Mexico weekly ledger., 1918-03-14

him his usual friendly greeting
haBdshAke. Ansr ire program was
completed, ! stepped upon the stage
and had = brief shat with him. a. did
also a friend Of his in the Oklahoma
Sanitary Train, who had been assO-
eiaied with him sometime before in
chautAuqua and Lyeeum work. Such
was the character Of the entertain
ment furnished through the efforts Of
the Y. NJ. c. A. Every night in the
towns near the camp hundreds Of sol
diers were Accommodated in the vari-
Gus Y. NJ. C. A. reading rooms and
writing rooms in the regular Y. NJ. C.
A. and In the churches. Also the
Red Cross maintained is headquar-
tiers in a large residence in n Of the
towns adjacent to the camp and here
the fellows could 20 TO read and write
or to enjoy good music and here the
ladies served meals daily, consist
ing Of ham, bacon, eggs, bread, butter
and good coffee and excellent ice
cream costing about Soc for each
meal. OF course they had their rep
resentatives in the camp hospital to
assist in taking care Of those who
might get sick while in camp.
One morning very near the last Of
October we packed up and left the
camp in which we made ourselves
quite comfortable and in which we be-
gan to feel at home-left on the big
voyage across. The night of the day
we left | retired" at the usual time
and slept soundly getting up early the
next morning so that | could go on
deck and get my first view of the
ocean while on board a great ship and
to see who is wild us" as l heard an
Irishman say to a pal of his who ask
ed him the same morning where he
was going. What / saw of the ocean
had precisely the same appearance
as that part of it l saw at Long Beach
! sometime before a great hill Of
water over which we seemed to be
climbing but the crest of which we
appeared never to reach until land
was sighted. Upon each succeeding
night / assure / felt the same inclin-
alton to retire" early and sometimes
| felt inclined to "retire" for awhile at
least during the day. By this means
l escaped sea-sickness to which quite
a few succumbed. AS could be ex-
pected a trip Of this character and un-
der existing conditions canno be all
peaches and cream, apple pie and
strawberry shortcake, but consider
ing it all in all we had a very pleasant
time. There was plenty of music,
pianos, bands, ~victrolas and there
were entertainers in the crowd, such ,
as clog dancers, "songbirds," some al
legged, some real, piano players and
etc, and there was lots Of reading
matter, a good part Of IL being dis
tributed by some Of the members Of
the crew. In addition, the fellows
entertained themselves in CONVERSE
ton, games" and in cracking jokes.
One or two might be new to you.
One fellow asked, "When does a rope
have three ends" No one ventured
to reply and he responded with when
it is thrown overheard" Being Curl
GUS some n asked a sailor how far
we were from land after we were out
only a couple of days. The sailor
quickly answered pointing downward,
"about three miles" Another fellow
asked a bunch what they would do if
they should pass by a deaf and dumb
school and discover fire in it-what
they would do to alarm the deaf and
dumb members of the school. Every
one gave up and he said tersely that
he would ring the dumb bell" Some
one suggested that possibly it would
also be a good idea to "call the dumb
waiter" One day a fellow complain
ed of having a slight attack of neu-
ralgia and asked a friend of mine
whether he knew a good remedy or
not. Ny friend said, eyes, / know
Of a sure cure" Of course he was
anxious to get a sure cure and asked
eagerly what is was. He told him to
poke his head through the closed port
hole and the "pain would go OUT
So much for the jokes. We had three
good square meals a day and there was
a canteen on board for the soldiers
alone where candies and delicacies of
all sorts could be purchased at cost.
Needless to say it was literally pat
ronized.
Our trip was uneventful and we
landed as per schedule in France.
In due time we were brought to this
camp far inland and are still here.
saw a letter in the Ledger written
by Ernest Garrett, Jr., who is over
here with the Artillery and he said he
could not understand why they call
this Sunny France" One does feel
inclined To wonder why when he sees
and. feels so much rain and tramps
around in the sloppy mud most Of the
time but / presume France has
earned this title not so much because
Of climate conditions wen If more
favorable in some parts, but because
Of the indomitable courage Of her
sons and the optimism Of her people
generally, after over three years Of
carnage during which she has borne