The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1920-06-04
Marines at key West.
Lleatenaat 0smuads0n Writes Inter
estnq Letter iron this Tropical
Island,

The following letter written to
his sister. Miss Mia, b. Lieutenant
Osmondson will te OF interest to
our readers, particularly all Of
Of Budd's old Milbank friends.
Lieut.. Osmdundson is with the
sixteenth regiment U. S. Marines.
The regiment was recently ordered
tossthe Mexican gu;f and the very
vivio account Of his sea voyage and
description of the tropical island,
where he is located follows:
U. s: S. Henderson.
Off Isle of Key West,
May ~, 1920
Dear Mia: just few word 50
you will now how | am getting
along. We left Philadelphia at
$3.50 last Thursday morning and by
noon were we'll out at sea. 1t was
rather cold and the waves were
high, causing US to pitch and toss
all afternoon and night. Almost
all of us had light touch of sea
sickness. and some became quite
sick. 1t is most peculiar sensa.
ton, and sure does do queer things,
to yol. For instance, at dinner the
first night out the table would
seemingly raise up as though it
were going to bang me in the face
and when | would carry out my
hand to ward off the blow. I'd find
to my surprise that it. the table,
was in reality, down to its normal
distance from me. The most en-
barassing thing that happened to
me was the first spoonful of soup
that | with mouth agoe. attempted
to "catch," but which instead l
caught in the left ear and it ran
down my neck. Looked around me
quickly but no one noticed it, for
they were all as dizzy as | was. 1t
was funny looking bunch of fell
lows. No one had q word to say.
Some were 80 white in the face
they looked like ghosts. and one by
one thev would get up from the
dinner table and 60 out and
'hang over the rail-" l didn't
get quite that sick, but I did have
a hard time getting to bed, for the
whole room went round and round.
Woke up the next morning feeling
fine aud haven't been sick since.
Have had a peach Of trip, for the
ship is fine. Will accommodate
2,400 persons, and all we have on
board Is about 1900, 80 we have
plenty of room. | have an elegant
stateroom to myself-all finished in
mahogany and brass. and with all
modern conveniences. Have a lit
Filipino sailor for cabin boy and
orderly and he is scream. He
can barely speak a word of English
and | have hard time making him
understand NE. but when once show
him | never have to tell him again
they are certainly faithful little
fellows. s.
Everything went along fine on
the trip down with the exception
of one man falling overheard. He
couldn't get hold of the life pre-
servers that were thrown out to
him on account of the high waves.
for we were away out at sea. He
was almost beaten to death by the
big waves before we could stop the
ship and get the life boats out.
Just got him in time. as he was all
played out. His being q wonder
full swimmer and also q strong man
is the only thing that saved him.
1t is wonderful to watch life saw
ing crew operate one of their boats
in q high sea.
We arrived here at noon Monday.
and are anchored about two miles
out from the island Of Key West.
Went to shore yesterday and tits
q wonderful place. 1t really isn't
any part of the United States at
ALL. It is just as foreign as can be.
Almost all the people are Span.
.iards and Cubans. and the language
spoken is practically all Spanish.
Tobacco is the chief industry-they
have the finest factories in the
world. For five cents you can buy
albetter cigar than what you can
buy for twenty or twenty-five
cents in the states.
Major Harrison. Capt. Campbell
and myself spent the whole after
\ noon and evening "rubbering
around" and | never had . more
interesting time. While It 10 call
ed Florida. tits not. It is. IN island
about half w1y b4fween the state
Of Florida and Cuh1. We are only
about sixty miles from Havana.