Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1916 — ARCHIE LEE WRITES LETTER [ARTICLE]

ARCHIE LEE WRITES LETTER

Member of Company M Tells of Present Conditions in Camp at Llano Grande. Archie Lee, son of W. R. Lee of Mt. Ayr, formerly of Rensselaer, who is a member of the Rensselaer company of the Third regiment down at the Mexican border, writes his father an interesting letter which Mr. Lee published in the last issue of the Mt. Ayr Tribune, and we copy the letter below: Llano Grande, Texas. July 28, 191 6. Dear Dad:—Got your letter the other day and also the package at the same time and w r as surely glad to get both. Well, Pop, conditions are somewhat improved to what they were when you last heard from me. We got our big square tents Tuesday. They are 21 leet square and

only eight in one tent. We have all the room we want. We also got mosquito netting. It is made up like the old square pup tents and we pitch them inside of our squad tents. Two of us go together and sleep in one. They are big and roomy and we ..sure do rest fine. We got ticks and straw, too. They have installed shower baths and we can keep clean and nice. The pipe line is completed from the canal and we have all the water we want. We are getting 200 pounds of ice per day and have ice water most of the time. We have iced tea or coffee for dinner every day. All of our water has to be boiled and it is fine after that.

We have been working awfully hard though, working up the wilderness. We cleared about two acres for a parade ground. We grubbed it all and skinned the weeds off and leveled it all up slick and nice. I don’t hardly see how they can make a chain gang out of us, but they do and we say nothing. I run an axe, pick, shovel and wheelbarrow all morning. It was hot, hard work but it is done now. We worked in the afternoon on the road and got it all shaped up pretty nice and our company has a nice looking street. Juiy 29th. Well, will finish up now.

We had our Saturday morning inspection this morning. 'We washed our clothes all up yesterday afternoon and was all ready for it. We also cleaned up our rifles and bayonets and shined our shoes. We took a nine-mile hike yesterday morning. We left camp at 6:40 and got back about 10:20. It was a hard one through the sand, but Co. M all stuck to it. Just as soon as we got back we took a shower bath and put on clean, dry clothes and felt fine the rest of the day, and didn’t have anything more to do the rest of the day but clean up for today’s inspection. Inspection waover about 9:30 this morning and nothing more on schedule for the day only to go on little easy jobs we are called upon to do. I had to wheel up a couple of wheelbarrow loads of trash from the back end of the street to the front for the garbage wagon to get. From this you see Friday and Saturday are easy days for us with the exception of the Friday hike, but all the other days are work all the time. T have been averaging about two baths per day. so you know we can’t help keeping healthy.

This place is certainly building up since we came. : Stands are plentiful. They are aIL screened in and kept clean. They are surely making money by the carload. There are also two motion picture shows. They have their own electric plants and are fine and have awful crowds every night. They sure coin the money: Our regiment has a stand and each company has a share in it. They issue titkets good for $1 in trade and the money is taken out of your month’s pdy. They have lemonade, ice cream, candy, stationery, towels, soap, handkerchiefs and most anything you can want that way. i am working on my second one, the first one went all for necessities, but the second one has gone for show tickets, as I have been to the show three nights, and ice cream and cookies. Most everyone else has used up five, all they are allowed. When we got our new tents each one was in a crate and Glen Swaim and I took ours and made a writing desk out of it. We have a place made for the mess kits and cups in it, also for our bacon cans in which we keep our tooth brushes and toilet articles, where they are always handy and up out of the sand and dirt. We all have a place for our stationery and things are right up to snuff. Our squad has a tub and board and we can wash whenever we vent to and don't have to go around hunting up stuff. Nearly every day some one gets a box of stuff from home with cake and all kinds of canned fruit and preserves in it, and they always share up with the other seven of the squad and so we have good things to eat every once in a while. There is a big Y. M. C. A. going to be built at the camp for the Indiana troops and many other improvements for our benefit. Over in the first Indiana regiment they have a ring fixed and they have band concerts, wrestling and boxing matches, solos (instrumental and vocal), readings and have fine entertainments. They are free. Glen Swaim and I took that in before the show last night and enjoyed it

very much. Well, as dinner is ready now suppose I had better close for this time. Write soon. Your loving son, ARCHIE. P- S.—Got a letter from Fred Tyler yesterday.