FAST MOLDING FUTURE
COMMANDERS OF MEN
OUT OF RAW MATERIAL
Mm Training For Oflicar* to
Land Armiaa in Franca Em
bra ca Many Profauioni.
Chattanooga, Tenn., June 2.—"Ad
vknev and thruet! Front pan* and
lung*!! Re-tire and thrust! Kent!"
Company No. 118, Keserve Officer*'
Training (.'amp, bring* ita rifle* to the
ground, and wipe* Ita streaming
brow*, lamenting. Bayonet euemae
la something to teat the atamina of
huxienxi regulars, to nay nothing of
a collection of college boy*, clerk*,
lawyer*, merchant*, newspaper men,
et cetera, such aa compose th» mem
bership of the Kort Oglethorpe train
ing camp, and, for that matter, alt
the other*. To »tick to the undiluted
truth, there are only lift companies
in the Georgia camp; but let this
one be denominated No. 16, to avoid
personalities.
At the command, "Rest," an aver
age of perhaps 145 of the 150 men
composing company 16 roll hack their
aleeve* and note with relief that their
wrixt watches register 11:27. That
mpuns that the next command will )w
"Assemble," after which the company
will be marched l>ack to barrack* to
wash up for menu, which in this rase
would be dinner, at noon. A para
grapher on one of We Chattunooga
pu|» rH recently pulled one to the ef
fect that thin will he "no wrist-watch
war." Obviously, he had not been to
the officer*' training camp, or he'
might have observed that that is pre- <
finely what it will be in so far as the,
equipment of the men in concerned.'
The reason ta simple, trot nUfflclMlt'.'
The wrixt ix the only convenient pluce;
for a soldier to wear hix watch. With
the cartridge belt on, the watch
pocket just below the waist band of
the trousers is extremely difficult to
get at. To wear the watch in the
shirt pocket means that it is almost
certain to be smashed (he tirt-t time
the compuny is orderrff to advance by
rushing. which necessitates falling
flat to the ground at the end of the
rush, and falling extremely quick, at i
that. Consequently, there are at least |
10 wrist-watches in the camp for ev
ery one of the ordinary sort. It will'
be a wrist-watch war by a huge ma- |
jority. I
The I>ay'* Routine
Wbut th« puragrapher meant, uf
course, was that it will b« no war for
mollycoddle*, and in thut he has the
hearty and unanimous indorsement of
the officer* in charge of the training
camp. The trainiitrf, especially for ■
the first five weeks, has been so de
signed that there will not be a weak
ling left among the future officers at;
the end of that period. It speaks
volumes for the discrimination of the
examining officers that after the first
two weeks of gruelling work only &0
men out of the 2,500 at the camp
have succumbed.
To understand whav that means, let j
us return to the mythical company
lt>, now back in the company street
and dismissed. They turned out at {
5:15 in the morning, pnd nt 5:25 fell
in for the first time. The occasion ^
was "setting-up" e.'»rcises lieforr
breakfast—a strenous 35 minutes
in itself, lireakfast came at 6, in the
mess hall opposite the company bar
racks, for each company is a s«p :
urate entity, eating and sleeping to
itself. After breakfast, the company
street was "policad," that is to say.
cleaned up from end to end. Beds I
also were made up and the barracks1
swept out. At 7 the day's work start
ed and it was a continuous drive from
that moment on. The mornings are (
given over to drill ii, >.i|uads, platoons
and companiea, to {.ayarict and sig
nalling exercises and t Instruction in
the use of small arm-. Not llercu
les himself could go through the morn
ing without feollng the strain, and,
company 16 came in pretty well tag
iMBIMflittMiMiii i n Ii ii iti/mHi
gad that I" to say, averybody except
the company commander, detailed
from the regular army, who la al
ways fresh as a daiay, although he
goaa through work practically as
*avara a* any man in tha rank*. For
endurance a regular army man ha*
Harcula* hacked off tha map.
, At 10 Com** 'Taps."
But after dinnar there will ha a
blessed hour, an antira 00 minutaa,
during which company IIS will not
hava a thing to do, except laarn a faw
pages uf the Infantry Drill Kagula
turn*, tha Manual of Intarior (iuard
Duty, tha Plattaburg Manual, may lie
a bit of tha .Signalling Manual, and
glanca at a faw other textbook* for
out«ida raading. At 1:30 the com
mander will take them off to noma
shady spot where ha will proceed to
find out how lamentably little thay
have gathered from thi* course of
study. After soma two hour* of
cross-examination, No. lti will gather
itself together for a hike, a pleasant
little stroll of six to eight mile* in
a couple of hour*; or if the lesson
hour run* close to 4 o'clock, the cum
puny will he tuken bacic to the parade
grouml and put through more setting
up exercises. After 4:30 there i»
nothing to do but take a bath before
supper; but as there is always a for
midable waiting list at the bath hous
es, it sometimes becomes an exciting
race to get back before 6:30 when
mess call sounds for supper. At 7
the whole regiment is gathered to
gether and somebody makes a speech
—"general conference," it is called,
and often it is the most valuable part
of the iluy's work. After the con
ference, it is study more hooks until
U:30, when tattoo sound*; and at 101
rimes tap*.
Decidedly, it is no life for a
-sybarite; an yet you might make u
long day'* journey without finding u
more cheerful place than company 1<>
barracks. Thai U, you might, unless
you had chanced to visit in on the day
after the company hail lx»en given its
second shot of the anti-typhoid serum.
Then you would have found a con
irregation of misanthropes of the deep
est dye. All the world wa wrong
that day. Company Hi's arms ached;
its heads ached; its backs ached; its
commander was tran formed from a
pleasant, if unbending, gentlemen, into
a monster of incredible viciousnes:.;
and the kaiser was sure to win the
war. Anti-typhoid serum is powerful
stuff, especially the second dose,
which is the worst of all. It is the
essence of gloom, a distillation of des
pair; and the man recently Inoculated
is a man bereft of friends, a man with
no joy in life. His last dog is dead.
One Blue-eyed Doctor
The reputation of the serum went
before it, and many unci various as
autumn leaves were the excuses that
company It! had framed up before it*
visit to the hospital. Few nuuilx-rs
there were so lacking in ingenuity
that they wera not provided with
what was, in their own estimation, a
perfectly legitimate excuse to pre
sent to the doctor for not taking the
dose. But company 16 did not know
what it ia to go up against an army
surgeon, especially a surgcan with a
bright blue eyes, a merry, twinkling
blue eye, but withal the moat in
credulous, the most skeptical, the
most sophisticated blue eye in tlie
world. Alas for company 16! The
blue eyed doctor had heard each and
every one of its 160 excuses no often
that he could have repeated them as
easily as the multipieation table; and
his answer to each was the same a
jab of the handle and a dab of iodine.
Company 16 went to the hospital with
high hopes; it came back in a ruined
community.
Ilut fortunately 24 hour* sees the
end of the worst of the anti-typhoid
treatment, unless there ii something
radically wrong with tlie man before
he takes it. Company 1(! begins to
take interest in life again the third
«.
day. Ita recuperation can be mea«
urad by th« company cool' hattar than
by anybody alaa. The ftrat day ha
can count on ha vine parhapa 200
meala aatan. inataad of 450; but aftar
that ha had bat tar count on at laaat
MM to rtOO ordinary maala.
Tha government haa baan generoua
to ita futura officer* in tha matter of
rationa, aa well aa in other thing*;
hut ita greataat piece of generoaity ia
in tha officer« it haa datailad »> in
■tructora. Company 16 may hava ita
'own opinion about that, for tha in
•tructora ara aalaetad from among
tha moat efficient man in tha aarvica,
and having a particularly efficient
man in command doaan't alwaya add
to a company'* happinaaa in tha be
ginning. Especially when it come* to
that .moat obnoxioua duty of a aol
dier'a Ufa, inapaction, ia thia apparent.
Woe then to tha man who haa in
voluntarily carriad the careleaa meth
od* of easy-going civilian life into
ramp with him. Varily hia *in ahall
And him out, and not only that, but
all the company nhall know of it, and
comment thereon wi'h freedom and
tarcaam. ■ -
Fine Type of Men
Neverthelejiv, the man in the rank*
of No. 16 .standi* in no danger of any
thing worse than good-natured rag
ging, for hia~comradeii are gentlemen
to a man. Here again the diacrim
ination of the examining officer* in
proved, for a finer type of man than'
the average student ac the officer*'
training camp America doc* not pro
duce. Collegian* of the year* 11*15
16 and IT predominate, but every pro
fe ion i* represented—every pro
fex.non, that in, except medicine, for
aLflti n n^rlfi t k.,
tfiv uuikn n nrofin no vro iti ill k w wn
nort given at Fort Oglethorpe. One
man discovered in the course of half
an hour's investigation half a dozen |
lawyers, a score of newspaper men I
for ^om« unexplained reason the
fourth estate has contributed, in pro-1
portion to numbers, perhaps more!
than any other trade- three teachers, j
an architect, a Noiogi^t recently en
' » in rc.-.carch work if govern
mei.t laboratory, several Associated
I' . «■ telegraph operators, a college
professor entitled to wear half the al-l
phabet behind his name, and an eth
nologist, just returned from a six
\ears' tour of the world, made in an;
endeavor to prove tha? Egyptian civ- i
ili/.ation has! declined before a mulatto
Pharaoh ascended the throne. He
claims to have proved it.
But the college buys predominate.
It is the youth of America that is go
ing out to try conclusions with the
kaiser, a* U proved by the innumer
able meeting* of alumni of every col
lege in the three states, and the sing
ing of college songs every time morel
than two or three are gathered to
gether. Some body garnered tre
mendous applause on the first night
by perverting one of the college dit
ties to such effect that the last lines
ran:
"Oh. well twist th« kaiser's tail
And we'll ride him on a rail,
Carolina, C'aroli-i-i-ina."
No Cliques and Caste*.
I'.ut it is to b« doubted whether the
promised mayhem and indignities visit
ed on his imperial majesty were re
sponsible for the ear-splitting yell
that went up as much as the single
word, "Carolina." More than two
thirds of the camp is ready to cheer at
the word—rin fact, just aching for an
opportunity. At a general conference
the other night a speaker made refer
ence to the fact that the medical rec
ord* of the Confederacy show that 3U
per cent of the casualties suffered dur
ing the war between the sections by
the south were borne ny the one state
<«f North aCrolina, and the shout that
came up must have been heard in
poosdville.
Headquarters, however, is not par
ticularly anxious to emphasize any
sort of local pride. Great j«in< has
been taken to distribute the m«n from
' wh atate ml in fact from ea.-h of
the principal cittea, throughout the
ramp. If a croup oT nutn came in
together it waa • certainty that each
of tham would land in a different com
pany. Under Mich a ayatem there ia
■email danger of the format.on of
,clique* and raataa.
Greenaboro'a 40-odd men eonta
■juently are Mattered all down tha Una
and it ia only by chance that they en
counter each other at all. How it
farea with your neighbor thara i* no
way of knowing, unleaa ha doaa aome
thing ao conapicuoua aa to attract the
attention of hia whole company, and ao
to furniah food for ramp goaaip. It
ia commonly reported, however, that
Cireermboro ia conapicuoua, even in the
North Carolina group of giant*, for
the bigneaa of ita men. There are 10
who together tip the acale* at 1,750
pound*. The Tar Heela are by far
the biggeat men in the camp, take
them a* a whole.
That statement perhaps demand* a
little modification. The 10 Greena
boro men weighed 1,750 pound* when
they arrived in camp. It in perfectly
safe to nay that they do not weigh
that now, nor anything like it. The
whole command grow* lean and lank,
an the day* go by; hut where fat en
i.rtrcred 'he ir.en be'ore, m;i«cle in
taking itH place. They are growing
hard.
Drill on Hiwtorie Snodgrasn Hill
The regular* come over from Fort
Oglethorpe and lo..k with u humorous,
not to say »yical, eve ci the ' Coy
Scouta" an they call the cadet* on
account of the red, white and blue
hatcord. It is not to be wondered at
that the army enlisted men, in spite of
their uniform courtesy to individual*,
are not greatly impis«twc<l with the
body of student officers as a whole
Company with the mathematical pre
ri-uon of a regular regiment drill, the j
formation* of the "Boy Scouts" arr
pretty ragged. But they are getting j
better every day. There is a little
■ni.re moothru'-s of alignment, a little
more snap, a little lev. hesitation, ev
•y time company 16 forms. The'
mpany commander aTmost daily ex-1
>re--<es his wonder that anybody [
hould ever have suspected the mem
bers of the company of the ability
to iiecome soldiers, but down in his j
heart he is getting a little spark of
oride in his men, in spite of the sea
ons of despair that occasionally seize
him.
Kor there is one thing about the
'.raining camp that counts-enormously,
although it may not show in the be- j
{inning—every man U working his,
hardest. After all, thise men mean
business, am) it can be seen more
plainly every day. The college songs
ihe laughter, and the endless joking,
are only the effervescence of youth.
Down at bottom nobody forgets what
the gathering means for a moment.
The parade ground where the com
panies d'j their daily drilling is Snod
grass field, the comparatively level
space at the foot of Sncxlgrass hill,
the eminence that General Wilder
held in September, ltHtfl, when Wild-1
er's superior, Thos, by has stand was '
-aving the remains of Rosecrans' de- [
feated army during the battle of (
Chickamauga. If the Confederates'
could have taken that hill, they might
have destroyed the Federal army.'
They knew it, and the fury of their i
repeated a.ssaulta is attested by the
fact that when the tighi was over their
dead were so thick on Snodgrnss hill |
that a man might have walked from
its foot to its top on their bodies.
The companies that are now form !
iug at the foot of that hill are made
up of the grandsons of Ihe Con fed
crate dead. They lack the military '
technique, but they know w ho they'
sre. None of them pretends to be'
much of a soldier as yet, but they I
ran Ira rn, and it would be little short
of treason to America to doubt that
they have the spirit that carried the;
gray line time and again up Snod-|
^.-ras- hill in that hopeless endeavor. |
A HUNDRED THOUSAND
TROOPS IN FRANCE BY
THE TIME SNOW PALLS.
War Department Hopoa to
Sand to Faraca Bafora Win
tor Thraa Full DiTuioai of
Guard Choaan from Entira
Guard Strangth.
Washington. Jun«2. One hundred
thou*an<l regulars and national
guardsmen in France by the time the
•now fall*.
With thia slogan to inspire them, of
ficiate of the war department are
bending every effort to devtae schemes
of intensive training under whirh the
national guard organization, which
have already been summoned to the
colore in three incrementa, beginning
July 116, will tie whipped into iihape
in the quickest poaaible time.
The hundred thouaand figure, it ia
said, ia a minimum figure for the num
ber which the department expecta to
have acroaa the water before winter
aeta in. The maximum will depend
entirely upon the speed with which the
guardsmen can be trained and the
transportation facilities that are
available.
The first expeditionary force of be
tween 25,000 and 30,000 regulars,
forming a division, which Major Gen
eral Pershing wan ordered to take to
France at the earliest possible moment
is being rapidly made ready for de
parture, although all detail* a* to
personnel of the forces chosen to go,
and the date and place of departure,
are being carefully withheld.
Other Increment* Hill Follow.
Following the spending of the first
expedition, other increment* will aat
Mft; ft is umfemfood," 1b rapidly a*
they can l>e made ready and can be
spared from the ranks of those or-j
ganizations which must be kept in
this country as a nucleus for the train- I
ing of the selective draft conscription
army.
The nntional guard organizations, it
is understood)'! will probably be ru
in the order in which they perfect
themselves. As the national guard of
New York is acknow ledged to be
among the best trained of the militia
organizations of the country, it is not
improbable that they will be among,
the first to go.
The re-organization of the training'
camp plans, are necessary by the re
duction in the number of canton
ments to be built, will not interfere,
it was said at 'he war department,
with the training of the national
guard units. There has been no
countermanding of the orders to these
organizations to assemble at their
state mobilization camps July 15,
July 25. and August 5, as their
respective increments have been order
ed to respond.
Under the plans being worked out
these organizations will be given a
certain amount of training at their
state camps before going to the divis
ional training camps. At these
camps, it is understood, the militia
units will lie classified according to
their degre* of fitness and the extent
to which their ranks are filled up to
the required strength.
Disregard Divisional linen
Those liest fitted, it is indicated, will j
he subjected to special training, oc-1
rupying probably not more than a
month, after which they will lie sent
abroad as transport facilities are
available. The others will have to
undergp longer training, and will lie
used in large part as training units
for the selective draft conscripts.
After the arrixul of the various units
in France—guardsmen as well as
regulars—they will probably be given
further training behind the lines be
fore being sent to the front.
So anxious is the department that
the militia organisations sent over
will be the best trained of the lot, ^
th. t it is not unlikely that in picking
those to go the department will dU
regard the divisional line* act up for
training ptirpowi and make up the
expeditionary divisions out of (ha
units selected from various training
can pa.
If poasibla tha ibptitmnt hopaa to
ba abla to land over tiafora win tar
thraa full divisions of guarHnmen, or
from 75,000 U> HO,000 although, aa
explained, tha maximum numhar will
largaly depend upon tha spend with
which tha training goad on, and tha
success which tha government maata
in solving the problem of transports.
If tha plans of tha department work
out 'monthly tha first units of tha na
tional army, as the troop* of tha
selective draft are to he known, will
he available for transportation to
Europe by *arlj£^jj|jiVijc<< if tha war
lasts that long. British and French
military experts here estimate that
the war probably will go another thraa
years.
Free Insurance and No
Pensions.
Washington, June 1.—Plana for
issuing $4,000 free guvimmiint in
surance on the life of every Ameri
can soldier and sailor during the war
in lieu of penaion, arrangements will
be taken up next week by the council
uf national defense. A report pre
pared by Assistant Secretary Sweet,
of the commerce department, ready to
be submitted, urge* that the insurance
be provided through legislation before
American troops are 'ent to France.
The iiefen.se council took up the
question some weeks ago and turned
the whole subject over to the depart
ment of commerce for investigation.
The report now ready offers a long
liat of arguments showing the advan
tage of waiting out a compensation
system l>efore American lives are lost
in the war.
The plan.i as prepared provides for
a flat insurance of $4,000 on the life
of every officer and privaie in the
military and naval service, to be paid
to hi.- beneficiark'< without premiums.
A government insurance bureau would
handle the whole subject, and there
would be provision for a system of in
surance by which officers and men de
siring to do so could take out amounts
higher than $4,000 free policy by pay
ing premium . at peace rates.
The plan would provide also insur
ance for partial or total d'sability, the
case of death the insurance would be
paid in installments, wnose amount
would be determined by a government
board.
Government officials are convinced
the best way to dispose of the pen
sio problem is to meet it before-hand.
The history of the pension system
since the Civil War b«s .-town many
abuses which it is hoped to avoid by
providing insurance before the men
are killed.
WOMEN GIVE OUT
Housework is Hard Enough
When Healthy.
Every Mount Airy woman who is
having backache, blue and nervous
spells, dizzy headaches and kidney
or bladder troubles, should be glad
to heed this Mount Airy woman's ex
perience:
Mrs. C. P. James, 257 S. Main St..
Mount Airy, says: "My back often
felt as though some one had driven
a knife into it and after stooping,
sometimes I couldn't •iralgtitcn up.
My kidneys were weak and caused
me a great deal of misery. My nerves
»er« in a very bad way and I couldn't
■itand the least excitment. I was run
ilown ii health and ouk) hardly dp
my housework and often t had to stay
in tied for several day • at a time. A
rouple of boxes of Doan's Kidney Piiu
removed the pain in my back and made
my kidneys act more regularly."
Price 50c at all dealers. Don't
simply ask for a kitlMy rcroady—get
Doan's Kidney Plila- the same that
Mrs. James had. FesUr—MUbura
Co., Prop*, Buffalo, N. Y.