The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1918-08-01
Crangeville Boy Says He
Likes Camp Lewis
and May Buy 1t
Basil Harris, Soldier at Camp Lewis
and Formerly Linotype Operator at
Globe Office, Writes Breezy Letter
of Impressions at American Lake.


operator for the Globe and trap drum
mer with the Cowboy band has writ
ten an interesting letter of his i'm
pressions Of camp life at Camp Lewis
where he went with the July draft
quota from Idaho county. The Globe
has to date contributed two linotype
operators to the service, Chick Brans-
combe, now with the American Elk
peditiOnary Forces in France and Bas-
il at Camp Lewis-and we seem to be
training soldiers for General Pershing
all the time. But as Basil says: Its
a great life if you don't weaken" His
friends will read the olflowing letter
with interest:
Somewhere in Camp Lewis, July
27-Dear Pal-"Saturday afternoon,
must be done at certain time It's
the soldiers holiday, so / find time to
write you few lines. This soldier
game is a very fine one and | can't
help but see where its going to benefit
me wonderfully. Every little thing
. must be done at certain tim. Its
a great system. You can figure that
$4,000 other fellows are doing the
same thing that you are anytime of
'iAN Nog' hV NhOlC DutltH VI oO,OUU
at minutes till o'clock a. m. have
one foot out of bed. Now that's get
ting things down to a system.
Il will give you an idea of what's
to be done.
Along about 5 80 o'clock in the
morning (this, I find, is an extremely
early hour the whistle blows and
$1,000 other fellows and myself have
to be dressed in full Uniform in Is
minutes and in line at the barracks.
We have no time to doll up, Just put
on our duds and beat 1t. We are all
In line, given the uncover, and dis
missed to go get ready for breakfast.
After breakfast few minutes to
smoke and make up our beds, sweep
and other household duties, then the
whistle blows for us to line I'D again
We then march out to the drill ground
which are about II miles long and
three miles wide, and level as floor.
and take calisthenics. Of that word
isn't spelled correctly let me know and
I'll draw a map of it, We do this
physical culture stunt for one hour
then march back to the barracks for
thirty minutes lecture, then back
to the grounds for an hour and a half
of physical torture" as some of the
boys call it; after which we 90 back
to the lecture hall for the balance of
the forenoon. In the afternoon we
have just the same, only not so much
lecture After supper we are done
for the day.
Now our meals are the best vet
All we can eat and real, honest to
gracious goodness grub. Potatoes
liver and dressing, gravy. beans
bread, pudding and coffee were ser.
we'd today. Very seldom any butter
and the sugar is brown.
I'VE were all issued three suits of
understanding, one overcoat, five pair
sox, one slicker, two shirts. blouse
trousers, leggings, shoes, belt and hats
last Thursday. Our eating tools con.
sisting of knife, fork, spoon, plate and
cup were given us today, also brush,
comb, soap and toothbrush.
AFTER we passed the physical en-.
aminations we were herded through
a chute something like an arrange
ment for dipping sheep. On the left
side doctor took two shots at our
left arm and before we knew II
another doc hinged away at our right
arms. The two shots in the left arm
are for the purpose of saving time on
the theory, l presume, that If one
don't take" the other one might,
Sort of $3.50 split. The right arm,
shot Is protection against typhoid
scarlet fever. etc. We get three SOS
sions of the shooting / am told. one
session every seven days. This makes
Il days in which we are kent in
quarantine
Our district Is limited to an araa
three blocks wide and 10 blocks lone
and we have Y. NJ. C. A. and y
movie theatre in our district. After
our p days have expired we are
shifted to different companies
have chosen band of course but can,t
do any drumming until the 81 davs
are history. Right now / couldn't
beat an egg.
Yesterday some OF the 81. 900 others
held review and we were allowed 70
ale " In. Three big bands and thav
were fine. Each band had ahont On
men including four or five snare
drummers. 1t may interest the hovs
OF the Cowboy Band to know that
two OF these bands were PLAYING mar
ches that we used right along In
Grangeville. "
"One OF our bunch just now broka
out with the measles. or they hrol,e
cut with him. / don't know which
This will emf daur, 49, -, A'