The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1917-10-26
100 PER CENT AMERICAN.
KOHLER WRITES OF CHARLOTTE
AND CAMP GREENE-BOYS
BUY BONDS.

The following letter, written Dy A. |
j. Kohler, formerly in the employ of
j. G. Schultz, was received by him a |
few days ago. 1t is descriptive of
the southern city, and of the camp. |
1t breathes the spirit of American |
ism, and is full of the views taken of !
the war as seen by soldier eyes. The |
letter is as follows:
Camp Greene, October Z, 1917. |
Dear j. c.: AS you well know
from my former letter, we all arrived
we'll and happy in the city OF Char
lotte, the queen city of the south.
1t has a population of approximately
$4,000, of which nearly 40 per cent
are negroes The people, and in fact
all about the south, is exactly as you
read about. They take things much
easier than we people do up in our
country and as we say up home, they
seem TO be minus the pep" which
we possess. However, their hospital
ity has captured most of our boys.
They have been fine to the boys in
every way, shape and form and their
kindness toward us shall long be re-
membered by us all.
The waterworks system cost the
city $1,000.000 and has daily ca
pacity of 100000 gallons, with
reserve of 60,000,000 gallons. Their
principal industries from what | have
been able to learn, is cotton mills and
cotton seed products, as they claim TO
have some 400 cotton mills within
radius of 100 miles and employ
something like $4,000 people. The
city has Sc churches (white) and 81
churches (colored) and everything is
closed up absolutely tight on Sun
days, SO you must, for a little excite
ment or Sundays, take in one or the
other OF the 81 above mentioned
places of worship. The Queens col
4 lege for young ladies, as well as the
Harner Military school. are two beau
/ tifully built structures. Then they
have four building and loan associa-
tions. Telephones are not as plenti-
full here as compared with our coun-
try, for, as / said, Charlotte, a city
of $4,000, having only $500 tele-
phones, which is only 10 per cent of
the population.
The public buildings such as the
Y. Nj. and Y. w. G.. A., library, Ma
sonic temple, U. s. assay office. u. S.
postoffice and many other buildings
are certainly a credit to any city, so
you see that the city is principally a
home city and consists of mighty
wealthy people.
So much for the city. Next | sup
pose you would be little interested
in the camp. This eantonment has
been named Camp Greene, In honor
of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of Revolu-
tionary fame. and who was COM
mander of the American army of the
south. 1t is located about three
miles from the city and is eight miles
long and city in itself. We. the
41st division, are made up of men
from the northwest and in talking to
some of the people have been told
what sturdy and healthy looking
lot of fellows they are. The division
is made up OF infantry, artillery,
cavalry, machine gun company, sig
nal corps and engineering corps, and
it is a wonderful sight TO see them
drill and believe me they are being
drilled. What three months ago was
considered a rookie has fast devel-
oped into a good fighter. One thing
have almost overlooked. We all,
that is. l mean the larger per cent of
the boys who make up the 41st di-
vision, have purchased Liberty loan
! bonds, and we have, | believe, raised
something like a million dollars.
guess those boys are not 100 per cent
American, eh? Not only have they
offered their lives, but their money
to carry on the fight for the great
principles our dear old u. S. A. is
trying to establish.
Well. / must close, as il is nearly
time for taps and have some work
to perform yet, so | must bring this
to a close for this time. Wishing
you and your family the best of. ev-
erything. | remain, very truly yours
Albert Kohler.
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