The Alaska daily empire., 1918-03-15
Gives Interesting Account of His Experiences and of Compan-
 ions There.
MUCH SUN AND WIND
Says the PostoffiCe Ser vice There Is Not Any Too Good For Get
 ting Mail.

DOUGLAS, March 15.--The fol- lowing letter was received here by the last mail:
 Ft. Riley, Kans., March 2, 1918 MT. E. J. White, 1a
 Editor Douglas Island News,
 Douglas, Alaska.
 Dear Sir: While the cat is away the mice will play;. Major Axline has not at yet comea back from the noon hour sol will. l.attempt. a letter in his absence, as all, the books, rec ords, etc, are under lock and key until his return. fA
 This being the day for signing the muster roll there is continual line of men strinsing through the office like herd of cattle with their great heavy boots and the eX- tra inch or more of Kansas mud caked On to the soles of their shoes.
 1t actually rained couple of hours the other day, and if you ever saw any sticky, black mud in your life, I think this Kansas mud will compare very fayorably with it.. Back in South Dakota, where 1 lived for some time, they used to have a thick blue composition which they called gumbo, and this is the near est approach 1 have seen to that since l was a small boy-at any rate, if if had rained all day here instead of couple of hours, it surely would have been impossible to navigate with anything less than some vehicle with caterpillar wheels.
 The new recruits continue to come in steadily, the present rate being about thirty-fve per day, from all sections of the country. The med ical department is still something like 60,000 short of what it will need to be up to full strength when the second draft shall have been completed; that is, there are such and such a number of medical de- partment men assigned to each di- vision of each of the other branches of the service.
 The different branches within the medical department itself are nu- merous and to me at least, interest | ing There are the ambulance corps, the hospital corps, the evacu- ation corps, the base hospital corps, the dental corps, and within the scope of enlistments are included men in all walks of life. Dentists, chauffeurs, mechanics, drivers, vet erinary men, horsemen, horse shoers, carpenters, blacksmiths, nurses, and so on down the list; in fact, the medical department is com plete within itself from top to bot tom, and is ranked as one of the highest branches of the service, and has recently been put by General with regard to service rendered and the danger incurred in performing large part of the duties coming under the head of the department.
 Of course, the~medical department has the overseeing of all the sani- tation of all the camps, etc., and all the commissioned officers are either doctors, surgeons. dentists or veter- mary surgeons, but it is surprising the completeness of all the different branches of duties coming Vnder the head of the medical department.
 There were about forty men ship ped to the American Institute at Washington, D. C.. that morning (Wbateyer institution that may be) and was very sorry that they have considered it necessary to hold sey- eral of us to do clerical work Nhere in the mastering office until the ar