Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1918-05-09
LETTER FROM SOLDIER.
Fort Stevens, Ore. April %, 10

received your letters and was glad
to get them. 1t is also fine to get the
papers, for person can see what is
doing in all the towns by them.
Well, we have been gone three weeks
and it seems like three years. Time
goes awfully slowahere. We don't do
any drilling to speak of l think we
have drilled only two afternoons since
arriving. Our work is practically all
on the cannons. There are nothing but
cannons around here. They are hid
away in the woods and every place
close to the mouth of the Columbia
river. They are. here for protection,
that is so no ships could get into the
u. S. by going up this river, and iudg
ing from the way they shoot | don t
think any German war ships will ever
get past them. They are Ia inches in
diameter. The bullet they shoot weighs
1048 lbs. and they shoot from Is to 20
miles; it depends on the wind They
shoot twelve shots every day from our
company at targets pulled along by
steam boats. The targets are about the
size of a small house and the steam. boats
pull them along by rope alta distance
of 500 yards behind. They locatelt ne
targets by field glasses and start shoot
ing, and / tell you they hit. them, too
The best record they have made since
we have been here is four out of seven
chances at distance of II miles and |
think that is going some. 1t takes %
men to each gun and II men in the OBJ
servation tower. | am in the observa-
ton tower; so is Rolo Day of Lancaster.
He is the only one I!know, that is, be-
fore came here.
We in the tower keep observing
out in the ocean through these mach
ines, and when we locate the target we
keep following it and at the end of
every ten minutes telephone in to the
plotting room the course the target is
taking and keep this up for ten min
utes. At the end of ten minutes they
have figured out in the plotting room
just where the target would be by the
time the bullet would get out there and
then they fndsthe course. Sometimes
we miss it quite long way, but have
never failed to hit once out Of three at
distance of II miles.
| like the work very well. Tits some
thing that is interesting. We don't
work long hours either; we get up at
$50 now and 90 out to the tower at 8
o'clock and stop work at 1l:00; go out
again at 100 and stop at 500. So you
see we don't have long hours and it is
easy work.
passed the examination all right,
but none of us have had that shot in the
arm yet.
There have been thirteen boys go
home already that could not pass here
and Charlie Fradd will leave here this
week for home. He failed on his teeth.
He has been up for three examinations
and they turned him down today, so you
will see him back there about week
from now. | tell you he is sure happy
to think he can go back. There have
been seven shipped back this week to
Wisconsin who had pneumonia and there
are seventy-six more in the hospitals
now with bad colds.
They say that by the first of June it
stops raining and they don't have any
more until Christmas, so maybe the
weather will be better then. They don't
have it cold here, never gets lower than
as above zero, but they say it rains all
winter. But if what the captain said is
true, we will be across long before
winter. He said the other night that
by the first of June we would be NOV
ing across, and believe it. There were
1400 men drafted from Dakota and they
were here at the Fort six weeks and
then shipped across. The people here
do a lot of betting on when the war will
be over. They are betting it will be
over in six months and hope it is.
| suppose the boys are all terribly
worked up.over going the 26th. Well, |
am glad had chance to come out here.
Harry Whitford has been in the hospi-
tai for five days, but he was better this
morning.
Today is my turn to go up and sign
up for insurance. They only write up
thirty a day. | am going to take out
$40, 600. Almost all of the boys take
out that amount.
Has Fred Voght gone yet? He ought
to try and come out here. We live like
real people in real houses, not houses
built just lately, but houses that have
always been here. This place was al
ways fort and in times of peace there
are about 1000 men kept here. We are
only about 5000 here now.
You ought to see the salmon they
catch here in the Columbia river. There
are canneries here and they bring the
a i