Sincerely, Joel C. Swisher

Dear Mary ⁽¹⁾NOTE: This letter contains an offensive racial term for Asian people that was acceptable among white Americans at the time it was written.

Just 6 months today we started on our way to France. This started out to be a good day but started in to rain about 2:30 o’clock. The weather over here reminds me of our April sunshine and showers without the sunshine. But gee but this is getting to be pretty country. When the sun does come out it is a country worth looking at. I took about about a 20 kilometer walk today. Saw nice country and several quaint little towns. As I have said before nearly all the people in these parts live in small towns and villages. And all of these are near streams. The only reason I can give for this is so that the women can be handy to do their washing.

We certainly made a good use of our working hours last week and worked 3 1/2 hours overtime besides. We are building warehouses 500 by 50 ft. and are scheduled to put one up every three days and I think we can do it. Perhaps better. One day we got orders to get bunks ready for 1000 Chinamen⁽²⁾These men were likely Vietnamese, from what was then French Indochina, 49,000 of whom were recruited to fill labor shortages in France due to the war. that day. Believe me, those bunks certainly flew together and by 6 o’clock they were all finished. Just about that time the Chinks arrived and they turned them loose among the bunks. It was some sight. It reminded me of a big ant hill. These Chinks are very small men and their teeth are as black as charcoal from chewing the beetle nut. Their officers herd them around like cattle and use whips on them when such are necessary. They bunked them all in one of those warehouses.

This Friday night at the Y.M.C.A. Ella Wheeler Wilcox spoke to us. And that American violinist, McMillian. He is a lieutenant in the army now. He played that piece called The Lark. It is supposed to represent the song of a skylark. We have a lot of those birds here and I can truly say that when he played you could easily imagine it was a bird singing instead of a man playing. He was quite a player. Last night Baron Deitrick from Paris gave us an illustrated lecture on the part of France that has been part of Germany since 1870. Also told us that the great French song was not written in the town you would naturally think but was written in 1792 in the town of Strasburg, then a part of France. The Baron’s great-grandfather was mayor of Strasburg at that time and this song was written as a result of a prize he offered at that time.

I have not gotten any mail for 2 weeks but think I must be due for some in the near future.

Today I saw the gun, a French “75”, that fired the first shot fired by American artillery men at the Germans. It is on its way back to the U.S. to go on exhibition.

I had my teeth looked over by an army dentist a few weeks ago. He claimed he could find only one cavity. That he filled. Didn’t cost me anything. Seemed rather strange to have dental work done for nothing.

Love to all,
Joel