My Dear Mother and Sisters:
As this is Sunday and I have nothing to do I will tell you how I am getting along.

I got here safe and sound Tuesday, February 9. I am on the ship Pensacola in San Francisco harbor, near Mare Island. There are about 400 on this ship. I got my clothes Wednesday. They consist of three white suits, three white caps, two blue suits, two blue caps, one pair shoes, two pair socks, one sweater, two suits underwear, one muffler, one pair leggings, soap, scrub brushes, one ditty bag to put my clothes in, one hammock, one mattress, two big navy blankets and two mattress covers. At 7:30 p.m. we put our hammocks up. We lash them to hooks fastened in the ceiling. We sleep about a foot from the ceiling and those canvass hammocks are better than any hammock or bed I ever slept in. We go to bed at 9 p.m. and we can't make any noise. At 5:30 we must get up. Breakfast at. 7 a.m. and then we drill until noon. Dinner at 12, Afternoon we wash our clothes and we must wash and keep them clean. We take a bath every day. Sunday the officer inspects our clothing. On Saturday we wash and clean the ship all up. No excuses for anything, it must be done. Well, I am sure I will like it, and after I have been here four months then I get on a battleship that travels all over.

Well, as this is all I can think of now I will close, hoping to hear from you soon, I remain.

Your sailor son and brother,
WALTER F. GRANTZ,
U.S.S. Pensacola, Naval Training Station, San Francisco, California.

Manning Monitor June 24, 1909
A Letter From Walter Grantz.
Writes an Interesting Letter to His Mother About Conditions in The Navy.
U.S. Naval Training Station, San Francisco, California, June 11, 1909.

MY DEAR MOTHER:
I received your always welcomed letter this morning and will answer it at once as I always like to get your letters. I was glad to hear that you are well, and as for myself, I couldn't feel better. We are drilling every day and it will not be long now until I leave here. I go to the U.S.S. Intrepid from here. Will stay there about two months under special training about the machinery and rigging of a battleship. I suppose you would like to know something about a battleship, so I will try and explain what little I know of one. The top deck is called the gun deck and is used for drilling, washing, and other things. The large 12 and 13-inch guns are on this deck. A shell used in a 13-inch gun weighs a little over 1,000 pounds, so you will know they are not small. They carry a distance of ten miles. Then comes the berth deck. Here is where we eat and sleep. The 6, 8, and 10-inch guns are on this deck. Next comes the deck where all the food and supplies are stored, and below this one is the Olive deck, or the dynamo and engine rooms. There are many apartments on each deck and also the gun turrets and ammunition rooms. We get target practice here, and all the other drills 1 named to you before, such as rope and cable splicing and also learning to tie all the different knots. I have learned all the signals. There are four sets of the alphabet used in the navy. They are the semaphore, used with small flags; the wigwag, made by swinging a large flag to the right or left, as, A22, B-2112, C-121, etc. 1, swing flag to right; 2, swing to left. This is used when the ships are too far from each other to use the semaphore. Then there are night signals made with lights on the main mast. A red light means 1, a white one, 2; A-22, B-2112, etc. Then we use a steam whistle for foggy weather. So you see that a person must keep awake when he stands a signal watch. We can signal nearly as fast as two people can carry on an ordinary conversation.

We get up at 5 a.m. now instead of 2:30 and go to bed at 9 p.m. When I come home I will have to find a place to put my hammock up, as I don't think I'll like a bed very well. We get good, plain food here and change clothes and take a bath every day. Don't you think this is the reason that the sailors are such a healthy lot and can stand so many hardships? The doctor inspects everybody once a week and if there is any disease among the men they are sent to the hospital. Another thing that we learn here that is of much use to us is first aid to the injured, which teaches us to take care of ourselves when injured, or helping others. The hardest work we have is fire drill and scrubbing clothes. I suppose I must name some of our sports and pastimes or you will think it is all work here. Saturday and Sunday we go to shore for twenty-four hours' liberty if we are not on report. We go to shore at noon and come back the next day. On Wednesday nights we have boxing, wrestling and a moving picture show. On Friday night we have an entertainment of some kind, such as a minstrel show, orchestra, and often a dance. A short time ago we gave a big dance and there were many visitors over from Frisco and Oakland. You know the sailors are pretty well thought of here. We have nothing to worry about on board or ashore, as we know we will get three meals and a bed each day and what more can we ask for? When we go to shore we can do what we please until our time is up. Tonight we have an orchestra over from Oakland and all are figuring on a good time. Sunday morning we have church and everybody must go, as no excuses will be accepted for not attending. I am sure that I will like it as long as I stay, and as the time goes very fast my four years will be up before I know it. Well, mother dear, I must close for now. Give my love to the girls and regards to all my friends. Hoping to hear from you soon, I remain, Your son,
WALTER GRANTZ.

November 11, 1909
Manning Monitor

A Sailor Boy's Letter.
U.S.S. Milwaukee,
Bremerton: Washington, October 30, 1909.

My dearest mother and sisters: Received your ever welcome letter today and can't think why you didn't get my other letter. I wrote to you when I left the Intrepid and told you I was going to the U.S.S. Milwaukee.

I went on the train from San Francisco to Seattle, Washington, a distance of 900 miles. I had a very nice trip and passed through some very nice scenery.

Arriving at Seattle I was met by two sailors, who took me down to the steam launch and took me on board the Milwaukee. I got here about 3:00 a.m., and after a good sleep in my hammock, I got up and started to look around and make acquaintances in my new home. And it surely is a home, for she is a new ship and will be finished and go into full commission next month. Everything is modern and entirely new. I like it much better than the Intrepid for it is a much larger ship and it soon leaves for a big cruise. I don't know where we will go but will write and let you know. But address my letters here now, and when we are traveling around send them to San Francisco in care of General Postmaster and he will send them from there, as that is the way we get our mail when we are moving all the time.

We have been taking on stores and provisions the last week, and next week we take on 1600 tons of coal. We put this much coal in the ship's bunkers in 9 hours. That is about 40 cars of coal. What do you think of this for fast work? There are 16 boilers on this ship and 2 large engines.

The average speed is 17 knots an hour. It is 424 feet long and 66 feet wide, and with a full complement carries 550 men and 60 officers. I wish you could be here to see the ship and it is certainly a nice one and very few people know much about one, but you would surely be surprised. Here all the paint is washed every day and the decks are scrubbed with sand. The brass work is always shined bright and we change clothes for inspection every day. It is so much better and comfortable than a civilian life that if I could be home once in a while I would never leave the navy.

We have many hardships and knocks, but we also have many good times.
We have a piano here and other musical instruments; besides we have books to read and all we want to eat, so you see there is no reason why you should worry much about me, unless we should have a war, and I don't think that will come very soon.

Well I must close for now. Hoping this letter finds you well and happy, I remain your loving son and brother,
WALTER GRANTZ.

Give my regards to all the Manning people, arid tell them I am doing fine and feeling the same.
Address: U.S.S. Milwaukee, Bremerton, Washington

Attracted by a woman's sobs in an adjoining apartment, W.F. Grantz, a bluejacket on the United States gunboat Wheeling, now in port, forced his way into a room in an Oakland hotel last night just in time to prevent the suicide of Helen Stahlnaher, an attractive girl, who had run away from home in this city. When Grantz appeared on the scene the girl was raising a glass containing carbolic acid to her lips, but with a bound the sailor reached her side and knocked the poison from her grasp. In doing so Grantz was badly burned about the left hand and this morning was obliged to seek treatment for the injured member on the warship.

It was due to this injury and as the result of questioning from the men aboard the Wheeling that Grantz revealed the facts in the case and made public the following note which the girl had scribbled before, the attempt to take her life:

Please write to N. Flickinger and tell him what happened.

Oakland, June 13, 1910. Please try and find my mother and tell her I am dead. She lives on Hyde Street. She used to reside at 2009 Pine Street, but I don't know where she lives now. Please give her this note: Dear Mama, Papa and Brothers and Sisters, may God forgive me for doing this. I know I can't go to hell, because I'm in hell now. Goodbye.

Miss Ethel Stalnaher is my sister. She lives on Sutter Street, between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin.

Papa and Mama, I hope you won't worry over me. Don't do it, it is nothing. "Teddy" is dead.

Grantz says he had spent the evening in Oakland and that he engaged a room in a Broadway hotel for the evening. He had just entered the room when he heard a woman's sobs. Listening for a moment he discovered that it came from an adjoining room. He stepped into the corridor and asked if there was anything the matter. At the sound of his voice a girl shrieked "Oh, my God!" At that Grantz hurled himself against the door and entered the room to find the Stalnaher girl, standing in the center of the apartment and just in the act of raising the deadly poison to her lips.

Mr. Grantz is a well-known Manning citizen, having resided here the greater part of his life.