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to take care of the fellows, and I heard one fellow remark, “That cheap pri..”, here he is dishing out the chicken, and he give me this one lousy piece.” Then Fitzgerald came down about ten minutes ago and wanted to come into the Wardroom and write, and I told him that he couldn’t, and when he told me that I could arrange it if I wanted to, I told him I couldn’t; you see I am the only enlisted man in here except for the Ward boys, all colored, who make and serve the sandwiches in the evening. “Fitzie” made some kind of sarcastic remark to me and left. I was really burned up, as I had chased around twice to get him sandwiches and could have gotten him a job in here tonight, as they were short-handed, but he was too proud to wait on the officers. However, Jack Borin took the job, and like myself, will probably eat in here for the duration of the voyage. I can probably dig a couple of other fellows in here, as there is a different detail each day here from the various outfits. I come and go now pretty well as I please, so I am recognized by all the guards now, and I no longer face the restrictions of the other soldiers, who have to be in their respective holds by nine o’clock. What I am kicking myself for is that I wasn’t smart enough to discover this set-up a long time ago.

I’ve had several run-in with officers yesterday and today, and managed to get some childish satisfaction out of besting them in our slight combats. Yesterday, when I was on duty here, one of the officers, a prune-faced little jerk, asked me to get him a glass of water, which I did. There is a water-cooling machine and also a faucet, and naturally I took it from the faucet, as I was busy and didn’t have time to stand over the water cooler. I brought the water back to him, and walked away as he sipped it. He called me back and said in a very strong and

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