Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1898-08-26
OUR BOYS At HONOLULU.
q Member Of Co. %" Writes an In
tsrssting Letter Of their Voyage
and Visit to Honolulu.
Co. d, 1sT. RECT. S. D. V.
,NoLuLU, HAWAII, Tuesday, Aug.

HONOLULU, HAWAII, Iues0ay, aug
2, 1898.
SUPT. T. A. DAVIES, Dear Sir: I
promised to correspond with you If |
was fortunate enough to be among the
troops sent to Manila. Yours of the
18th very gladly received and ! want to
feel that am teacher of Lincoln coun-
ty, though may be in foreign land.
Well, Davies, we are anchored in the
wonderful city, Honolulu; city which
I always wished to see. 1t has been
L@xsrth more than all the hardships we
iyetbeen through to have the privilege
TO visit it. We arrived here Sunday
morning about a. M, after tedious
journey Of days. Honolulu is very un-
like any city that I ever saw, and looks
very little as expected to find it. We
have been here only few days, but
have had grand time nevertheless. l
suppose you would like to know some
thing concerning our journey from
Frisco before further description Of
Honolulu and our reception at this
place by the citizens.
We broke camp in Frisco early Friday
moring. July ssnd. say we, I mean
the 2nd and 3rd battalions Of s. D. ".
The first battalion remained in camp to
come on the st. Paul as soon as she was
ready to sail. We had our breakfast
early that morning, about o'clock.
Then the orders were to pack knapsacks.
burn up the rubbish, strike tents and
Ret ready to march to the boat. The
march to the boat, distance Of 5miles,
under heavy marching order. made us
sweat, but we hardly thought Of it as
the citizens cheered us all the way to
the boat.
We were given a dinner at the dock,
ssy the Red Cross ladies, and wished .
safe voyage before we passed over the
gang plank onto the Rio de Janerio to
live until we reached Honolulu. We
were all anxious to inspect our quarters
and see if they were anything like those
in which other expeditions had suffered
hardships. It is said that the Rio Jane
rio ia the best boat which has been char
tered by the government for transport.
! pity the boys on the other boats,
If this is the best. have learned since
then. that the men on the Penn and
Peru did have hard time. will only
have space to tell about our journey.
We sailed out Of Frisco bay through
the Golden Gate, into the broad Pacific,
Saturday, July 22nd. The cannon
doomed, bells rang and the people
cheered themselves hoarse, but we were
soon out of sight of home, our dear old
native land. All went well until about
SD, m. Then most Of the boys began
to try and turn wrong side out, Or rath-
ar. to turn inside out. Some of the
BOYS nearly accomplished the feat.
They were the sickest lot of men I ever
saw. I was sick day or two, while
, some were sick all the way to Honolulu.
'* By the way, I will write you some
thing concerning the ship She is 375
feet long, 40 feet wide and draws23 feet
of water; she has three decks, upper,
middle and lower, besides large hold.
which will hold great many tons of
freight. She carries some sail, but de-
pends principally on steam.
The upper deck contains the state
rooms, which are furnished in grand
stvle. The officers of course are quar-
tered in them. We found that all en-
listed men were to be quartered on the
lower deck, lighted by a few small port
holes, and that the most important con-
dition to the health Of men was omitted,