Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1917-05-31
AN AUDUBo,n BOY
%'lES OF HIS TRIP
Reo| zen Musson Writes Interesting
Letter Of His Trip EnrOute'tO
the West as enc Of Uncle
Sans Soldiers

Letter Of His Trip Enroute'to
the West as Une Of Uncle
Sans Soldiers
| Rueben Musson, son of Mrs. John
\ Musson of Ames, but a former res
| fdent OF this city, writes very in
teresting letter to friends at Ames,
where he was attending college. The
Il letter is so interesting that we re-
Il print it for the benefit of his many
Audubon friends. all of whom are
II greatly interested In him. The let
ter follows:
II Fort Mcdowell. Cal, May 1s-(By
Mail. Just word from the front
to let the people Of Ames know what
has happened up to this time.
L Az most of you know what hap
pened from the time we left Mar
shalltown, where we enlisted, until
we went through Ames, we shall
siarf our brief story from the time
nnr, trip to Omaha was unevent-
fui we~,-ent to the army building,
vn.ra VIC v1>.e examined the second
/ time, and all D. eu A. e accprrt ~ a
D0dgeon. who failed N a.' FLEETS 70
| bad nose. We were given " that
Fort Logan. Colo, and mea>> ont
same afternoon and all left exo>
Max Devore and Clifford Mccarthy.
who had ito play . game of billiards
| rather than get their tickets and go
1 with the rest Of the gang. The
crowd consisted Of Bob Mccarthy,
!, --~.. .vx. Bill Davis Rap.
Datus Proper, Sardy Brintall. Lyle
McCarty, Max DeVore, Joe Musson
and Clifford McCarty. However. Max
and Cliff joined the rest at Fort Lo-
gan. Bob Moscrip IL young fellow
of Marshalltown who most of us
| knew, and has proven himself to be
a very desirable companion for us.
About 1875 left Omaha on special
car on the Union Pacific and Cliff
and Max came later over the Rock
Island. We arrived in Denver at
1880 O'Clock, and after looking over
Denver. beautiful city. we left for
the fort at 1890 over the Denver & |
Rio Grande. which Is about 5 miles |
from Denver. Upon our arrival we
we're assigned hunks in the officers |
club. The next morning we arose at |
4:30 and waited FIVE houre until we
were given our final examination.
Nothing Of any importance hap
pened until the next day, when we
were issued our clothing, which con-
sisted Of one drab dress uniform,
two pairs of shoes, Six pairs of sox,
xix suits of underwear. two wooden
shirts. one hat. two pair service uni
forms, one recruit outfit (toilet arti-
cles), one complete mess kit and
three shots in the ARA. We certain
ly were lucky to draw only few
hours Of detail in the kitchen. That
morning in our mess hall we fed over
900 for breakfast.
During that day re had fourteen
inches OF snow. The 2ext day, Mon
day. we all left for Fort Winfield
Scott. CAL. over the Colorado Mid
land at $3.50 in the evening. Our
train consisted of fourteen Pullman
cars and two baggage cars. We GER
tainly had variety of weather while
passing over the state of Colorado.
We arrived at Grand Junction, Col.
where We bought the town out in the
way of eatables. Late that day we
entered the most barren state in the
union, Utah. with nothing but sage
brush and mountains as far as we
Salt Lake early in the morning and
proceeded on over the Western Pa
cific to an equally barren state, Ne
vada.
We all became restless until the
next morning when we woke up in
a veritable paradise. Sacramento. Cal.
At Livermore we feasted on oranges
and roses by the hospitality of the
Inhabitants. At 1900 o'clock we
were in Oakland, where we boarded
government ferry. which took us
to Fort Winfield Scott.
Our trip across San Francisco bay
took us by Frisco, Berkeley, the
Panama-Pacific exposition grounds
and old Fort Preside to opposite the
Golden Gate. After disembarking We
were divided into two companies, the
Third and Seventh. Robert McCar-
thy and Joe MussOn were assigned
to the Third while the rest went to
the Seventh.
Here we met some more of the old
Ames regulars, namely, Charlie Now
lin, Bert Durham, Bob Sage, Hugh
Griffith Herbert Crooks and Ed Fer
guson, whom we were delighted to
see.
Our surroundings in general are
equal only to the Iowa State college
buildings and campus. After four
days of waiting We were told that we
were to be sent to Honolulu. OF
course, we went to Frisco, as 1t only
cost dime. and were all anxious to
see the sights of that world-renowned
city. Tuesday We left Winfield Scott
along with 275 others for Angel Is
land, about seven miles across the
bay We were all quarantined in the
big gymnasium temporarily. There
we received rations such as strawber-
ries and cream. oranges, meat loaf.
asparagus and several other dainty
articles Of the California gardens.
Today we were given twenty-four
hours notice to pack for our trip to
Honolulu. We were also given more
clothing of lighter weight for the
warm climate. We will write again
when we get to the land Of the Hull
maidens.