| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, Metz, to her relatives, regarding not being able to get out for Aunt's birthday, as she has two rounds to do, Aunt will be visiting this evening, they are allowed an afternoon off a week, visit to the Exhibition, her father would have been interested in the metallurgical products and industries of the Sarre basin, they may be able to go again, there is a fun fair, too, the countryside is beautiful and the weather is cool, accompanying Mlle. Stoufflet to the foyer of the 30th. Dragoons, they take a clothes basket, tins and bundles of food, the dragoons are not as smart in barracks as outside, belts and hats however redeem their appearance, they use a large room with a piano on a stage in a corner, they serve cocoa from 'two large zinc baths', small odds and ends are provided for sale, such as combs and razor blades, the men then dance to 'rowdy waltzes' on the piano, much less salubrious than the entertainments at Valence, 'I wondered how many men came out of barrack life unsullied', Mlle. Stoufflet is not a good example to the men, and has no 'sunny moral power emanating from her', return of Dr. Balbeze, sorry the other doctor, Maniguet, is leaving, incident with Belbeze and a dirty floor. |