The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-08-22
Canon Boy Writes
= from Camp Mills

Corp. BYRON Blake OF Company c.
i5sa Field Signal battalion of the 10Th
livision. who recently reached Camp
Mills. Long Island. from Pacific
coast military canonment, in roadi-
mess to embark for overseas service.
has written under date OF August 9th
m interesting letter to his parents.
Mr.. aud Mrs. J.. H. Blake. OF 10 Har-
rison avenue. in which he describes
his experiences in and about New
York. He says In part:
We arrived here all O. X. and
came over to New York this eyening
at $3.50 O'Clock. The first thing we did
was to take a boat ride around the
bay. which gave us tine view of the
city. We passed under Brooklyn
bridge and landed on Long Island. We
waited there in the railroad yards un-
III 2.:r O'Clock in the morning when
Ne started for Camp Mills. which is
about twenty miles from New York
city. II Is nicely situated With all
kinds of transportation lines running
into the city. don't think much of
tYt camp Itself The tent halls have
dirt floors and the bath house won;
arcou.oca;c more than n dozen men
at time. Cur Kitchen Is small at
lxsr. IL by IL feet in size. so you
,sh imagine the difficulty OF cooking
tor n couple OF hundred men. We
cot to the railroad station at ::so a
IA and then walked four miles to
camp. II was certainly hot and dir
~ Trip and there was no bot water
:er baths. no we used cold water.
This camp is Tor troops ready to
embark for the other side and we only
expect to be here week All OF our
clothes will be taken tomorrow and
~c Will be issaed new wooden suits.
new hat. q three corn.red affair that
rests jauntily on the top OF the head.
two pairs of trench shoes and one
blanket: just what We can carr. on
our backs.
I'VE certainty had a tine trip hero
from the west. No accidents of any
kind We did have some fast travel
ing between Chicago and New York.
making speed at times OF Sc miles
an hour. We did not stop ai many
stations The locomotives take water
from trough along the track while
running We so, the best welcome
at Cleveland. o.. OF any place in cross
ing the continent when our train ap-
preached the city they began blowing
whistles from the boats on the river
and from the locomotives In the rail
road yards and the din was terrific.
An immense crowd OF people wns
lined up Mt the station and they treat
ed ms fine. The peopln of Cleveland
are sure patriotic. IL puts the fight,
l the people are behind him like that.
We fc,t mighty good over our rccep-
tion in Cleveland.
. wunt to tell YOU about the Red
Cross cnntccn---one of the best things
that ever happened. would give my
last penny tc help Il carry on its
splendid work. At every station OF
any size. along the road. they had one
OF them and the people In charge came
out to meet IN with candies. fruits.
smokes and nearly everything else
that was good and they always met us
when VIC were hungry. They would
line ms UP and then givc us coffee and
cookies. oh. say. we owe our lives
TO them. They gave us post cards and
stamped them for us. We only got
two meals and lunch day from tho
army. but we didn't mind IL We have
not had any liberty for ourselves. ex-
cept in marching and swimming,
since we left Camp kearney. We
passed thru pretty country, coming
from California, but we missed Colo
rado. much to our regret. Some OF
our Fellows were routed that way, but
sa