[Stationary preprinted with name and address of hotel:] Hôtel de Castiglione, Paris
Nov. 4. [1918]
Dear Family
I don't think I have written
for a week & this must be a
scrappy note because it is 10:30 P.M.
& I must get up Early To-morrow.
The chauffeurs have been most
tremendously busy these last two
weeks on account of moving.
My life seems to hinge around
choked carburetors, broken springs,
snatched when you can get it
& sleep. Nothing Else has mattered
to me & I feel like a regular
camion driver, dirty, but so
accustomed to the job that it
no longer is tiring.
The fact is not absolutely
proved & two French nurses
may spoil my claim, but --
without going too deeply into the
fact of their being there, I can
say that I am the first
woman to have slept in
St. Quentin
after the departure of the Boches.
crowd anyway & ate with the
doctors for several days. A French
nurse bunked with me for a
short time who was most
interesting -- her home is Le Cateau
& she was over two years with
the Germans. She had a large
farm, 25 horses & the corresponding
amount of hens, pigs etc. Of
course she lost all her live stock
at the very start, but she hoped
to find her house standing.
However she walked over there
the other day & everything was destroyed, even her cellar mined
& all her trees cut -- pretty
discouraging.
The country over which I
have been motoring is tremendously
interesting but most gloomy.
Unless there are soldiers about
there is not a living thing, nothing
but waste & destruction -- if
you saw a whole house you
would stop to look at it
as a phenomenon. One Evening
I tried to take a short cut
home with a doctor & we got
involved in bad roads
which finally led us
to an impassable bridge -- we
had to retrace our steps
completely & start all over again.
The sensation was extraordinary,
to be going over the lines not
so very long ago the scene of
fighting, to crawl past shell
holes, a sign marked "post de
secours," & to go forever & Ever
& never get out of it. The car was going badly & I thought
surely we were stuck for the
night, but luck was with us
& we struck a good road getting
us home at 9 o'clock. Never
again will I be so foolish as
to try short cuts home
through "no man's land" Even
if it is French property now.
The weather has been warm
& nice so far -- rainy &
muddy
but nothing to complain
about. We have got some pretty
open fire places & plenty of
wood to burn -- therefore solid
comfort. Unfortunately it
appears that we are to move
again almost immediately -- it
will give us a chance to see
more of the country so I
really don't mind much. Now
that I no longer have to bother
about the packing of the
material I feel carefree & irresponsible --
greasing the car is a daily task,
but at least you can go about it by yourself, & I find life
much more tranquil than as
a gestionnaire. A conservative
estimate gives the last two
weeks' record 1400 kilometres
for my car alone -- not bad do
you think? I look more
wholesome & hearty than Ever