Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1919 — LETTERS FROM OUR READERS [ARTICLE]

LETTERS FROM OUR READERS

Will Chappell Writes From Portland, Oregon. The Democrat is in receipt of the following letter from Will M. Cham> c ll, formerly of Remington, who with his sons and daughter and brother, George A. Chappell, Wfcint to Portland a year ago last fall: Friend Babcock —The Democrat of April 2 arrived today and I j notice that my subscription Is due I the 10th. My $2 for renewal will reach you a day or two late, but nevertheless send me The Democrat for another year. We have had very fine weather for about four weeks until last week. The .government let us all out four weeks .ago. I was with the government 14 months. My boy Byron and I are working for the brewery now, building a large addition. There is a good deal of work here, but several men for a job on account of all the wooden ship yards closing down. The scale here for carpenters is $6.88 per eight hours, but at the present there are not many union jobs, though we are on a union job. ’See in tonight’s paper there is a contract let for $300,000 which will put a good many men to work. At present the rivers here are full of new wooden ships that have never been used; some of them have been tied lup here for a year. Hundreds of 1 m?n were induced to come out here i to work im the ship yards, bringing ! their families, and cannot get away. ! With lots of them it is their own fault for they couldn’t stand prosI perity, and bought automobiles and ! lived up everything they made. A week ago yesterday a few miles from Portland on the Sandy river highway were thousands of machines strung all the way from Portland to the fishing grounds where the smelt were running. People even used bird cages to catch them in. Men told me that they dipped out 500 pounds of fish per hour. Women even took oft their coats to carry them in amd in several instances women took off their skirts and tied up one end and filled them. Well, I have had enough smelt to eat and I do not care for any more for a year. In most of the yards cam be seen a large box with smoke oozing out, which is a good sign that they are smoking smelt. My daughter Gretchen and my niece, Mildred dowry, have gone to Heppner, Ore., and are taking charge of a hospital there. ' Well, I don’t know of any more news to write. We are all well and all working. With best regards to everybody, I aimi, yours truly, WILL M. CHAPPELL. 1222 E. 17th street north.