Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-18
DANTELsCN
Corporal Fred E. Miller Describes
 Visit to St. Ausustine-vital Need
 of Farm Heip.-.plan to Purchase for Town Strip of Land at Old Furnace Union Patriotic Service.

Corporal Fred E. Miller, Q. M. C., tells in the following letter to his wife of a little trip which he and two other Killingly boys, Lester E. Shippee and Henry V. Myers, all at Camp Joseph, Jackson, Fla, made on Feb. 10:
 Yesterday Shippee, Myers, four other fellows and myself took advantage of an excursion to the oldest city in America, St. Augustine. We left camp at S30 a. m. and took the train from Jacksonville ae 9.30; the trip is about 40 miles and we arrived at the place at II a. m. We then took a trip around the city.sS
 The streets are very narrow, hardly wide enough to allow one auto pass through, and the buildings are very old and quaint First we saw the wonderful Ponce De Leon hotel, which cost two million dollars to build, and it sure looks 1t! There is a garden in the center which is the most beauti- full I have ever seen, with all tropical plants and flowers and large fodn- tain in the middle; a piazza surrounds 1t and at night the lights, which are of many colors. make it very pretty. There are families staying there who are paying $250 per day. The hotel I OHly OpCll uuilIlS JolAAobi ys SOA ecbty and March Then we saw the old slave market where the Spaniards used to sell slaves; this is a platform with roof and the sides all open and here thou sands of men and women have been sold for slaves to the highest bidder. All the buildings are made of small seashellS mixed with a kind of cement and look a good deal like our cement buildings except more rough The city is not so very large because it is so congested.
 We saw the oldest house in the United States. This was used by the monks as monastery and inside there were many of the things which they used. Just outside the door was a and they say that anyone looking down It and wishing will get his wish. After this we visited an orange grove and saw trees with ripe oranges, grape fruit and tangerines, a wonder full sight
 1 Probably the most interesting thing saw was the Spring of Youth. which we. studied about in school. I dranl; a glass of water from this spring, so l now, according to the old belief, will remain young. It is not much to l look at-only an ordinary well about 1 three or four feet deep and the sides made of stone. Just in front of this is a large cross made of stone and flat on the ground; they say that l Ponce De Leon put it there to estab- fish religion in America,
 l We went from here to the old Span
 ish fort that Pone De Leon built. Fl l is built of the seashells and is very
 large. the walls are from six tc 1 twelve feet thick and very strong
 There is a wide moat all around it SC
 that when that was filled with water
 the soldiers could not get in.
 The whole fort is built in the form
 of a square with a large. open cour1
 in the center. All around this are the
 walls two stories high where thf
 prisoners were kept and where the
 soldiers lived. There is a dungeon
 which is reached by a long passage
 and there is no air or light. They fto1d us that a. man could not live 1T there over two hours, and believe it;
 for when they turned off an electric fan and the lights I thought that the city from the walls and there art
 the old guns that the Spaniards used The front looks out upon the sea.
 There used to be walls all around tn, l city, but these have been torn down
 and we could only see the city gate
 which is still standing.
 In the afternoon we went out on {
 dock. and saw some porpoises, or SC;
 cows, as they call them. playing in tn,
 water; they would jump completei,
 out sometimes.
 We stopped in a park where tht
 slave market was a while and listened
 to band concert which they wer,
 having, and then started back fo camp.