The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1916-11-10
SOLDIERS JOURNEY
TO Ell PASO, TEXAS
CORPORAL VERNON SWIHAR1
WRITES INTERESTING LETTER
Gives Incidents of Trip of SD Michigan
to Border and Tells of Soldier
Life in Ell Paso

The following letter written by Cor
poral Vernon Swihart to his parents
and brother in Clio will, we are sure.
prove of special interest to his many
friends and acquaintances here and of
much interest to readers of The Mes
senger generally. The Corporal is
stationed with his regiment, the 33d
Mich. Inf, at Ell Paso, Texas, and his
letter deals with incidents of the jour
ney of the soldiers from Michigan to
that place and with the interesting
things to be seen there:
FL Paso, Texas,
Oct. II, 1916.
Dear Folks:
Well, We now are encamped at FL
Paso, practically in the heart of the
city and just about a block from the
border line between u. S. and Mexico.
This is far from being desert, as some
of us expected. The city lies right at
the base of mountain and there are
more mountains to the south of US.
There are in the neighborhood of so, 900
soldiers camped in and around Ell Paso.
And Greasers-you see them every
where. There are a dozen or more
adobe huts right across from our camp.
They are made of sun baked brick and
are about Is or 20 feet square and have
flat roofs with dirt floors. All the Mex
leans on this side of the line are appar-
emily very friendly. They remind me a
whole lot of Indians. The women,
especially the married ones, dress in
black and they all smoke cigarettes.
Most of the men own one or two bur-
ros they cost from S. to $40. The Rio
Grande is the boundary between U. S.
and Mexico and soldier dare not cross
it, or he is arrested right away. But
we can go anywhere we choose on the
American side when we are off duty
1t is a lot better than it was at Camp
Ferris, for here we can run up towr
any night we want to. Of course we
will miss the lake, but we have running
water and shower baths in our camp
here.
The weather is just about as warm as
in July in Michigan. That is, in the
daytime. 1t cools off quite bit at
night, though. Roses and all sorts OF
summer flowers are all in bloom.
We left Camp Ferris last Friday af.
ternoon about five o'clock and got here
the following Wednesday about noon.
We came through Michigan. Indiana,
Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkan-
sas and Texas. The first morning we
were in Battle Creek for breakfast.
We got off the train for exercise at
Fulton, KY. Sunday morning about
nine o'clock. Then the same after.
noon about four o'clock we reached
Memphis, Tenn, where we all unloaded
and marched to the Y. M. G. A. where
we all took bath. Believe me, that
bath felt the best of any l had had in
a long time. Then we hiked back to
the depot where the Red Cross society
served US lunch. Then we loaded uE
and started on our way again. 1t was
at Memphis that we crossed the Miss.
issippi.
The next morning about four O'Clock
the drawbar pulled out between the
car was on and the car ahead. We
backed up about mile to the town OF
Prescott, Ark, where we laid about
two hours until they got the coupling
fixed so we could pull to Texarkana
Texas. railway division point. We
got there about eight o'clock and got
out for exercise. We left the Pull
man with the broken coupling there
and doubled up in the other cars,
with two other fellows was lucky
enough to draw a Pullman stateroom.
Personally, do not think much Of
the central part of Texas, although
the region right around Ell Paso seem,
pretty nice. A little way out of Tex
arkana the country was quite rough
being mostly plateaus with broad val
leys between, but it soon fattens out.
All day Tuesday we could look out the
car window and see-nothing. The
country is perfectly fiat, with never a
tree in sight. Once in a great while
we would see house and barn and
windmill, but it was very seldom that
we could see more than one of these
groups at once. About the only life to
be seen except brush and now and then
a few cattle, was prairie-dogs and they
were so thick that we soon got tired
watching them. Oh, yes, and jack
robbits big as horses you mightsay.
In the afternoon we got to Big
Springs, Tex, where we unloaded again
fnr axarciaa The next morning we