Mexico weekly ledger., 1917-11-22

William viyion, Of this city, has r.
ceived the following interesting -
ter from his nephew, Vivion Mil5red
Of this county, who is in the U. S
Navy and now stationed at Boston:
Dear Uncle:
BOSTON, Mass, Nov. Ii, 1917. -
lam now located at Commonwealth
Pier in Boston and have been here
for about three weeks. | like it fine.
Things are certainly nice compared
with Newport We have such a fine
bunch Of officers; they are nearly all
commissioned men and they certainly
do treat you fine.
We have been having things easy
here, only drill about two and a half
hours, and some times three. a day.
We have been getting bayonet prac-
tice and | suppose | will know how TO
use one if | ever have the occasion to
do 80; ! hope that | never have to be
in a bayonet fight, for 1t seems too
treacherous.
There are five of US boys here at the
pier; four were left in Newport and
one was drafted to Norfolk. Those
here are Barnes, Powell, Roberts, Nc
Clintick and myself. Eubanks was
sent to Norfolk and Williams, Rock
well, Watts and Plunkett are still at
Newport.
We have everything nice and COM
Portable here. We are furnished with
plenty Of heat and that is something
we didn't have in Newport. The pier
is an immense concrete building and
was partly owned by the German
steamship lines before the war, but
was taken over by the U. S. Govern
ment and made in ship form on the
inside and now is called the Reeeiv-
ing Ship of Boston. The pier is To-
Gated in one of the main points Of the
Boston Harbor and from the rear we
have a fine view of the harbor and any
day foreign ships can be seer passing
in and out.
The pier holds several thousand
men, when it is filled, but they have
been drafting quite a few out the last
few days, to go on different ships.
Three drafted men went out today;
one for the ~battlesh:p Charleston,
one for the Albany and one for the
Old Colony.
Quite a few sailors are kept busy
by working parties being sent over to
the navy yard. Every morning a
party is generally sent over TO help
paint up the old ships and repair them.
| have been lucky so far, as | have
escaped those working parties. The
boys finished painting two big Ger
man liners, which the Government had
taken over, just before we left New
port. So we escaped most Of the
hard and dirty work.
am now working in the Paymas-
ter's Department on the War Risk In
surance Committee. Garrett Barnes
is also with me. There are six Of us
boys all together. This War Risk is
something new and just going into eff
feet. We did our first work this
morning and suppose we will be very
busy from now on We handle the in
surance and allotment. Every man
in the navy must have an allotment
blank made whether he wants to make
an allotment or not. But the allot-
ment is compulsory, with a married
man or one with a child. A single
man can make a voluntary allotment,
but the married mans allotment is
compulsory. We went to work yes
terday and spent the day reading and
discussing the bill and today COM
menced getting things together for
operation. We have a nice office to
ourselves and no one around but com
missioned officers; suppose / will
be here now for quite a while as
now have this job.
Before ] close | suppose ] had bet
ter say a few words in regard to the
city Of Boston.
suppose Boston is n Of the cast
est cities there is to get lost in. II
have been here three weeks and have