Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1006/004.006.002-006#027

July 7, 1918
My darling Family,
How can I ever tell you about these past few days. I’m still numb with the emotion and excitement of them and even if I weren’t, couldn’t ^never, never, never^ describe them So I’ll just try to tell you the events as they happened. The feeling part I leave to your imagination.
I wrote you about finding Douglas at the Sauveurs[?]. [Over Deat?], we had lovely family meals all together, while he was getting over his grippe, and one evening of good old songs [p. 2] and hymns, after a lazy Sunday afternoon stroll and lounge in the Bois. You cant know till you’ve been over here long without it what music means at these times especially all the old home things untouched and unheard for a year. It was almost more than any of us could stand.
[p.1 margin:] I don’t think that Willard is older & stouter. He is lean & brawny & firm with such a clean look w his eye and so much looked up to & liked by them all! Why, he led the conversation at the General’s table!!
In the daytimes, I stayed with Lucinda as much as possible, in her hours off tried unsuccessfully to get a million and one jobs done and people interviewed and then, out of the sky, came the supreme climax. Drawing wearily up in an overloaded taxi [missing part?]
[p. 3 marked 2] It is much quieter and airier than the Montana quartier, and seems almost suburban. For the winter it would have been too far away from things, but for Spring it’s ideal and awfully convenient for the other girls’ jobs.
I have felt all the first-arriving thrills, and Paris is newly enchanting and wonderful. All the way up in the train it seemed as if I were coming into War-France for the first time again — so absolutely out of the war-atmosphere were we in Lacaune. You can imagine how [p. 4] exciting it was to see an American uniform again after eleven weeks — Here the excitement of seeing friends and familiar places and hearing talk has been like wine. When I’m not at the couvité or with Lucinda or doing or shopping, I run up to the Sauveurs’ lovely new apartment overlooking the Bois. Yesterday p.m. whom should I find but Douglas, tout seul[?].
We had a fine old talk, he stretched out on the couch in blissful relaxation after all the strain of the past weeks, both [p. 5 marked 3] wishing it were the sand[?] of March. He is so fine — so modest and quiet about his victories so much older in many ways — especially in appearance. His wound is all well, but he is tired and grippey, so he has been given a 3-weeks leave but it lovely for the Sauveurs and for him that he can stay there, for awhile at any rate!
I wish you could see that red and green ribbon with the palm and his wonderful ace cane — a tiger pawing at the croix, below which are notched the dates of his six [p. 6] victories and the wounded [?] — ‘as far as the tale goes for the present.”
Perhaps you will see them, for Douglas says they want to send him home for propaganda work. Poor soul, he’s terribly upset about it and is trying his best to stave it off. I imagine his having to exhibit himself or even go back to a training-camp to instruct!
He talks so simply and naturally of everything, so much the same old Douglas in a way, and yet with something so quite [p. 7 marked 4] different. He says that once in the air, its all the most natural thing in the world, and that the Germans are just like big birds — all sense of the human element being lost in the mechanical whole. So that the killing par hasn’t been so hard. He has been spared seeing any of his victories afterwards. All his exploits have been so characteristically complete and dashing. Once he started over the lines to drop a message telling of the imprisonment of a German whom he’d just brought down. That is aviation etiquette, tho’ unofficial.
[p. 8] They’d just done the same thing to tell the Americans of James Norman Hall’s being alive) As he got over the German lines two Boches started up to chase him off, so Douglas drove them down and then, “As everyone was looking up,” he dropped the message. Another Time, after chasing back enemy pursuers, he turned a somersault over the German batteries just out of range of the guns to show his contempt. “It makes them so mad — says Douglas —
[p. 9 marked 5] Oh, I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to see people again and to feel near the war. (Only, one is so near now, with the American wounded pouring in and the personal realization of having friends hurt, that to stay long in Paris and not be nursing or helping in some way in the hospitals would be a hard fight. I hear so much from Lucinda of what the men have been thro’ and what their suffering and spirit is that it brings the war home all over again — They’re so [p. 10] magnificent, those boys suffering like that when it’s not their own immediate country and home which they’re defending. — Lucinda says that their spirit and clear ideal of making the world safe for democracy among[?] were the humblest and crudest of them in the hospital is beyond anything she’s ever known or imagined. Thank goodness that the country can appreciate them, and know as everyone here is saying, that they ^literally^ ‘stopped the road to Paris” —
[p. 11 marked 6] The city is calm and so beautiful in full summer greenness. Many people have left, but the streets & metros still seem crowded, and as for any signs of panic !! The raids have started up again, but no [???] since I’ve been here. Being so near the Etoile, we get the full benefit of the anti-aircraft gun on top of the arc de Triomphe which barks away at a great rate over our heads, while pieces of shrapnel patter down into the streets. From our little balcony we have [p. 12] A full view of search-lights and signalling French planes, far beyond anything that the [???] boasted. As soon as the alerte[sic] sounds we hustle into [???] and wrappers as they turn off the electricity ten minutes after. Then we watch from the balcony or bed. You don’t know what a thrill of bein in it again it gives me to hear those old ^siren^ whoops once more! We ar eUsoU impossibly safe and sound at Lacaune.
I shall go back in a few days, as soon as I can get tickets and laissez-passer. Paris is an [p. 13 marked 7] entrenched camp now, so there’s much red tape about everything.
Would that Hugo or Rusty or Howell were here now. Ad is James really in France? Rose heard that rumor, but not a word have I heard from him. Willard is still somewhere at the front and if he gets permission soon, he may possibly drop in at Lacaune for a day Wouldn’t it be fine!
Machado had been having all sorts of adventures when last heard from, and Rusty was in a dressing [p. 14] station at the front, as you probably know.
Think of you at the island, — some of you at any rate! It now begins to feel really a year since I left. My future, as always, is perfectly uncertain — to finish up the job at Lacaune getting them really settled then I know not what. We are starting new colonies all through the south, evacuating those in the Paris region & making places for the endless stream of new applicants. — No one really thinks the Germans can get to Paris, but there’s always the possibility of steady bombardment if they get even a little nearer. So every effort is being made to get [letter ends here]

• Keywords: long archives; henry w. longfellow family papers (long 27930); erica (thorp) de berry; document; correspondence; joseph gilbert thorp jr.; anne allegra (longfellow) thorp; france; lacaune; europe; education; health and illness; school; places; war; world war i; paris; friendship; travel; social life; summer; Erica Thorp deBerry Papers (1006/004.006); (LONG-SeriesName); Outgoing (1006/004.006.002); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1918 (1006/004.006.002-006); (LONG-FileUnitName)