The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1917-03-09
WHIT DESCRIBES
HIS GREAT TRIP
DON'T THINK MUCH OF SOME
OF THE COUNTRY THROUGH
WHICH HE PASSED.
THINKS TUCSON GREAT CITY
Finds A "Hagout" Similar To The
80. Nj. G. A." In His Home Town
OF Paw Paw.

20. NJ. &. A." In His Home Town
OF Paw Paw.
Wint Reynolds is now in Tucson,
Arizona. The following letters des-
eriptive of his trip from New Orleans
where the letter of two weeks q
left him, to the Arizona city will be
of special interest to the readers OF
The True Northerner, ali Of whom ar,
counted among Wint's friends
al left New Orleans on the S. p.
following the river and gulf coast,
through Palmetto and Cypress
swamps, the latter festooned with
Spanish moss and as tangled as the
Cedar swamps Of Northern Michigan
Across Bayous and islands, said to
have been the resort of the pirase
Laffette, through tie land of the
"Arcadians" of which Longfellow
wrote in his "Evangeline". The rice
and cotton fields are well titled, and
they still speak the French Patois
and retain the same customs they had
when expelled from their Arcadia.
"Then we came to the immense
sugar plantations, thousands of
acres in extent, where ninety per cent
of the population were black Cor choc
olate brown, and the houses yellow
(if painted at all.) The sugar mills
are immense buildings, and the can
is brought in from outlying part
of the plantation by canals or tram
cars. Much of the lands are said to
be but two or three feet above the
gulf.
! Further on we came to the rice
fields with their straw stacks and
more white people. We passed the
Beaumont oil fields and landed in
San Antonio in the morning whe e
we stopped and visited the Alamo
where hundred and eighty-four
Texans stood off an army of five
thousand Mexicans for nineteen days.
and with ammunitation gone and gate
battered down, fought to finish. AS
stood in the little room VIII
Crockett, Bowie, left a windrow of
dead 'Greasers' before they succomp-
ed, | couldn't help but wish that a
little of the red blood of those brave
pioneers couldn't have come down in
the veins of our Administration.
"Fort Sam Huston is a busy place.
1t covers a half mile square with
officers houses, barracks, hundreds of
army autos, sheds of Flying machines
and soldiers everywhere.
"A larger part of the way, between
San Antonio and FL Paso, the Rail
road runs near the Mexican border,
and through a country that the Lord
never intended to be inhabited. L.
is made up of Gull stuff left over and
was used to putty up holes and make
the earth round. ust rocks piled
up in every conceivable shape with
an occasional cactus or musquit to
make it more hideous. About every
twenty-five miles they have levelled
off a place big enough for an oil
tank and depot. At all these places
and frequently between, is squad
of soldiers. They are everywhere,
on the trains going to some other out
post, or coming back to headquarters,
They all want to come home, and
don't blame them.
"El Paso is the gateway to Mexico,
; and is Busy. It's more soldiers, ard
if there are any more nations to re-
: present than there is here, / never
hard of them. / wouldn't trade a
) sand forty in Van Buren, County for
: whole county, that I've been travel
! ling through"
| The following is a second letter or
the trip from FL Paso to Tucson.
"The trip from FL Paso to Tucson
(about six hundred miles) was M
eventful, with the exception of a
bridge over a ..rroye' which is 4
river without any water) and was
: burned by Mexicans from over the
border, and delayed us about three
hours, while baggage and mail was
being transferred to a train on the
other side, and wonderful mirage
that looked like great lake.
"When ] got to Tucson, found