New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-09-20
THANKSGIVING SET
FOR BOYS RETURN
MEN AT THE FRONT FEEL SURF
THEY WILL EAT TURKEY IN
MINNESOTA.
INTERESTING TRIP DESCRIRFn
BY CORDES. MALARIA
THREATENS.

Since publishing our last reports from
Camp Llan0 Grande last week statino
that the correspondent of the Review
had received orders from Headquarters
that men in uniform must not correspond
with their home papers we have re-
celved personal letter from Elmer
Cordes, one OF the boys at the front, and
as 1T deals wholly with an expedition:
made by himself and Henry Grussendorf.
and has nothing whatever to do with
military affairs, we feel that we are at
liberty to publish it in full, knowing that
the story as told of the boys visit to a
southern summer resort will prove yerv
interesting reading.
Llano Grande, Texas.
Sept. IL, 1916.
My dear Miss Payne:
have been wanting to write to YOU
OF Texas and my experiences down here
for quite awhile but Tommy has ''done''
camp in such thorough way that it
seemed hardly fair to repeat. Several
days ago however Henry Grussendorf
and l stole march on him and took
advantage of an excursion that went IN,
Corpus Christi.
We left Llano Grande after quite a.
blt OF red tape" in secuinrg our papers
for leave; finally however the man
higher up decided he could spare us for
day or so, gave us that necessary
printed form, we saluted real 'speppy''
and got over to the station in due time
Not every man took advantage of the
excursion; as it happened we were the
only ones from our regiment. We
settled down for a good long jaunt. This
railroad has nothing on our M. e. st. Z.
we had memories of the trip the week
previous to Brownsville and although
that is comparatively short trip it took
the one-lunged outfit three hours before
1t finally struggled around the curve and
into Brownsville.
AS you know, we had quite storm.
some weeks ago and we were naturally
discussing the results of it as we saw f.
from the car window-in German las
usually There were some Indiana
fellows sitting directly back of us; after
listening to us for some time one of them
nudged the other and said "Isn't it
funny how these New Workers talk. YOU
can't understand themy' We had quite
Ia time getting over the comparison of
our New Ulm German (for instance.
Itch bin in Reber gejumptp') and the
New York English.
The storm had been decidedly worse.
toward St. Bonita and Harrington. You
could look out of the window anywhere
between those two places and see tin
roofing scattered around. The biggest
building in Harlingen had the entire roof
taken off, the windmills were down
everywhere.
After we left Harlingen the course was
due north parallel with the coast but.
inland some ten miles after that we.
entered regular desert. We didn't
see house or cabin of any sort; as far.
as the eye could see stretched barren
waste, reminding one strongly of Sparta.
Wis.,; occasionally great sand-dunes
would loom up way off in the distance:
sometimes we would see stunted
growth. OF struggling brush. This kept
up for some fifty miles.
BY our schedule we knew that we were
due in short time to arrive at Kings
vile. The conductor told us that we
had twenty minutes for lunch at this
place. 1t is by far the most picturesque
place that I've ever seen. The entire
town is owned by King, who in the early
9Os saw the possibilities of this great
Southern valley and bought it for a song.
Perhaps the palms and date trees are
more appealing to us but for natural
beauty this country seems to be working
nature overtime. Kings home is q
veritable mansion surrounded with per-
feet lawns and palms. He has put un
one OF the rambling hotels which is
easily block long. The only drawback
is the fact that it's not on the Gulf.
The country between Kingsville and
Corpus Christi was more fertile and con-
sequently under cultivation. The crops
looked anything but promising. My
knowledge of farming is rather limited
but to my notion this bubble about
farming down here is still very much in
the perspective.
When we arrived at Corpus Christ
about four o'clock in the afternoon, wasl
Continued on page p