Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1917-07-19
LETTER FROM GEO. swAwcER

sure glad to hear that you are all
we'll. | am fine and dandy. |
never felt better in all my life.
/ We have a fine place to sleep and
have all that we can cat. We had
some fine meals, I'll tell you.
For breakfast we have beef, po-
tatoes, coffee, bread, butter, pud-
ding, oranges and eggs. For
dinner yesterday we had bread,
butter, meat, mashed potatoes,
lemonade, waterlnclon, cabbage,
and pie We have all we can eat
| three times a day. They just set
it out on the table and we help
ourselves, so if we 90 hungry it
will be our fault They sure do
treat us fine. tell you it is put
/ ling the fat on me. Ii keep ON
l | will weigh 200 by fall, so |
+ guess ! haven't amy kick coming.
The army life is The only life for
me.
We have moved into our new
Il Qutti ltl =. w y IidNt cNtIS llllll x
p-to-date- clecIric lights i'm
the houses. so we don't have to
buy candles amy more. We have
a fine bunch in our company and
they treat us all O. X. In the
/ mornings when we drill they take
us to the shade about every Al
minutes and we rest till we get
cooled off. Our sergeant is sure
a prince He is am old man and
has been i'm the mill before, so he
knows how to feel for us all.
I'm The evenings he band plays
until O'Clock, and there is one
| young man who comes out and
sings, and he sure is some fine
singer, too. Some OF the boys
have harps and violins. We have
all kinds of music, so we don't
y get lonesome, but we all think oil
home anyway. once i'm a While
= some OF the boys GET homesick
and ii is sure hard for some ol
T. them who have never been away
y from home before. sure. feel
:. sorry for Them. but try TO talk
Y to them and try to encourage
; them the best | can, but it is
J petty hard to do.
II This country is not like old
u Iowa. | have not seen a cherry
p tree, no small grain or any fruit
: here like Iowa has. About all
. they raise here is cotton, rice,
Z beans. peanuts and peaches. I'll
;, bet the cornlields look fine by
= now ! haven't seen stalk oil
u corn or a garden all the while |
:, have been here But there are
u plenty OF blacllbcrries A bunch
y OF US boys in The SD Inf went
Z out the other day and gol eight
u cen gallons They had black
y berry pies for two days. They arc
> as thick here as gooseberrics are
:. there
: There is big cotton mill about
II four miles from here and a bunch
OF the boys We're over there last
y Sunday. We had a fine time. 1t
u has about 100 population. sure
have seen some parts of the
: world already, but would like to
y see Il lot more yet.
I. Our company has one of the
- best guard mounts i'm the regi-
: menl. We We're on guard last
> night and | just came off this
, morning. We went on last night
u at ! O'Clock. When we are on
= guard we just have to guard the
- camp and chase prisoners. We
= don't take any chances If we
= say halt AL anyone and they don't
!, halt. we have to shoot at them
~ but they always stop and stop in
a hurry, too We have ten posts
= had post No. 9 last night.
/" was on the first relief, went on at
" ! O'Clock and got off at O'Clock
> Then did moi go back till 4
:, O'Clock this morning. One man
VII lMO lloulS anu VII
- four hours. That gives each one
- OF us that are on guard a rest. 1t
- is not hard work to do. All there
!" is to do is to carry our gun, belt,
. bayonet and ten rounds of cart
ridges. don't suppose you know
-e what ten rounds means. There
= are five shells i'm brass carrier
IS and we have two carriers full of
= them.
x was on kitchen police the
other day. All we have to do to
n be kitchen police is to wait on the
IS tables and wash dishes. sure
1t had some time, and all of every
= thing could eat, besides. Talk
t, about chocolate. l sure had all
d he chocolate could eat for once
Q, | know-thcre is no guessing
1T about that We had to throw
:, away a lot of it. We made more
d chocolate than we did cakes. But
&c | think I'll be able to eat most
s, anything by the time | get out OF