The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1918-02-07

at this port. The people VINO came
on board here say that the people arr
very glad that we have come to helI
them as they need ii badly. Our boa
4 stands in the bay short ways from
the dock. The city is very pretty a
night. IL is very hilly and the electric
lights are on all sides Of Us and &c
way UP on the hills.
Yladivostok, Russia, Asia Dee. 2
1917.
Note the date on this letter is Dec
IL. The Russian calendar is thirteen
days behind our calendar at home and
with the day we skipped coming over
we are now Just two weeks behind you
folks. Here is where we get TO live
/ two weeks Of our lives over again.
They have Christmas day here on the
25th of December, but on account Of
! the calendar being two weeks slow,
our Christmas will come about the
9Th Of January at home. / will date
my letters according to the Russian
calendar as that is the one we will use.
When you get letter dated the Est Of
January you win know that il was
written about Jan. IA according to
your calendar. e4
Someone told the Russian people in
town that there were 10000 of US and
that we had come to shoot them down.
This was also printed in the paper
here. On this account they quit let
ting as go ashore at all now until
somedefnite is decided upon. AS soon
as they get the thing arranged and
get the idea TO the people in the right
way we will go ashore. myself
think that the people here are going
to receive us in fine shape. | guess
there is about one passenger train a
week out of this town so you can
know how good the railroad service
is. The people who come in to catch
a train bring their blankets and their
eats along and go to the depot and
camp right in the depot until the train
comes. Some of the fellows were in
the depot and said it was terribly
dirty. suppose one of the first
things we will introduce will be clean
illness. They have about two freight
trains in here a day when they should
have twenty They certainly need our
help here and there is no doubt but
what we can do lot of good
We have had no news from the out
side world for week. This place is
entirely cut off from the world as far
as news is concerned as they have no
late dope of any kind at all. l sup
pose when we get into the interior it
will be worse yet TO get any news.
Everything here is just guessed at.
They don't know anything for sure
about what is going on in the rest Of
The world. Well, we don't know q
thing more today than we did yester-
day. No one was allowed ashore to-
day so here we sit out in the harbor
about eight or ten blocks from shore.
There is a tug boat that works back
and forth betweenthe ship and shore.
II goes every hour but it doesn't do
us any good We had company today, !
the secretary of the Y. M. c. A. here |
and three other fellows and two u. S. |
ladies came aboard about p. m. and
stayed till 5 p. m. One of the ladies |
was an old gray-haired lsdy. She
played the piano. The other led the
singing. They held service in the
social hall 1t was very nice and
everyone who could get in the room
attended. We sang a lot of old church |
hymns and had fine time.
We don't know a thing about what |
we are going to do The morning that
we landed here on Dec. / was the day
the Bolsheviki government took !
charge of things. This is the new
which has taken things
over now instead Of the Kerensky gov
ernment. The officials who came out
TO get our passports were putting in
their first day in office. They have
taken charge of everything. AS this
is not the government that arranged
for us to come over | suppose we will |
have to wait and see what is going to
happen and then our people will know
what to do. That is all it is at pres
waiting game. .
u. S. A. 7. Thomas" twenty-five