Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-09-18
LETTER FROM BAND
BOY At DEMNG, n. N.
Frank L. Carswen of Second Reg
iment Band Writes Letter
h. to "Uncle Falstaff."

Frank l.. (Chinkl Carswell of the
Second regiment band has written
newsy letter chronicling the do
ings"' of his organization since theil
arrival at Deming to Falstaff O.
Satter, former Webster City newspa-
per man, now on the staff of the
Boone County Democrat, which we
copy in part:
We are camped about mile from
the city OF Deming, in an excellent
location as compared with the Ne
brasla and Minnesota troops, in that
it is nearer to town. Our tents are
pitched on a level, sandy plain and
we have at the head of the company
street mess hall about as large as
the one at Brownsville. Each COM
pany has it's own individual bath
house, although up to this time
there has been no water connections
made for this regiment. We are all
hoping that the conditions will be
remedied within the next few days.
The construction company is
building a regimental hospital just
north of our street, and the first day
we arrived here, Cline, Burns and l
went over and borrowed enough
lumber to lay a 16x16 floor for our
tent. The result was that on the
following day Captain Hale and the
construction quartermaster inter-
viewed us upon our plans for car
penter work, and also viewed our
work. Consequently when pay day
rolls around the price of the lumber
will be kept out OF our pile of gold
The same thing happened to Dave
Anderson and the cooks.
From here we can easily see a
dozen individual mountains that!
seem to be just few miles away,
but on account of the high altitude
and rare air, they are much farther
away than they seem. The farthest
that is plainly visible lies thirty
three miles south Of us, in old Mex
leo, while the nearest is fourteen
miles away. One of the boys here,
upon his first day Of arrival, thought
1t would be a pleasant diversion
from detail work to walk over and
artk a 81 Pl r ? ias He walked for
about two hours and gave it up with
the knowledge that he did not seem
to be any closer than when ne
started.
f Lots of jack rabbits around camp,
and Stuve and Remy have already
planned hunting trip after them.
There are also plenty of quail and
deer. The boys plan on taking a
$50 mile auto trip.
The band is certainly making a.
hit not only with the officers and
the men Of the regiment-but every;
one else who attends the concerts.
Played for General Allen Monday
night and he personally congratulate
ed Mr.. Eppel on his organization. We.
are going to put in our best ticks I'M
order to become a Brigade Band SO.
that in the event that we do go to.
France we shall be detached to play
at the base hospitals instead Of be-
ing on stretcher duty with the hos
pital detachment. Up to the present
time we have had no place to re-
hearse except under several tent flies
that the boys stretched from the end
Of the mess hall. New instruments
seem to be as remote as ever.
Our trip down here was unevent-t
full with but one exceptional a
Texas town--we played for a Texas
Round Up Day" Something on the
order of the Frontier Days at Chey-I
enne. Certainly made hit with the
people and also with a ladies band
that were hired to furnish the music
for them.
No side trips to bath houses or
swimming pools were made this trip
and we seldom stopped long enough
for exercise.
Roy Remy, Earl Reynolds, Bugs"
Art Hanson, Oren Eittreim and Elvin
Bergeson are staging some sort Of a
game on the table next to me and
they are making considerable noise.
would judge that Bugs" was hav-
ing bad luck.
Stuve has taken your place as
Mess Sergeant and he isn't bit
crazy about it as there seems to be
about 600 per cent more book work
than there formerly was. He still
calls the boys pet names in the Pro-
fame Language and drinks little
hard liquor to keep it away from the
younger men. The boys have hard
time getting liquor now as all the sa-
y