March 14, 1918 - Enjoying French food after London

Don Martin dairy entry for Thursday, March 14, 1918:

Am getting good food here but it costs a fortune. Breakfast in the Crillon costs about $2.50 and dinner slightly more – up to $4 [$44 and $70 in today's dollars]. Had dinner this evening with [Burn] Price at the famous Beauf a la Mode place. It was fine. In London people “feed”; here they feast. Walked around most of the day. Wrote an interview with Kerney. Went to the office in the evening and got Muir to put a letter to Dorothy in French. I sent it to her tonight and I’ll bet it will keep her guessing. Met Klacher of the A.P. on the street; also Pipp of the Detroit News. Walked along the Champs Elysees for an hour.

Champs Elysées seen from Place de la Concorde

Spent the evening in the hotel. The streets are dark and I wouldn’t want to be caught outside in an air raid. Paris is much more scared over them than London. The streets here are dotted with crippled soldiers and I see thousands of women in mourning. Business goes on though almost as if there was no war.

Weather fine. Sunny and mild.

Comments

October 14, 1918: Don Martin’s funeral service in Paris

A funeral service for Don Martin was held in Paris on Sunday, October 13, 1918, at the American Church, rue de Berri. The New York Herald published this report on Monday, October 14, 1918. MANY FRIENDS AT CHURCH SERVICE FOR DON MARTIN Simplicity and Sincerity of Character of “Herald” Writer, Theme of Dr. Goodrich’s Sermon Funeral services for Don Martin were held yesterday afternoon in the American Church in the rue de Berri. They were simple and impressive. Before the pulpit rested the coffin, over which was spread the American flag. Floral offerings were arranged around it. Flat against the wall behind the pulpit were two American flags and the tricolor, and on either side were standards of these two emblems. Uniforms of the United States army predominated in the gathering of 200 persons composed of friends Mr. Martin had known for years at home and friends he had made in France. The depth and beauty of character which drew these old and new

Welcome to Don Martin blog on Armistice Centennial Day

Welcome to the World War I Centennial Don Martin daily blog, on Armistice Centennial day, November 11, 2018. Don Martin was a noted war correspondent reporting on the American Expeditionary Forces in France in 1918. Regrettably he died of Spanish influenza in Paris on October 7,1918, while covering the Argonne Forest offensive. He missed the joy of the Armistice by a month. Beginning on December 7, 2017, this blog has chronicled each day what Don Martin wrote one hundred years earlier – in his diary, in his letters home, and in his multitude of dispatches published in the Herald newspaper, both the New York and the European (Paris) editions. The blog, for the several days following his death, recounts the many tributes published, his funeral in Paris and his trip back to his final resting place at his home in Silver Creek, New York. To access the daily blogs, click on the three red lines at top right, then in the fold-down menu, click on Archive. There are 316 blogs from D

October 17, 2018: Final Salute to Don Martin, Soldier of the Pen

We have reached the end of the Don Martin World War I centennial memorial blog. Starting on December 7, 2017, this daily blog has chronicled, in 315 postings, the remarkable story of my grandfather’s contribution to the Great War. This blog was possible because of the availability of my grandfather Don Martin’s diaries and his letters to my mother, and his published writings in the New York and Paris Herald. We have followed him from leading political reporter of the New York Herald at the end of 1917, to head of its London office in January-March 1918, and then to France as accredited war correspondent covering the American Expeditionary Forces, based first in Neufchateau, then in Meaux, Nancy and finally for a few days in Bar le Duc. And then, his final return to his hometown in Silver Creek, New York. Don Martin has given us a full and insightful, if grim, picture of the Great War, as witnessed by the American war correspondents. We have seen

Search This Blog