2ème Régiment Étranger,
1ère Section, Dépôt de Rouen, France,
Aug. 31, 1914
Dear Mamma:
Paul and I are here drilling with the American corps and about sixteen hundred other foreigners from every land. I think Paul wrote you about our joining. As it is very hard to get letters through and we are not allowed to write much about what we are doing, will only tell you that both of us are well and feeling fine. It is, of course, a little rough, but it will make men of us both.
We left Paris Friday morning and arrived here in the afternoon. Since then we have been living the army life, except that we have not yet our uniforms. The American branch is quite a mixture, but there are several fine fellows. Yale, Harvard, Michigan, Columbia, Cornell and several other schools are represented by graduates. There are two or three college professors and two lawyers. We drill about six hours a day and have three hours that we do what we please. The rest of the time is spent loafing around barracks and doing odd chores. The barracks is an old school building. We get to bed every night between eight and nine, lights out at nine, and get up at five in the morning. The food is good, wholesome and well cooked. We have a sleeping bag furnished and an army blanket, and straw to sleep on.
Everybody is congenial and good-humored, all trying to make the company a good one. We had from eleven in the morning till eight at night off yesterday and spent most of the time looking over the town, which is, in an historical way, the most interesting city in France. This is in Normandy and the people from this section were the ones who invaded England successfully. The most interesting thing to us yesterday was seeing the dungeon where Jeanne d’Arc was imprisoned before being burned at the stake. The tower was built in 1205. Then there is here a famous cathedral and numerous other old buildings.
This will be the last letter I shall write you for some time, as they don’t like for us to write letters, and they read them all and don’t send them if one talks too much. Everyone uses postcards and I will “follow suit” after this. We do not expect to be here much longer but guess mail will be forwarded from this address.
We both hope that you will not worry, as this is a great thing for us to do.
Much love
Kiffin.