River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-06-21
Letter from Rod Williams to His
Parents.

Romblon, Isle de Rom blon, p. L.,
Apr. II. 19OO:-As / have at last
little time 60 spare | will improve it
by writing to you as | suppose you
begin to think | have forgotten you,
now that my letters are so infrequent.
don't know how soon there will
be boat In To take this on its long
Journey, but as there has not been
one here for two weeks or more we
expect one every day.
Since the ports opened up for COM
merce here on the islands, there are
not nearly enough ships to supply the
demand and our little out-of-the- way
place Of existence seems TO be for
gotten.
We have no vegetables Of any kind
at the commissary and are short of
even bacon and flour and you can
see that we are feeding pretty slim.
We buy sweet potatoes of the natives,
but they are mighty poor thing to
live on. About all we can get in
plenty is bananas and cocoanuts and
we were all sick Of them long ago. We
have had no pay since December, so
you can imagine about how much
money there is among the soldiers
here now. l am feeling fine now and
am getting fat every day. Am as
signed for duty in the hospital so that
/ don't have TO get out in the hot
sunshine, but can stay inside all the
time il | wish to.
| We had the first death at the hos
| pital last night that has occurred
since we came here. A young fellow
pendicitis, and, / tell you we have
| a a on 20 of l.fr Il
care of him two different times for II
hours at a stretch and | don't care
for any more work like that. We had
the first military funeral eyer held on
this island, to-day, and the natives
attended the ceremonies by the hun
dreds. The artificer Of Co. I'D" made
a coffin last night and covered it with
| black cloth and early this morning
the boys hustled out and got flowers
and made two floral decorations for il,
SO it did not look so bad after all for
this heather country. The President
Of the town brought beautiful
wreath Of green leaves and snow-white
flowers, attached TO which was a card
expressing the sympathy Of the people
for the U. s., in losing one of it's
soldiers. At 1l:l0 A. NJ, the coffin
was draped With mammoth Ameri-
can flag tthe good old "Stars and
Stripes that every true soldier would
die for If necessary, the flora
decorations were placed on top and
six Of the dead soldiers comrades put
| the coffin on their shoulders and
carried it to the grave where the
| commanding officer read the burial
service; the firing squad fired three
| volleys, the trumpet blew TAPS and
| the cefem onieS were ended.
There is very little sickness here
now among the soldiers, but the
natives are dying off every day. The
| heat here is something terrific and
unless persons take good care of them
selves, and above all things, keep
themselves clean, they will have more
or less sickness.
We are all waiting patiently for
| orders to pack up and go home, but
| somehow those orders come slow and
| if they don't come pretty soon there
won't be much chance for US to get
| started by May l, and if we get back
| TO the States in time to eat our 4th
| of July dinner | think we shall be in
big luck
Yesterday I'VE are one day ahead
| of you over here you know the trout
law III " loIOholA anu L NdI
| imagine what crowd you had and
what good appetites the fishermen all
had. | would hate TO have a 18th of
April appetite over here for l am
afraid there wouldn't be enough
| rati0ns TO supply the demand. Write
and tell me all about who was fishing
and what they caught. / received
your letter telling about the time
you had at Lute's on his birthday and
1 tell you, it made my mouth water
TO read about all the good things you
had to eat. | would hate to get turn
ed loose at spread like that now, for
/ fear | would do myself up; but you
just wait till get back, I'll bet you
will think | haven't had a thing to
eat all the time have been away.
Well | have got in II days on my
second year working for Uncle Sam
and ! am beginning TO think | made
pretty good bargain when / hired
out 10 him, for all the tough times /
have had. am afraid that when my
three years are out | will be so in
fernal lazy that l shall be compelled
Te-enliSt TO avoid starving to death,
but of course the laZiness may wear
oil some during the next two years.
Well, il is so hot | guess | had better
chop off and take couple of hours
sleep-I always sleep couple of hours
during the afternoon, we all do in
fact.
would like to be at home for a
days fishing, but of course l can't, so
that settles it. Hoping this will find
you all well and with kind regards and
love to all, am,
Ever your affectionate son,