tightly 
 closed even in the Summer, owing to their 
 abject fear of night air. The American 
 method of sleeping with outside ventilation 
 is regarded as suicidal, and when the maid 
 enters one's room in the morning in private 
 homes and finds the windows open, it is 
 usually the cause of ejaculations and aston- 
 ishment, and kind advice that one must not do 
 it. Their increased health since sleeping in 
 
 Paris, France, 
 Jan. 20th, 
 1919. 
 
 157 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Paris, France, 
 
 Jan. 20th, 
 
 1910. 
 
 the trenches does not seem to have altered 
 their views on ventilation. 
 
 A young U. S. Army engineer who as 
 a civilian had worked on the ventilation 
 problem of the New York subway, said: 
 ''I expected, when I came to France, I 
 might get some new ideas on street car 
 ventilation, but found they had solved 
 the problem simply by shutting the cars up 
 tight and having none!" 
 
 While talking with a Baroness and 
 Countess, I received some startling infor- 
 mation on "marriage contracts." It ap- 
 pears there are two laws under which the 
 marriage contract, which is obligatory, can 
 be drawn. The old law provides for the 
 wife's dowry becoming the property out- 
 right of her husband on the wedding day, 
 and the other for her to retain an interest! 
 One of these beautiful heiresses, who had 
 married a poor nobleman, told me that she 
 would have regarded it as an insult to her 
 husband if she had married him under any 
 but the old law! The other, who had mar- 
 ried a poor nobleman, said : "I brought my 
 husband a yearly income of fifty thousand 
 francs under the old law, from which he 
 gave me one hundred francs per month 
 spending money, and I was content!'* 
 These were both clever, charming women 
 from the rich bourgeoisie class who had 
 
 158 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 married titles. These are not isolated 
 cases. 
 
 There is another law for tradespeople, 
 under which the husband and wife can 
 become legal business partners, sharing 
 the profits like any two partners owning a 
 joint interest. 
 
 Ordinarily the interest from a girl's 
 dowry is supposed to equal about one- 
 fifth of her husband's earning power. And 
 girls very rarely can get married without a 
 dowry, even among the poorest classes, 
 who formerly frequently dispensed with a 
 ceremony owing to the complicated pro- 
 cedure, legal formality and attendant cost. 
 The laws have fortunately recently been 
 modified somewhat in this respect. 
 
 Dowries are small formalities which 
 were dispensed with by our American boys 
 when bringing home French brides! 
 
 After they become twenty-five, the girls 
 "marry Ste. Catherine," and Ste. Catherine's 
 Day (April 30th) is a festive occasion 
 when the shop girls wear flowers, fancy 
 hats and ribbons and have a jolly time all 
 day in the streets according to French 
 fashion. 
 
 As ever your son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 Parts, France, 
 Jan. 20th, 
 
 159 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Gondrecourt, France, Jan. S^th, IQIQ. 
 
 HE bottom has dropped out and 
 
 everybody is clamoring to get 
 
 home. There was a scramble 
 
 to get on the Peace Commission, 
 
 but this has died down. 
 
 It is sad to see the machinery of the 
 Liaison Service, about which we were all so 
 enthusiastic during the exciting times of last 
 summer, disintegrating and going to pieces. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Harjes who has gone 
 to Monte Carlo with his family, has never 
 returned to the office since the motor ac- 
 cident of last August when his hip was 
 broken, but has continued to direct the 
 Service thru Captain Phil Livermore, 
 Deputy Chief Liaison Officer. 
 
 With a slight stretch of the imagination, 
 one could believe this a stag winter country- 
 house party, or Muldoon's family training 
 camp for obese gentlemen; only these are 
 young and brimming with the effervescent 
 spirits of health and youth, and already 
 "fit." 
 
 After an easy day of several lectures on 
 military subjects, and a long hike over hard, 
 frozen country roads, and five-thirty o'clock 
 supper, they lounge, read, talk and smoke 
 until an early bed-hour. 
 
 160 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 There is plenty of amateur musical talent 
 and movies. An officer at present is play- 
 ing the piano, surrounded by an admiring 
 group, among whom are several good voices. 
 
 This is almost an Elysian picture, but 
 when you get this many American youths 
 together, no matter in what remote part of 
 the world, their indomitable Americanism 
 is bound to come to the surface. All fret 
 and are anxious to return to their organiza- 
 tions, most of which are in Germany, and 
 also have a vague, dim longing to return 
 home. But this is suppressed, largely for 
 the practical reason that they will have to 
 seek work when they leave the army. 
 Many feel, now that the arduous fight- 
 ing period has passed, like enjoying a 
 well-earned respite; however, a profound 
 yearning for home secretly exists deep in 
 every heart. 
 
 As the evening's movies in the "Audi- 
 torium," or adjoining barracks, were just 
 announced, and there was a concerted 
 movement in that direction, including the 
 ragtime officer at the piano, his place was 
 taken by one more sentimentally inclined, 
 who is exquisitely playing "The End of a 
 Perfect Day." Now, half an hour later, the 
 movie crowd is back again in full possession 
 of the piano. While serious-minded, they 
 are with their pent-up dynamic force like a 
 
 Gondrecourt, 
 France, 
 Jan. 30th, 
 1919. 
 
 161 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Gondrecourt, 
 
 France, 
 
 Jan. 30th, 
 
 1919. 
 
 pack of eager young hounds. These are 
 some of the men who from quiet civiHan 
 Hfe, with little military training, were 
 thrown in at Chateau-Thierry, with orders 
 to stop, regardless of sacrifice of life — which 
 the French had learned to so carefully 
 preserve — the ferocious drive which the 
 Germans had intended should end the war 
 by crushing France. 
 
 As ever your son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 162 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 Nancy f France^ Feb. ^th, JgiQ. 
 
 IMPROVED the opportunity 
 to come via Nancy, which is on 
 the Alsatian frontier, and was 
 astonished to find a large, 
 flourishing city, with more happy faces 
 than I have seen previously. It appears 
 more German than French, and the peo- 
 ple have such round, pleasant German 
 faces that one is startled when they speak 
 French. 
 
 It isn't correct to say they are German, 
 nor French, for they are Alsatian. In 
 the newer sections, the houses are mod- 
 ern German in architecture. There is a 
 marked difference between this hybrid city 
 and the old French town of Orleans, where 
 French is found in its purest. 
 
 One wonders why Rheims was pulverized 
 and this large city at the front remains al- 
 most untouched. There were dozens of 
 houses blown up by aerial bombs, but the 
 city is still intact. The simple reason is 
 that it was regarded as future German prop- 
 erty, and was, therefore, spared the fate of 
 others less fortunate. The public markets 
 were filled with good food, at high prices, 
 but not higher than at home. The finest 
 frozen beef was shown, so marked, for 
 
 163 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Nancy, France, 
 
 Feb. 5th, 
 
 1919. 
 
 previous to the war frozen meat had no 
 market in France, and there were poor re- 
 frigerating facihties, and almost no refrig- 
 erator cars. Each city has its own slaughter 
 plants. However, the French have over- 
 come their prejudice, and learned to appre- 
 ciate American frozen beef. 
 
 Ch§,teau-Thierry, Epernay, Bar-le-Duc, 
 and all the others of dozens of destroyed 
 towns one passes in the Marne Valley are 
 desolate looking shell-torn sights. There 
 is nothing interesting except to satisfy a 
 morbid curiosity in seeing the mangled 
 remains of these once pleasant villages. 
 At Chateau-Thierry the thrifty tradespeople 
 are already beginning to prepare, in a feeble 
 way, for tourists who are commencing to 
 come in the shape of a few Americans 
 "on leave." 
 
 Michelin is publishing elaborate guide- 
 books on the entire battle country, which 
 are standard and will supersede the Ger- 
 man Baedeker. 
 
 There are over one million eight hundred 
 thousand applications on file at Washington 
 for tourist passports, just think of it! 
 
 Lots of love, from 
 
 FERD. 
 
 164 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 U. S. Casual Officers' Camp 
 
 Angers, France, Feb. loth, IQIQ. 
 
 ERE I am, finally en route to 
 America, and to-morrow leave 
 for Bordeaux. 
 
 I am fortunate in being quar- 
 tered in the new French artillery barracks, 
 called the "Caserne Languoise." However, 
 there are as yet no modern conveniences, 
 such as electric lights and running water, 
 and I am writing by the light of a candle. 
 It is bitterly cold — five degrees above zero 
 Fahrenheit — to wash out-of-doors in a gale. 
 Angers is a most interesting old city of 
 eighty thousand, on the Loire, and was a 
 most pleasant surprise in this respect, as 
 one hears so little of it. The Loire Valley 
 was the historical medieval center of France. 
 Orleans, Tours, Blois, Angers, and Nantes 
 are all on this most picturesque of rivers, 
 which was first occupied by the Romans, 
 and since has played so important a part in 
 French history. 
 
 Several of my French friends have raised 
 such a friendly protest at my returning to 
 America so soon that I was compelled to 
 say that it was only in order to be de- 
 mobilized and that I would return in the 
 
 165 
 
LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 
 
 Angers, France, 
 
 Feb. loth, 
 
 1919. 
 
 spring! It is with a certain keen regret 
 that I am leaving France and these hos- 
 pitable friends, and the stirring scenes that 
 have become so indelibly woven into these 
 never-to-be-forgotten years, which have 
 for all of us, to a greater or less degree, left 
 their imprints on our characters and lives. 
 However, you hwzv I am at the same 
 time fervently hoping to again be with you 
 and at home almost as soon as this letter 
 arrives, and am, as ever, 
 
 Your devoted son, 
 
 FERD. 
 
 166 
 
This copy of "Letters from a Liaison 
 Officer" is one of a private edition of four 
 hundred copies, hand bound, designed and 
 printed at the press of George F. McKiernan 
 & Company, in Chicago, in the fifth month, 
 MCMXIX. 
 
 li 8 
 

 
 1** -^^iw- \ 
 
 /.C^^% 
 
 
 «i» .'€'^''4 , •* "<^ "rHflR*^* ^ ^ .^^^^4 ^ •* •<?' 
 
 
 *-^** '^- ^^-/ -A'". ''"-^*' 
 
 ;*l Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proces 
 
 s^^^Jtar ♦ fc/" ^ *^''»^^^«* »^ ^** *»^^22*^* p Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxid( 
 
 *.,,•* A*?- O, ** -TT' .0-' ^^ •■ . , 1 • * ^^"^ Treatment Date: |^;>Y 20D 
 
 '^^ -fc'^ *>J^ PreservationTechnologie 
 

 ^ ^. - 
 
 'bV 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . . . , 0^ 
 
 0^ . 
 
 •^0^ 
 
 V- o *.,o' ,0-' V ""-' ^ %. 
 
 
 V'O' 
 
 ♦ .N* 
 
 r^ 
 
 'oK 
 
 . .'^ 
 
 ^^^. 
 
 BOOKBINDING ■ <*^ 4? |. * 
 
 
 
 
 ^^^C^ 
 
 * «9