| Show PROM A VOLUNTEER on the heaving pacific fourteen hundred miles from honolulu july soupy soupy soupy without a single bean porkey pl porkey orkey porkey without a streak of lean so goes the mess call three times a day with every revio revolution lution of the screw we are going farther and far away from all we love on earth and getting nearer and nearer to scenes ol of strife we have bave had bad no news leaving san sam francisco over two weeks week ago said and though spain may have o given up her useless and senseless dim struggle before this and though manila may be in the hands of our army already there and the wax war may be practically over we know nothing 0 it and have no cause to think other otherwise otheral wl than that we are going to a battlefield where many of us will lay down our lives for the cause we love still to look around on these noisy and boisterous volunteers one would be led to think the war had ended and they were returning to their homes victorious one would naturally suppose that under the circumstances these men would be thoughtful at times and that if anything would make them mindful of a future state present conditions would but no th tala is not the case the most earsplitting ear splitting laughter and bloodcurdling blood curdling oaths and obscenity are floating through the or air at all times blood and thunder novels cards and boxing gloves are the most popular means of idill time and by far the majority of ou en listed men on this ship iship seem to have bf never known anything more elevating por for two thirds of those aboard woman is at times the sole topic of conversation to one who ever knew a mothers or sisters love and who still ft tac bains a teaspoonful of s self elf respect nothing no thing more sickening thap thai the conditions ditto no made manifest by the bation of these men but thank soft there are some noble souls aboard here self sacrificing men of hearts heartis have bave enlisted because they could love and it require a prophet to fortell that they will prove the best and bravest soldiers on the field and that it if they return at all it will be with glory perched on the banners vhf tho carry lost logt one full grown day of tanti twenty tour four hours here in the pacific ocea i the finder will be rewarded to the ei extent of one half of my entire en tire fortune providing he throws it overboard again for I 1 have no use for it whatever the best feature of this voyage to Is wk losing of august ath and I 1 only wish wash we could lose a day every day we are surfeited with days the greg greatest Aest rt rie gret we have in relation to this triv is the days we lost it if we had all lost as many days as most moat of no have lost dinners life on the blo ado do d Jail janeiro elro would be one grand sweet dream beans and hardtack hard tack are more to be desired than all the days sucha we have just lost that can be crowded crowd into a thousand years As far as I 1 aa concerned that black son of ski asa burns the biscuits and half cooks cookie ow tae petrified meat we are obliged to eat can have that lost day and allabe all the raft nit it takes to complete this voyage wish coonel colonel prost frost had that lwft 4 aa and get rid of jt it until i changed the unnecessarily evl evil tlona on this ship for which 41 p stand he be is responsible I 1 1 my whole heart that t the e man dr who had our kitchen aad water placed side by side the graap ma who think closets to aco fourteen are ample for peth one the rain man or men ohp epee a of U us volunteers wash aaa ln in foil wash basins and in salt aalt adf v who compel us to drink aiji all the water we get tram one fane tin cup CUD who have decreed that from 8 pm next morning the pump an in inal n arrian arrangement gement that can caa be used bied an about half the th time shall wear ft 4 16 and chain thereby making it to elble for 16 private no matter matte thirsty he Is to get a drink drift of kind and and through a lack of eve 4 in mane ane feeling have nade made r the hi U one t buzone b american ab ra unendurable hl hal that last daj 44 f X wish the unpatriotic captain of tub alp had that lost day for making americans IrI cains buy the privilege of sleeping on deck by working along with alien rat eating who are paid for the work if it were not for that lost day I 1 would wish the forego nig enemies of the private soldier in a place a thousand fathoms deep but a kind Provid providence mee has made it possible to wish them something infinitely worse august 8 which we have just juat lost in the pacific since beginning this letter an hour ago we have crossed the longto tude and have skipped from august ath to kugust ath if we had skipped two or three hundred of ocean travel instead of the three meals we would have eaten on the ath had we not lost that day and for which we are sorely to need there would be great rejoicing among us true we are grateful for bor the loss of a day for we are intensely breary of this voyage and the treatment ment we receive still the thought of the pork and beams we get on the day we lost and mars mare somewhat the but the th e bugle calls to battle we must strip clean and filthy together diseased and healthy alike must strip and together like so many swine awine revel to the delights of a shower bath to the disgust of many and amusement of officers every private aboard is compelled to take a bath each day and for mix purpose there are two showers we battery fellows in all have just halt half an a hour to bathe in NOD |
