James E. Henschel letter to Mrs. Leopold H. Henschel - September 20, 1918
Transcript
September 20th, 1918. Dear Mother: To finish that of about a week ago. The long convoy has been somewhat extended; a sort of exagerated week-end visit to different parts, still continuing. A dozen "A" company cars were included in the detachment (the thing wound up as a detachment), and as Coburn remained with the others, I acted top again. The job has been quite interesting, for the lieutenant has taken his leave and returned a day or so ago. And my weekly home hence is about a semi-monthly again. We are quartered in a chateau that libels the name (I never heard of a typewriter going on a spree, but look at the line above!) There are two great attractions to the place, the grounds and the fact that it still has a roof. After Wandering through the grounds for the greater part of a day hunting for a ruins or some sign that the "chateau" was not really the porter's lodge, I gave up in despair. The grounds are fine, and there is a magnificent brick wall all around the place, but the building itself - it's all wrong. Looks cheap and did not costs much as that, and the wall paper in the room that I inhabit it horrible. And so far as I can discover has only nine rooms. What a chateau! I'm not growing particular as to the place in which I sleep, but this house is painful to any aesthetic sense. None the less, forgetting the concrete lined artificial brook winding through the trees, I am quite made about the bit of woods in back, with the many winding paths, neglected long enough to look nice and unkempt, like my hair. Now if only the owners had forgotten the place some years sooner than they did, and Fritz had dropped an "egg" on the house (the very black walnut decoration are made of plaster) I would be pleased as Punch. But they didn't and he didn't, so I remain quite satisfied with the trees I look at and forget the place I live. Expect to leave here shortly anyway. We have a goat, or at least company "D" has one, which we honoured with the name Ninette. Ninette being a goat, naturally it thought that it was quite pomme de terre to consume anything and everything in sight, and it does, or rather, it did. A few days ago Ninnette "took on a complete set" of the high explosive pwder that send 75's and like souvenirs Berlinward. The results have proven somewhat disastrous. Ninette did not blow up, but she was an awfully sick goat, and I think it will be some time before she again tried the experiment of proving the erroneous supposition, at least with HE strips. Also, Company "D" put Reed and Wright on guard last night. Starbeams should know about it. Did not know that those things really happened. I'm feeling idiotic and rotten and beastly cold, and the typewriter on't write any better than I do, I haven't had a bath since August 5th an itch all over and my only pair of socks is developing enormous holes. Also, I'm mad, sent the morning convoy out a half hour late and will get cussed well for doing so, the water gave out in the middle of my "tooth-wash", my watch stopped marching and someone has given me a Napoleon franc, which is only good to collectors. On the whole, what might be termed a most highly successful failure of a morning. Of course, no one appreciates better than I the fact that my letters are marvels of wit and valuable sentiment and are models of the "lost art" of letterwriting, but if they must appear in print, please don't let 'em have the name, or at any rate, the address. We do like immensely to look through a pile of letters what is brought around for distriction, and find out name on three envelopes all from some unknown party - and pas de tout from home. The worst of it all is
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that two of them are written in such an admirable spirit that I feel bound to acknowledge them. (Find them not enclosed) lost The other one was of quite a different sort; it came from Kansas City. (Not enclosed). Seriously, though, if there is anything in my letters that might be useful to anyone (I doubt it muchly) why they are more than welcome to it and I don't care whether they are published or not, The newspaper takes the blame but it really is embarassing sometimes when one's name appears at the foot, and all the of one's seven feet of address. The result is always that some well meaning person, and usually others not so well meaning, seem to the a personal interest in one. If that happens, any value the letter might have had is destroyed, so far as that person is concerned, and hence the letter better unpublished. That being the logical reason, my real objection is considerably different. I always have much the same sensation as one has in a dream where he finds himself in highly undesirable and embarrassing predicament, such as being naked in a crowded place. Understand? This paragraph is quite a jumble or words, but that's the idea, anyway. It seems that I remember giving Miss Nation's name to you but not the address, in my last letter. Here it is: Miss Nina E. Nation, Hotel Metropolitan, #8 Rue Cambon, Paris. As to a list of things that would be useful - that is pretty hard to give. Not that the things would not be of value, but that one never can think of just what he is going to need until he needs it. There is one "item" of which I am certain, a pair of gloves like the pair that you sent me last year, and some socks. Stockings wear out, especially when a fellow's supply has been most mightily decreased, as I explained to you in another letter. Also, I wonder if my two sister's could get together on another enormous handkerchief, like the one I brought over a year ago. How about it, eh? I can buy them something nice in gay Paree, and may do it if I ever see the town again, but I can't buy a handkerchief like that here, nor stockings like the one's in last year's Christmas boxes, nor gloves like Mother sent. (Something like the w.k. pies "Mother used to make"). I'm going to stop. This epistle is getting no where rapidly. Will write again soon. Love. Ned
Details
| Title | James E. Henschel letter to Mrs. Leopold H. Henschel - September 20, 1918 |
| Creator | Henschel, James E. |
| Source | Henschel, James E. Letter to Mrs. Leopold H. Henschel. 20 September 1918. James Edward Henschel Collection, 1917-1919. 1996.51. The National World War I Museum, Kansas City, Missouri. |
| Description | In this letter dated September 20, 1918, Henschel wrote his mother about the long convoy he had been a part of and how it had been extended. Henschel also expressed interest in a package being sent with some necessities. |
| Subject LCSH | American Field Service; Missouri. National Guard; United States. Army. Motor Transport Corps |
| Subject Local | WWI; World War I |
| Site Accession Number | 1996.51 |
| Contributing Institution | National World War I Museum and Memorial |
| Copy Request | Transmission or reproduction of items on these pages beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the National World War I Museum and Memorial: (816) 888-8100. |
| 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. |
| Date Original | September 20, 1918 |
| Language | English |