The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-06-10
AN INTERESTING LETTER.
Sergeant chas. smeItzer Writes Entertaining
Iy About Camp Life.

My Dear Parents:-We arrived in
San Francisco all o. X. last Friday
evening and 1t is time / should write
to relieve any false belief that you
may have gathered that l have
vegetated in this glorious cline and
lost all remembrance of any former
state OF existence.
promised that / would write as
soon as l arrived here. and would
give my address, but it has been one
round of bugle-calls and duty from
morning to evening and there has
been so much to do the first week,
especially for sergeant that hereto
fore l have hardly had time to write
decent letter. / started one last
Sunday afternoon and had to inter
rupt it to superintend the digging Of
a trench. But list of the bugle calls
and round of duty of the day has been
pasted on the wall ofthe lst sergeant's
tent and | am getting onto the routine
little now, so that my letters will
come right along from now on land |
want you both to answer.) Soldier
ing has been agreeing with me pretty
well so far. There Is kind Ofnovelty
about this camp life, after awhile it
may change for monotony. am a
novice yet. think it would take a
long time to make q hardened veteran
out of me. We drill four hours a day.
First there is reveille at $50, at which
call we must get up, and each SER
geant must be responsible for turning
out the twenty men in his tent and
under his supervision. At 5:45 the
assembly is blown and the companies
fall in for roll-call, the men thus be-
ing given fifteen minutes to get up
dress and wash. At we are fallen
in again by the lst sergeant and
marched to the cook tent for our
breakfast. At $50 drill call is
sounded and at 700 the assembly,
when we are fallen in again and, con-
Quoted by the captain or one Of the
lieutenants, are marched out of camp
onto the asphalt pavements and drill
ed until 500 when recall il sounded.
Then until $3.50 we are liable to any
duty which the commissioned officers
may want performed about the COM
pany camp. At $3.50 we are again
drilled one hour. being recalled at
1920. Mess call, which is the call
for breakfast, dinner and supper,
sounds for dinner at - m. We drill
again from 1870 to 2:30 and from $3.50
to 1880, the last being battalion drill.
We are then generally free for the
rest of the day. Eight of us are al
lowed passes each day; this gives
each man chance to go up town once
every ten days. (Well there goes
taps so will have to put out my
candle and finish this epistle in the
morning. am writing this in the
light of candle in a bayonet stuck
in the ground,
Saturday morning, May %, 1898.
Leaving Denver after dark, we
Travelled north from the latter place
to Cheyenne, in the south. eastern
corner of Wyoming, running along
the eastern foothills of the Shoshone
mountains, during the night, and
thus losing a great deal of fine seem
cry. That was Tuesday night. All
day Wednesday we ran west through
the southern part of Wyoming and
swept through wing of the Rockies
Wednesday evening. The next
morning we ran through the northern
end Of Utah and around the north
end of the Great Salt Lake and tell
you grand view was unfolded ia
our sight. Old Sol was just coming
up behind our backs and the mists Of
morning were rising from the lake
To the south 1t was one vast stretch
of blue water, disappearing only with
: the Appearance of the horizon, and of
western shore of the lake, were to be
seen gigantic mountains, seeming to
, pierce the very heavens with theil
enormous height, and capped with
their eternal load of snow that scin
tillated like diamonds in the rays o
J the rising sun, After leaving the
lake we struck out in a southwesterly
direction through Nevada and Cali.
. fOrnis to San Francisco. Most of tn,
: scenery we saw on the way out wal
grand and magnificent; beautiful
( would hardly be term expressive o
| IT'S value, 1t was on too wild anC
grand scale for that. 1t was none
5 of your soft, Mobile landscapes with
Virginia mountain slopes and bloom