Dear Kay─Well, how’re you? I’ve just come back from town and up to now have been eating everything from nuts to cakes. In a couple of hours I’ll be having a terrific stomachache and be wishing to hell I hadn’t eaten all these things.
Incidently, [sic] I’m writing this letter with the pen you sent me. All up to this time, I’ve been using borrowed pens but thanks to you, that’s settled. I don’t know how you figured that out but you certainly did. Thanks a lot. Some of the fellows say that its [sic] a hint to write more often.
I guess I promised to tell you about Washington. We were there for about 12 hrs. so I can tell you just about everything we did.
We left New York about 4 in the morning, timing it so that we would get to Washington about 8 in the morning. The first thing we did in Washington was to satisfy our appetite, usually the first thought after a train ride. We still had our rooms in New York so we left our stuff there. We didn’t even have a single toilet article.
Then we hired a taxi and he rented a camera for us, and we proceeded on a tour of the interesting places. Government buildings by the dozens, with as much as 60,000 people working in each. Arlington Cemetery was beautiful, even in winter. Did you know that about 3 Japanese mess attendants were killed in the S.S. Maine in the Spanish-am [sic] war?
The tomb of the unknown soldiers stands in front of the new amphitheater for Easter services. We went an [sic] looked all over it. We then visited General Lee’s home, from top to bottom. We passed by the Pentagon building, the largest building in the world, over the Potomac River, and then into the Lincoln Memorial. Its [sic] a great sight, really it is, I don’t know why. Across from it is the Washington Monument and between them, the reflection lake for the monument. From the top of the monument, you can get a pretty good view of the surroundings. When the lake freezes over, they have ice skating there.
Next in line was the Smithsonian Institute, a museum. I’d say that the Chicago Museum is more complete, but Ripley said in B.I.O.N. that if you looked at each item for 2 minutes, it would take you 234 yrs to get over everything. Among other things of interest was the Spirit of St. Louis, Lindbergh’s plane, and the Winnie Mae, Wiley Post’s plane. (time out for lunch here)
The White House could only be seen from a distance, and its surroundings are patrolled by armed sentries.
We were taken on a tour of the Capitol building, but I never familiarized myself with the place. All the history, story, and meaning behind every bit of the architecture, murals, statutes, paintings, and the construction was explained but I wouldn’t remember it. We sat through part of the session of the senate but missed the house members. At the time, soldier’s [sic] voting privileges seemed to be the issue with Taft of Ohio doing most of the talking. We also looked through the Congressional Library, where we saw the original declaration of independence, [sic] and then the Supreme Court building. That ended the tour.
Then my friend looked up his sister in law or something. Her husband is in Italy, and we stayed there for the rest of our stay in Washington, eating supper there. By the way, she knows Edith Katekaru, in fact she had a snapshot of Edith.
The pictures didn’t turn out so good as we hardly ever had seen. But I guess theyll [sic] give you an idea of how I look in uniform. I’m sending some of the same home. Very few of the pictures taken in Chicago turned out well and I didn’t have any taken in New York as the other boys had the camera. I’ll send more later on.
Met Hal today and he told me of the things he’d sent back home. Makes me feel like a heel now, as I didn’t send anything. Its [sic] too late now.
I hope Hal has written you about what he did on his furlough.
So long
Love
Stan
P.S.
I picked up a souvenir of the Statute of Liberty and sent it to you. Hope it gets there.
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