The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-08-01

United states infantry, writes to his
mother and incidentally keeps his
promise made to The Tribune to write
regarding his experiences while en-
route and during his sojourn in the
Philippine Islands. Corporal Royce ia
now on the Pacific ocean, having sailed
from San Francisco week ago.
General Joe Wheeler is on board the
transport and Mr. Boyce promises The
Tribune readers an interview with him
in his next letter, which will be mailed
from Honolulu and Hong Kong. The
regiment expects to reach Manila about
September l and some interesting let
ters are expected from Corporal Boyce.
His letter describing his trip across the
states, which was received yesterday,
is as follows;
Elmra, Cal, July %, 1859.
My dear mother; L am getting pretty
well on my journey across the states,
and am about forty miles from San
Francisco, and held here on account of
an accident TO our first section, though
nobody was hurt. Our section so far
has not had an accident and but little
sickness, and am in the best of health,
but am getting anxious to get on the
transport and start on my voyage across
the Pacific as it is very monOtonOus to
be on train so long.
SAILED ON TARTAR.
l hope these few lines will find you all
In the best of health, ana that you will
not worry much, until you hear from
me, in the Philippine Islands. The trans
| port Is waiting for us at San Francisco,
| so | think when you receive this letter,
| will be many miles out in the ocean,
as the Tartar" the one that we are
to take, is to leave omorrow-Monday.
| arrived at Camp Meade safe on Sat
| urday night and was very glad to get an
opportunity to come home even If it was
| only for two days. Our regiment that is
| two battalions of it. left on the Pennsyl-
Vania railroad Monday morning, via Ty-
| rome Altoona and Pttsburg. We have
| Pullman cars, so that we are able to
get n good nights rest and therefore
| are much better able to stand the jour
ney than we were in the old Thirteenth
last year.
| From Pittsburg we crossed through the
| old state of Ohio, but it was dark, so l
| did not see many sights in the Buckeye
| state. Tuesday morning early we arriv-
| ed at Fort Wayne, Ind, and the city i'm
pressed me very much, as 1t was very
| clean, and nicely laid out. 1t would be
a very good thing for some of our high
| officials in the Keystone state to take a
| trip across the country and see this city
| of the HOOSier state.
| From Fort Wayne we went to Chicago,
| ILL.,, covering over seven hundred miles,
| in twenty-seven hours. This is a very
| lively city, and the two hours we stopped
there passed much too quick. The CEN
| tral part Of the city was very nice and
clean. though | would much rather live
| in our own Philadelphia, or even in our
| own city of Scranton. 1t seems to me
| to be much preferable than this great
| city of the West.
| From Chicago our next city of interest
| was Rock Island. III. 1t is here where
| the Mississippi river divides the states
| of Illinois and Iowa. The Mississippi
was somewhat of a disappointment to
| me, as | expected to see a much larger
| river. Crossing the Mississippi we were
| in Davenport Iowa. 1t was here where
we first received our impression of the
| great prairie lands of the West.
| IMPRESSION OF IOWA.
| Davenport is a city of about As, 900 in
| habitants, though in a state that we
| have heard a good deal about, being a
| Prohibition state. l was somewhat sur
| prised to hear that the hotels and every
| thing else was run wide Open the same
| on SUI days as on week days though in
| the towns ii was very hard to find Il
| place that they even sold beer.
From Davenport our next city of inter-
| est was Des Moines, the capital of the
| state. 1t is here where you see good
| many pretty sights and nice buildings.
| Up to the present time this is the only
| city of the West that / would care TO
| settle in. From Des Moines our next city
| was Council Bluffs, on the Missouri river.
| The Missouri seems at this point to be
| larger than the Mississippi, though it
was very muddy.
Crossing the Mossouri we entered the
| state where that wonderful man resides
whom everybody can't help but admire,
| even If they do not believe in all that
he does, THE boy orator of the Platte,
| William j. Bryan, of Nebraska
From Omaha we journeyed through the
state to Lincoln, and if you heard
| the cheer we gave Bryan you
would of thought the Nineteenth in
| fantry was composed of all Democrats,
but of course that is not so, as we were
only cheering for a great man.
But | must hasten on with my letter or
| l will not get through, so | will pass on
| to Kansas. This state did not seem 10
have many towns of any size, or at least
| they are in a different part of the state
| than we passed through. From there we
| went into the state of Colorado, where
we entered into the heart of the Rocky
mountains Many sights of interest can
be seen here, and l have wondered sew
eIdl times lne past lew udSS no" so many
people of the east could take trip over
TO Europe when they know so little of
| our own United States as the old saying
| is, Beyond the Alps lieth Italy" but as
would say Beyond the rockies lieth
the golden gate Of the West"
WORD ABOUT PUEBLO.
In Colorado, want to say a word
about Pueblo, the second city of the
| state, or 1.-The Pttsburg of the West "
1t is a city of $4,000 inhabitants, and is
one of the most fortunately situated cit
| les between the Pacific and Atlantic
| coasts. In Pueblo county nearly every
| kind of miners are found chat are to be
found in the United States. The city is
| 400 feet above sea level, and the entire
area of the county is 2577 square miles
| OF a little over a million and a half acres
want to say If any Of my friends ever
take a trip West, do not fail To stop in
Pueblo, the greatest city Of this part OF
| the West
The next state we entered IN was the
state Of Utah. state that nearly every
school boy knows the customs of the
people, as only a few years ago nearly
all of the ladies married young" but
thanks be to God polygamy is stopped
in this state, and a woman is as wei
thought of there now as she is i'm Penn
sylvania. Utah lake, Salt Lake City
Great Salt Lake and Ogden, are tht
principal attractions of the state.
The next state is Nevada, The mair
thing OF interest here is the Sierra Ne
vada mountains, though l took a great
deal of interest in watching the Indian,
I'm tho smaller towns, and twice / saw
couple of squaws with papooses strapped
on their backs This was one of tn,
most attractive sights that the eastern
boys had seen, although there was
| good many pretty sights In the Sierra
Nevada mountains