there seems to be smoke away off
in the distance. This is nothing but the dry sand being blown about by
the wind.

Where the railroad crossed the deserts they are from one hundred and
fifty to two hundred miles wide.

The first place we stopped after crossing the Rocky Mountains was in the
city of Los Angeles, California. The good people of Los Angeles had a
bountiful supply of oranges and other nice fruit, which were given to
the soldiers, who enjoyed them very much. Some towns where we stopped
the citizens would put two or three crates of oranges in every car of
our train.

The country was beautiful, orange groves and orchards of different kinds
were numerous and fine.

California is the most beautiful country I have seen in my travels from
Georgia to the Philippine Islands.

The Oakland Ferry was reached about ten o'clock on the morning of the
first day of June. Our regiment commenced to cross at once over to San
Francisco. A detail was left to take our supplies from the train and
load them on boats, all the balance of the regiment going across. My
first sergeant was unfriendly to me and included me in the detail as a
mark of disrespect to me, although it was not my time to be placed on
detail duty according to the system of rotating that duty.

Our detail worked very hard for about two hours and seeing no prospect
of dinner we crossed over into San Francisco to find something to eat.
We found our regiment just ready to enjoy a grand banquet prepared by
the Red Cross Society. It was prepared near the piers in a long stone
building; long tables were piled full of all that a crowd of hungry
soldiers could wish for, excellent music was furnished while we did full
justice to the feast before us. The Red Cross has spent a great deal of
money since the commencement of the Spanish-American war; it has
accomplished much toward softening the horrors of war by caring for the
sick and wounded, providing medicines and necessaries for their relief,
and doing many charitable acts too numerous to be enumerated here. Many
men to-day enjoying health and strength were rescued from what must have
been an untimely grave had not the work of the Red Cross come to their
relief when sick or wounded. The army physician frequently was a
heartless, and apparently indifferent man about the ills of his
patients. While at Camp Merritt I was sick for a month. The physician
pronounced the malady fever; he did not seem to care about my recov