Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-07-01

! Lee Cherry, son Of Mr.. and Mrs. J.
| L. Cherry, 1908 East Main street, has
written an interesting letter to his par
ents describing In vivid manner his
daily life in the Philippine islands as
a soldier boy In the service OF Uncle
Sam. Another son of Mr.. and Mrs.
Cherry. Sgt. Joseph Earl Cherry, left
with Co. G Sunday for camp Dodge.
| The letter follows:
Dear Parents and Brothers:
| Received your kind and most well
come letter OF March 26 and was more
than pleased to hear from you. Hope
you are ell well as couldn't he in
any better health.
Sorry to hear that Glen had brok-
en- arm but misfortunes will visit the
best of them in time. Was more than
pleased to hear that mother Is well
and not worrying,
| Well. guess that Earl has been
with the company long enough to get
something pretty soon If he ever gets
It..
! would certainly like to see little
John but prospects are pretty dark
for some time to come. Tell old John
son to drop me a line as my address
will be the same at all times. Tell
! him he doesn't need to be ashamed
of me as soldier for l haven't had
any court martfals or any extra duty
OF any kind and have only been on the
sick report once. Ask him If that IS
worth an excellent character.
How Is old Jimmie getting along?
| You never speak of him any more. I
don't think that can compose a let
ter interesting enough to put in The
| Courier at present so you can give all
the boys my 70 for the present. AS
for my trip from Texas to the Philip
pines, it was pleasant and very un.
pleasant at times with different sur
roundings. I left Texas with prac.
tically no clothes at all and when I
reached Frisco I proceeded to wash
up.
Summed up my wardrobe came to
one pair Of leggings, one pair of shoes,
six pairs of socks and six suits of sum-
, mer underwear with two towels.
made practice of washing them as |
changed so in this way they don't pile
up on you so that you have to put IN
for furlough to wash clothes. l had
/
nearly every day. The trip over was
very pleasant, as transport trips go,
having to do only q couple Of guards
and three or four K. P's. We landed In
Manila about p m. and by 1880 we
welcomed 1t as long lost home.
/ During the first three months
stayed pretty close to quarters and
l 4 ~
lost or all tangled up. The walled city
Is noted for it's historic surroundings
and most Of the old Spanish families
have their homes there. The street
cars have been run through it Of late
years 1t is surrounded on one side
by the Luneta which Is about 600 feet
wide and on the other by the river.
I The Quartet De Spana and FIT. Santa.
90 are inside the wall which is about
forty feet wide and twenty or thirty
feet high. The street cars run out
through Pace, Sta. Ana, San Pedro Ma
cati, Guadalupe, Mckinley and Pasig.
1 They have about the best street car
system here that ever saw with Phil
ippine motormen, conductors and in
j spectors, who have nothing to do but
check up on the conductors.
sOn our hike to Antipolo we had good
hot weather and the only time we
could enjoy the scenery was after the
sun had gone down. Our barracks arc
Of wood and built about ten feet off the
! ground The new captain has cement
ed all the ground under the quarters
! and has made fine place for buzzer
practice and to lounge around in the
afternoon. We have nice library
with all the magazines and newspapers
from the states along with about 600
books on fiction, electricity and his
tory. Our quarters are about thols-
and yards from the other outfits In the
post and the boys all run loose in their
underwear after drill in the morning.
| 1t Is going to be pretty hard on us
now as the post commander has direct
ed that all native help will be fired
from the post 80 we will have to do
our own kitchen, police and stable po-
lice duty We have a native barber
and shoe sinner whom We can keep.
We have our laundry done by the quar-.
termaster laundry which costs 300
pesos or $3.50 In gold and l generally
send about forty pieces week pr $50
pieces month We have to take a
bath after mounted drill every morn
ing, as II we didn't We would soon con-
tract prickly heat or DOLBY Itch That
means seven suits of underwear, seven
= pairs OF socks. seven towels and then
1t depends on how many times you go
ont with a suit of kahki for each time.
Two sheets, one mattress cover, one
pillow case and about once month |
send my blanket and mosquito bar
along with kimona.
| Drill is easy over here compared
with D company as we are always in
and through grooming by $3.50 a. m.
Then comes buzzer practice and visual
signaling which lasts until about 11:45
! a. m. There Is nothing to do from II
m. to the first call the next morning.
1t begins to look as if the captain was
going to straighten this company out
as he has bob tailed ten since October
10 and Is still going strong. There are
two vacancies for first class seI3eants
after the fifteenth OF the month as one
of them has been promoted to master