Warren sheaf., 1916-11-15
FROM MEXICAN
BORDER
Interesting Letter from Ralph
Powell Describing Camp
Life.
Llano Grande, Texas, Oct. %, 1916.

[ was surprised to hear that you had
snow up there as early as this but
it probably won't stay on the ground
very long. I like it better here
every day. I have got an easy job
here now. They detailed Davis and
I on a ration wagon for 80 days.
We go to the bakery every morning
and get half a wagon load of bread
for all the batteries in our regiment.
There are six field bakeries and they
bake an average Of 10000 loaves
of bread day to supply this entire
camp. We haul all the express and
freight for our regiment too. We
don't have to drill at all and don't
have any horses to take care Of. We
never have to stand guard either.
Davis is proving to be a fine fell
low. Yesterday we hiked over to
Donna, six miles west of here. 1t
was a fine day, we got pretty warm
by the time we got there but it gave
us Al good appetite for dinner. We
went into a restaurant and had a
good square Sunday dinner, pork
roast, mashed potatoes, and lot of
side, dishes Of vegetables, coffee and
apple pie a la mode. I can eat any
kind of vegetables now. We have
vegetable here called okre, it looks
a little like parsnips, they are real
cheap and taste a good deal like
Toysters when fried. They feed them
to US in soups in camp. All the
restaurants down. here are frame
shacks with big screened porches.
This Donna town is about as big as
Argyle and half the population are
Mexicans. Every house almost has
Oleander plants growing in their
yards with white blossoms, they are
all in bloom at this time Of the
year. We saw some banana trees
80 feet high, they are queer looking
trees, they have leaves six feet long.
The bananas are green yet, but the,
banana crop is poor here this fall.
Tbs oranges will be ripe about
Christmas time altho this is not
much of an orange country, we saw
a few orchards. We helped a Ford
jitney driver fix his car between
here and there. Ninety-nine out of
a. hundred cars in this country are
F'ords or Packards army trucks.
Lots of the officers drive Fords and
dozens Of Ford jitneys operate be-
tween Llano Grande to Mercedes,
Tpperary, Donna, Midway and the
lake. We saw about a dozen focks
of geese yesterday and | bet there
were at least 200 geese in each flock.
They were flying low and some cav
a1fymen shot at them but didn't hit
any. They seemed to be headed for
the lower end of our lake, south of
Llano Grande. We had a Texas
Norther here last Saturday morning,
it was cool. north wind, there was
no frost Of course but it made the
fire feel good at S o'clock Saturday
morning. We are not geeting up
Until six o'clock now. We got paid
last Thursday, some of the boys
have not showed up since then. You
ought to see the way they sell pop,
ice cream, cigaretts and candy at
the canteens here. It keeps six men
jumping side ways to wait on them.
NY canteen bills were about $500
last month. There are three cam
teens that we can get credit in, we
can also get show tickets there to-.
The second Indiana regiment went
on a rumpage last week because they
didn't get paid, they tore down one
of the officers tents and then went to
Tipperary and burned up a saloon,
they put the whole regiment under
arrest for a few days. A regiment
Of New York cavalry passed thru
here last Friday bound for Browns
vile, they strung out double file for
over a mile, a thousand men on a
thousand horses. We had division
al hike here today, our battery took
part. The parade consisted of three
regiments MINI. Infantry, three reg
iments Ind. Infantry, five regiments
Neb. Infantry, two Machine Gun
companies, one regiment Of MINI.
artillery, one regiment Of Ind. artil-
lery, one regiment Of Iowa cavalry,
four troops of Oklahoma cavalry,
.one regiment of louisiana artillery,
three companies of Indiana engin-
,eers. It took them about an hour
and half to pass given point. It
twas some sight to see big u. S.
flags waving in the wind and bands
playing rag time airs. They went
TO Mercedes and back. They strung
out about five miles in length. The
front Of the parade was nearly back
here by the time the last ones were
leaving. I wish you could have seen
it. We had call to arms one night
last week, everybody gets up and
forms in line in front of the quarter
masters tent with his belt and what
ever clothes he has handy. A civil
ian who runs a laundry just outside
IF camp about a half mile had
5been fred on by Mexicans, he came
running down our battery street FIR
ing his gun. He said i'd the Mexicans leans
were chasing him. We sent dozen
of our guards back with him but
they didn't see any signs of Mexi-
cans. The biggest joke of the whole
thing was that none Of our guards
had any shells in their guns. The