Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1891 — Tho Soldiers’ Abode in the West. [ARTICLE]

Tho Soldiers’ Abode in the West.

It is the general opinion of the people that tho soldiers who are on the frontier have strong forts in which they are stationed in times of trouble. But this is not so. They live in adobe houses, in front of which are the parade grounds and back of them are the stables. The interior walls of the house are plastered, but the ceilings are canvas lined, because the heat of the region seems to injure the cohesive properties of mortar, and the sleeper is apt to be awakened at night by a heavy shower of plaster from above. During the month of August the heat is so intense that scarcely any outdoor work is done. Indoors it is impossible to sleep, and one tosses around all night in the feverish heat. The troops are supplied with X beds, across the tops of which canvas is stretched, and on these hot nights a man spreads a wet sheet over his bed and sleeps, with no covering, under the trees in the rear of the barracks. From sunrise until 3 p. m. the thermometer steadily rises and lingers around between 120 degrees and 115 degrees, falling, off slightly between 5 and 6p. m. Were there as much moisture in the air as along tho Atlantic coast the heat would be unbearable, but there is such a dryness in the atmosphere and tho evaporation is so rapid that one scarcely ever feels the skin moist.