Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 170, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1918 — ANOTHER LETTER FROM HARVEY PHILLIPS [ARTICLE]

ANOTHER LETTER FROM HARVEY PHILLIPS

Laber Weach, June 23, 1918. My Dear Parents an'd All: Received a letter today writen June 7th. That was making good time, only seventeen days from the day you write until I am answering it. Besides your letter I received one from Anna and Sylvia. All wefe written after the fifth. You must be pretty busy, having .so much garden, chickertfe and other things to attend to, also visit and attend your meetings regularity. You made me almost wish I was at home so I could get all the shortcake I wanted. We have regulation shortcake, but the berries are usually missing. Have chicken, once a week, but cdld storage chickens can never take the place of a,fine, spring rooster. Of course, it is different with those that have never tasted any only cold storage meat I see in the paper that Lawrence Blunk and wife were honored with a useful shower by their friends. Did not know that he was married. Be sure to give him and her my best wishes. Has anyone else been married since I left? You know Ido not get ail the news and do not want to make any bad mistakes. I suppose .John Cook will join dr be drafted b e f ore long. Glad to hear that all the crops are fine. Hope you have a record breaker. Be sure to send all the clippings of the letters from the boys over here, for they are very interesting. The people here are farmers and fishermen. They have farms almost large enough for a garden and make a living on it. They raise mostly truck and vegetables. We get all our cabbage, lettuce, onions and strawberries from the people close to our camp. Fruit will be scarce around here as I have not found a fruit tree. Even lumber is very scarce, most of ours come from home, (U. S. A.) The people cut the trees down and leave a stump almost three feet high and every year they cut the sprouts from these and that is their amount of firewood. They get the seaweed the tide washes in. This is piled in neat piles to dry. The drying takes about four to six weeks. Then the weed is burned and the ashes are used for several different things. The general use is fertilizer, but there are several different kinds of seaweeds and each has its own special use. At present there are several fires of weeds along .the coast. Reminds me of the forest fires. You know the way the smoke used to make it foggy for days at a time, that is the same way it is here now. , j, About the only cheap thing we can buy is wine. Eggs cost 80c per dozen, lettuce 12c a kilo or 5%c per pound, and cabbage almost the same. New potatoes are small and cost $4.90 per 100 kilos or 21c a pound. Cannot buy chickens at any price and. butter costs a fortune. Milk is cheap but hard to get. Fish, lobsters, crabs, oysters, snails; eels, and clams are cheap, but I had almost got my fill of seafood at first, so I don’t care much for it, although a few of us go along the beach and hunt crabs and boi! them once in a while Well, I will close and write to Sylvia a few lines, also have to write ■ to Helen, Edna and Anna. Give my best to everyone. Love to all. Your son, HARVEY. P. S. Send all the post cards and funny papers you can find, also any good magazines.