The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-06
Farmers Special Correspon- dent Finds Officers and Men Ready for Fight or Frolic.
(By Daniel Bidwell. Special Cores
 pondence of The Farmer.)

(By Daniel Bidwell. Special Cores l pondence of The Farmer.)
 Emporia, Kan, July lit is as hot
 a day as has been baked this year and 1 the troop train bearing the Second
 Battalion, First Connecticut Infantry,
 is lying out in sweltering railroad
 yard where heat waves simmer from
 the rails and where the ties cling to
 sole leather and the grimed and greasy
 sand might roast an egg. Yet the SOL
 dier boys are happy. Why? Well,
 listen: Yesterday, they had a swim i;
 and to-day they shifted from the dusty
 cars on which they had travelled from
 Mantle, to new and airy clean coaches.
 Instead of cars with straight chair
 backs and small windows they have
 coaches with reclining chairs and dou- i'ble windows. TO the Santa Fe road
 they give their thanks.
 Ahead, somewhere in Kansas" is
 the first, section of the train, carrying
 the first battalion. Ahead and some where else in Kansas. flying by grain coated prairies and oyer fertile bottom Hands is the third section with the third battalion. The whole regiment | is speeding to the shabby little dusty | that troubled triangle where Arizona, Mexico meet. A month ago nobody knew of the squalid town. In three fdays it will be only too we'll known by may happen that all Bridgeport and all tho country will ring with the name. l In command of the battalion is Ma jor John L. Purcell, senator from the Third District. The units in the com mand are Companies, B, F, G and H., together with attachments from the iSupply Company and the Sanitary Troops Behind the stout Santa Fe Locomotive you may count seventeen
 cars.
 f Quite possibly twenty-five other itrains very much like it are flying iacross the west containing troops from | ten or twelve states rushing to the Rio Grande to rescue Uncle Sam and to spank Mexico. In that case a de- scription of the train is of interest not alone in Connecticut, but, perhaps, in tten other states. And so here goes: [ Behind that stout engine you can sight three fiat cars, each loaded with three army wagons with wheels broad of tire and thick of spoke and ruled 1 by lever brakes. These wagons are blocked with mighty cleats and have remained safe in place, not even a scratch after the uncounted jolts in 1900 miles In three days they are |, grind dust amid sage brush and mes- quite elong Mexico's border: Men from the Supply Company will sit in ltheir coming towers and chat in lurid Language to the mules which are to tbe their dynamos. ,9-@ + -.-- | Astern. of the flat cars you find a l "horse palace car'' a glorif1ed box car, half stable. There are ten | shiny-coated, plump horses, standing 1 the trip like Trojans. The animals are for officers ,(and are all that they should be. :. If anything could tempt a sailor to stay ashore amid lane swabs 1 it would be the sight of these noble beasts. S
 The 'ostlers do not divide their de- votion to the Lorses with any surplus of amiabilIty to a war correspondent. They have theory that a war cores pondent Cisturhs their coordination
 and this is in fact reasonable. It
 makes their vocabulary fatter and
 their manner is convincing. There l is an excess of evidence that they are lovers of ,.oratory. Ut is beautiful to
 find hearts throbbing with a devotion as concentrated as that these 'ostlers
 show to the horses, a devotion allowing
 but one ideal.
 l Next to the horses you find box car
 with excess equipment. Here is
 slowed dunnage not needed till the end. There is tentage and there are
 cots, field ranges and extra amlnuni- l tion. It is delightful to mosey around
 in the dim, religious light. The car is like an orlop deck. -s = l. l Now we are in the hospital car. This l is headquarters of the train surgeon.
 First Lieut.. Howard Bqlkeley Haylett. Men answering sick call report here. Two cots are in splace and other cots
 may be stretched. The boys are in health and good spirits. Nearly all of
 the very few cases of sickness are light constipation. Dr. Haylett is a po- lice surgeon up in Hartfords He has been inoculating the men against ty-, phoid. and serum is kept in the car. The inoculation is in three injections.
 The first concluded yesterday. The
 two others are to be given at week intervals in Nogales.
 The galley follows, this car. The cooks for the companies perform their indispensable operations here. They have stove set in a low bed of cinders boxed in by beams. The cook gear is kept neatly in an ingenious pp.ntry. There is an ice chest.
 The backbone of the mess is beans, you may have beans baked, bean stew and as one fellow said: "bein's yop." Occasionally you may have beans with bacon and sometimes YOU may have baQon with beans.
 H)- coffee, hot dogs and bread are in support or in reserve. Crackers and marmalade often are. Quite ire cuently Tommy has an orange or a banana. Quite frequently Tommy has a pint bottle of milk. He has a good ... Iie., .,d ,,s,,a ll,r d,r,itr tho fo nt