Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-15
FIRST CITY TROOPERS
BUSY KILLING SNAKES
Committee Appointed to Rid Re-
mount Camp of Dangerous
Reptiles

The Joys and troubles of camp life al the
remount station, near Augusta. Ga, formed
the topic of a letter received today from a
member of the First City Troop in this city.
There are number of snakes around
our camp here" the trooper writes Three
of the men have appointed themselves a
committee to kill these pests They have
already accounted for a number. The star
XIII was rattlesnake, fifty-hve inches
long, with eleven rattles II has been skinned
and cured.
THE proud possessor Of this rattler was
kicked in the shin several days ago while
leading several horses. He has been unable
to do any heavy work and can be found
almost any time of day sitting in camp,
either playing a photograph belonging 10
one of the men or playing with his newly
acquired rattle. II makes a splendid toy
He is hobbling around on crutches now, but
is fast improving. II will not be long before
he will discard bis props
1.-TWO of the men killed three water moe
casns on the edge of our swimming hole
For several days most of us preferred TO
stay dirty to bathing with the snakes. Now,
however our waterpipes are in, and we
can enjoy the luxury of shower baths.
During the night we still have eight
guard posts, as l previously wrote. How
ever during the day we only have four
posts, as two of them have been mounted.
This Is much better, as 1t was somewhat of
a strain to do guard duty every three nights
and days In daytime we now have six
men on posts one and eight both of which
are dismounted. Twelve men ride two
horses a day instead of having twenty-four
men on duty.
after dark the guard shouts the number
of their post the hour and 'all's welp on the
hour and half hour. It is very inspiring
to hear this, especially on a still night. as
we are virtually in the wilderness. Post
No. 1 begins the call. 1t is then taken up
! by No. @ and so on along the line. If one
| of the posts fails to relay It. the corporal
| of the guard is called by the last post giving
the call. He Immediately investigates.
1.-THE man on the second relief of the
| guard. relieved at a. m., had just turned
| in and got to sleep last night One of them
| was awakened by the 8: 80 call and saw one
| of the other men on the relief before him
| jump out of bed and grab up his rife an6
| cartridge belt. He made beeline for thu
| door and yelled, All right; am coming 4!
| We stopped him and found that he was
sound asleep.
I'VE had just got to sleep again wher
we were disturbed by a loud Halt! who
| goes there?' Investigation showed that
| another of the men was walking in his
sleep This at least is evidence that we are
we'll drilled and thoroughly saturated with
military discipline. Perhaps we will bt
| able to stand guard in our sleep II We keel
| on improving.
| might before last 1 was pounding my
| ear hard between the blankets when two
| shots rang out from post No. 8, followed
| In a few minutes by two more. This is
signal of alarm. Assembly was sounded OF
the bugle. Within few minutes the who'll
camp had turned cut, including the cooks
ready to go to the scene Of action. Th'
guard rushed to the post, but as 1t turned
| out to be a drill the rest of us did not leav'
camp. Captain Thayer was greatly pleased
| with this our initial drill of its kind.
THE nearest store to the camp is a
Belair, about a mile and half away
1t is unique being the station, the hardware
the grocery the candy and every other kind
OF a store combined. Every evening few
of us walk over there to buy cigarettes anc
| other necessarieS