Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-01-15

vate home to dinner the only thing he
could do was to get into the train and
make himself scarce, for they were eer-
tainly after us in cars, on foot and
most any other way. Some of the fel-
lows went on jack rabbit drive while
there and declared that it was the
most fun they had had in many a day,
even though there was no snow on the
ground.
| / don t think the people of Goodland
will ever forget the First Battalion of
the 4th Engineers, and | am sure we
shall not. We claim that in landing at
such place as that was the best Xmas
gift one could wish Tor in the army
and | don't think there is bunch of
soldiers any where that had a better
time G. en- if they were stationed at q
post instead Of enroute.
All during our trip | never saw aay
country that could cone up with Oregon
for place to live in. The only place
/ saw that reminded me at all Of Ore.
gon was between Kansas City and Fort
Scott. Kansas. Once in a while in that
stretch of .oute the country bore Il
great resemblance to that around Salem,
with the exception that there were a
] few more legroes here than there.
| At Memphis the Red Cross met our
section at Vhc train and gave each one
Of us sweater, two pair of socks and
some Of the fellows got helmets and
sonie gloves, and believe me they sJre
come il mighty fine when we hit here
| Monday, as it was only little above
zero at that time and the ground was
covered with snow and ice. But it did
not last long as it has been raining
all day now that we got our camp fixed
up and the camp is one solid mess of
mud anil water-and it is mud, too, just
| like the red clay out south of Salem,
only think little more stiCkier than
that even But we are fixed no fine pow,
so let it rain, but don think it will
very long as they claim it does not
here.
When we hit here we could hardly
buy q thing to eat ahd for Vhlle
thought we were going to have to Ii e
on the good climate as we used up our
last rations Monday morning on the
train for breakfast But we managed to
borrow and otherwise get enough to last
the rest of the day on, and the ne%t
dag We were able TO do better, bat
now since the cold spell has kind Of
passed over we are doing fine.
Charlotte is only three miles from
the camp but we are in quarantine for
two weeks so have not got to see any
body as yet, and from what | hear L
am not missing much as no one seems
to like it.
Every time a new regiment comes
here thev are put into quarantine two
weeks to make sure that they do not
bring any disease into camp with them
| would not mind that part of It Il
they would let us go at least TO the :" Y -
which is only across the road from our
office, but we can not even go there
as there are other regiments using it.
There are between forty and fitt'
thousand troops in this camp at the
present time but most of them belong 70
the 9rd Division and are expected to
leave soon. Then the 4th regiment to
which we belong will mobilize here al
though there are several regiments of
the 4th, here now, also q few national
guards and national army.
The health conditions of the camp are
very good with the exception of measles
and pneumonia and bad colds. In our
regiment don t think there are any
and no very bad eases Of pneu-