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It was very unpleasant. You know, it made you feel badly to see the men so crowded aboard. We were crowded, but we weren't crowded the way the soldiers were. They must have been backed in like a haystack. The kitchen ran all day long, because they fed the population, you see, in relays. One relay left, and then another relay came in. They got three meals a day, at whatever hour they happened to fall.
I used to feel quite badly. When we went down to dinner, I think it was the third-class dining saloon that had been set aside for the civilian passengers. There weren't so many of them, you see. That was the smallest saloon. That was why we were sent there. The biggest saloon, of course, had to be given over to the Army, because they took up so much room. We had been given the small third-class one, and it was a terrible job to reach it. We had to go down, you know, by the elevator for several decks, and then we had to go by foot around somewhere else. And you were conscious, as you got below the deck where the civilians were cooped up, you were conscious of nothing but soldiers standing thick in the corridors and along the halls, just standing and leaning up against the wall. You know, anything to get out of their bedrooms.
I had a young cousin aboard who had the rank of Captain, and he said, “Oh, I have it easy. I've only got eight other room-mates. You ought to see the way the enlisted men are
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