Powhatan H. Clarke letter to Mother - January 16, 1919
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42 St. Nazaire 16 January. My dearest Mother: Somehow my letters seem to get gaps between them without my realizing it. At least however I have a little time. I am actually doing nothing, can you believe it. But to begin at the beginning. Oh you leave!!! I saved and scraped for about lord knows
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how long for that leave. Finally the unexpected happened and on [December] 8, I kissed Savenay goodbye with four thousand francs in my pocket. The trip to Paris was uneventful. At Paris being a country rube I put 3000 francs in an inside pocket and only left 1000 in my pocket book. I had a good time in Paris. Bumped into a lot of Air Service men ate well at
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and took in the theaters for the two days that the A.P.M. would let me stay. They
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[page 4] Well it took me about two second to get all the shade down & the door locked after that I pulled out the seat & slept comfortably. We arrived at 3:15 AM & after driving to five hotels I decided it was useless & gave up getting a room. There was a train out at 5:15 AM which got to Nice at 3: PM three hours before the express which left at 11. o
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Just as the train started to pull out up rushes an officer with a trained nurse & in they come; making it one to many. As the train started two French women hopped on & despite our protest shoved in. You cant very well kick two women off a moving train. Believe me it was crowded. Everybody glared at the extras & the temperature was about zero. About two minutes out of Marseille we made our first stop & I
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French women and the dog. Every body was grouchy & sleepy & squeezed to half their normal size & the blame dog wouldn
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[page 3] merriment. Especially when the French colonel told the trained that her corset was very beautiful
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pocket. I froze stiff. There wasn
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was given to me but couldn
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[page 4] have it the manageress escorted me to the door. I suppose she wanted to see I didn
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I had given Lloyds instructions to send the money to the Credit Nantaise so I waited three days & then went off owing another hotel bill but under slightly different circumstances. Mr Gygi my friend the proprietor offered to lend me money besides laughing when I wanted to give him a note for my bill. Got back to Savenay & they gave me merry hades for staying over time & to cap the climax my bedding roll had been moved when officers quarters were moved & left in dripping wet tent so that bed roll was like a sponge. Ergo I had to go to the hotel & when I left there I left owing another bill. Never had any trouble except with N. I now have gone from 4 hotels without paying. One was the Crillon Paris. By the way I paid Col Smith as soon as I got my December pay but that left me practically nothing to go on. I telegraphed the Credit Nataise to send the money to the Banque de France St. Nazaire. Yesterday I had the B de France call up the Credit Nantaise & found that a check had been mailed me day before yesterday. It aught to be here by now especially as I have just three francs in my pocket. Just enough for two glasses of port. The check will certainly turn up tomorrow. When I got back to Savenay the orders were to disband the company so I had to work like a dog. When the job was finished I was shot down here. Now the Labor Bureau has changed its mind again I will continue business & warns everybody that there is a lot of work to be done so that we wont be disappointed at not being sent home. Ouch. I am trying my best to get out of the L.B. as a preliminary step I
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Well to sum up. I have nothing to do but wait for the check then I have two hotel bills to pay. Of course I paid the Crillon Bill I mentioned long ago. The reason I left without paying that bill was because I left at 7 AM and the cashier wasn
Details
| Title | Powhatan H. Clarke letter to Mother - January 16, 1919 |
| Creator | Clarke, Powhatan H. |
| Source | Clarke, Powhatan H. Letter to Mother. 16 January 1919. Clarke, Powhatan Papers. A0293. Missouri History Museum, Saint Louis, Missouri. |
| Description | Powhatan Clarke sent this letter to his mother about his leave through France and the troubles he encountered. He was suppose to receive a seven day leave after four months of service, but this was Clarke's first furlough. Clarke served with the 21st Aero Squadron and Labor Bureau A.E.F. during Word War I. |
| Subject LCSH | World War, 1914-1918--Military life--United States; Military leaves and furloughs |
| Subject Local | World War I; WWI |
| Site Accession Number | A0293 |
| Contributing Institution | Missouri History Museum |
| Copy Request | Transmission or reproduction of items on these pages beyond those allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the Missouri History Museum: 314-746-4510 |
| Rights | The text and images contained in this collection are intended for research and educational use only. Duplication of any of these images for commercial use without express written consent is expressly prohibited. Contact the Missouri History Museum's Permissions Office at 314-746-4511 to obtain written consent. |
| Date Original | January 16, 1919 |
| Language | English |