Warren sheaf., 1917-10-24
RALPH POWELL WRITES s.
INTERESTING LETTER HOME.

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INTERESTING LETTER HOME.
Paris Island, $. G., Oct l6 1917.
Dear Father: :
We left st. Paul Friday the 18th over
the Burlington at 6 80 p "a. There
We're five of us, two from Minneapolis
one from Albert Lea, and the other
from La Crosse, and myself. We were
given 50 a piece from the sargeant in
st. Paul for meals as far as Atlanta
We had sleepers also as far as Atlanta.
We arrived in Chicago at 7:3O a. m, !.
where we We're transferred over to the
Illinois Central depot in one of Parme.
lees buses. We had breakfast in
dairy lunch and left at a. M. over the
Big Four. We had a fine daylight ride
thru Illinois and Indiana, we arrived
in indianapolis about noon and had
time to run over to the restaurant and
get something to eat. We arrived in
Cincinnati at 6 p. M. and had time to.
take a walk up to Fountain Square and
get a good feed. We left over the.
Southern Railway at 500 p. m. and
had a sleeper to Chattanooga. When
we woke up in the morning we were
rolling down thru the mountains of
Tennessee, the scenery was just grand.
The trees were as green as they were at
Warren In July. We arrived in
Chattanooga about s 80 a. m. Sunday
morning but we only had time to- get
some fruit and few post cards. We
should have reached Atlanta at IL 40
a. m. but we didn't get there until 1 100
p. m. We went up to the Marine office
and they took us over to the Exchange
Hotel and gave us each a room. We
We're each given a 80 cent meal ticket
for our dinner, also one for supper and
breakfast the next morning We were
given full liberty to do as we pleased
until the next morning at O'clock It
was a nice warm day and the streets
were full of people There are 10000
soldiers in training just outside of At
lanta so there were hundreds of sol
diers on the streets. Atlanta is swell
city, it has more skyscrapers than any
city in the United States for its size.
We went out to park in the after
noon and took in show at night.
We left Atlanta Monday morning at
o'clock, over the Central Of Georgia
Railway and Travelled southeast thru
cotton fields to Augusta. We were
each given so cents for our dinner
which we bought from niggers at a
station we passed. They had good
lunch already put up in paper bags
We passed stone mountain, solid
rock foundation about a thousand feet
high. It was warm enough so we could
ride all day with the windows wide
open. The boys would toss the little
lnigger kids on the platforms nickles to
jig for us.
] About fifteen other recruits had join
ed us in Atlanta, some from st. Louis,
Kansas City, CINCINNATI, Cleveland,
and Detroit, so there was almost a full
coach of us. We got to Augusta; Ca,
about 1:30-p m. The Pennsylvania
National Guard is camped just outside
of Augusta and they sure haVa got
some big camp We saw hundreds of
niggers building up new barracks in
this camp. Augusta is an old southern
town but we only had about ten
minutes there so we didn't see much Of
the town. We took the Charleston and
Western Carolina Railroad south out
of Augusta and rode thru dense pine
forests until about p. m. when we
came to a junction right in the forest.
Here we transferred over to the At
|lantic Coast Lines Railway and came
south to Fort Royal, S, c., a little town
over on the mainland. We got there
about 8 O'Clock. There were about.four
Tor five officers there to meet us and we
.lgot into a gasoline launch and rode
about ten miles out to Paris Island
where we are now. This island is just
off the South Carolina coast about ten
miles and is about IL miles long; we
are at the quarantine barracks at the
southeast end Of the Island.
The Island is covered with palms and
other tropical fruits of all kinds 1t is
strictly a government Island, no
civilians being allowed on it. There
are no soldiers or sailors on it either,
i j uSC udilueS Ol WHICH lueic are ABOUT
seven thousand in training. They had
good supper waiting for us when we
got here and we were taken into the
Quarantine barracks and each given a
steel bed with springs, two wool. army
blankets, mattress with white cover
lover it, feather pillow with white slip
over it and a white bed sheet, also
white payamas and sleeping shirt.
Then they formed us in line and march
ed us to the shower bath and scrubbed