Was a very busy day getting ready and helping to put things in order. Lunch at 2. Must be ready to start at four. We were to go to our appointment in a fine limousine. Just think, we had to hurry to get out of the city gates before six o’clock but made it. Then for a run of sixty miles. But about 14 miles from Paris there is a place of interest where the Germans were fighting about two years ago and the French made trenches. We went in the trenches but some were filled with water. It was great how wonderful the trenches are made, but the most interesting was the sham guns that saved Paris. They are made of wood and stove pipe. The Germans saw them and were frightened and left them alone. We saw many graves marked with a wooden cross, some with a flag, and some with a large monument and flags where many were buried with a fence around. Saw many places were German bombs had blown down the homes. There were many old men and women working in the fields. There were several soldiers among them who had received a few days’ leave and were helping to get in the grain. One place a horse was treading while a man was plowing with a yoke of oxen. One house we passed was burning, and the people had to just stand and watch, as there was no water. One place we passed the whole family came out to welcome the Americans. The family included man, wife, daughters, children, and dog. They tried hard to tell us how glad they were to see us. We resumed our journey but not for long, as we spied some apples growing along the roadside. As we looked, we decided that we must have some. We picked a few but found they were bitter and sour; not fit to eat but good for sauce.
The roads are like avenues or park roads, with trees on the side of them.
There are many statues of Christ along the roadside, which look kind of queer. Above the door of each building there is an arch built for the image of Christ.
Our next stop was for gas. We stopped at a place where the transports are loaded with soldiers and then sent to the firing lane. Fifteen transports were ready to leave at four o’clock in the morning. A few commissioned officers, some drivers, and a few women stay here. The women were very glad to see us and gave us some very good blackberry juice to drink.
The water here is not good for the health and hard on the teeth. I have lost one filling out of a tooth already.
After a short talk with a Frenchman, who could talk perfect English, we began to say goodbye. They all said goodbye, but as the French are very polite, it took a long time. We finely got started on our journey but had not gone far when a tire blew out. Again the tire was fixed; it was dark and the lights on the car were lit. These lights were carbon and not much account.
We passed an American camp, and they all cheered; so did we. We soon arrived at the place where we were to stay for the night. It was about ten-thirty when we got to the town of Montiers-sur-Saul Meus Meuse. We were all hungry, so the restaurant man called the maid, and we ate our supper then went to the hotel for the night.
More Information
The following section provides historical context and is not part of the original diary entry.
Likely location: At sea / Bordeaux / Paris, France
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Margaret Sheldon departed New York in September 1917 with the first contingent of Salvation Army workers bound for France. After crossing the Atlantic in a convoy system designed to evade German U-boats, she arrived in Bordeaux and traveled to Paris before heading to the AEF training area in Lorraine.
Research Links for Further Study
- Library of Congress. (n.d.). The American Expeditionary Forces. Library of Congress Digital Collections.
- Boissoneault, L. (2017, April 12). The women who fried donuts and dodged bombs on the front lines of WWI. Smithsonian Magazine.
- Cantwell, C. (n.d.). Doughboys & doughnut girls: The Salvation Army and WWI. National WWI Museum and Memorial.
Diary of a World War I Donut Girl 