299. GEORGE S. PATTON Fine content, early A.L.S. "George S. Patton, Jr.", 5pp. 4to., [West Point?], Oct. 18, 1910 to his mother. Patton lambastes America's attitudes toward military preparedness, writing in small part: "...We are going out to camp for four days on the Cavalry drill grounds...so that we can comply with Gen. [Leonard] Woods' newest notion and be inspected in the field...Our whole military system is a mite more a sort of a pretext which a palsied national spirits puts up to hide its nakedness like Ulysses did the olive branch. They salve their consciences by saying 'we have an army' and put added balsam on it with the equally futile assertion 'we have a militia' but they will wake up some day and I hope it will be sooner than later... " Fine condition. $3,000-4,000