“If It Isn’t Fun.” – A Letter From Paris
At home in Miami I received this letter with advice I had solicited from Tulanian Stonewall Stickney, resident at the American Hospital of Paris:
August 15, 1949
Dear Henry: I enjoyed hearing from you again and hope that this letter reaches you before you leave for Cuba. Al Sullivan has arrived in Paris in good health and seems a confirmed surgeon. It’s too late to save him, I’m afraid.
As to the information you desired: 1. Tourist class on a liner is all right if you are not below C deck and have an outside cabin. We came on a Waterman freighter. 2. I know of no cheaper passage. Freighters are a real sea voyage. The Queens are giant floating hotels. 3. I believe that all student ships have been commandeered by the Army, bless them. 4. You can actually get along on our pay here of 20,000 francs a month ($60), which includes room, board, and laundry. Forty or 50 dollars extra a month for travel and such would make you extremely well off. 5. I can think of no particular medical skill that you need to brush up on before reporting here, except possibly to explore the more primitive methods of anesthesia. You might also devote some time to forgetting aseptic technique. 6. The outstanding men here are the surgeon Lériche, Hamburger in internal medicine, Kourilski in respiratory diseases, and Régaud in TB. 7. Don’t bring any U.S. medicaments. A couple of quarts of whiskey and some cigarettes, preferably bought cheap on shipboard, would prove useful. 8. Clothing appropriate to Madison or Ann Arbor or Newfoundland.
Cheers, Stickney