La Junta tribune. (La Junta, Bent County, Colo.) 1881-1939, 1898-10-01
4 ttrrsR FROM MoMolvlv.
L. Juats Soldiers Relate Their Ex-
perienes on the arlny 0esp.

Master Mechanic John Forster
received letters last week from
James Dornan aud David Bates,
TWO La Junta boys who were FORM
erly in the employ Of the Santa Fe
at this point. and are now on their
way to Manila with the Colorado
recruits. Mr.. Forster has kindly
permitted the TRIBUNE to make a
few extracts from the letters, which
are descriptive of the experience Of
the boys on the briny deep, and
their reception at Honolulu. The
letters were written two weeks af-
ter their arrival in the Sandwich
islands, and are as follows:
Honolulu, Sept. 10, IS9S.-At
noon on Saturday, the goth day Of
August, we broke camp in San
Francisco and marched to the
docks, a distance of five miles, ar
irving there at 4 o'clock in the af-
ternoon. The march was long
and rough one most of the way,
Market street, the principal thor
oughfare in Frisco, and from which
most of the streets radiate, being
paved with cobble stones and the
walking over which is decidedly
tough.
We marched on board our trans
port, the Arizona, at 6:3o in the
evening and We're not allowed to go
ashore any more, and wher we
woke up in the morning the ship
was lying out in the stream about
two miles from land. Sunday
morning we were all up bright and
early, as our time for sailing was
set for e:3o O'Clock. We were de-
layed until noon, however, await
ing orders from the war depart
ment at Washington. We were
soon under way and at $3.50 sailed
out OF the Golden Gate and on to
the broad Pacific.
AT S p. m. we sighted our first
sail, small craft bound in, and
our pilot left us to take charge OF
ner. About 6p. m began to feel
decidedly uneasy in the center OF
my anatomy, as though hadseat
en- some hardtack that did not
agree with me. l got tired and
dizzy ard longed for something.
Usually l don't want the earth, but
portion of it just at that time TO
rest my feet on would have gone a
long ways toward satisfying my
cravings. l staid on deck and
wrestled with myself till II o'clock
at night, trying to convince my
self that | was a born sailor, but
finally gave in, or rather gave up all
| had to the fishes Of the sea, and
went below and crawled into my
bunk. And there ! staid until
Tuesday afternoon. The ship
might go down, or up, burn up or
get wrecked, it mattered very little
to me.
Most of the boys were sick by
this time and l had plenty of COM
pany in my misery. Every man
that was able to move was ordered
on deck the next morning. The
sea was very calm, like big mill
pond, with the exception OF that
deep swell, which was sickening.
There was not sail in sight, and
with the exception of few flying
fishes there was nothing but water
everywhere and plenty of it. AT
noon on the first day out one of the
engines blew out cylinder head
and we had to stop to make re-
pairs. Most of the boys went in
swimming while the officers and
the Red Cross ladies went boat
riding. Repairs were completed
late in the afternoon and we were
again under way. After supper
we saw our first whale short dis
tance off, and some of the boys
who were sick wanted to expert
ment with him after the manner Of
Jonah, and take a chance on being
cast up on dry land... Some OF us
were sick enough to feel like tax
ing the risk.