Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1918-09-18
SOLDERING UNDER TRIALS
SIGHTS AND EXPERIENCES OF
YIRoQUA GENTLEMAN
Observation-Disclosures Which Gives Ok
lahoma Something of Reputa-
tiOn-With the Con- <


/ IBy J. ID. Walters. former manager of Yiro-
qua Electric Light Plant. Squadron z, Post
fleid. Fort siii, Oklahoma TO his friend How
Dear Howard Year letter followed me
{ from New York, two thousand miles through
the Jaws of He'll" and into this haven Of
centipedes, lizards, owls rattlesnakes, horned
toads, scorpions and prairie dogs-ihe land of
the hottest days where the mercury hits the
roof OF the thermometer every day where the
wind attains infinite velocities and the dust
gets density expressed by the nth power
Where its too hot TO hat, but you get
a sunstroke if you don't. Where its too hot
to wear shoes, but the cacti won't permit
going barefoot. l think. when the world was
. created He forgot to finish this place.
When arrived here last Monday It was III
degrees in the shade. When | got OF the train
felt rather and | wondered if the
heat was getting TO me. 1 looked around for
my shadow and when | couldn't find il felt
cod chill. l could feel myself slipping. /
cast my eyes down to get my balance and be-
Eo'dt There il right between my feet.
Old Sol shines down at just 80 degrees from
the horizontal. l asked one Of tire men in the
otbee how hot It in tie He turned
70 another and said Lowell how hot is it
IL The sum- Lowell. How should know,
you know d. well my thermometer oniy reads
TO l40 degrees" That is joke, a. Has ac-
tually l47 degrees IL the II is so dry
here that when the fsh swim up the river their
tails send up little spirals of dast. There are
frogs twenty years old that have never learned
TO swim. We have The pleasure OF watching
storm every might. however There is
range of mountains about forty miles away
and an electrical storm plays the- every
night. We can see the lightning, but th9t is
all.
Now after all this TRADE against what the
natives call Gods country | don't want
you to get the idea that l don't like this
place. of course it has some disadvantages,
but they arc more than offset by the advan-
tages. There is drill here and no guard
duty kitchen police, but do have to get
up at 5:l0 a. m. Ii is so hot in the p. m.
81 l.
free until 1890 p. m. We have trolly
connection with LawtOn. a town of about
s.oeo souls and $4,000 dogs, where there IS
neither society theatricas. but one first
class cafe. III | can Just eat | am satisfied
so that one cafe spells cOntentment for Eae.
We have excellent bathing facilities ard so
much spare time that take many as five
showers day. Last week had White car
and drove cut TO inspect targets. Over in the
valley of the ranges | ran into
peach orchard with two pear trees in it. On
the road l passed field of watermelOns.
l inspected that target every day thereafter.
But the main pleasure | get here is in flying.
| have been up several times as a passenger
now and am scheduled to go again tomorrow.
There is none in the world that give a
description Of the various sensations. The first
time ! went up it in test ship, viz: one
that was not in perfect order and TO be
tried out. 1t q curious thing that as
soon as | got over the first thrill and looked out
over the es~l, the FIRST thing l was the
the LawtOn cemetery. Measuring indeed! But
didn't get sick and am always ready for more.
Well we climbed to $500 feet as shown by
the altineter, and the pilot looked back to
If i still with him. We sailed along
fer perhaps twenty miles describing large
circle, at the end of which he executed fall
ing leaf" That felt pretty good to me. He
saw | was eager FOR more so he gave her the
gas and we tore through the atmosphere for
: 4 few seconds The ground did rot seem to
be moving very fest ihoogh, for l locked out
and noticed lake in one of the mountain
valleys. The next time / looked ont at the
ground there more. but there a vast
sxpanse of sky. ] looked up at where the
sky mad been and what do yoa htink There
that roll burned lake hanging wrong
side up. 4 figured had done a ioOp. But
my sHrill was set to come. We were now
"SOut 5000 feet up. We climbed up another
thousand and before | had got over the ele-
vator feeling you know how heavy you feel
when you rise rapidly in elevator we
dropped into a tail spin. We had not made
two turns before | / could not keep track
Of the way the world going around, so
l fixed my eyes on the altimeter and resolved
If ever came down I'd mend my ways.
The only reason my heart did not come out
of my mouth because my liver got there
first. | began to worry when the meter got
down to three thousand feet. Just think of
falling vertically and twisting at the same
time and you will appreciate the sensation.
Suddenly the plane Strengthened out and as
slowed down l felt heavy thought l
would go down through the bottom of the
plcne. Then after we landed | decided !
would rot mend my ways after all.
This morning ] went up on another trouble
fight and We did not get up l,500 feet before
The engine stalled. We started &c plane back
10 the field but could not quite make it. As
luck would have it there fence around
the plot of berry bushes landed in. They
punctured a hole in one wing and tore the
fusilage before TAXED out own field.
Tomorrow | get the remainder sof the fight
missed today.
l am sending you as common curiOsities a
collar ornament and hat cord had to dis
card when | transferred from the Signal
Corps to the Air Service.
Saturday a squad Of were detailed to re-
pair listening in" station out on the artili-
cry range. 1t had been damaged by ex-
pl0sive shell that went wild. We got to work
early and were almost through when / heard
a peculiar Kissing sound. 1t sounded like a
goose makes, when you get him sore. looked
up to what il was but the air empty.
When | heard 1T again and decided the artill-
cry was conducting a shoot over our heads.
Peculiar feeling in region of solar plexus."
| got used 10 it though and soon could
tell the size ana type of shell by the differ
in pitch and quality of the tone of the
prOjectile. Sunday we went out on the desert
to do some hunting. Rather funny way too.
Before starting out we took the shot out of
about dozen shotgun shells, filled them up
with red pepper and put the wads back in.
Each man takes a grain sack that has been
folded and sewed up and the gun man carries
the gun. When prairie dog go into
his hole the gunman follows him and the other
three place themselves at the nearest three
holes. The gunman shoots the pepper down
the hole and then fans air into 1t to force
The fumes in. Let's of times you don't get
him hut most always he comes out of an
adjacent hole with his eyes closed and the man
there pOunces on him. We had good luck and
got game from four holes. Here is what we
got out Of one hole. Two prairie dogs. one
prairie owl, one rabbit. one rattlesnake and
two centipedes. Its great sport because you
never know whether the thing that comes out
is going to crawl run fly and II is fun
specializing what the next victim will be.