The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1916-09-07
Y. N. c. A. POPULAR
'Mike" Reports That Border Boys
Take Advantage of Convent
ences Offered by 'Y.''
Camp Conditions Constantly Being I'm
proved and the Boys Are
Well Fed and Happy.

Well Fed and Happy.
Camp Llano Grande, Aug. 3, 1916.
And the "war" goes merrily on.
War in name only, but the boys de-
light in referring to this expedition as
the big war Of 1916, and already the
camp vendors have their medals and
badges for sale. On these it is blaz-
oned forth to the world that he wear
er is a veteran of the 1916 Mexican
expedition to the border. The So
called war has developed into a gil
gantic training camp for thousands of
young men and is one Of the results
Of all our preparedness talk. Drill,
hike, eat and sleep are the four big
items of interest in this camp and we
get plenty of all of them. Part of the
First regiment is now doing border
patrol duty and we presume it is only
question Of time until we get some
of this same work. And at that it
would be much desired change as
the steady routine Of camp life is
bound to get monotonous and change
of any kind is welcomed by the officers
and men.
The new mess halls are now COM
plete and are one of the biggest i'm
provements we have. In these build
ings the cooks can do better work and
more conveniently, and the boys can
enjoy their hard earned meals with
. some degree of comfort. Cooking and
eating right out in the open naturally
attracts and draws millions of flies
in. hot climate and oftimes it was
touch and go to see whether you
could ge the food before the flies got
it. Sergt. Cordiner was the master
carpenter in charge Of the mess hall
building and he and his crew Of car
penters, who were picked from the
company, did very good job.
An officers mess hall has also been
built and this will be big convent
ence for the company officers, as here
tofore they have eaten their meals in
their tents.
, Eugene Kalkman, Second Lieuten-
ant, is now stationed at Harlingen,
Texas, with the 26th Inf. Jerry is
plugging for the "exam" and says his
chances are good for getting into the
regular service. He reports very
courteous treatment from his brother
officers Of the regular service.
One Of the most popular places for
the boys is the Minnesota Y. M. C. A,
building. This is good sized building
where the soldiers can go and make
themselves at home. It contains plen-
ty of chairs, writing benches, writing
paper, pens and ink, checkers and DOM
mos, books, papers and magazines. In
fact it contains most everything that
- the men need to amuse and entertain
themselves, and also provides ready
means for the boys to write home.
And write they do. 1t is no uncommon
sight to see every available writing
space in the large building taken up
by young men in khaki busily engaged
in writing letters back to the dear
ones j.: Minnesota. Another good fea-
ture of the "Y" is that they make it
a practice to pay off the men right in
the building, and here they have ready
means for sending their money, or
part of it, back home or to their saw
ings bank. This gives the men an
excellent chance to save part of their
money before the camp followers get
a crack at it.
The army mule is very much in evil
lence around this camp now and he
and the army truck vie with each
other as to who can and will do the
most heavy work for Uncle Sam
When the roads are good the truck
does better and quicker work than the
mule teams, but when the weather
gets wet and the roads get bad the
army mule comes into his own and
calmly wallows through the mud and
mire with his heavy load while the
auto truck is hung up in a mud hole
or has slid off the road entirely and
is out of commission. The trucks are
u necessary in this army life but the
mule is absolutely Indispensable.
II Wednesday was G. Co.'s day on
guard and as usual we were out of luck.
Every other time we had a storm,
but this time it was even worse as it
was field day and holiday all over
the border. It was celebrated in the
usual manner with the advertised
added attraction of balloon ascension
by one of the First Inf. boys who owns
balloon, but was unable to make it
on account Of the wind. The Third
: Inf. ball team went to Donna and
-.1.x,od tho Iowa Covo1rx, bo1 HOW,