Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1917-10-04
REED WRITES
LETTER TO PARENTS
Camp Mills, Sept. 81,

ShSA INV " = hhsASAN ~
Camp Mills, Sept. 81.
Dear Dad and MAJ
You know you said to look up Mr..
Rodgers nephew and l found out
that his tent is in Co. II, just about
twenty feet from our own. He has
not been home either time l went to
see him. but as it is just across the
way, | can go over any time. l will
see him tomorrow probably. Also
I'm going to look up that Alderman
boy.
We are getting our clothes now,
l haven't gotten them all yet, but
we are getting them all this time.
We are to have two complete suits,
three suits of underwear, five pairs
of socks, two shirts, gloves, etc.
You ought to see my marching shoes.
They are bobnailed but are sure easy
on ones feet. | haven't had to be
any of the reviews or parades lately
as a lot of us have only our cotton
pants. So we take life easy when
they do that Tomorrow we have
another physical examination and l
think | will pass, sure do hope so.
weighed the other night and l weigh
1923 pounds which is IL pounds
have gained in the army.
l guess / will be in the machine
gun potion and hope so as l think
it will be a good place to be. Some
of us carry spades, some picks, some
wire cutters, think l will carry
wire cutter.
Three of us went to New~Y ork
last night and of course RED" Hur-
ty got lost from us and he had our
passes. Consequently we were stop
ed by the military police and our
names turned in to the Captain, but
he knew We had passes so we got
by alright That New York is sure
some place.
On the way home we met some
Ohio boys and they asked us where
we were from. We told them from
Iowa and they said, ooh. your some
of those wild guys, are you?" They
cant get it out of their heads that
we are wild and Wolly."
The first Sergeant was acting sort
of cranky the other day and l went
up to him as sober as could be and
asked him if l might take a bath.
He looked sort of funny and then
said he guessed it would not hurt me
and started to laugh.
l have sent my chest home or ra-
Their the Ottumwa Commercial Club
got a car to take them to Ottumwa
for us and from there they will go
our homes. 1t may take a few days
but never mind, it will get there all
right
They sure do make us keep our
guns clean here and we do all right
nr drill. Ennn
them shined up. Its the only way,
] wish you could see our bayonett
drills. They are sure some classy
maneuvers.
Those conscripts will sure have
some easy time of it. Steam heated
barracks. etc. Also they will have
everything in the line of amusement
that can be given them. One of our
new Lieutenants said, God pity the
Dutch when those Iowa boys tear in
said that after the review that the
Iowa boys were the most soldierly in
the camp. What do you know about
that? We have full bloodcd Ha-
vain Lieut., whom / believe ! like
better than all the rest. He is sure
some husky guy now, take it from
me.
l wish you could see the ocean, it
surely would make you stop and
think don't believe any one can
see it for the first time and not feel
that it is something that no one can
control or ever understand. 1t is
so big and so restless.
I suppose Ruth is quite, or thinks
she is quite grown up now that she
is others before her have done.
We had "Mulligan stew" for sup
per to-nite and l sure am so full
believe l am ready to bust. l could
have eaten some more but one of the
guys found a hair in his and not be-
ing hungry after that, we quit, but
believe me, l could eat hair mat
tress when we come in from some
of those hikes and never bat an eye.
We all laughed at Red" to-nite for
calling his old tin knife and fork
Silver Ware. When anything like
that comes up, he says, Thank God,
l was pure once" Shorty and Dock
got a box of candy Unite and We sure
did have a feast. There is New
York woman. RICH, who is going
to bring us feed Saturday. We will
sure enjoy that as camp cookery gets
sort of monotonous sometimes. We
sure had some feed in New York, Red
who has worked in cafe, mixed us
French dressing out of Olive oil, vine
gar, etc 1t would have made dog
sick but it tasted good to us anyway
and now Red thinks he is regular
cook. He went out to drill one
morning in a great, big, old overcoat
on account of having chills or some
thing, he sure looked comical pivot
ing around the field in that thing.
The Lieut.. told hi INTO take that thing
off and leave it off.
There is one guy in our squad
that we don't like. A sort of know
it-all CABBAGE head and all that, we
are trying to run him out of the
squad He had a sort of bag or
thing that he puts his stuff in and
we hung it outside the door one mite
and some drunks came along and
used il for punching bag. Made
him kinda mad but of course none
of us knew who did it.
Red was up after some clothes a