The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-11-21
INTERESTING
LETTER FROM
GEO. S0UThARD, R.

located at Camp Jackson, Columbia,
s. c., has written the following inter-
esting letter to Mr.. Bert E. Belts,
which the latter has kindly allowed US
Lc publish. Mr.. Southard says:
AS can't write each one Of you
separately, will write to you all col
lectively and address the letter to
you as l owe you one anyway. Was
mighty glad to hear from you, which
was several weeks ago, but this is
the first opportunity have had to
write which may seem strange but
there is always something to be done
here, especially by First Sergeant,
his work Is never done. Today Is
Sunday, but wash day here also
most of the boys who haven't gone
to town have done their washing.
finished mine up just after dinner.
There is laundry being put up here
and to show you the scale upon which
things are done will say that it is
the largest one ever saw, judging
from the size of the building. An ice
cream factory, with capacity OF
1000 gallons per day is also being
built. | took trip last evening up
to the Base Hospital which Is about
miles from where l am located in
the cantonment and 1t is enormous,
seems to be built to accommodate the
capacity of the camp and looks as if
they were figuring on everyone get
ting sick at one time. The buildings,
of which there semed to be hundreds
are all connected by board walks,
about inches off ground and all
rooted. You could walk miles and
never get from under the roof. Each
building is called ward and is just
wide enough to accommodate 2 rows
of hospital cots,o row on each side
with aisle down middle and | should
judge there are rs or 100 cots in a
ward There are good many pa
tients, too, with various troubles,
mostly measles, mumps, ETC., and men
with various troubles which they had
when they came here. In the latter
cases II an operation is required they
are given either discharge or an Oper
, atom at the option Of the patient
We had divisional review last
week-the whole cantonment passed
before the Major-General and the
Governors of North and South Caro-
lima, and about $4,000 men were IL
: line.
f Since | have been here, the mel
n have been changing constantly.
v in our regiment. l do not know
h tit is the same in others or not bu
@ presume so, at least to some extent
!. with exception of negro regiments
= We have sent two lots Of fairly wei
I. trained men to Macon (Florida men
a and have received in their place
North Carolina and Tennessee mel
% The past week instruction Of recruit
4 consisted of school of squad in a. n
q hour; Bayonet training in a. m. 1.
), hour; Bombing in a. m. 45 minutes
physical training, school of platoo
and squad balance, of a. m. wit
target practice, etc. in p. m.
re There are some French commi
,r stoned and non-commissioned officer
here who have given us lectures @
G hand grenades and autorifles, and a
d. so on general conditions over thel
v which have been very interestin
I'd They are men who have been in IL
ne front trenches since beginning
L war; some had been wounded al
s; were able to give us some pret
straight dope. They say the fightiI
G over there now is largely bombir
NJ with grenades (hand and rihe), au
rifles and machine guns with artille
preparation, of course. Not so mu'
n
bayonet work as in first part of wa
mostly because the Germans cam
face cold steel and have dug thel
selves In.
= 1t all sounds very interesting al
some of us (very few are anxious
!" get over there in spite of all they t.
u US about the suffering in the trenc
es. especially when we are told
those who have seen what outrag
iiu the Germans have committed. TT
oi newspaper reports in this regard
IN CONTINUED oD Page S.)