The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1916-10-14

back of the camp cunning for rabbits
and chickens, and they have proved
good eating. But rattlesnake hunt
ing is the most popular and thousands
of them have been killed during our
stay here. Fortunately l have a per-
feet specimen Of a diamond-back rat
tier, very rare, in fact | only know OF
two others in the whole camp. The
common variety of rattlesnakes are
thick around here and most every fell
low has one or more. The diamond
back is a very nasty little fellow and
if captured Immediately bites and
p~oisons himself. You can't get them
alive, due to this, and if it vas posi-
BILE you could get anywhere from $25
to $100 for one. The fellow | caught
was originally about AZ inches long
and two inches thick. Part of his
body near the head was so badly cut
that it made the skin worthless. The
piece | have is 30 inches long and a
inches wide, cured and oiled and is
perfect. l have him all packed away
and will not open until l get home.
The common variety of rattlesnakes
are worthless and although they can
cause your death by poisoning you, no
one is afraid of them. We have a lit
tie Sergeant here-Wells by name
who up to the present time has
brought seven of them in alive. One
day he brought two in at M time;
had caught one by the neck. 1t would
not be good sense to do this with a
diamond-back, for they are very quick
and fight to the death. Another COM
mon non-poisonous snake is the king
snake. He kills rattlesnakes by
zo,,ooa;,. +boro ord tbap oatc tbnm
The prairie dog, although very small,
is a vicious little animal and can give
YOU a nip that you'll always remem-
Der. We have all kinds of insects,
some poisonous and others the COM
mon variety. I was sitting near a
wood pile the other day when n of
J the fellows spied a big centipede max
ing for me. We're more afraid OF
these than snakes. They are deadly
poison and it gives you the creeps to
look at one of them. Then there is
the poisonous tarantula, but there are
only a few of them around here.
Camp life is very interesting and
our daily routine is divided up as fol-
lows:
5.15 A. M.-Roll-call-Exercise.
600 A. M.-Mess.
$50 A. M.-Sick Call.
100 A. M.-Drill Call. Z to II.
1900 M.-Mess.
500 P. M.-Mess.
600 P. M.-Reveille.
$50 P. M.-Guard Mount.
900 P. M.-Tattoo.
1918 P. M.-Lights Out.
1890 P. M.-Taps.
Saturday morning is inspection,
-,Loa oil ~, ao11ipnopnt ptp is in
spected by the officers and Sunday is
a holiday. Nothing to do but eat and
sleep.
"There is plenty of work to do such
as wood-cutting, trench-digging, po-
lice work, washing etc., and every
twelve days we go on reglmental
guard for t~wenty-four hours. The
guard system is worked on two hours
duty and four off for t~wenty-four
hours-6.O0 P. M. to 600 P. M.-and
during this period we a never re-
move our side-arms, even when Sleep
ing or eating. After mess at oon
we usually sleep until 5 P. M. and In
the evening we play pinochle, tell stor-
les, read and sing all the old ragtlme
hits.
eve have learned one important
thing in the army, and that is to never
work too hard. You'll probably crit
icise me for saying this, but I'll tell
you a little experience we had n
day. Our company was on fatigue
duty, which means that we are as
signed by the regimental supply COM
! pany to do all the odd jobs in camp
for one day. 1t happened that our
! squad was picked to go to Fort Bliss
and unload a freight car full of lum-
Der for fire use. To make it short,
we loaded t~wenty-eight transports
with lumber (emptied the carr in two
! and a half hours. | want YOU to be-
lieve that we worked that morning
and we thought our good work would
/ give us the afternoon off. But when
we got back to camp they had the
nerve to make us pitch supply n
I cook tents that afternoon. The next
time we were put on the lumber car
it took us from 7 A. M. to 4.30 P. M;
to unload, and we were not finished
! then and another company had to fin