Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1917-10-31
Joseph Mestad, of HighIandville,
Member Battery ID. 4th f. A.
Writes His Brother About
Army Life in Texas.
PAY DAY GREAT
ONE FOR SOLDIERS
Weather is Warm and Not Much
Shade, But Plenty of Brush
and Cactus.
Brownsville, Texas,
Oct. Z, 1917

Oct. Z, 1917
My Dear Brother:
Received your letter this evening
so I'll write few lines in return.
am kind of tired tonight as l hav
been on hike all day. That's some
thing that cools a person down. w,
went about twenty miles in all; tha
don't seem to be so very far, but b.
the time you get to the end of those
miles you are about satisfied. Yol
see there is about two inches of dus
along the road and when there is &
bunch of miles ahead of you, you
sure get enough of it. When we are
on full pack hike we have 13(
mules and few horses and 1S(
men, so there is lice little string oi
us. Well we havn't got our big hike
yet, but now they say we will get il
Monday. Then we will be gone three
or four days. We are supposed to
make about thirty miles Monday, sc
we will be about all in when night
comes. We are going down to the
g"lf and / like to go there. I think
We will hike down one day rest
there one day, come back the next.
At first when they started to talk
about that hike they said we would
have to make 120 miles ii three days,
but it won't be that far. Last Friday
we were out on an all day hike, but
then it was not as hot as it was to-
day We don't stop very long for
dinner. Today we had a place to
camp. You see it is pretty hard to
find any good shade in this old coun-
try. It's nothing but brush and cac-
tus, and that is how the whole coun-
try is around here. Last Friday
when we got back to camp there
were orders here for us that we
should not leave camp longer than
half day at time, but they have
changed their minds again now. |
was thinking that maybe they were
the Mexicans to start some
thing. / think they are afraid they
will get in trouble with them again.
They are always ready for them. At
night they keep light in temple
up town. That is for an aiming point
for our cannons so If anything turns
up we will start fighting. Right where
we are the Mexicals have a fort
little ways from here and they have
got quite a few soldiers too, but If
they are not any better now than the
last time We had fight with them
they won't amount to much. 1t was
not more than two years ago since
they had fight with them down
here, but it was only the cowboys
that were across and they shot them
down pretty fast. There wasn't any
of the soldiers from here killed, not
even hurt The artillerymen We're
ready to go across too, but the Mexi-
cans gave up before they got far. OF
course we can't tell, they may never
start any more trouble. I've also
heard the Mexicans are good friends
of this country now, but you see
there is lots of talk about everything.
1 see there are lot of boys gone
from Winneshiek and they are still
drafting. Well don't care If ! did
enlist, because I would have gone
anyway now. This is not so very
bad, but you can get better job too.
You see everybody has got to like it,
because they know they have got to
stay. don't think there are any who
will stay after their time is up. 1t
would be a lot better il you could
stay in a nice part of the country. 1t
is getting better down here now. and
some people think they can save mo-
ney SO easy here, but that is some
thiag can't do, and l don't see any
one else that is saving any either,
but ] wish had some money. You
can Just about double it by lending
it out. That is about a week before
pay day. then everybody is broke. !
had few dollars l lent out. got
fifty cents on every dollar, only for
a weeks time. We will get paid again
this week. That day is sure a big
one.
am sending you picture OF some
of our mules. We caught thunder
around here lots OF times about
those mules. You see some of the
boys are too dumb to do anything
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