Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Congo (9) Brussels, Belgium, 11/6/1920 [DCS]

Brussels, Belgium

November 6, 1920

My own dear homefolks:

As I make very little progress with the typewriter, I prefer to change back to my own penmanship.

The weather still remains cold, but it seems to me I do not feel it here as much as we would if it was this cold in our country. This weather, I suppose, is an exception as they tell us they never have such dry weather this time of the year. It is always very damp and disagreeable. The other day at noon time there was ice over all standing water and we didn’t feel the cold so much. It was such a dry, still cold; however I was ready enough to put on my heavy underwear when the cold started.

We went out to the battle fields of Waterloo yesterday, and spent an enjoyable day. Walked over around where thousands of soldiers were killed. This was certainly an awful battle. We were shown first, the position of the soldiers on the day of the victory of the English with Wellington as commander on a picture supposed to be taken in the center of the fighting. It was certainly a wonderful picture. Where the picture stopped and the ground started was somewhat hard to distinguish. There were horses made of wood, I suppose, and dead men lying all around. Then we went to view the same battle field as it is today from a mound made by three hundred women that carried the dirt in baskets on their backs. This took four years to finish. When Wellington came and saw what had been done, he said “you have ruined my battlefield.” This mound is 165 feet high and there are 220 steps to the top. I was completely out of breath when I got to the top. There is a statue with a huge lion on top of this mound. We took several pictures of this; if any are good we will send you one.

We visited a farm which was attacked three different times. There is a well here where hundreds of soldiers were buried, also the remains of an old chapel. There were other farms to see, but as we were in somewhat of a hurry, we came on home, or rather to Dr. Anet’s where we had an engagement. The men want to talk over some affairs with him.

We certainly get our laundry done nicely here. It seems to me they do a great deal of extra work on them for all the gowns, teds, underskirts, etc. are pleated in small pleats about a fourth of an inch wide.

Must close for this time.

Lovingly,

Dorothy

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