New-York tribune. [volume], December 01, 1918, Page 2, Image 26

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Will He
By Cornelia Sterrett Penfield
GETTING a job and then either keep?
ing It or finding a botter Is the pre?
occupation of most of us.
About seventeen months ago the
selective service act began taking awny that
preoccupation from several-odd million
Americans, and indirectly turned their In?
dividual Jobs over to temporary substitutes.
The several-odd njilUon went into training
for an entirely new job, the. overthrow of
militarism, and when last reported were
definitely headed in the direction of consid?
erable success.
Now, with the signing of the armistice,
has como a frenzied question, "What will
happen to the old job?" The temporary
substitute would perhaps prefer to be per?
manent. "When the boys como back" has a
threatening sound to him; and while he
would not for worlds have had the war
maintained for his especial benefit, he is
slightly anxious and \ cry interrogative.
His interrogation may be answered briefly
and authoritatively. It is unlikely that the
soldior for whom he substituted is going to
return to that particular job, because there
is in all probability a very much better Job
for which that particular soldier is qual?
ified by this time, provided that ho has prof?
ited by his advantages.
In other words, there are going to be jobs
enough to go all the way round and lap
over. The conscientious war worker who
has made good at his assignment will have
every chance of continuing indefinitely. The
only worker who need worry is the indus?
trial slacker who has slipped into a com?
fortable position that is entirely too big for
him and that he found in an hour of stress?
ful labor shortage.
It was with the intention of conducting a
bit of research into the future Job of the
soldier that the writer went to Washington.
After three days of prefatory interviews
with sundry courteous staff officers it ap?
peared that the story of the preparation of
the American soldier for ultimate civil life
can scarcely be compressed into scant space.
Therefore, instead of the comprehensive,
it seemed wisest to consider the intensive,
concentrating upon the training given a
very small segment of only one fraction of
tho army?the engineers, erstwhile termed
the "sappers" in recognition of their for?
mer chief function of digging saps and
mines beneath the enemy fortifications.
Apparently the growth of the engineers
has been consistent with that of the entire
army, as at present every important func?
tion of skilled labor seems to be part of
the repertory of the "sappers," and al?
though nominally a non-combatant branch
of the service, there is on record for all
time the achievement of the pioneer regi?
ment that stopped tho German advance a
year ago with shovels and picks and main?
tained tho liaison of the Allied forces at a
strategic point. After observing tho very
stern bayonet drilling of several engineer
regiments, I am inclined to consider that
the "shovels and picks" were a bit of poetic
embroidery; but the fact remains that the
Germans were stopped?and stopped by
"sapper:-." And any engineer, private or
officer, will furnish further details most
willingly.
Technical Training
for the Soldier
Since the development of technical train?
ing throughout the army has been so rapid
during the last year, and especially during
the last six months, the results obtained
are unbelievable, and were only made pos?
sible by intensive work, from which every?
thing not bearing directly upon military
efficiency had been eliminated.
Perhaps the most apt example of whal
was done is given by the trade schools at
Washington Barracks. What has been don?
there on a small scale is illustrative of th?
widespread work being at present accom?
plished by various vocational training unit!
of the Students' Army Training Corps
throughout the country, from which ulti?
mately there may be returned to civiliar
life a wealth of skilled laborers in everj
calling,
The S. A. T. C.t however, although im?
pressively large, is younger than the voca
tional units at the training camps, and far
far younger than the barracks, and at pr?s
ent there is a careful distinction to b?
drawn between the S. A. T. C., which is ad'
ministered by the committee on educatior
and special training of the War Department
and the vocational schools of the canton
ments, which are under tho jurisdiction o?
the engineer corps of the army.
At the time of our declaration of wai
against Germany Washington Barracks wai
mainly devoted to instructing the embryc
sapper, fresh from West Point, in the spo
cial training of his chosen branch of th?
nervlce. Although there were other minoi
activities at the post, it was primarily th<
Engineer Officers' Training School, a post
graduate addendum to West Point.
With the outbreak of the war it becam?
immediately necessary to provide traininf
for privates as well as for officers, am
Washington Barracks becumo tho first log!
cal school for that training. Subsequentl'
it has been almost obscured by the aggroga
tion of schools for vocational training o
soldiers now 'ander tho War Department
but it remains the most interesting and rep
resentative of the work which immediatel;
devolved upon the pioneer regiments.
For every division to go overseas a pio
neer regiment of sappers, prepared for an;
emergency, was assigned to undertake th'
very various incidental work of maintenant
and repair. When one considers that in th
entire regular army as it was in March, 191"
there were but three pioneer regiment!
numbering?with the inclusion of an engi
noer detachment at West Point, on
mounted company and one band?in al
4,126 officers and enlisted men?some ide
of the expansion necessary to the presen
resultant may be hinted.
When ono takes into consideration, mere
over, the thousand?-and-one duties of eac
pioneer regiment for which the private i
prepared, the wonder grows yet more.
"Vl^here the
* * Sapper Comes in
Picture a division advancing. There ;
not a mile during which the success of thi
advance does not in some detail depen
upon the skill of the men in the pioneer i
regiment.
The advance Is made, for example, over |
terrain carefully mapped by the topograph- ?
ers, copied by the draftsmen and referred !
to the lithographers, who have prepared !
the copies of the maps which are distributed
to the stnff and company officers.
Without the sapper regiment the advance
might be halted by a ravino, or by a river
over which formerly was a bridge, des?
troyed by the enemy. Thero is no halt,
however, because of a new bridgo, flung
across by the engineers in an incredibly
brief time. It is a question whether the
more spectacular achievement in the bridge
building is afforded by the pontoon struc?
ture, which may be ready in seventeen min?
utes to pass the division over a river 225
feet wide, or by the building of a tied
bridgo thirty feet long in half an hour from
the moment there was nothing but the rav?
ine and the trees at hand; in that half hour
the trees have been felled and the bridgo
prepared for the passage of the division.
There is a broken axle reported from one
of the supply trucks. Timo was when the
truck would be perforce abandoned beside
the road and the load added to the already
burdened capacity of another truck. Again
the engineers to the rescue! This time the
oxy-acetylene welder comes to the foro and
speedily sets the truck back on the road,
sound as ever.
"Overy Vocation in
-"--' the Dictionary
It Is possible to follow through the vari?
ous activities of this imaginary division
and Its dependence upon the pioneer regi?
ment indefinitely, since the vocational
schools at Camp Humphreys, Virginia, in?
clude almost every practical vocation in
the dictionary, from blacksmithing to well
drilling. Some few of the subjects are:
Carpentry, foundry work, lumberin", min?
ing, printing, photography, rigging, survey?
ing, typing, dock construction, steam en
gincering, pipo laying and highway engb j
neering.
Fourteen schools were established at
Washington Barracks when Camp Hum?
phreys was only a project on the army
maps. Tho fourteen schools at the bar
rScks comprised, and still do comprise, al?
though somowhat eclipsed by the magnitude
of that very young camp twenty miles
down tho river?lithography, carpentry,
photography, surveying, welding, black
smithing, rigging, drafting, stenography,
gas engine maintenance and repair, plumb?
ing, masonry and electricity.
While each subject is taught wholly in
its military application, it is safe to say
that the intensive training given is going
to be of immeasurable value to the soldiers
who have gone through any one of the
schools. By reason of tho emergencias
which must be mot immediately1 by tho
pioneer regiment in actual sorvico the work
must be swift and thorough. Because of
the stern occasions for accuracy, when one
mistake may entail disaster for tho whole
division, the preparation for that work
must be beyond all standards for civilian
instruction. Therefore, the schooling is an
experience which will produce skilled
laborers who can never outgrow their mili?
tary exactness, which possibly will intro?
duce a wholly new factor into tho labor
situation.
The future of the fourteen schools at the
barracks is at this writing indeterminate.
Their past is an amazing record of military
efficiency.
In addition to retaining some functions
ns an engineer officers' training camp, at
the beginning of the war, tho barracks be?
came the training camp for the 1st Replace?
ment Regiment of Engineers. This regi?
ment was trained for replacement only,
which meant that it never went overseas
as itself, serving to provide such skilled
privates as were needed from time to time
to replace casualties or to expand the
strength of special details. In other words,
after a sufficient number of men had com
i ??r ?I 'SHE ENGLISH REVIEW"
K prints a description of the
-"" President when he was a stu?
dent, written by Edith G.
! Reid, who knew him in those early days.
It is a little sentimental, the description,
but it serves to illuminate between the
rifts in the fog of memory something of
the character of the young man who
later became Chief Executive of the
United States.
"At one of our relaxed . moments this
autumn I was sitting with three or four
old friends in my long drawing-room. It
was late in the afternoon?the tea hour,
when the heavy curtains had been drawn,
the fire lighted, and, though Hoover's card
stuck in the window, there was enough
food for comfort with consistency. Our
thoughts and voices had dropped to the
point of fatigue when some one re?
marked that Sargent was painting a p^ -trait
of Mr. Wilson. My memory went down the
long years, meeting him gently, with a glow
of the heart here and there, hearing h is
voice, remembering his vivid thoughts, un?
til I came to tho moment when I first con?
sciously saw him. It was like taking up at
old daguerreotype, and I wondered how
Sargent's lato portrait would compare witl
my early mental picture. Long I staye?
with my friend that afternoon?long afte:
| the others had gone and my fire had smould
ered. Would Mr. Sargent have the realizing
imagination to seo back to tho begir.nin?,
and follow the thread of his life until i
brought him up to the man of to-day? Ccr
tainly, if Mr. Sargent catches the spirit o
i his subject, the portrait will but emphasiz?
| the dominant note that was struck in hi
! youth; for there has been a singular con
i tinuity in tho life of our President. In th
ideals and purposes of his life there ha
| been no variableness, neither shadow o
turning. The toll young fellow, who carrie
his body with a certain ditndent courtesj
never physically treading on your toes, wa
free mentally?there he led. I recall hii
as he came up, a graduate student, to th
Johns Hopkins University, doubtless poorl
equipped with this world's goods, but to
wholesome for that to matter.
"Nothing and nobody In those early daj
could hold Mr. Wilson long from his life
; quest. His spiritual and mental impulsi
I were, in a sense, inspirations, and woul
sweep on past and over minor mutters. li
hud not that quulily so lauded by America!
-^-the quality of push?he was too scholar!
Ky-. j
I for that; but there was a tremendous mo?
mentum in this young man that carried him
j from a simple student, with a very small
haversack on his back, his asset3 in his
brain- carried him to the presidency of
Prince .on, to fight for the democracy of op?
portunity; to the Governorship of New
Jersey, to force just government; to the
Presidency of the United States, to hold
steadily above a distracted world the scales
of universal Justice. As the smallness of his
] student's room mattered not at all, provided
he could think and write, so the bigness
| of the White House, if he keep true to him?
self, is merely a vantage ground from which
! to do his work for humanity.
"My daguerreotype shows a tall young
I man, whose clothes?one has to mention his
I
clothes ? were put on with so obvious a
desire to show due respect to the function
that he was attending, with so little thought
i for himself. He would never have done
: for a tailor's advertisement; but, though
his clothes were too big for him, he was im?
measurably too big for his clothes. That
Georgia tailor proved so obviously that no
amount of disregard to the anatomy of his
i victim could matter in the very least. Mr.
?' Wilson was?he simply urns. His kindly.
; humorous, intellectual face, so young, but so
' full of power; his graciousness of manner,
: so full of consideration and with so little
| of condescension, showed plainly the hall?
marks of his ancestry, Sent hern, Scotch,
i Irish, American?he looked l..em all; South
j em, by those dreadful clothes and gentle
I manners; Scotch, by stiff integrity; Irish, by
j his'humor; and American, in being at once
i full of idealism and of practical commor
sense.
"Our acquaintance warmed into friend
i ship, strange to say, at one of those func
! tions devised, I believe, to show how cow?
can become the spirit of man, how bra\*(
the spirit of woman?a big evening recep
tion. Women ordained them, men atteni
them, because of some woman. We ha<
; b ?en squeezed to the very wall of our host
: ess's party drawing-room and sank upoi
some mercifully leftover seats. The centr
of the room had become an arena, wher
the odds were up ns to whether the un
? trained gentlemen waiters could successful!
? balance plates of olio, broiled oysters an
I chicken croquettes, and carry them deftl
i over the heads of the company, finally de
| positing them, charged with their perilou
j stuff, into the hands of their chosen fai
ones. We, from our cosey corner, watche
with keenest interest the heroes and here
taking no heed of transient graduates the
mother regiment in Washington would re?
main the "1st Replacement Regiment of
Engineers" and would continue to draw
promising privates to the special schools.
It would be very pleasant to picture a
poor, unskilled laboring man, who had al?
ways had a Beeret hankering after training
in some trade, and who found his wish grat?
ified by the opportunity offered at the bar?
racks. It may be that if a rumored plan of
the War Department is curried out the am?
bitious untrained private may yet have his
wish fulfilled. As a matter of fact, how?
ever, the vocational schools have drawn
their candidates, with but few exceptions,
from men already possessing at least a rudi?
mentary knowledge of the work at hand.
Qualified men in training camps, qualified
draftees and men especially inducted into
service found their talents put to immedi?
ato uso. They were given cards to be filled
out. These cards listed the fourteen
schools, and first and second choices were
made by the candidate to indicate his pref?
erence for Instruction at one or the other
school.
On the reverse of the card the candidate's
revealed by the candidate's first day's work,
although there was no unreasonable objec?
tion to giving a serious worker a second
chance at another school than that for which
ho considered himself best fitted. So it
frequently happened that a mediocre car?
penter did much better at rigging, and if so
he was transferred according to his better
talent.
What an Expert Rigger
Migjit Accomplish
The classes in rigging, by the way,
should brighten the "moving days" of cur
civilian future. One expert rigger, if he
retains only the facility acquired in the
army, should be able to direct the trans?
ference of every piano in New York some?
where to somewhere else between dewy
dawn and starry eve of one day; it .may
be he can hoist a safe to the twentieth
floor of an office building so swiftly that
a crowd will have no time to gather; thoso
will be the halcyon hours, but New York
would never be quite the same.
Once admitted to the schools the possi?
bilities of intensive training are revealed.
It is authoritatively stated with consider
Field shops?mounted on trucks for transportation or set up In the field. It is possible for workmen to
save time by using the shops during an advance when the trucks are in motion
?Photo passed by Censor.
pleted their training for pioneer service a
"regiment" was sent across to France to
be used there according to the needs of
the organized regiments at the front; ten
gas engine men might be sent from tho
port of debarkation to one pioneer regi?
ment; two blacksmiths and live stenog?
raphers to another, and so the "regiment"
would be split until it ceased to be recog?
nizable. Meanwhile a successive "regi?
ment" might arrive in France, and still a
third be in training at the barracks; while
possibly amateur zeal was abruptly brought ?
to proof by throe curt questions, each with
two subsequent dotted lines upon which the
over-eager volunteer had to confess him?
self: "(1) What experience have you had in
your first choice? (2) What experience
have you had in your second choice? (3)
What experience have you had in any other
trade mentioned on the other sido of this
card ?"
If the questions were not accurately
! answered any discrepancy was sure to be
able pride at the barracks that a ?reason?
ably literate candidate can be taken in
hand by the stenographic instructors and
in six weeks be competent to undertake
any clerical work necessary at headquar?
ters. In four weeks he should master the
fundamentals of stenography and typewrit?
ing, and since his practice is concentrated
upon the usual clerical needs of the post,
he acquires the practical application sim?
ultaneously with the technical knowledge.
During this four weeks his military train
ines of this, to me, memorable evening
The company became merely a pageant fo.
our delight. We wondered what it was all
about?whether the people had food at
home, that they should struggle and suffer
for it like that. We were both of us young
then and wished to be very wise?I, gay, ar?
rogant, undisciplined; he, very humble, for
he was already in harness, and his fresh,
creative mind bowed to wisdom. He studied
his premises and weighed his conclusions.
But the trivial only held him as the ligntest
of surface comedies; he quickly cut through
them to the great problems of past, present,
and future. The unessential held him
! hardly at all; but, because of his humor,
his talk was never ponderous; and also
because of a certain vitalizing quality that
was his in a degree I have never known ir?
any other person. He was subjective only
inasmuch as he minded your blame and
cared for your praise; for the rest, he was
purely objective. The big problems of hu?
manity consum?e! him; they were so much
bigger than himself that he forgot himself.
Never in the world was it truer of any one
than of him that he had a vision, but that
he kept his feet on the ground; and that
i makes the order of person who arrives and
; carries others with him.
".Mr. Wilson was not an individualist. It
i was not for the love of one child, but for
? the love of all children, that their problems
i concerned him. Not the problem of one
i favored end dear youth, but the problems
! of all youth, fired him; not the development
j of the South alone, but the development of
! his entire country, absorbed him. He saw
things in large proportions, and his con
j structive imagination wns not that of the
j adventurer or even the explorer; it was that
t of the pioneer, with the pioneer's dauntless
| courage?but caution. Beyond the felled
forest and cut paths and dangers overcome
I he saw peaceful homes, and thrifty farms
i and simple, unsophisticated schools, ane
spires of little churches.
"From early youth he had in his mine
1 the ardent desire to show to his countrj
i what he real in the motives and accom
i plishments and defeats of the Civil War
Southern by birth and breeding, he wa?
never provincial?there was no muddling o:
mind and heart. He loved hi#country fron
east to west, from north to south, and lookec
out with clear eyes to the universal prob
lems of the United States. A democrati?
university was his ideal. He felt tha
knowledge led to wisdom, and wisdom ti
righteousness; and that was a road whicl
all who would should be t?ule to take withou
handicap; and so, with a carelessness o
self-interest that was simply amazing, h?
struck mighty blows, that there should b
no sign 'Private Property' marked -ove
this great highway. Only apparently wa
he defeated, for his strokes are still echoin?.
and every college in the land has stoppe
and listened."
By J. W. Morrison
ANOTHER head of the Mormon
Church is dead, and still the site
of the great temple, a temple of
such grandeur as the world never
knew, is a weed grown waste in a Missouri
town; and the streets of that town, instead
of being paved with gold, are of asphalt
and macadam. But still the chosen people
do not despair, and that weedy waste is
kept sacred, for in His own time the*-Lord
will come in the night, and when morning
dawns there will stand such a temple as
mortal eyes never saw.
That is the law. It was given in a divine
revelation to Joseph Smith, founder of the
Mormon Church and uncle of President
! Smith, who died last week. Salt Lake is
the City of the Saints, but it is not Zion.
Zion is the town of Independence, Mo., now
i a suburb of Kansas City. There was the
| Garden of Eden, and out from it went Adam
I for his transgression. Only a few miles
I away is a pile of stones where the First
Man, driven out with his mate from the
Garden, raised an altar and offered sacri
! fices unto the Lord. '
Those things are Mormon gospel. The
j first Joseph Smith said they were spoken
; by God through him, and they stand to-day
i among the Mormons as a divine revelation.
! Among the latest of his acts before ho was
shot by lynchers at Carthage, 111., was the
i reiteration by Joseph Smith that Inde
I pendence was the real Zion and that the
Mormons should one day return there to
i gather about the great temple. And, as a
! matter of fact, the Mormons are returning
: there. For years they h ve been quietly
' drifting back to the place from which a
j mob drove them more than three-quarters
of a century ago, and now Independence, a
little city of 16,000 persons, is entirely
! dominated by them. They have clustered
as much as possible about the temple site,
I but have not infringed upon it. Their
church, the biggest in the town, stands Just
across the street from the temple site. It
is a fine structure of stone, but it will
stand only until the building of the Lord's
I temple.
The revelation regarding Independence
I was given in the early and troublous
I days of the Mormon Church, or, to give it
j its official title, the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints. The Angel Moroni
had appeared to young Joseph Smith at his
| home near Palmyra, N. Y., and had revealed
to him the hiding place of the plates of
j gold on which was written the Book of
? Mormon. Smith and his followers, finding
I New York unfriendly, had moved to Ohio
and again found themselves unwelcome.
I Then Smith sent scouts into the wilderness
to find a site where the church could have
peace. The scouts returned with glowing
j reports of the country in and around the
J little frontier town of Independence, Mo.
I Smith resolved to see it for himself. He
* -???-I
i and his companions went by boat to St. |
? Louis, but had to walk the three hundred
I miles across Missouri to Independence.
Smith was enraptured with what he found.
In truth, it is one of the fairest regions in
America. Splendid hills overlook valleys
of great fertility; and the Missouri River,
winding its tortuous way to the Mississippi,
j adds the scenic touch that delights the ar
! tistic eye. The Lord quite agreed with
! Smith's choice. In a few days the prophet
; announced that he nad received a divine
revelation that here was the New Jeru?
salem, the future city of Christ, where the
Lord was to rule over the Saints as a tem
| poral king in "power and great glory." The
? voice of the Lord, speaking through Joseph
: Smith, proclaimed:
"This is the land of promise and the
place for the City of Zion. And thus saith "
the Lord your God, if you will receive wis?
dom, behold the place which is now called
Independence is the centre place, and a
? spot for the temple is lying westward, upon
! a lot which is not far from the Court
House, wherefore it is wisdom that the
land should be purchased by the Saints."
Accordingly, the land was purchased, and
the temple site was solemnly marked and
: dedicated. To this day it has remained in
'? the possession of the Mormons and Hats
never been built upon. It was further re?
vealed that Independence, or Zion, as the
i Mormons called it, was to be a city sur
! passing in splendor anything known in an
I eient or modern times. Buildings of
| gleaming walls should line streets of pure
| gold. It was in every way to be a city
worthy of the seat ?f the temporal power
of Christ when He should come to rule as
King over His Saints, all the rest of the
world having been destroyed. The lost
tribes of Israel, Smith revealed, were en?
circled by great walls of ice at the North
?Pole, but these walls would melt, and the
lost tribes would hasten to Zion, bearing
great loads of gold and silver. It was alsc
revealed to Smith that this was the site ol
the Garden of Eden, and he pointed out the
? pile of stones which, he told his followers
j was the banished Adam's altar.
But the people of the Missouri commu
nlty did not like their new neighbors
Troubles multiplied, and finally a mol
. drove the Mormons away, killing many o
j them and destroying their property. Smitl
i yielded to force of arms, but he called 01
his followers not to sell their property ii
Independence. It was the true Zion, h
said, the site of'the temple, and the Mor
mons would surely return.
From Missouri the Mormons went t
Nauvoo, 111, There the revelation permit
ting polygamy was given. Smith and hi
brother Hyrum were arrested, and wer
taken from Jail by a mob and shot. Brig
ham Young succeeded to the head of th
i Church and led the Saints across plains an
mountains to Salt Lake, where they built
city in the desert and prospered amazingl;
The great temple there is a marvel of ai
chitectare, but it was built by hands. Tht
vacant lot at Independence still awaits th
' Lord's masterpiece.
ing does not suffer, as he stands reveHfo
and retreat daily and ha? one hour of drill
in addition. Should the demand permit of
the extension of the work from four weeks
to six, the additional fortnight will round
off his vocational work and prepare him
for favorable comparison with the graduate
of any non-military st?nographie school on
record.
Perhaps the astonishing results that
have been obtained at the barrack? are duo
to the extraordinary corps of instructors.
When the schools were first organized th?
instructors for the second classes wore ??j?e
best workmen in 'he first c!as=es. who
were made non-coms, and retained at the
barracks to instruct the succeeding c!asses
If in the subsequent classes a
celled his instructor the instructor wa3 sent
out with that class for active service ?n$
the erstwhile student made instructor. By
this process of survival the present in.
structora are proven the most competent of
the many who have passed through the
schools and Bhould be a nucleus for an
excellent vocational organization should
such be the future purpose of the War De?
partment.
The Art of Being
a Soldier
Until Camp Humphreys sprang into ex?
istence the sappers were largely drawn
from Washington Barracks, and were three
months in training. Aside from the men
specially recommended by cantonments as
being skilled in somo calling needful to a
pioneer regiment the entrants at the bar?
racks were frequently civilians direct from
the local draft boards, which might have
been asked to furnish masons, carpenters,
plumbers or whatever needs could be sup?
plied by them from the men classified in
the draft questionnaires.
At the barracks these men w^ere giveu
for one month the inescapable infantry
drill, which may have irked them consider?
ably, but for which they were later pro?
foundly grateful. They learned the funda?
mentals of the art of being a soldier?drill,
guard mount, infrequently, and inadvert?
ently kitchen police, t'jgether with all the
little soldierly essentials, which includes
grumbling considerably in private about
life in general and life with the engi?
neers in particular, and bragging consider?
ably in public about the incomparable glorj
of being an cr.ginper.
About the time they had taken on weigh"!
aJti appetite and had begun to de?pair o:
eWr getting to France, they wer? trans
ferred to Fort Foote down the river, ai
ancient Civil War landmark, where the;
discovered there was considerably mor
they did not know, inclu .ing makir.? cam{
digging trenches and cheerful,.
two-day trip to Annapolis and back fo
rifle practice. This they did for an the
month.
By the beginning of the third mor.th the
were nearly soldiers, but not yet sapper
so back they w nt to the barracks for voc?
tional training. If by chance they wei
supercilious concer ng a simple litt
trade, such as blacksmithing or ca i
considering that they had learned all th:
there was to be learned in practical civ
life, another surprise began to come I
them. There were countless tricks to thei
particular trade that had been dove-ope
for military purposes to a high decree, <
which they suddenly discovered their ow
ignorance. They were not working by th
hour or by the day, moreover. They wer
learning to work by the job at jobs the
might mean life or death to a regiment i
actual service. They worked side by sie
with men who were learning for the fir
time what to them was an old story, ai
occasionally the newcomers were amazing
intelligent at picking up the knack wbi
the old-stagers overlooked.
Thoughts of the
Future
Then, perhaps, some of them begun
think ahead into the future. There was
big job ahead of them in France. The 1:
tie jobs that might await them q ;
home after the war ?or have been snatch
up by some incompetent substitute -fad
quite out of reckoning. There would
better jobs perhaps elsewhere; there won
be better pay ?perhaps elsewhere; bur p
and jobs alike cease to matter a very gre
deal when one is working hard all d?
sleeping hard ail night, growing in streng
and ability, and quite willing to keep it i
up indefinitely and expecting to get
France next week.
Then came the day! And heartfelt grat
itous sympathy is hereby extended te. |ve
one who has never seen a n
camp for overseas! -Especially a sapi
regiment!
Since the regiment was so shortly to
split into fractions necessary to repair '
.^g.ments already in service, the organi
tion was prepared at the barracks for '
ultimate disorganizaf i-commissioi
officers were reduced to private status. '?
a non-com. worried about that little deb
he was getting to France; that was s
ficient glory. Commissioned officers w
apportioned according to definite rcqu
menta rather than to those which have b
so carefully studied by all of us in the m
littie instructive works destined for civil
purchasers. Every man was grinning,
every man's back merrily bore the a
assortment of hardware and upholst
which comprises "heavy marching order.
Then followed the most inde
treat rollcall in the regimental hi
lack of dv'corum was a Gargantuan j?
One could picture the regiment, a shapel
happy giant, hugely enjoying the '
humor in the hint that any one woul'J
absent. Not go to France'.' Huh!
The rollcall ended, acru.-s the n
set light flickered a haze of dust.
bugle notes of "Retreat" sounded, pun
ated by the sunset gun. Theu the regim
grave again, stood at attention while
flau fluttered slowly down and the band
yond the tents played "The Star-Span;
Banner." There ment of sile
then a command, echoed along the regim
and the band swung into the eadenced pi
ise of "Over There." The regiment, b<
overseas, marched out across the pa:
ground, past the cheering and envious
pers who thronged the roadside, past ?
eral headquarters, where admiring gti
yelled encouraging admonitions, and ou
the gates, embarking on th.-ir great veni
And will they come back, when they
ready to drop unquestioningly into the
vacant niche, or ready to elbow effi<
substitutes out of their former jobs? I
one, doubt It.