The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1918-01-31
TELLS STORY Of
RUss|ANvOYAGE
CLYDE 3. MORGAN WRITES NICE
10 STORY OF HIS TRIP.
FROM UNITED STATES TO JAPAN
Letters Written To Mrs. Morgan
Diary Style, From Day to Day,
Give Graphic Description of Ex-
periences On and Off Boat.

Give Graphic Description of Ex-
periences On and Off Boat.
Our readers will recall that Clyde
B. Morgan of this city, formerly con-
nected with M. & st. L. headquarters
men selected by the United States
government to go to Russia to assist
here, early last fall was one of the
in the reconstruction and betterment
of the railroads of that country. The
party sailed from San Francisco, stop
ping first at Honolulu, from where
Mrs. Morgan, who was formerly Miss
Martha Henry, had her first letter.
Recently she received a hundred page
letter written from Japan. The letter
is day by day diary of the trip. At
our solicitation, Mrs. Morgan has
copied portions of the letter, which we
are permitted to publish, the follow
ing being the first installment. After
the United States contingent had
sailed, the upheaval of the Russian
government occurred. The first stop
ping place, after Honolulu was Vladi-
Vostok, Russia, but owing to unsettled
conditions the party did not land and
WCIlI " 1NdSdoahiy CdPlh, WuSISy W
escape the Russian censorship, Mr..
Morgan mailed his second letter.
Second day out from Honolulu, at sea,
Nov. 80, 1917.
AS / wrote you before we reported
on board ship at $3.50 a. m, Thanks
giving day, Nov. 20, and were not al
lowed to get off the boat after that.
We started away from the dock at
Honolulu at 2 p. m. and lost sight of
land about $50 p. m. That is the last
land we will see until. we sight Japan.
We don't know whether we will land
in Japan or not, but / think we will
probably go right straight through to
our destination. We will be able to
see Japan from a distance any way.
4 sort of hope we land at some port in
Japan for a day or two so l can get
my foot on japanese soil once.
We had our Thanksgiving dinner at
p. M, and it was some dinner. Had
nuts and fruits to start on. Then
some frozen oysters, then some soup
and fish and then roast turkey and
all the fixings, cranberry sauce and
celery and everything. For dessert
had hot mince pie, and pudding and
ice cream. Some of the fellows took
all three but was lady-like and only
took some pudding and two helpings
of ice cream. 1t surely was a fine
dinner. If anyone had told me two
months ago that l would eat my
Thanksgiving dinner in the middle of
the Pacific l would have thought he
was crazy. And no one knows where
Twill eat Christmas dinner. Some Of
the fellows who were sick out of
Frisco, are dizzy again but / don't
think they are going to be so sick as
they were. ! never notice the motion
of the boat at all. Of course when l
look | can see it go up and down but
it doesn't make my stomach roll
around.
They say it will take us three weeks
now on this trip and as we get lesson
in Russian every day we should be
pretty well along by the time we get
there. l could not get a Russian
grammar of any kind in Frisco or
Honolulu. You remember | lost mine
in ST. Paul The lessons which took
in St. Paul have helped me out Won
derfully. / am glad l started into it
in st. Paul as | think that fellow was
a fine teacher. AS we were not going
to take lessons while in Honolulu the
colonel said for US to take a lesson
Sunday the same as usual Some of
the Russians did not want to give les
sons on Sunday and some of them
said they did not want to give us les
sons at all as they were hired as in
terpreters and not as teachers. COL
Emerson told them they would do as
instructed or be put off at Honolulu.
They all gave the lessons. There
were some of them though who were
always starting something so they
lined them all up and made them leave
the ship before we sailed. There were
eight of them and they were. pretty
mad at getting freohand left at Homo
lulu. The two teachers in our, con-
tingent are fine fellows. One is a
civil engineer and the other studied
chemistry. Both are college grad
mates. Nearly all of the interpreters
are Russian Jews and are pretty in
telligent bunch ..l
They say when we get into colder
waters we will have some bad weather
and probably some bad storms. There
is place out here where we skip one
whole day. / think it's called the 180th
meridian. If we cross it on Tuesday
the next day will be Thursday, just
skip twenty-four hours.
When we were short way out from
Honolulu we saw lots of flying fish.
They jump up out of the water and
fly a ways and fly right into the water
full speed. / suppose that is the way
they get away from some fish that
is after them. Also saw a big fish
about, six or seven feet long which
would Weigh about $50 or 200 pounds.
1t would leap up out of the water quite
a ways and then dive in again.
There were lots of them and they
would swim along just under the sur
face where we could see them and then
when they would strike the trough
of a wave they would jump three or
four times, as high as they could. 1t