Harvey WIlliams portrait

Harvey Williams papers

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October 29, 1917

Dear Ma:-

A note from you and one from Betty today were the first I have had in weeks - three or four I believe. It certainly seems as though you had been doing a great deal.

After my cable, I suppose you want to know the details of my job. I have a Dodge Bros. car in which I tour Paris with officers and others doing errands. There are also Hudsons and Fiats attached to headquarters, but I really prefer my Dodge, as it does slip through traffic in fine style. The traffic certainly is fierce and absolutely unregulated. Taxis drive at a terrific rate and there is so much slow horse traffic that everything is grandly mixed. I have to appear at the garage at 8 A. M. and I am through at 6 P. M., with an hour and a half off for lunch. We get as a minimum salary $100 per month.

Yesterday I drove a Major Cabot Warde about for three hours. He asked me who I was and we discovered that he had been at Cutter when father was there and used to have the honor of holding his sweater while he played football. I told him why I was driving a car there and that I hoped the Americans would lower their age limit to 18 by next summer so that I would enter the flying squad. He said he thought it was very wise to work there, as then I would be given first chance at anything like that.

Also, if the automobile service is federalized, we are to be given at least sergeancies. Two of the boys who have been with this service for a month were offered commissions.

I happen to be writing on this paper because the Y.M.C.A. is very near the aviation headquarters. Now, I am staying at a little hotel boasting the name "Grand Hotel de Champs Elysees". Soon, I hope to move to a boarding-house, but it seems as though every room in the city were full. Better send everything c/o American Express Co. as then if I move, there will be no complications. I am thoroughly enjoying myself and seeing Paris also for nothing but the trouble of using my eyes.

Feeling fine.

Harvey.

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