Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 220, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1917 — TELLS ABOUT CAMP TAYLOR [ARTICLE]

TELLS ABOUT CAMP TAYLOR

LIEUT. BURCHARD DESCRIBES CAMP TAYLOR, NEAR LOUISVILLE. Camp Zachery Taylor, Ky. Care Camp Quartermaster, October 1, 1917. Friend Hamilton: You have asked me on-at least two occasions to write you something of my impressions of and experiences in army life. As I have said to you personally, I am not much of a writer, either of fact or fiction. I long since got the notion out of my head that I could hope to fain fame in that manner. Right here let me make the confession that it was an editor that got that notion out of my head. They say that every American, and especially every Hoosier, has written poetry of more or less merit. I remember that I did my full share of this more or less criminal act in my high school days. I became so enamored with my own possibilities along this line that I confess to letting run over even into my college career. I remember having written some beautiful (?) during this period of my young and harmless life, which I had the effrontery to call a poem entitled “Coming From the West.” This was a “love ballad” embracing some of the experiences of an early infatuation with a young high school girl whom I met every evening on my way home after teaching hours in a district school

With becoming modesty I hesitatingly, of course, displayed it to some of u*y intimate friends, who assured me df a fact of which I long since had been cognizant, namely, that I was another natural-bom poet. So enthusiastic did they become that, as a result of their advice, I bundled it up, together with a few other of my masterpieces and sent them to Munsey’s or some other magazine together with the information that they were to be honored with the discovery of another James Whitcomb Longfellow. I had the honor of a reply. Since this said reply I have been neither a writer of verse or maker of pretty speeches. lam a plain, blunt soldier. Bearing the above facts in mind I will proceed to the stating of a few facts that mav be of interest to you. First, my friend, Lieutenant Yeoman, says that our camp is located six miles northeast of Louisville. I might add that we arrived at the camp by taking a South Preston Str-'t car and riding six miles to thv juth of said city. I saw Yeoman one night at the chutes and he looked perfectly sober, as I have always known him to be. This camp covers 3,000 acres of hilly or rather rolling land, and is really a beautiful site for a camp. The principal street is a new asphalt street laid out chiefly with the view in mind of aiding the drivers in seeing who is coming behind, as it is elaborately curved. Of course, it is beautiful and enhances the scenic effect, but it makes it very difficult lor one to orientiate himself. As a result, not a few persons have been lost in camp, not knowing just where they came from or where to get out. I must confess that I myself was in this predicament during the first week of my presence here. One night I had a driver bring me out from town with a bedding roll and other supplies. We came into camp in a different way from which I had ever come before. After following these curves for a long way and inquiring for my quarters several times, we came upon them backward from what I had ever done before. I dismissed the driver, looked around, and decided I was in the wrong place. As all locations are identical as to buildings, etc., I put my pack on my back and began to inquire for the camp quartermaster’s office, from which I knew I could locate myself. The guards directed me here and there in a roundabout way and final’y I found the quartermaster’s office ahd started back across the field to my quarters and found that I had just walked about six blocks for nothing, carrying my bundle, as I had dismissed the driver at my very door. I have been sober ever since, as I thought I was at the time. I can’t- say as to the number of buildings there are here, but the barracks are large and intended to house about 200 to 250 men each; They are as modern as any temporary quarters cah be and provide hot and cold water with ten shower baths and ten toilets to each barrack.

In order to give you a more definite idea of one phase of the camp, I will tell you something of the contents of the warehouse in which I have been assigned. There are ten warehouses in all, with at least two more to-be built. present ones are 60 feet in width and 200 feet in length. At present three of these are devoted to the commissary, or food department It is in one of these that I am stationed. Our warehouse is one of two that are used to receive carload lots. We issue to the 3rd daily and they in turn issue to the different army organizations or sell to individuals or organizations entitled to procure by purchase. The 3rd one sure is one busy place. Take our warehouse for an example. In it we have: Flour, 1,421,000 lbs. worth $44,-

000. Bacon, 178,000 lbs. worth $67,000. Coffee, 85,000 lbs. worth $12,750, Beans, 140,000 lbs. worth $29,400. Sugar, 60,000 lbs. worth $5,250. Vinegar, 3,000 gallons, worth $420. Rice, 55,500 lbs. worth $4,412. Salt, 49,400 lbs. worth S4O. • Of course, this does not represent the entire supply of any of these items. For instance, beside the above named flour, there are 2,000 bags each of 98 lbs. of flout in the third warehouse or the store, and the bakery has a like supply. The entire supply of flour is about enough to last the camp seven weeks when the full quota of soldiers have arrived. The bakery alone has a capacity for using 2,000 bags of flour per week. From these figures, which do not represent one-tenth of the quartermaster’s business, you will get some little idea of the monstrous job that the quartermaster department of one of these camps has. You can do as you please with this letter, provided you do not publish it. At least you are strictly forbidden to publish more than a column and a half of it It is against my iporals to force more than that quantity on the public at any one Tame- ' Perhaps if you survive this I will write you again at some future time. I may be able to make a short visit home in a few days. .r Yours sincerely, F. D.„ BURCHARD, 2nd Lieut Q. M. C.