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T H E CHEM AW A AMERICAIN
The CHEMAWA AMERICAN
Published Weekly at the Salem Indian Training School
Chemawa, Oregon, HARWOOD HALL, Superintendent
Address all communications to Ruthyn Turney, Manager
Entered at the Chemawa, Oregon, Postoffice as Second-
Class Mail Matter
SUBSCRIPTION
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25Cts PER ANNUM
NICK ORLOPP WRITES
Through the courtesy and consideration of a friend
in Salem we are enabled to publish the following let
ter from Nick Orloff, who was among the first of the
Chemawa boys to join the colors. He gives an ac
count of his cruise in the Southern Seas, as follows:
I will now give you a brief story of our voyage and
not go into details too much, in other words, will
make a long story short. Well, as nearly as I can
remember we left Mare Island on the 16th of July
and passed out through the Golden Gate, San F ran
cisco, on the 17th and learned that our orders were
to go to Chill, South America. From the day we
left San Francisco the weather was beautiful and we
all felt that luck was with us for the trip —it was the
maiden voyage for our ship, the U. S. S. Alloway.
After leaving Frisco the land was out of sight for
thirty days. Of course we crossed the equator before
arriving at Chili. The first port we struck was Arica,
Chili. We laid there over night and then left for
Caleata Buena, Chili, where we arrived that night
and commenced loading nitrate of sodium (salt petre)
as our cargo. The loading lasted for fifteen days,
during which we all had a great tim e. As to a de
scription of that town I say frankly that it was the
most rotten and filthy burg that I ever struck. The
streets were dusty, the sidewalks not more than two
feet wide, buildings small and low in which the peo
ple dwell. Same rooms answer in turn for cooking
and dining and sleeping quarters.
After loading at that town we left for Panama to
receive further orders as to our course with this valu
able cargo. We reached Panama in ten days and
learned that we were to go to Philadelphia and await
further orders. We stayed at Panama over night and
in the morning about 6 :3 0 we started through the
canal. It took us eight hours to make the passage. ,
The canal is something wonderful—certainly beyond
my description. Talk of beautiful scenery—it ’s all
there. It surely is a marvelous engineering feat from
end to end. So much for the canal. We dropped
anchor at Colon, Panama, that afternoon and at 6 :0 0
p. m. passed into the Carribean Sea. Have been out
now a couple of days.
We are expecting to see one, or be hit by a German
“ su b ” any m inute and the crew is on the lookout for
any object which may look like a “ sea devil.” We
have been informed that we are in a dangerous zone
at present and will be until we reach and pass the
Florida coast. So in case we reach the next port safe
I will mail this letter and you wall know on receipt of
it that all is well. We are not worried a bit for it is
all in the game. We have also been informed of a
German raider on this coast and have a good descrip
tion of her and really know her without having seen
her at all.
I surely hope we reach the United States once more.
It certainly is the only country; the best and most
civilized of them all. Nothing like the old U. S. A.!
NO SURE CURE
At the present writing the Spanish Influenza at
Chemawa is subsiding. It is hoped that the worst is
over and that we may suffer no further—for certainly
we had a bad enough time of it. This country has
been and is in the grip of one of the worst scourges
that ever visited our borders. There seems to be no
“ sure cu re,” no real specific for the treatm ent of the
disease. Caution is urged upon the public that little
faith be placed in the so-called cures offered. Under
date of October 28 the following dispatch was sent
out from W ashington, D. C.:
O ut of the maze of sure cures, recipes and vaccines
put forth as remedies for Spanish Influenza, nothing
so far has been found to be a demonstrated specific cure
for the disease, the United States public health service
announced here today.
The epidemic has brought to the attention of the
public and the health service no end of alleged “ cures,”
it is said, most of them being offered for valuable con
sideration, so that the government health experts
have thought it advisable to make public announce
ment that many of the so-called “ cures” are apt to do
more harm than good, and that anything demon
strated as valuable will be given the widest publicity
by the government.
Vaccines have been watched in their effect bv the
service, but the service is not urging any form of
vaccine treatm ent at this time.
Sergeant H enry Darnell came up from Vancouver bar
racks last Saturday evening and remained at the school
until after noon on Sunday. He is connected with the
commissary departm ent at that army post, being in a
position of trust and responsibility, and is proving him
self the man for the job. We are pleased to report that
he is making a splendid name for himself.