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Hospital Center
A.P.O., March 11, '19

Dear Dollie: - I am now somewhat rested up from my trip to Paris and the front and will begin the letter, 
I promised, describing my trip.

Enclosed you find my travel orders and permits to go to Reims and Chateau Thierry and you will notice 
from the stamping that Uncle Sam does not lose track of us for very long at a time. Beside these we 
had four other cards that were issued and taken up. My leave was for three days outside of travel time 
but I gained one day thru [sic] a mistake in the Provost Marshal office at Paris. He made my departure 
time at 8 p.m. when it should have been 8 a.m. the same day.

The first, third and fourth days were spent in Paris, and the second day at the front. Will tell you 
about this part of the trip first. We left Paris on a north bound train at 8 a.m. and went thru [sic] 
Chateau

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Thierry about 10 a.m. Here we thought there was a great deal of destruction. There was an occasional 
building down or a tree shot off and shell holes here and there, and buildings with several dozen 
marks on the sides from small missiles. But these were not even a small sample of what we were to 
see. The destruction increased with only an occasional area not damaged until we reached Reims. You 
can no more imagine the destruction here than you can imagine what the Niagara Fall or Yellowstone 
Park is like without having seen them, or what a cyclone can do.

About 11:30 a.m. we arrive at Reims, which was a city about the size of Kansas City and has been one 
of the most beautiful cities of all France, located on the Vesle river and spreads over a fine rolling 
country. We were directed to what was once a beautiful hotel. All the windows were out and the roof 
was replaced by canvas and the walls were marked all over by small missiles and there were great holes 
where the larger one had struck. The Red Cross occupied what was the office and were serving coffee 
and bread. Most of the streets were impassable, but the debris had been removed from a few and we

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walked thru several miles of the ruins and did not see a house or building that was not badly damaged; 
and there were blocks after blocks that were only piles of stone. The entire city is uninhabitable. We 
did not see two hundred people all together, and most of these were German prisoners that were cleaning 
up some of the streets or rather opening up a passage way[sic] as we do through snow drifts. The people 
had abandoned their houses, leaving even meals on the table not eaten, to say nothing of their personal 
effects. We found our way to the cathedral where most of the French kings have been crowned. It is a 
wonderful structure, and a great deal of it is still standing, but was hit hundreds of times. It does 
not appear that the Germans made a special target of it, because it is by far the most conspicuous object 
in the city and can be seen from all the surrounding country.

We next proceeded to the trenches, which are to the north of the city and come up almost to the city. 
The ground lies very much as it does east of Kirksville. I am sure I saw more barbed wire here in a 
few hours than I ever saw in all my life before, and trenches every where. We stopped an army truck 
and they took us out about five miles and it was the same all the way. They were

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all sizes as to depth and length. Some were new and some were old having moss and grass growing all over 
the sides. Then there were immense dugouts. Some of them going down thirty or forty feet and having 
two entrances with steps to go up and down. Some had stoves in and all had telephone wires and some 
electric light wires. Then there were rooms all made of cement wall below. Of course a trench that 
can be dug can be filled but if land were plentiful it could not be put back in farming condition for 
the price of the land. All the guns, large and small, had been taken away but the implacements were there 
and in some areas, machine guns had been placed every three to six or eight feet, evidently as close as 
they could be operated. There were great piles of ammunition, hand grenades, etc., left. Shell holes were 
everywhere the most of them were little fellows the size of a tub, but I was in some that were about eight 
feet deep and fifteen or twenty across the top. Time went entirely too fast and as it was getting near 
train time we walked most of the way back, and the same truck picked us up put us in Reims for the five 
o'clock train. It rained most of the

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time, so we were muddy, tired and hungry, but we had to make out on hardtack that we took along. There 
was nothing to be had but bread and coffee and we did not have time to get that. We got back to Paris 
about midnight. Now, as to this part of the trip I hardly know where to begin. The only time we lost 
was getting the proper number of stamps on our travel orders and passes. The remainder of the time we 
went so fast and saw so much that it is impossible to give a description that will convey it to you. 
Paris can not[sic] be compared to our American cities, perhaps Washington excepted, not that our cities 
are not wonderful for they are, but for their utility productiveness and for capacity to handle people 
and business with speed. The Paris ideal is art, symmetry and beauty. As you know it is on the Seine 
River which divides the city - for a long time the Romans occupies the southern bank and the Franks the 
northern and two islands in the center where the oldest part of the city stands. The islands are surrounded 
by a vertical wall from the water edge up to about three feet above the level of the streets and a wide 
walk is next to the wall, so that one may look over the wall into the water below. Both banks of

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the river are built up the same way, as you know the entire city was surrounded by a wall and a mote 
is outside of this. Since this is of little or no use now a driveway around the city is contemplated. 
It will follow the old wall. The majority of the streets are narrow and very irregular, similar to New 
York three or four streets may cross at one point and an area of an acre or so in the center is left 
and decorated with a monument or some other work of art, for instance, "Palace de la Bastile" is one. 
Here a great monument marks the sire of the old Bastile [sic] prison. I staid [sic] at the Hotel de 
Louvre which faces the end of Rue de l'Opera (street of the Opera) and the Grand Opera building faces 
the other end. The street is about or less than one half mile in length, and is the Broadway of Paris. 
The hotel is handled by the Red Cross to take care of American army officers and the price is regulated 
about the same as a first-class hotel in our cities.

Among the literally modern things I saw which will be of historical interest, is the building in which 
the Peace Conference sits. I was in the palace at Versailles and in the Hall of Mirrors

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in which peace will be signed, and in which the treaty with Germany in 1871 was signed giving them 
Alsace and Lorraine.

This palace and grounds is a masterpiece of the crafts of men; but it is one of the extravagances 
that bankrupted a nation, and indirectly one of the causes of the French revolution.

I am sending post card views of the Palace and grounds. The trip here was made with a Red Cross guide 
and took a full half day.

Most of the morning of the same day was spent at Notre Dame Cathedral, which was also a Red Cross trip. 
It is the fourth largest church in the world and was more than a hundred years in construction. It was 
begun in the 12th century. Near it is a smaller church that was hit by the long range gun on Easter morn 
and killed and wounded nearly two hundred people at worship therein.

I was very much disappointed at being unable to get a ticket to the Grand Opera, but they were all gone. 
The building is wonderful on the outside. It is a national consideration, the government has to appropriate 
something like a million dollars a year for its upkeep. Here again it is very unlike our American theatres

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as there are no department stores, cigar, or liquor stores in connection or under it. The building is 
out separate and distinct from every other structure.

One has not been to Paris unless they visit Napoleon's tomb. This is on the south bank of the river 
and is in connection with the Invalides, which was once a hospital for disabled soldiers. Now it is 
a museum of war material and war paintings. The vault is of red granite and is seen from the floor 
above; which resembles a circular balcony with a marble railing around. It is directly under a high 
circular dome which admits the light. The architecture is beautiful. In the court of the Invalids was 
a large collection of aeroplanes, Zeppelins and artillery of all sizes taken from the Germans.

We spent part of our time at the Louvre, which is the museum of fine arts. The statuary was all in 
place, but all paintings had been removed during the bombardment. In the court of this building is 
the statue of LaFayette presented to France by the public school children of America.

From the Louvre west for a distance of

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about a half mile is a succession of areas including the Gambetta and Champ Elysee which form a beautiful 
park about the size of Tower Grove Park in St. Louis. At the west end is the Arch of Triumph which is a 
beautiful production. Both sides of the street from the Louvre to the Arch are line with artillery captured 
from the Germans. We counted for a few blocks and estimated that there were about 2000 pieces from the 77 
gun up in size. Think I got some good pictures of some groups and of the tanks.

A short way down in the Trocadero, a theatre erected at the end of the 1900 world's fair grounds and 
looking south across the river is seen Eiffel tower and the old ferris wheel that so many rode on at 
Chicago fair. We were past the tower but guards prevented pedestrians from walking on that side of the 
street. It is now an immense wireless station. We saw many more less important things which I will not 
take time to tell about now.

I have had quite a time getting this letter finished, as we have discharged and admitted about five 
hundred patients

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this week and have over four hundred left. So we have been going some. I am enjoing the best of health 
but do not know anything more about coming home but am hoping for next month.

As ever,
EZRA.

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W.W.I.86.47

Mrs. Johnson
March 11, 1919