Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1916-12-06
WITH THE BOYS
ON THE BORDER
Continued from page one.

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they would unlock the door and let
bunch more in, the same way with
confectionery and drug stores. No
wonder the people on the border want
the soldiers to stay down here.
Brownsville is mostly a Mexican
town, there being about $4,000 Mexi-
cans and 1000 Americans. They.
have some fine squares and parks
downtown, with green trees and flow
ers growing in them saw the in
ternational bridge across the Rio
Grande, which separates Brownsville
from Matamoros, Mexico. No soldier
lis allowed to cross this bridge, there
are guards on both sides Of it. Sat-
urday morning both armies reviewed
before General Parker, the paper
said there were ~ 900 in the review
but l think there was nearer 10000.
They took moving pictures Of this !,
review too There were national
guardsmen from Minnesota, Indiana,
louisiana, Oklahoma, Iowa, Virginia,
Colorado and New Hampshire in this
review. This was one Of the biggest
maneuvers that has ever been pulled
off in the United States. General
Parker declared the battle to be a
draw, the whites winning some bat
ties and the browns some. A lot of /
Indiana dough boys on our side had
"War is hell" written across the front:
of their white hat bands. ist,.s =
I am writing this letter in the Vir-
ginia Y. M. C. A., they are camped 4
here in Brownsville, have been since
July. I ate supper with Company
A of the first Virginia infantry from
Richmond, Va. guess hundred
more or less fellows seeing my red
hat band have said, where you all
from" They seem to be a good
bunch of fellows, only they talk a
lot different than our fellows from
Minnesota.
The people down in this country
are setting out cabbage plants and
picking grape fruit nowadays and the
oranges are just about ripe To-
morrow we are going to a target
range up at Iona Alta for few
days target practice. The third Min
nesota left here in Packard trucks
for Llano Grande yesterday after
noon where they entrain for Ft.
Smelling to be mustered out. I think.
our turn will come pretty soon. OF
course you understand nobody, down
here wants to go home. If / don't
get home for Christmas | would ra-
Their stay down here until about the
first of April, because Texas is real
ly a paradise now. I sleep on the
ground every night with one blanket
under me and two over me and am
just as warm as I would be lin
house. 1t is too much bother to
pitch a shelter tent every night We
seldom take our shoes or leggings off
because we might have to move
camp in the middle of the night and
then you wouldn't be able to- find
them as the nights are dark here
now. We had real cold snap here
about the 18th Of November, it was
! the coolest by far we have had yet.
It went down to 38 above two nights
in a row. I had to sleep with my
overcoat on and we had to bank up
our tent with dirt to keep the cold
air from coming up under our cots.
You simply couldn't keep warm when
you were outside in the wind even
tho you wore a sweater andyovercoat
both. I would rather be up in War
rem when it was Is below zero than
down here when it, is s38 above.
Maybe it dosn't sound cold to you
up there but it is certainly a fright
down here. The wind was blowing
straight from the north and I thot
Warren must surely be having 40
below weather. People here thot
sure we would have a frost and it
was cloudy both nights or we surely
would have had one think we will
be back to Llano Grande by Thanks
giving and get some of those turkeys
the papers have been talking about