Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-12-15
MARSHALL'S


The following letter, received by Bert
Taylor from "Parsy" Bissett, one of our
Middlebury boys now on his way to the
Philippines as a soldier on board the
transport Mead" may be of interest to
our readers:
DEAR BERT promised to write to you
and now | make my promise good. ! am
well Haven't been sick a minute since we
left New York, but that the rest of the boys
were sick you can imagine when tell you
that Mayo went three days without smoking.
never knew that the world was so big be-
fore, and still Gibraltar is not one third of the
distance we are to go. We are now 1861 mile 3
from New York, while the Philippines are
$4,000. / cannot tell you how big old ocean
seems TO me. When we left New York the
wind was blowing gale, and the waves, full.
~ thirty feet high, came against our port
side, making the boat roll until her rail
touched the water, and that is what makes
men sea sick in good shape and quick order.
Our ship, the "Mead." IL $40 feet long more
than four times the length of Pine HalD
She is 50 feet wide. We had one narrow es-
cape. She caught fire under the magazine
one night alb out II o'clock, and we were all
ordered to dress and 60 on deck The cap.
tain ordered soldier 10 go down with the
no se, but he refused. After the fire was out
they put him in irons and he's there yet. Yon
can bet I'd have gone, If he had ordered me
to, If the whole thing had blown up In a
| minute.
| This is the sixth day we have not seen land.
| fancy sight OF it about now would look
| good. Since writing the above we
| have passed the Madeira islands There are
| six of them, and they present the finest
| sight ever saw. The city of Funchal is
| about the size of Burlington, and is built up
on the mountain side The mountains, from
one to three thousand feet high, loot ed
| beautiful to us Nermonters as we steamed by.
| The grass and grape vines on the islands
| were a green as they are at home in June.
| The houses are all painted yellow. The
people make their living by fishing and max
| ing wine. (That reminds me of "a point that
may interest some of the w. c. 7. U. people
| there Is no "cauteen" on this boat, ana the
| boys haven't had anything stronger than
coffee since we left New York; :. . It
| is getting pretty warm now; the sun seems to
come straight down ut MS. We sit on deck in
our shirt sleeves, but are intentionally
warm then. | saw two flying fish
| this morning, and fivefoot shark was seen
yesterday.
This is Sunday and am on guard, with five
others. trying to keep watch of thirty-three
pris oners. They keep us busy, can tell you
seem to try to see how much trouble they can
make rs. We couldn't lel il was Sunday If ii
were not for our calendars. This letter will
leave the ship at Gibraltar Nov. -. VIII La
rock and are the only ones from Middlebury
who can go ashore there, as no one is allowed
| TO go ashore who have charges against their
names. l expect to go ashore at Port Said.
. The workbag which Mrs Taylor
sent me was just what | wanted. ! made a
mistake in showing it to the other boys, for
now have to loan it to everybody.
| Please rembember me kindly to all my
/ friends. Yours as ever,
apASsYn