Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1917-06-20
DOWN ON THE BORDER
HENRY BELSCAMPER WRITES HIS
FOLKS A DANDY LETTER.-HOT
BUT INTERESTING.
June s. tst7.

| june o, LIT
| Dear Mother and Sister,
Well, l suppose Nell is home by this
time. Am not going to write mucl Of
letter tonight but will write a long
er one next time. Left Jefferson Bar
racks about p. M. Tuesday and land
ed here about 10 or 1880 o. M .ast
night, Thursday So you see we had
long trip. | figured up the mileage
| have made since | left home; 1e-
tween 1850 and 1000 miles. / am at
FIT. Bliss at Ell Paso, Tex. The Fort is
four miles above Ell Paso. Dont for
goodness sake send my mail to TT.
Bliss, because there are two places
! by the name of FIT. Bliss and they will
get mixed. Send it Headquarters Co.
18th, Field Artillery Ct. Al Ell Paso,
Texas.
Ell Paso is 400 miles from st. Louis
on the Rio Grande river. Clyde ana |
are going down tomorrow night. We
are together again. They told our
Company at Jefferson Barracks that
we were going to Sam Houston, Tex,
but changed us.
Talk about the desert country we
came from and through. We came
through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma,
cut a corner of Texas and into New
Mexico and then back into Texas. OF
all the land, New Mexico has them ali
skinned. Rough; you don't know how
it is. Sand,and a regular desert Tex
as is bad too. Lots Of sand and sand
storms. The last rain they had here
was last March and they do not eX-
pect any more until next September.
Sand is terribly deep and that is all
there is here. The Fort is in a regu-
lar desert. 1t is located in the very
sOuthW estern part Of the u. S. at the
end of a chain of mountains which
people say is the tail end Of the Rock
les.
We had Pullman cars all the way
and slept fine. We are sleeping out
side now. Our hunks are not finished;
the floors are laid but the roofs are
not on yet. One does not need roof
here until fall.
The days are hot here, about 100
above. There is no shade as there are
no trees. Nothing but a desert. We
have to wear heavy flannel shirts all
day to keep from blistering our bod
les.
These are the bad points. Now the
good ones. Lots of outdoor exercise.
This place is 1000 feet above sea lev
Ell and cures one Of catarrah, con-
sumption, etc. We also have all we
want to eat and lots of nice shower
baths. We take a bath every day and
feel fine. We do our own washing.
Can send it to the laundry but one can
save more by doing it themselves.
For dinner we had potatoes and beef,
lots of it, too, all the bread we want
ed, ice tea, sweet corn and apple short
cake. Everything is clean and good.
Now say Uncle Sans men are not
fed. For supper we had potatoes and
meat coffee or water, bread and prune
sauce For breakfast we have coffee,
rice or corn fakes, bread and butter,
sausage or some other kind of meat.
The food is simple but substantial.
Clyde and l are alone tonight. He
sleeps in bunk across from me.
There are six in bunk. He comes OV-
er often. He is here now and we are
both writing. We have Wednesday
and Saturday afternoons off, and all
day Sunday. We get up at in the
morning, have breakfast and start to
drill at 7:15. We drill for an hour or
so and then have Is or 20 minutes re-
cess. Do this until noon. After din
ner we start in at / or after and work
until O'Clock, then are all through.
Didn't have a thing to do all day.
Well, will write you again shortly
and let you know about this country.
Goodbye With lots of love,
HENRY.