Sistersville oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1896-1901, 1898-10-12

go. I did not know the reason,
and told-to understand that l
was not taking his place by any
pull; for he was dead anxious to go.
He reported to Captain and Captain
said he could 60. He jumped in
the air and yelled for joy at the
news, while I almost broke down
with disappointment, and did cry.
thought my goose was cooked,
but kept at it and hoped for some
thing to turn up. Everybody was
excited, and we heard the cheers
from the different troops as they
received orders.
CHOSEN AT THE LAST MINUTE.
Next morning, as I was standing
about talking, and bemoaning my
fate, the Captain came up and
handed me a gun and cartridge belt.
I asked no questions, but simply
leaped inwardly at my good for
tune. 1 learned afterwards, that a
man named Vandersleve had been
found asleep on guard the night be-
fore, and that they had taken his
gun and given it to me.
Now we had to fix up Teddy,
and we hustled about to get him
equipped, in hope something would
turn up for him. After dinner, as
we were lying about under the
trees, Holt, Simpson, Teddy, ct. al,
Lieut.. Carr came along with pa
per asking for subscriptions from
the men to send a man named
Crosby home, on account of the ex-
pected death of his wife. This mis-
fortune proved the great fortune of
Teddy, for it gave him place. So
finally we were all fixed, Wrenn
and Larned had worked into Troop
A, by pull or otherwise. Roosevelt
gave Bob Wrenn his own gun
such was the scarcity in that es-
sential part of the equipment.
Troop G was left behind; also H.
L. and NJ. This was very hard
luck for Carrie and Jerry Edmund
and Lieut.. Lares from Harvard, all
of whom were in Troop c.
At about twelve o'clock the or
der came to march. We lined up.
and by the light of the moon, which
had been beauty during our whole
stay, advanced to the railroad. AT
ter many fake" alarms and wax
ings from sleep around a bonfire,
we were marched to another rail.
road. There seemed to have been
some mistake about trains. never
spent such a night in my life. We
sponged some breakfast from an
other Regiment nearby and
Bill Larned and I foraged the
neighboring private houses,
waking up everybody, in
search of food. At about five
o'clock coal train pulled up, and
we were ordered aboard. The cars
were of the toughest type-dump
cars, and we sat on the edges and
stood in the bottom, just being able
to peer over the top, but were so
delighted at leaving that we put up
with anything.
Arrived at Port Tampa about ten
o'clock and marched about a half
mile to our steamer the Yucatan.
There was a terrible delay in put
ting up the gangway, and we had
to stand out in the burning sun. l
went aboard but was soon detailed
to carry stuff. Almost died under
weight OF a bag of coffee. Never
worked so hard In my life. We
were assigned deck quarters, and
our squad, under Sergeant Hill,
fixed themselves about ten times
before settling down. We have a
splendid squad-Sergeant Hill,
Teddy, Rhodes, Mcclure, New
comb, Beal, Russell, SHUTS, Wolf,
Mcmillan, Knox. Certainly a
peach crowd. The ship was ter.
ribly crowded. We returned to
dock the next day and put on more
provisions and supplies, and spent
the night moored in the dock chan
mel, and the next morning passed
out again into the harbor, where
we lay until Monday afternoon.
The acc mmodations on the boat,
while the extra men were there,
were something frightful. 1 have
often wondered how steerage pas
sengers live. I found out by ex-
periencing a much worse life.
THE STRUGGLE FOR FOOD.
Our food grew worse and worse
every day, and we would surely
have starved had it not been for our
| friends in the kitchen. got our