The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1918-11-12
SOLDIERS LETTERS

The following is a very interesting
letter from Sam Mulville, who is In
the navy and at the present time Is
at Key West in Florida:
Key West, Fla, Oct. %, 1918.
Dear mother:
I was becoming sort of anxious
about everybody. Haven't re-
ceived any letters from any one foe
many moons.
We just returned from a sruise
down to the Danish West Indies. This
| is the isle we bought from the Danes.
They are very pretty all alone cut
there in the sea, and the sight OF
them, after few days on the sea
with its montonous eXpanse OF gray
horizon, is very restful and pleasing
to ones iaded feelings.
The Danes have done lot of good
work earlier in their first effort at
colonization, but they were tee far
away from the mother country to
prosper very we'll. The same condi-
ton exists in the British possessions
they too are just merely possessions.
Very little effort has been made to
improve the native or increase his
ability to produce either in agricul-
ture or commerce. A few whites
own nearly everything worth while
The negro is more of an economic
slave here than in our country.
A good deal of the fine sponges
that are used thruout the world
come from around here. But the
negro dives for them, cleans them,
prepares them for market in fact
nearly everything, yet he don't
seem to have, but little, his existance
is just founded on how much the
white men feel ike throwing him.
| All these islands down here want
to come in under Uncle Sans wing
and no doubt it would be of benefit
to them. If we had them, not many
years would pass before the lot OF
natives would be improved.
On the return we chased a Brit
ish tramp steamer for thirty-six
hours, until the old man manOuvered
our ship so that the tramp had to
heave to, or go on the beach. 1t
seems that wireless warning had
been sent out to look out for Ger
man submarine, masquerading as an
American gunboat, with false sup
obstructive covering her real identity.
We raided the tramp hull about two
bells of the mid watch. The skip
per flashed the allied signal Of recog-
milton, but we received no answer
so he had all hands called to quarters
and we manned the battery and
stood by to await developments.
We laid on her course like hand
| hn al that oiOhf and tho
following day. About shutdown we
were close enough to make out the
men about the decks. She flew the
British ensign, had no guns and ap-
peared to manned by negroes. About
an hour later the old man had her
between him and the beach. 1t was
either leave to- or go on the beach,
so he heaved to.
We lowered boat and went over.
She was good Britain all right, out
of Manzanillo with sugar. All the
crew were greasy Hindoos, as
crummy gan as ever hope to see.
The Cap. and a couple of Yank quart
ermasters were the only whites in
sight.
About six hours of Key West
tropical hurricane hit us. Wind
howled thru the rigging like de-
mon, going over a hundred miles an
hour. 1t rained, but the rain was
salt, the gale swept the water
smooth now and then picking some
We lost all the scrub and wash
clothes on the cloths line, tore all the
lumber off the deck house and made
everybody hang on to keep from go
ing with it. l was on watch at the
time and I went forward to "pass
the word" to relieve the wheel and
lookouts, I opened my mouth to
speak, but that's as far as l got, that
gale just pushed every word back
down and I had little effort in
closing my mouth.
When a fellow starts down the
deck and the wind turns him around
a few times, he then fully realizes
what nature can do with her forces
when she goes on tare. We made
port without much trouble as the
sea was not heavy, the gale sort of
flattened it out Wewere four hours
late at that in two hour gale.
| The old ship is camoflaged up to
a million now and looks like an
African Zebra pulling Barnum and
Bialy curcus wagon, but when she is
nearly hull down on the horizon and
the mirage gets in it's work ,one can
not tell whether she is the ghost of
the Flying Dutchman or just
Bahama Conch a fishing. At that
she's got nothing on these Cuban
Senioretas. The art of camoflage
has reached high degree of excel
lence among them. At times SO ar
tistic is their makeup that one can
not tell with any certainty whether
the object Of his gaze is Castillean
woman of high lineage or a dusky
daughter Of Ham.
The Span.sn flu did not get ne
altho I wished more>than once that
it had. Over two-thirds Of the ships
company went to a shore sick boy
with 1t. We lost chief boatswain's
mate, a cox'an and a chief mechen-
lists mate. Nearly all are back now,
just few Of the worst ashore. For
over two weeks I was the only petty
officer left on board. There were
eight seamen left out of the two
divisions. We kept things going
pretty well, but 1t was Mulville this