Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1918-08-07
SOLDIER BOY WRITES OF EXPER-
FENCES ON LONG TRIP TO
SOUTHERN CAMP.

SOUTHERN CAMP.
Leopold Haas, one of the Manches-
ter boys who left here with the larg-
est contingent that has yet left the
county at any one time, has written
| in an entertaining way of the events
incident to the long journey to Camp
Gordon, Atlanta, Ga. Writing to one
of his friends here he says:
Camp Gordon, Ga, Sunday, July
2S, 1918.
| This ink seems pretty poor for my
fountain pen, but it was the best l
could get today. I shall try to get a
bottle of regular ink fluid tomorrow
at the canteen.
l have not had time so far to write
anything like a decent letter to you
and l shall try now To tell few
things you might care to know.
We expected to have hot and un-
comfortable ride. but really the trip
here was not unpleasant on the whole.
| Wednesday night most of the fellows
were too lively to sleep much, and
some took no sleep at all. I had
about three hours myself l awoke
as we got to Pana, III. From there
on we were in Egypt" and it was a
mighty poor farm country; the land
appeared thin and months drought
had not helped the crops very much.
We saw a lot of coal mines there,
however.
| We reached Cairo about noon and
then crossed the Ohio on a long and
high bridge, guarded at both ends by
armed men and at intervals | saw
powerful search lights, to keep the
| Germans from blowing up the struc-
ture. The Ohio looked like a big river
to me at least, for it was my first
view of it. 1t had there no islands,
| like the Mississippi has so that it
| looked wider than it really is in com
parison with the Father of Waters.
1t is yellow colored from the reddish
yellow clay soil of the country, but
not dirty and muddy looking like the
old Missouri is.
Kentucky may have looked good to
the pioneers of a century ago but to
the folks from Iowa it was a dissap-
pointment The weather grew OPP
pressivefy warm in the afternoon, and
we noticed it especially at Fulton,
where we stayed about an hour It
was a chance to stroll around and
stretch our legs and see the South
erners at close quarters. 1t was
there I saw the first "Jim Grow" sta
ton. l got to conversing with a
couple of young fellows and had lot
of fun listening to their "you-alls"
and other peculiararities of speech.
Two hundred yards from the sta
ton there we crossed into Tennessee
which proved a prettier country and
spied some cedar trees, but more
were to be seen further on south. At
Marten a little Negro boy brought out
an armload of tobacco in the leaf and
passed it around to the boys. They
tasted it and said it was fine, but I
noticed that all took only few bites.
They must have noticed the lack Of
cabbage leaves.
We were in Mississippi at seven, in
timber country. About one o'clock
Friday morning we got to Birming-
ham, where the great open hearth
converters were flaming up to the
skies. The boys awoke and got break
fast, for so it proved to be, while we
were waiting there. I awoke just as
we were leaving the city, about $50.
I'VE were in a rocky, mountainous
country the rest of the way. The soil
lis peculiar red clay. We passed
much slate and shale rock 1t looks
pretty to see the cotton plants, about
the size Of a large geranium, with
their glossy green leaves against the
red soil They keep the weeds out of
their cotton and tobacco very thor
oughly, but only fairly SO in their
corn in their fields-rather patches,
for they farm one acre or five or so
among the stumps at intervals among
the timber
We were due at Atlanta at $50 and
expected to eat breakfast at camp, so
the dining car left us at Birmingham.
We reached Atlanta about II o'clock
and were set in the switch yards I'M
til one. A Red Cross canteen served
us with coffee, sandwiches and fruit
and gained our lifelong affection
thereby.
Gordon is about thirteen miles north
of Atlanta, Il would Judge. We were
here about two o'clock and were taken
to the receiving station at once. There
we were tagged and marched up here
to the company barracks. They pre-
scented each of us with folding cot,
two blankets, a bed tick, meat pan,
cup, knife, fork and spoon. We car
ried that and our baggage up the hill
to the tent assigned us here, but some
were put upstairs in the barrack. Most
of us had our hands full as we climbed
the hill
AS soon as we had fixed our cots
and other belongings in the tent, they
took our names again, gave US a num-
Der for the tent, and told us to take
shower. With two days accumula-
ton of CRIME and cinders on us, you
may know they had no need to chase
us to the bath house. The man in
charge very firmly held your head
under the shower so your hair and
face would be sure to get clean If
one SHE'D at the water. He did not
mood tn touch mo for 7 cOu1d have